Greenery

Alvaro and I have been trying to make the apartment a little bit greener lately. We bought a colorful, tropical looking plant that's currently sitting in a bucket in our "living room", and we have a drapey, sprawling leafy plant sitting on a bookshelf that gives the apartment a studious feel.

The greenhouse plants are so colorful!

In the kitchen, we have some herbs including a fickle basil plant, and we've been slowly adding other herbs to the kitchen counter. I have two plastic tubs with chives that have been delicious, and I recently transplanted some thyme from a fresh bundle that I purchased from my co-op, and I'm hoping that it strengthens up and doesn't die. Finally, my toronjil plant (a quick WordReference check says that tornojil is an herbal plant called "lemon balm") is thriving, which is a delight.

Yesterday, Alvaro and I did a paseo around Quito with a friend, buying a furniture piece with shelves at the Santa Clara market (Mom, Alvi- obvio- insisted on buying the Chex Mix) to create more space in the kitchen to add a few more plants.

Only in Ecuador are small banana trees sold as decorative plants in greenhouses

After the Santa Clara market experience (and several purchases of bulk spices later), we headed down to a small town just outside of Quito called Nayon, which is known for its greenhouses and wholesale plant sales.

Our plant with its tronco and leaves

María Esther (our friend) wanted to buy us a trunk-y little tree/plant as a gift because it supposedly brings happiness into the house, and she kindly purchased it for us.

Alvi's crazy yellow plant with its lovely planter box

Alvaro found this psychedelic yellow flower that he liked for its unique properties, so we bought that too to add some color to the apartment.

New cactuses on top of the dryer in the bathroom

María Esther travels a lot for work, so she left some of her smaller plants with us, which we were more than happy to adopt and take care of. Apparently cactuses are essential in maintaining good energies (buenas vibras- literally good vibes) in a home, so we eagerly adopted some of her small cactuses too.

The trunk-y plant in its new home (to the right of our newly "expanded" shelves to make room for the coffeemaker on the kitchen counter)

Finally, after a long and amazingly delicious lunch at Crepes & Waffles, we spent the rest of the evening at home planting some seeds that Alvi purchased a few weeks ago. Alvi planted ají- hot peppers- in egg cartons to later transplant, and the cilantro seeds that I was excited about said that they could be planted directly in the soil, so in 5-8 days I should see little sprouts!

Kitchen plants- gangly, mostly leafless basil on the right, the tonronil is to the L of the basil

The new "esquinero"- corner shelf furniture- with the 6L water bottle planters, waiting for our seeds to sprout

In keeping with our "green" theme, we've been saving the 6 liter water bottles that we've been using for fresh water (but no longer! due to our new, 20 liter replaceable tank that we recently invested in!), and we cut them open along the side to use as cheap, recycled planter boxes.

Poco a poco, slowly, our apartment is getting a bit greener and absorbing a bit more carbon dioxide. I hope the seedlings sprout soon!