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

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!

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.

I treated them a little better than cactus. Just spray them every few days. The warning bells finally came on in my head when a lot of them lost their lovely flowers and some started to turn yellow. That’s when I thought I’ve got to spend some time and at least read the book a little to find out what is going wrong, and sure enough, these plants like being soaked in a tub of tepid water for 10 – 15 minutes every couple of days. So a little spray here and there – even with a fertilizer – is not enough.

Beware; however, that not all orchids require this soaking, so please do read about your specific orchid before dunking it. I will most definitely not be responsible if you kill it!

It pays to research your plants a little. They will give back an awful lot of joy to you if you treat them well. I just hope that mine will jump back to their former glory before long…. I’ll keep you informed.

The first phase of the new “cuttings border” is now complete. I’ve spent most of the day clearing the grass and preparing the area for planting. I mixed in 4x 50kgs bags of cow manure and 350 liters of peat moss for good measure. This are is part of the front garden and it receives the sun throughout the day regardless of the season. So I wanted to make sure that there is enough stuff in there to keep the moisture.

There are a couple more things I need to do to make it completely, other than planting of course, but on the structure side. I need to put in the drip lines throughout the area and put in the fence I bought this morning from Manazil.

I think as I intend to use it to grow flowers for cutting, one additional feature might be some paving tiles to create a simple walkway. I’ve got a few of those left over from other projects that I might use. I will also create a red-brick border to prevent the grass from creeping in again from the lawn.

What are the plants I want to put in there? Bulbs and various other flowers that could be cut and put in vases all around the house!

Optimistic? You bet! I’ve got nothing to lose and a lot to learn. So if you know any specific flowers which lend themselves to the task and can grow happily in Bahrain, please do let me know.

Within and around the modern concrete jungles, we are fortunate to have some plots which have been developed as public gardens and the gardening scene in general is thriving, judging by the number and diversity of the available commercial garden centres.

Even with all of that, the “green” gardener still doesn’t know what to grow and what does grow in this harsh environment. This site is created to share knowledge gained by many gardeners in Bahrain in order to make the gardening activity more rewarding and easier to get into. Through this site, we will attempt to remove the “black magic” surrounding successful gardening.

Needless to say, this site will only succeed with your support. So if you do have any information you can share, please do. There are several ways to do so: enter a comment, correct a mistake or contact me with information. Your name will happily appear on any contribution you make.

Thank you for your support and we wish you very happy and peaceful gardening.