Future garden loading - Day 6

I'm on a mission to attract as many butterflies as possible to my garden. To this end, I need to (over)load it with brightly coloured flowers. That's why I opted for moss rose (Portulaca grandiflora, or purslane) as a ground cover, 

Today, I located a nursery where they stocked it. I took 220 plants, which is as much as my car boot could carry. I'll go back for more next week. This should keep me busy in the garden for a few days anyway (I can only work there when it's not too hot and if my toddler happens to be asleep at the same time, which means not more than 2 hours on a good day).

The nursery also had what I think is another type of Portulaca, i.e. Portulaca umbraticola. It is very nice and colourful but I don't think you can step on it like P. grandiflora. I may add a few anyway.

Garden in the making - Day Four

Weekend means gardening. Another 100 ficus benjamina went into the ground for the path to the guest bungalow, which is being renovated. The araucaria finally found its place too. Humans and dogs seem appreciative.

The "dry" garden is almost finished. A lot of cacti and agave-like plants were added to what was already there. The surface needs to be raked nicely. Work for tonight maybe.

We bought goava plants and some of the flowers went in too in the part between the gate and the house and along the west wall, but no pics yet. It's still a work in progress.

Future garden loading - Day 5

10 pink and 10 white Catharanthus roseus (? not completely sure):

Another 100 or so Ficus benjamina (can you picture more hedges in the making?):

And about 50 Euphorbia milii:

Any idea for a weekend pastime? I told you gardening is growing on me, didn't I? There are worse addictions...

Garden in the making - Day Three

This is my soon to be vegetable patch. You've got to imagine lettuce, okra, sweet peppers, red sorrel and spinach here.

I have my caretaker to thank for this part. Tilling with a traditional hoe is not something I can easily do with an 18-month old baby on my back. She doesn't seem to want me to put her down while gardening. (And no, there is nothing like rotovating here).

Future garden loading - Day 4

More plants... Here is today's pick:

Two more plumerias, supposedly white:

About 30 hibiscus:

A dozen orange flowers Lantana camara supposed to repel snakes:

A dozen crotons:

And three spiky two-tone plants I can't name, for the drought-resistant corner:

I'll try to get all in the ground after 4pm when the sun is less scorching.

Garden in the making - Day Two

I'm getting more and more motivated to work in the garden despite the obvious (blisters in the hands, sore muscles, sweat, and young children distracting and/or undoing what you've just done). Again, it doesn't look much, but it's mine, and it's a beginning.

The ficus benjamina went in from the main gate to the small gate:

And the philodendrons now frame the main gate and the small gate:

A supposedly yellow plumeria is given pride of place on the curve leading to the house:

This is a decorative pineapple (it will give small, inedible pineapples):

A few crotons (not sure the tall red leaves are crotons though) with a Cordyline terminalis and miscellaneous, still unnamed flowers:

And the first of hopefully many hibiscus:

Overall, it's still a bit sparse, but I think it will look good when we fill the gaps with low, fast-growing flowers.

Garden in the making - Day One

Today I started landscaping work in earnest. Being a single mother of two, including one special needs child and a baby with a high fever for a few days now, things didn't go as fast or as far as I was hoping, but I'm pretty pleased with what I was able to do. At least, the plants that came without a soil ball attached are now planted and will hopefully survive.

I started with a ficus benjamina hedge between the main gate and the door. It gives me a good notion of how many I'll need in fine. Nothing much to see so far. Tomorrow hibiscus, crotons and other plants will come in behind the (future) hedge. And philodendrons will be planted left and right of the gate. Hopefully.

Then I started with the farthest part of the garden, where the hose doesn't reach and I used drought-resistant plants there. I traced squares and alternated them so that I'll be able to fill with different plants once I'm done with those I bought this week.

I'm rather pleased with the result even though it doesn't look like much yet.

 

Future garden loading - Day 3

About 100 Ficus benjamina for hedges,

Spiky things that look like some sort of agave but I'm not very sure,

Four philodendrons to climb on the sides of both gates, and a plumeria (frangipani) thrown in as a gift, which should give yellow flowers.

I think I now have a strong backbone for the garden. All these plants will be installed tomorrow morning as early as possible to avoid the scorching sun. Over the next few days or weeks, we will also start citrus trees and tropical almond trees in containers, and add flowers to fill the gaps and hopefully attract butterflies and birds.

Future garden loading - Day 2

I thought of the places that are a bit far from the taps to be hose-watered and since I had already prickly pear cacti in the making (paddles taken from the disused part of land next to the old rail tracks in Agbodrafo. I left them to "dry" as advised on numerous web pages before I put them in the soil, but life happened and I didn't plant them after 2 weeks and they did what a lot of plants do here: they got crazy without any soil or water. Some were on a louver blade in my sitting room (first picture) and the others on the floor in an abandoned building (second picture). They seem to be thriving on neglect!

I've always loved cacti so I went to a nursery I pass by every day and where they seemed to have more dry-weather plants (cacti, succulents, etc.) than most. The reason was not very nice (the informal gardener had his water supply cut by the owners of the land where he plies his trade three weeks ago) but it meant that whatever remained appealing after 3 weeks without water was probably fairly drought resistant. That's exactly what I need for the far-away corners of my garden!

I selected 3 different types of cacti, and the nursery gentleman threw in a decorative pineapple plant (on the right hand side) and tall so far unnamed flowers some variety of what I think are cannas (on the left hand side)...

I also selected some baobabs. I think they never grow very tall or will grow so slowly that it's rather safe to plant 10 of them on my land. They have very nice trunks, leaves and flowers.

I was fascinated by this plant with its blades that are light green upside and violet on the underside. Very striking and unusual!

These spineless green "sticks" on the left are some sort of succulent too. I'm told they won't grow much taller than they are now (about 4ft) but will spread fast. I felt they would make an interesting addition in the dry corner of my garden.

This is my collection so far. I ordered another few plants which I will collect tomorrow (they have to be carefully uprooted because unlike most of what I've bought so far, they are not in individual plastic bags ready to go). I plan on getting everything in the ground over the weekend.

Future garden loading - Day 1

I promised my daughter long ago that this year we would have a proper Christmas tree so I went to the nursery and picked this nice araucaria. I'll plant it this weekend with a lot of space all around because these trees can become huge!

Then I went on and bought a few other plants, mostly crotons and hibiscus. The nursery guy threw in 3 plants, 2 with orange flowers (my best guess is Lantana camara) he told me act as snake repellents (we have snakes here, but I think they are harmless and neither I nor my daughter are afraid of them) and another with red flowers. He mentioned the name but I didn't hear it and dropped the matter after asking him to repeat about three times and still being unable to hear his answer.

I don't know what these big red leaves are called, The big red leaves (Cordyline terminalis) are rather striking, I think. I intend getting more hibiscus (the ones on the left below). Just because. I want a lot of flowers to attract butterflies and birds.