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Diamond in the rough

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Caper flower in the rough

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I drove over a waste ground this afternoon and was faced with a huge number of these flowers growing by themselves in the wild. I had to get out of my car to investigate and was gobsmacked to find out that these bushes (and plenty of them) are capers!

There are literally hundreds of these flowers in the bushes, and as you will see from this collection, they are simply surrounded by rubbish!

Diamonds in the rough?

Well, if you look for something nice, you could even find it in what seems to be a desolate ground.

Caper flower in the rough

Breakfast

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Breakfast

Breakfast, originally uploaded by malyousif.

Rose-ringed parakeets come to our garden every morning for the breakfast we put out to them. They must like it very much and appreciate it as their numbers increased over time. They actually wait on the surrounding trees and make such a racket until one of us gets out and puts breakfast out!

But it’s something we really enjoy. They are fun to watch as we’re having breakfast!

The front path

Gallery, Gardening
The front path

The front path, originally uploaded by malyousif.

Did some work in the garden this morning, the first chance I’ve had for some time now. I trimmed the golden ficus bushes and did general cleaning up and removing dead plants etc. I’ll have another go at it again this afternoon and maybe tomorrow too if I’m lucky.

Have a wonderful Friday my friends.

Building the orchid wall

Gallery, Garden Design

Building the orchid wallThe Orchid Wall - 2
Orchid Wall - 3

I bought quite a few orchids from the Thai stall in the recent Bahrain Int’l Garden Show, but as I was rather busy and had a trip abroad, I didn’t have a chance to do anything with them other than hang them on the light fittings in my study and leave some on the floor.

In the interim, I obviously gave them much thought as how to best display them and thought that it might be best hanging from a wall or a trellis. I had a really complicated design in mind with jute sacks and misting systems, but in the end, I opted for a very simple idea. Just a simple right-angle trellis and stand it at the entrance to my study!

I went to Manazil this morning and bought these wrought iron trellises, one is 7 foot while the other is 6 foot. I stood them next to each other and tied them together with tie-wraps to create a middle hinge. That worked fine, so the next thing to do is to actually arrange the flowers.

I hope you will see the end result from the next couple of pictures.

Have a wonderful Friday and weekend my friends.

Orchids!

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Orchids!

Orchids!, originally uploaded by malyousif.

Frances and I are just back from the Garden Show, and these babies are her present to me for my birthday tomorrow. I don’t care very much for the birthday as taking care of these over the next few months… I’ve got plans!! :D

Have a wonderful weekend my friends!

My Garden

Gallery, Garden Design, Gardening
My Garden

My Garden, originally uploaded by malyousif.

A stitched vertical panorama of my garden. This is one of my favourite views of the garden, at the back "alley" looking into the front garden.

It’s Winter now, so there is barely any colour, but come Spring that story will change and I hope that I will post a comparative photograph then to see what I mean.

Have a wonderful day!

Lonely spot of colour

Gallery, Gardening
Lonely spot of colour

Lonely spot of colour, originally uploaded by malyousif.

My lawn is looking like the Serengeti in winter, burnt. That makes the garden a bit dull, especially that most plants didn’t start flowering again. Like me, they’re desperately waiting for the Spring again.

Yet, the birds we feed (parakeets, mynahs, sparrows, bulbuls, pigeons, doves, etc.) spread the seed which sometimes seem to be purposefully placed to add some interest and colour where it is most needed!

Have a wonderful day my friends.

Reclaiming the pool deck

Gallery, Garden Design, Gardening
Reclaiming the pool deck

Reclaiming the pool deck, originally uploaded by malyousif.

The far side of the pool deck, by the changing and pump rooms, was neglected since we moved in really. I used that area exclusively to BBQs but when we’re not firing that thing up, the area remained rather dull and uninviting. I look at it every single meal time (you can’t miss it! it’s just opposite the kitchen and breakfast nook) I promise myself that I’ve got to do something with it but never get around to do it.

This morning, finally, I decided to install the hanging baskets bracks, put up the baskets and also remove the pile of wood I’d saved from a fallen tree. Those branches were cut in lengths of 40, 45, 50 and 60cms and created a patch of them lying next to each other demarkating the areas between the dry river bed by the frangipani and the oriental patch (with Mr. Buddha) it looked rather nice. But when I was done I was surprised to note the amount of space those logs were taking!

Anyway, I got that area cleaned up and just moved back and had a look at the "new" wall. I wasn’t satisfied. I thought I still needed some stuff there to bring out the whole area. Looking around, I saw that I had quite a number of pots on Arif’s (my son) basketball court which I had commandeered to be my nursery, so I started just moving pots and trying out different arrangements until I arrived at what you see in this picture. I think the balance now is really quite nice and am rather pleased with my efforts!

Have a wonderful Friday my friends.