I think this is a “single” Sultani or as they’re called locally “Mohammedi” Rose. It has a very nice scent. Unforutnately some bugs have taken a shine to these and other bushes in my garden and they’re chomping at the leaves and damaging flowers. I’ll take some advice from the botanists in the Budaiya experimental farms and hope that they’ll identify what needs to be done, if anything.
Do you have any idea what’s chomping at my plants?
It’s really strange that when you observe a garden, or any other space for that matter, and you are used to that particular view, you not only get to take it for granted but your mind disappears some detail and you never really appreciate it. However, I found that if you do frame it through the camera and take a picture, more often than not you would be pleasantly (or otherwise!) surprised. It’s almost as if the two-dimensional view – especially if done well – would make you see it for what it actually is, in all of it’s glory.
Consider this for instance. It’s a view I pass several times a day without giving it much thought. In fact, I didn’t think it as “lovely” as it obviously appears here:
Isn’t this a picture fit for a gardening magazine?
Looking at it now and noticing the beauty of the “tear drop” in the middle; the depth that the Ixora on the left leads to the lovely purple Datura flowers and then onto the bed of Calendulas and onward to the rose bushes below the French windows. Then we notice the gorgeous framing offered by the two plumerias, going through to the two Cassia Fistulas and then at the very back, at the wall, we see the passion fruit climber in the middle and the plentiful flowering of the Oleander is just.. well, beautiful!
And then just imagine this space a few weeks from now once the plumerias are fully clothed and the fistulas have shed theirs leaves and replaced them with new growth, and you will be once again pleasantly surprised.
All of this in the arid climate of Bahrain? Yes, indeed it is. As I’ve said in the previous article you can indeed grow just about anything in this lovely country, but for a short while until the scorching sun put an end to this particular enjoyment and forcibly transfer your attention to the most heat tolerant plants; namely the palms, plumerias and the cacti.
But let’s not dwell on that. Here. Enjoy this view as well, taken a minutes of the one above and is what is available opposite. The one on top I call the Southern Garden; while the one you see below, obviously, is the Front, or even Northern garden.
I do love my garden!
Have a pleasant day.
Have a look at this beauty! We’ve just finished this new border this afternoon. I moved almost all the agaves and cactii from the cluster by the pool into this new brilliant arrangement, even if I say so myself 
I’m looking forward for them to mature in place and hope all visitors to our neighborhood enjoy my xeriscaped garden border.
600 Allisum (white, pink, purple)
200 Geraniums (white, red)
300 petunias
100 marigolds
20 chrysanthemums
75 calendulas
100 stock (white, purple)
10 rose bushes (sultani)
10 jasmine bushes (full)
2 variegated hibiscus bushes
25 flowers, can’t remember there names at the moment!
25 colius
Did I paint a picture in your head yet?
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!
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.
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?
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!
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’
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 Den
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