Vandalism

I am gutted.

You know I spent quite some time designing, building and planting my xeriscaped border outside my house as a contribution to my neighborhood, country and environment. Unfortunately, some vandals – most probably kids who go to the school opposite my house – continue to wreak havoc in it by willfully damaging the plants.

Here are just some of the heart-wrenching results of their labors:

and these taken yesterday:

The question I have is why? Why do they have to do this? They throw rocks at the lovely plants and just walk away. What do they actually get out of it? And what can I do to prevent them from doing this?

Abkhazi Garden, the hidden jewel

General

Seeds started

General

I finally started some seeds off this morning. There are so many things that I have had done to the garden this season and am preparing a really nice display for outside the house too in the coming few days. This season’s going to really rock!

Happy green fingers to you too!

At the flower market, Amsterdam

General

At the flower market, originally uploaded by malyousif.

I was extremely restrained yesterday as I bought only one single root of a climber I’ve had my eye on for a long time. But I do have my eyes on several others which I hope to get on Friday just before getting to the airplane back home

New Year’s Garden Tour

General

Here’s a quick tour of my garden on New Year’s Day 2010 courtesy of my iPhone 3Gs Hope you’ve had a good start to the new year and hope that continues throughout!

Happy New Year my friends.

A wet garden

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The garden this morning, originally uploaded by malyousif.

The garden has been soaked with rain the past few days. The plants seem to be happy enough with it (didn’t switch off the irrigation yet, rain is still unpredictable) but the very best thing about having sustained rain like this is the thorough washing of all the plants. Now we can see the brilliant greens, reds, pinks and all the lovely textures.

I love this time of year!

Want greener grass? Pee on it!

General

That’s not too far from the truth actually, urea in the human body carries waste nitrogen out of the body in urine, it’s the same chemical component that releases nitrogen where it is most required, the stuff is packed with nitrogen! I normally spread urea on my lawn after cutting it once every summer and it almost instantly turn luscious green.

Well, the gardeners at a National Trust property in Cambridgeshire, UK, are urging men to pee outdoors to help gardens grow greener – and as no flushing is needed, they reckon they spare 30% of their water usage in every single day!

But, they caution, men’s pee is much more sought after than women’s, the latter’s stuff is much more acidic that it might do damage rather than good

“The pee bale is excellent matter to add to our compost heap to stimulate the composting process; and with over 400 acres of gardens and parkland to utilise compost, we need all the help we can get.”
BBC News

Now do excuse me while I go do my part to green my neighbour’s garden!

New Plumeria

Gardening, General

I bought this new king of plumeria from a garden centre this morning and promptly found a place for it in my garden.

I have no idea what type of plumeria it is. You could clearly see that it’s leaves are a bit “weird” and unlike any frangipani I have seen before. The garden centre didn’t have the Latin name (of course) so it should be fun trying to properly identifying it. If you could help, please enter a comment with my thanks.

Have a wonderful and peaceful weekend my friends.

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ehm: identified as Plumeria Pudica, reportedly one of the best you can get. I’ll reserve judgment for a while if you don’t mind. I’m pretty partial to most kinds of Plumerias so I’ll see how this one fairs.

Dejected Mynah

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Dejected Mynah, originally uploaded by malyousif.

We’re painting our house at the moment so scaffoldings are everywhere manned by 8 to 10 painters as well. Needless to say, this is a major disruption to the garden, especially that we have had to hard prune quite a number of bushes adjacent to walls.

The other sad thing is that it disrupted quite a number of nesting birds, our Mynah friend here is one of them. I think that this egg is one of theirs.

Hopefully they’ll be finished and out soon. Just in time for the growing season again so that I can take care of my poor garden again.