Buddha, originally uploaded by malyousif.

The Buddha Patch survived the summer a lot better than I expected this time. Even the bamboo seem to have finally taken root and are really getting on. Buddha is happy!

Have a wonderful weekend my friends.

The first time I planted a vine about a year (or two) ago, I think I bought that plant from the garden show too. I planted that one in approximately the same location as I chose for the new one I planted today, the difference though is in the pruning, and the experience. Then, I chopped that poor thing almost to the ground misinterpretting what I read about vines. Of course it never recovered.

This time I hope to be better.

Time, of course, would tell. Would appreciate pointers if you have experience planting vines in Bahrain.

Have a wonderful Friday.

The Buddha patch, originally uploaded by malyousif.

I can’t remember when it was that I showed you the Buddha patch last, so here it is as of a couple of hours ago. You can see how scorched some of the plants look. It’s summer. The death season for everything green!

Nevertheless, have a wonderful weekend my friends and happy gardening.

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!

Holiday project – Oriental Patch Lighting, originally uploaded by malyousif.

The first project of the holidays has finished! I spent today wiring up the Oriental Patch for 3 more lights: a flood directed at Buddha and two lanterns.

This shows the final result, what do you think?

Oriental patch, originally uploaded by malyousif.

It’s coming along nicely!

Have a wonderful Friday my friends.

There is so much happening in my little patch of Heaven that it’s difficult to find a place to start. Suffice it to say that it was brilliantly tiring! I love it. I really do. Such a sense of fulfillment is really hard to come by. I guess this is one of the major reasons that I have been so taken by gardening. It is truly a rewarding activity.

Since putting Mr. Buddha in his place to christen the Oriental patch, the adjoining side which is overlooked by the “Old Lady”, our trusty and gnarled Frangipani we brought with us from the old house, just didn’t look right. It had a few shrubs here and there, a few cacti at the back wall (I got those for my last birthday) and well, it now looked completely unbalanced. So it need a major rethink on what I wanted it to be.

I decided to make it complement the Oriental patch, in fact, I wanted it to be completely integrated and not regarded as a separate piece of the garden at all. I decided that probably the best thing to do there is take everything (apart from the Old Lady) out and cover the whole area there with stones or pebbles. This will immediately bring the “Zen” back into the game and the Oriental patch would simply flow into the dry river-bed motif.

Plan in place, I started working. The first thing was to remove all the cacti and put them in pots, those pots I wanted to position on the pool deck in a cluster of variously sized pots and shapes. I think looking at the previous post where I featured this change, you will probably agree that they look quite the picture. I promise you that in real life they look even better!

Not all were moved as I didn’t have enough pots. I certainly didn’t have a huge pot which I needed (wanted) for the big cactus. That then had to wait until I bought more pots and they get delivered. I had two bushes in there too that needed to come out, a hibiscus and a lantana. The lantana was thriving while the hibiscus was just sitting there not doing much, but not dying either. A bunch of mother-in-law’s tongues and another cactus as well as a henna tree were scattered in that patch too.

I was rather happy that I moved the majority of the cacti on Thursday evening. That would free up a lot of time for Friday and beyond to tackle the various tasks.

Friday morning comes and I am awake at 4.45AM (I know I know!) and down having some tea, reading the papers and thinking about the stuff I needed to do. By 8.00AM I had cooked breakfast and had everyone up! I needed to get out and wanted to drag Frances out with me too. Time for some quality time together too.

The primary task was locating the right type of stone I had in mind and buying more plants for the Oriental patch. After going through 5 or 6 garden centres, the only one that had something resembling what I needed was Jassim Garden Centre (the “old” Jassim) but they didn’t have a driver and didn’t want to deliver on a Friday. Their prices too were astronomical for the quantity of stones I required to cover about 16 square meters of ground. We hit the road again and finally found bigger stones than I initially wanted at A’alia Garden Centre on Janabiya. I bought 500 kgs thinking that that would be enough.

Next door to A’alia is Bader Garden Centre. It’s an excellent place to pick up good quality and reasonably priced plants and shrubs. They have a good and well organised nursery in the area too so they not only have the “standard” Saudi-sourced annuals from The Sultan Centre, but have some nice things they propagate from seed. We picked up some nice annuals from them – Lobelia erinus, Cordyline australis (Red Sensation), Nicotianas and some carnations.

