Tag Archives: 2007 season

Progress report – 071019

Gardening

Remember I said before that I thought the lawn was being over-watered? Well last night I determined to find out by how much, and that meant donning the swimming trunks on (is that picture firmly in your mind yet? Good! :twisted: ) and turned on the sprinkler system and investigated each zone separately. I determined that Zone 1 in particular had too many sprinklers. I have no idea why the company I initially commissioned to do the garden decided on that many; in any case, I identified four sprinklers that could be done away with and did the necessary plumbing to disconnect them. I’ll only get to see the result of that decision in the next few weeks and will keep you updated. There are still some more to be removed from the other three zones, but the situation there is not as severe as zone 1.

With that done, I turned my attention to planing the new flower beds created around the two Cassia fistulas and filled those with seedlings from the nursery. I put the Scabious Scarlet Empress (B&Q) on the inside surrounded on the outside by Antirrhinum Monarch Mixed (B&Q). The distance both in depth and breadth is approximately 30 cms between each seedling and the next. I know that this might be a bit crowded, but I want this effect. If I find that they are just too crowded in the future, it will be easier to remove some plants rather than try to put some more in.

I did some more work in the garden this afternoon by clearing the font path’s beds and turning them over, making them ready for planting something in there – petunias if Frances gets her way! With the number of really interesting seeds I’ve got and am cultivating, I think they will probably be better there, and I’ll keep the petunias for the street beds. I’ll think on it a bit. There is no real rush there as I want to turn the drip system in those areas off for a couple of days to try to dry them a bit and then mix in some compost to receive whatever we decide to plant in there.

The same treatment was given to other beds around the garden to liven them up for this season’s plantings which I am really looking forward to. In anticipation of that, I’m cultivating some more seeds in the nursery. Here’s a list of seeds I planted in seed trays tonight:

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The poppies didn’t work

Gardening

I planted three kinds of poppies in seed trays on Sept 21st and none of them came up. Unfortunately I have had to give up on them; the ones I tried were:

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I think the reason they failed is probably due to (1) over watering, and (2) overzealous with the plant food! Even others didn’t fair very well actually except for the Calendulas and Antirrhinums of the same batch linked above.

English Border populated

Garden Design, Gardening
English Border planting plan

English Border planting plan, originally uploaded by malyousif.

Movement! We have movement!

I’ve had a chance yesterday afternoon to bite the bullet and start planting. The final result is what you see above in the map, and if all that I have planted come through (and they should) this patch will look like a piece of Heaven!

I’ve chosen the plants based on colour, size and height. Other than the Calendula seedlings – which I grew in my make-shift nursery – which have been planted about a foot apart around the whole plot (see area 10), the remainder are all actually seeds which I have dispersed on the ground and then lightly covered with soil. I watered the whole plot with the mist setting on the watering gun in order not to let the seeds run from one area to another, or worse, just collect at the bottom of the hill. I’ve had that happen before! I hope that the drip lines won’t do that to them, they shouldn’t but I will keep an eye on the patch until the seedlings appear.

The plant distribution is as follows:

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The “English Border”

Garden Design, Gardening
The "English Border" WIP

The "English Border" WIP, originally uploaded by malyousif.

I know. You must be asking yourself “where does he get these weird names from?” Questions which I can’t honestly answer in full as I name areas in my garden in order to think about them “off line” specifically without describing them as “the patch at the end of the garden by the pool by the outside wall.” I think you will agree that “The Frangipani patch” is better, especially if I did a good job in getting other people to adopt them too; particularly my household and gardener. See, there is method to my madness!

Welcome to the “English Border.” The picture above is how it looked after I carted 8 or 9 wheel-barrow-fulls of sand and I was about to mix in two big bags of cow manure. This process took the whole morning and it was – once again – heavy work. I can feel every muscle in my body and my back has been complaining too. Never mind, the end result should be quite beautiful.

Like I said yesterday, I got a couple of lovely cycases from my friend Rami. I planted one in this border after completion and the other in the Buddha Patch.

This is how it looks on completion:

The "English Border" completed

I intend to get this border to have two faces; one to be viewed and enjoyed from the living room, while the other from the garden. So the plantings in it will be low-high-low and you will notice that the hill I created tapers off at the front and the back to allow for this effect.

As the border is small(ish) I will refrain from planting too many perennials and dedicate it instead to mostly annuals. The perennials in there already at both extremes are the lovely tacomaria which I got for my 43rd birthday (two years ago) and I’ve planted the cycas at the other end. I think I will put a bush in the middle as an anchor and will look for something that butterflies like. I might even move the Buddleja davidii my wife brought back from Scotland in this location! Now that’s a lovely idea… onto that tonight!

‘Tis the Season

Gardening

With the turn of wind and the breaking of the temperature over the last few days, it leaves no doubt in any Bahraini gardener’s mind that the new growing season has almost started! What a wonderful time it is too.

This is the third year for us in our home and although the garden is far from being mature, I have certainly gained some experience in gardening, which means that I keep changing things around and for the most part, the changes are relatively good and the plants have a higher than average chance of survival.

This weekend has been very productive, gardening-wise; I’ve potted up 30 spider plant babies in small pots and I have planted 11 varieties of flower seeds and covered them to protect them form the sun. I’ve even put up a scarecrow made with one of Frances’ old abayas! I’ve also finally chopped the top 3 feet of the money-plant in the living room which was almost reaching the ceiling and potted that after smearing rooting gell over the bottom 6-inches. I’ve also potted the rooting money-plant which I have left simply in water in a vase.

This afternoon I cleared and cleaned the two pool planters, they look tremendously better now for the trim and cleaning they got. The huge ficus is now manageable and the devil backbone’s extra branches have been snapped and the plant generally been made a lot neater.

I re-positioned an Agave in the smaller breakfast-area planter to balance it out a bit and chopped off the 1.5m-high cypresses that grew there by themselves.

So all in all I am rather happy with what I got up to this weekend. Hopefully in the next few weeks I shall update you with the progress of the nursery.

For the record, the “nursery” now has – as seeded on Friday 21 Sept, ’07:

I’ve also planted Sweet Pea in a large pot which I equipped with a circular trellis.

All of the above should flower next Feb – July. I’ve got a few areas in the garden earmarked to receive them. I’ve got plenty of other seeds and am planning at least 2 more flower beds (eating away at the lawn!) to be planted this season.

More back-breaking work, but very much enjoyed and hopefully worth it.