It feels like ages since I updated my garden blog.
Though there was this particular thought which constantly reminded me like an alarm bell to maintain & follow-up with my blog and (my comments) with other fellow gardeners,
somehow the fact of procrastination had overtook and eluded me in a state of belief that there is always tomorrow.
Finally I had to face my demon.
(or in this case - my garden)
My garden have more weeds than my prized plants.
I had just managed to uproot weeds last week just at a portion of my garden. And weeds - somehow they just don't uproot alone, they grab 1/3 of my soil from the pot and I have to reconsider re-using that soil as it may contain more weed seeds.
It rained when I started my weeding project.
And guess what. It always rains when I just get my hands started in any of my gardening job. Any moment I start to set my garden tools - I could see the darkening of the clouds followed with the rumbling in the sky.
And when I think its wise to pack-up and clean up before the downpour...
- Guess what: Its a sunny day all over again.
Again, thinking its sunny,
all is not too late and I arrive myself to garden
(you guess it again)
It started to drizzle...followed by a heavy rain.
God must be funny,
or probably he intended to water his garden same time as I garden.
Perhaps, who knows...
This has been happening for these few weeks
and had totally wrecked my mood in gardening.
For now,
the weeds are enjoying their moment of their lives & the garden look so terrible.
Unkempt like a unshaven beggar on the streets,
a showpiece of what takes place when annuls had finished their season and taken over by weeds and the last remaining surviving ones barely pushing their flowers in the tall heavy mass of weeds.
I have also noticed whitefly had invaded my garden,
they had infested on most of my plants, (begonias & roses).
Most of my coleus and joyweed had come to a matured stage,
if I don't replant them - they will start to rot and dry up.
(probably I will just maintain the hardy ones)
Oh.. what a sore eye.
And on top of that - it rains...again.
And I can here my wife laughing, "I told you so.."
Well, all is not at loss.
I did have a moment of joy when I discovered that my bougainvillea experiment turned out good.
Good as in a sense - out of 6 pots only 1 survived.
Again, I didn't have pots
(I had reused the plastic water bottles as a temporary plant containers)
My orange jasmine started to bloom.
For some strange reason all of the ixora flowers had turned out to deep blackberries.
(probably its a berry-ixora)
Wishbone flowers have been sprouting very nook & corner of my garden. To date, I have 3 different varies and I really have no idea how they came from.
And of course -
I can take the luxury of forgetting to water my garden.
Well, almost everyday.
.
The not-so-successful bougainvilles experiment.
During the rainy season, mealy bugs, white flies and weeds will have a party in our garden. It is easy to do weeding when the ground is wet but they grow extremely fast too. Your orange bougainvilea is very pretty.
ReplyDeleteJames, good to see you back to blogging again!
The recent drastic change of weather within the day itself has been quite hard on my plants. There were few days when it rained so hard that most of my flowers as well as their leaves were destroyed. I was devastated like you! But the few plants that gave me some blooms brought back some gardening joy in me. I hope your bougainvillea will continue to grow well. Love to learn of your experiments. Thanks for always sharing! Btw, nowadays my garden does not look that good either.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that I can relate to your not-blog-enough anxiety and the garden disappointments. I just experienced same recently :) At least one of six bougainvillea survived, and it is a real beauty! I hope your begonias can survive the whiteflies. I remember your begonias, very pretty.
ReplyDeleteI do love the pretty colors of your bougainvillea. In my experience, they flower best when they are allowed to dry out between waterings....hard to do when you have so much rain :-)
ReplyDeleteHi James, don't be depressed you must be thankful it is now raining. I know how hot it is in Malaysia during the dry season, it is actually good you already got it earlier than us. You should see our fruit trees which are legacy of my late father. We have 6 citrus trees and 3 already curled its yellowed leaves and might not recover anymore. We can't water them as it is also difficult in the site. Few already fruiting stage lanzones trees already died, avocadoes too. And the annual flowers died too. My already medium sized Hoya also died, some orchids too. If at the other side of the world winter kill their plants, here it is dry season which kill our plants. You must be thankful, i envy your condition.
ReplyDeleteHello James its good to be over at your blog again. The weeds certainly flourish when its wet - with my family visiting me just now I can't get out to weed the garden and they must grow an inch a day. The ground in your garden probably needs all that moisture though you probably want it to rain when you're sleeping and dry during the day.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got one bougainvilea to grow and its a pretty colour too.
ha! this is so funny. Things don't always work out like we think they will!
ReplyDeleteI always love to weed just after a rain - everything comes out so easily!
Thank you all for your lovely thoughts on my garden issue. I have been taking a long break and having the "resdue effects" of the long leave.
ReplyDeleteHope to catch-up with you all soon as I totally lost the mood in gardening.
Will visit all of your garden soon.