Before that we stopped at another favourite of mine, Marj Al-Zuhour on Jidhaffs highway. They’ve got an excellent selection of indoor plants and their outdoor selection is okay but as they seem to be solely supplied by Al-Sultan, you might not find any “unusual” plants there too often. Like all garden centres though, they can improve somewhat. We got some tired looking Sword ferns from them as well as three unidentified shrubs. I bought them because I do like the leaves, they’re rusty coloured on top and green below. I’ll post a close-up to get your help in identify it later this week. In any case, I thought that the ferns would look right in place in front of Buddha’s pedestal (or chimney as Frances insists on calling it, and as Christmas is rather close, I think she’s got some plans involving it!) as to the unidentified shrubs, they can reside in front and to the side. Looking at the place now, I think we made the right choice.

On returning home at around mid-day, I immediately started leveling the Frangipani area and planting the various things we bought for the Oriental patch. I dragged Arif into the task and got him to bring some more garden sand from outside to fill in what was the bird feeding area, which I moved into the lawn now, and I proceeded to fork over the area, patting it down, walking on it just to get a nice relatively level plane which is not too soft that it will just absorb the stones once positioned. Of course I removed all the drip pipes from that area too; the only line that is left is one that waters the Frangipani and the Passionara grandiflora.

A’alia delivered a few hours later but it was soon apparent that I needed about the same quantity again to get good multi-layer cover. I didn’t want the cover to be a single layer because experience told me that immediately anyone walks on it the stones will disappear into the ground. I went there again and placed another order for 500 kgs. Thankfully they delivered in the evening and I finally finished that area when I spread the second lot of 500 kgs of stone in the area. Although I think I still need a couple of hundred kgs more, but I shall just spread what I have now to cover the small pockets which should do.

Earlier in the morning, Frances and I stopped over at Jassim Trading (“new” Jassim’s) on the Budaiya highway and bought some stuff: pots (1 huge one, 4 large, 2 medium, 2 small); 175 petunias and some indoor hanging plants which Frances fell for. All of that order got delivered in the afternoon, just before the 2nd batch of stones arrived! I was potting the hibiscus and the lantana while they were delivering the stones, so it was cutting it fine, but at least everything is done now that I can just look at the area and am fairly happy with things so far. There are a couple of things I have in mind to complete it, but that will have to wait for another time. I was absolutely tired and didn’t want to do anything else. The shower and bed awaits!

Saturday morning arrives and this time I stayed in bed longer. Until six! What luxury. But the petunias and co. await my pleasure. I mixed the single 50kgs bag of manure in the front path borders and turned them over to prepare them to receive the petunia goodness. I must confess that I didn’t want to plant petunias this season as I thought I would fill the garden with more exotic varieties. But Frances seems to have a love affair with them. She’s the boss! Anyway, I planted most of the petunias in both sides of the front path and what was left over went into the beds outside on the street. The way I planted them is white on inside, then purple and finish off with pink in long lines. I’ve interspersed white and purple in some areas to give even more variety. I think once they take hold of the area the path will look quite nice.

I have a couple of “humps” at the top of one of the borders, in the centre of one I have a Sterlitzia (bird of paradise) and the other I have a golden ficus but both are off centre intentionally so I can fill the areas with annuals. Last year I had the Lobelias on the edge, but seeing how they took over the border and really spread, this year I put them right in the centre to give them the space they need. Looking at the area in my minds’ eye some 8 – 12 weeks into the future, the place I think will look a delight. The whole garden will I think and not only the borders which are graced with various annuals.

I have so many seedlings in the nursery waiting to be planted too. I’ve got to find new places for those…. oh my back!

It was a really satisfying weekend for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope your weekend and week ahead is just as satisfying my friends.

I was out for practically the whole day in the garden! I accomplished a lot considering I wasn’t working toward a deadline; it was see this, think about it, do it! Brilliant.

For (my) record, let me list what I have done:

1. Southern border extended:

To my surprise, one of my Cassia fistulas broke its tie to the cane (it’s a young plant of less than 2 years) and just collapsed on the ground! Needless to say the warning bells were ringing rather loudly. On investigation I found that the ground around it was not compact at all, it was very spongy and the roots were not penetrating deep into the ground, considering the age of the tree. It could be because of the zillions of ants I have around the garden (suggestions to eradicate them welcome) or even more probably it is because with the ready availability of water, it just didn’t bother rooting at all! That also explains the slow growth I have had with this one and its neighbour.

It’s strange that even after 3 years living in this house and being in the garden countless times, things just don’t hit you as awkward. I guess this is how experience is gained. I looked at the water sources around the tree and I found about 6 sprinklers in an area of about 8 – 10 square meters! One was directly behind the tree, another in front and yet another about a couple of feet to the side! So it was getting far too much water… It wasn’t a good idea to plant them in the middle of the lawn!

I decided the best thing to do is disconnect three sprinklers and move just one to be positioned in between the two Cassias; that would give them enough water to flourish and would water the lawn sufficiently enough – I hope.

