The Suffering Hydrangea

Posted on 13 August 2011 by admin

Just a few weeks ago, this lovely hydrangea was doing well enough – considering it’s not supposed to survive at all in Bahrain’s climate. Alas, this is what it’s been reduced to in its first ever Bahraini summer. I’ve not lost complete hope yet though, you will notice that against all odds, it’s got some new growth showing.

I do fervently hope that it’ll survive the next few weeks and come back growing stronger come November.

Here’s for hoping for the best.

Update 3 Nov 2011 – Unfortunately the hydrangea didn’t survive much beyond the original post. It completely withered and dried out in the heat of the summer. I guess I have to simply give up on hydrangeas in this kind of climate.

Heirlooms

Posted on 24 April 2011 by admin

We’re innundated with various kinds of tomatos from our vegetable garden; cherry, regular and also these huge monsters, the heirloom tomatoes. I think next year I’ll half the amount of plants in that patch just so we can handle the volume

What helped this year with the produce is that we regularly gave a large part of it away to friends and family. On second thoughts, I think I’ll double the plants so we can share more!

The lawn is on the mend

Posted on 23 January 2011 by garden

The lawn is on the mend, originally uploaded by malyousif.

If you’ve been following my gardening blog at mahmoodsgarden.com you already know my trials and tribulations with our lawn. From a lush, thick, carpet-like heaven, to a mud field just a few weeks ago.

I took matters into my own hands and seeded the lawn with Ryegrass. Now, three weeks later and after cutting it for the second time yesterday, fertilising it with NPK and Urea, rolling over the freshly cut and fertilized lawn to firm the ground up, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that it at least appears to be recovering.

It’s a pleasure now to sit in the garden, have a Turkish coffee and just while away the time, without having to scrape your shoes afterwards from the mud that would have caked them.

Cherry Tomatoes

Posted on 21 January 2011 by garden

Cherry Tomatoes, originally uploaded by malyousif.

Last year my wife produced many kilos of cherry tomatoes in her rooftop garden. This year I thought I would plant them in the vegetable garden and try my luck. It looks like a successful experiment as all of the plants are growing nicely with healthy fruit.

Looking forward to eating a few soon.

Aloe patch

Posted on 12 January 2011 by garden

The aloes are doing very well in this patch and as you can see, when they flower they add a really nice colour and texture to the area too.

Birds welcome!

Posted on 8 January 2011 by garden

I put up a couple of bird houses in the front garden this morning, in view of one of our favourite chilling out spots. I hope they get made use of, especially by ‘Flitty Fred‘! (the Graceful Prinias which have made our garden their home, very sweet!)

Lawn repair in progress

Posted on 7 January 2011 by garden

Last week, the lawn was a disaster, looking like almost a desolate muddy lunar landscape than a proper lawn and I resolved to do something about it. I did. But although that the ants are still around (the bastards!) at least with the spreading of five kilograms of ryegrass seed, the results are already astounding. Just over the last couple of days, the new fresh gorgeous green shoots have started to appear, and this morning, well, see for yourself:

See what I mean?

Lawn Problems, sorry Gaia, I had to give up

Posted on 31 December 2010 by garden

I’ve succumbed. But before I go on, have a look at the state of my lawn now:

and this is how is used to look like just 3 years ago:

Can you imagine my distress every time I walk into the garden now with the images of how it used to look like firmly in my mind?

For three years I’ve been battling ants with every natural product I can lay my hands on to no avail. I tried Neem Tree Oil and a variety of other “solutions” which were anything but. So this week, the last of the year, I declare that I am beaten. Well and truly beaten by bastard ants. Ants that have dug into every single square inch of the garden and are now seriously threatening the trees too. So, I decided that it is now high time to employ science at its worst. Yes, my friends, I have succumbed and bought a few products from the local vendors in the hope that I would reduce the ant’s effects – there is no hope of ever annihilating them of course – but if I can limit their effect enough to have a semblance of the loan at the hight of its glory, I shall be happy indeed.

So what I’ve done all through the morning is spread Diazinon pellets all over the garden. This was the product which has been recommended to me by the garden centres I’ve visited and the agricultural engineer at the government’s experimental farm. I hope to Gaia that it works!

I know that this is not the season for the grass anyway and that planted South African grass goes into semi-dormancy, but even with that it never looked as bad as it does this year. So to aid it a bit, along with the Diazinon, I spread copious amounts of Ryegrass which I hope will start filling in the ugly gaps until summer arrives.

Once that is done, I had to compress the spongy earth a bit. So out comes the roller and I went all over the garden with it. Now instead of the puffy ugly surface, it’s actually looking somewhat level and compact. Now if the poison does its job, I should see those ugly puffs any more. Whether the lawn will ever look like its former self, I won’t be able to venture a guess, but I can promise you this: if what I’ve done today doesn’t fix it, I’m fully prepared to rip the whole bloody thing off and start all over again. A good lawn is worth it.

Have a wonderful New Year!

Nature’s Christmas gift to me…

Posted on 25 December 2010 by garden

I brought this hydrangea as a cutting from Canada last summer. I never thought that it would actually survive, it actually almost died when I planted it in a test-tube planter and almost gave up on it. I thought I won’t lose much if I plant it in the garden. It was so poor looking that the gardner thought to pluck it out and throw it! I rescued it from the bucket and once again planted it under the Plumiera. Checking on it this morning (a mere 3 months since it began its journey) it is flourishing with new shoots coming out from the roots, new leaflets appearing from the main stem and new small leaves at the crown.

Needless to say, I am absolutely chuffed!

Merry Christmas!

This is a Variegated Lacecap Hydrangea, Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Mariesii Variegata’

The office garden has a white theme this year

Posted on 1 December 2010 by garden

With the change in the weather, the gardening season is most certainly upon us. Not to let our office garden to miss out, we cleaned it up and planted many geraniums and bordered them with lovely alyssum. It’s been a couple of weeks since they were planted, and as you could probably see form the picture, some of the flowers are starting to bloom. So far, the white geraniums have come through, making the garden take on a definite white motif this year.

Mahmood's Garden

my trials and tribulations in trying to create a garden in the desert