So I created a wave: I removed the grass from around the Cassias and extended the Southern Border to include them. The border now has two “humps”, the dimensions of these humps are irregular (I’m not a fan of symmetry) but the apex is about 1.5 meters. I’ll take an overhead picture and include here tomorrow to see what I mean. That grass removal off a combined area of about 4 square meters or so was backbreaking. I did all of that last night and had a really good sleep because of it . Anyway, this morning I put the perimeter plastic divider so that the grass does not impinge on the new extension, and did the plumbing. As I still have some sand outside, I moved 5 wheel-barrow-fulls of sand to create two gentle mounds around the two trees and positioned some rocks around their base and planted some pennisetum grass around the larger tree. I like the final effect. It should look quite nice in a little while.

2. That major job completed, I turned my attention to the adjacent red Frangipani. It never really grew very well in that area – again because of being over-watered I think – and it was getting to be out of place; with a huge white Plumiera in the immediate vicinity and neighboured by three Cassias, it was time for it to go. It has two healthy young branches which I cut and potted and placed around the pool (that area is destined to have several tens of large pots, but that’s another project which I shall come back to later) and uprooted the trunk, filled the hole and filled with lawn grass which I got removed from another bed I was designing. I know, it’s all go!

3. I propagated about 9 or 10 pots of pennisetum grass in the nursery, and it was time to plant those. I took a couple over to my friend Rami who is also in the mood to redesign his garden and planted the remainder around my garden: three around the larger Cassia fistula and three or four (I can’t remember now) in the new Buddha Patch.

4. As I was potting the red Plumiera, Roy – my part time gardener – came in. I set him off to creating a new “English Border” bed by the living room opposite the Northern Border. The resulting area will have perennials mainly but with enough space for annuals to be thoroughly enjoyed when looking at that border from the living room and around the bend in the garden. It will be a nice surprise for our guests when it is completed. The new border is around 9 or 10 meters long and 2.5 meters deep at its widest. Roy completed the removal of the grass and made a start at the drip line. I’ve got to properly position it tomorrow and put in the actual drip heads in there.

5. As Roy was doing that, I was busy with one of my power tools! I got the strimmer out and strimmed all edges and sides from that unkempt grass. I hate gardens with tufts of grass at the walls and in places that the mower can’t reach. I make it a point to get my gardener to drop everything and just attend to those. Unfortunately as we were both busy re-designing the garden and ripping new areas for beds and patches, we didn’t have a chance to address those tufts which – to me at least – look as unsightly as nose- or ear-hair! Ugghh!

I strimmed away for about 2 hours, but the end result will only be available tomorrow in daylight, as I finished when the sun had well and truly set by the time I downed tools and played driver to my kids.

6. I passed by Rami’s on the way back from Manama after I dropped the kids and collected two gorgeous Cycases. I’ll plant one in the Buddha Patch and the other in the English Border. I’ve just test placed them there just now and I shall see how they look in the morning. (Had I not been so knackered, I would have brought out the trowel and having at it!)

7. Earlier this morning, Rami and I visited a friend’s house and reveled in her absolutely gorgeous garden. It is very tastefully done according to her wishes and it looks very nice indeed. One feature that I really liked is her use of two different kinds of grasses on her lawn; a circle done in South African lawn grass (the same that I have in my garden) and hills around it covered with Japanese grass carpet. The effect is very nice seen live, I’ve seen the same method used in pictures I have seen of landscape design, but seeing it live certainly brough it home. Needless to say, I liked it so much that I am going to implement it in my garden soon. I’ve already earmarked the area and discussed it with Roy this afternoon! Thanks Reema!

As I said, a wonderful day – and I never thought I would have described a day in a garden doing manual work with such adjectives. Gardening must be growing on me, or it’s a recognition that I am getting old! In either case I don’t particularly care. I enjoyed myself tremendously and have no qualms whatsoever in repeating the experience once again the whole day tomorrow!

Oriental garden, originally uploaded by malyousif.

The plinth is built and Buddha is gracing it with his presence. I’m glad that this phase is over now, the basic construction and infrastructure. Now I can really concentrate on the plants and to bring it to life.

The observant amongst you would have noticed yet another name change to this patch! It is now officially “The Buddha Patch” which I think is much more appropriate and gives me a bit more flexibility as to the overall theme I want to adopt for this area of my garden. It will still be “oriental” in nature, but because of the unavailability of appropriate plants and material to that end in Bahrain, I shall strive to maintain at least the atmosphere of a Japanese/Oriental theme.

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

In-progress and overhead pictures after the break