Bougainvillea and petrea planted together make a great team and create a dramatic impact with their colourful display.   They are ideal shrub mates as they come into flower at exactly the same time.

Here is a lovely corner in my garden where bougainvillea and petrea are blooming together.

Both these shrubs like a position in full sun so they are perfect planting mates.  But best of all, they come into flower at exactly the same time in spring.  And they certainly give a glorious display with their mountains of red and purple flowers side by side.

Many gardeners are hesitant about planting these prolific shrubs as they think they are too overbearing for smaller gardens.  But it’s a pity to lose out on such a dramatic show of colour as these two shrubs can give you. So here are a few tips to help you keep them beautiful but under control.

Grow Large Shrubs in Containers

Luckily these strong shrubs can be heavily pruned back to the size that is most suitable for your garden. In fact they can also be grown in containers which will automatically restrict the size of the plant to something much more manageable.

Here is a red bougainvillea that has been growing in a container for about six years and as you can see it is still very manageable. Even though bougainvilleas are notoriously rampant growers, I haven’t had to prune it back because the pot is keeping it in shape.

Red bougainvillea against a white wall

You can always try these climbers in pots first to check their habit of growth.  Then if you would prefer a more dramatic show you can transfer them to the garden proper.

Submerge pots under the ground

Here’s a tip for you if you prefer a more natural look for your garden without containers but still want to control the growth of your climbers: simply plant your climbers in their respective pots and submerge these under the ground till you can’t see the rim of the pot.

Then water as usual.  In this way the rampant growth of these climbers will be restricted and they will never grow wildly out of control.

I have had success with both these shrubs at the coast and inland so I have found them to be suitable for most climates.

Do write and tell me about your own experiences with bougainvillea and petrea in your garden.

My roses have grown well and I always buy a few new ones each year so my rose bushes have grown considerably both  in number and in size.

Not surprisingly, when pruning time came around this year, the prospect of pruning them myself was a little daunting.

In the past, I have always spread my rose pruning over a few days – a system that made my job a lot easier. But the downside is that it affects the blooming time if you prune at different times. This year I didn’t want to stagger the pruning as I want to have a big flush of roses in October.

In addition to this, my Mr Lincoln has grown to an enormous height – about 17 -20 feet and the canes are not canes but veritable tree trunks. The thought of pruning this monster was more than a little daunting.

So these are all my reasons for deciding to call in:

A Professional Rose Pruner

Well he arrived with all the necessary paraphernalia and I sat down with a cup of tea and watched him in silent triumph! This was the way to do it!

Fantastic! He went through the whole lot in about an hour and a half. He lopped off all the heavier canes in a matter of seconds. I was very impressed.

However!

When I checked the results after he left it seem as if he had used a hedge cutter. It looked like a massacre. A fiasco. My beautiful canes had been chopped off mercilessly.

For a full week I couldn’t look at the rose bushes. I didn’t even inspect them to see if any shoots had appeared. And I swore I would never go the lazy route again.

Another however!

It is now a month later and spring has officially arrived. My roses have sent out shoots in all directions and I’m relieved to report that everything looks rather healthy.

With one important distinction.

In addition to the new leaves that are sprouting, most of the rose bushes are now sending out marvelous red shoots from their bases.

These will be the new canes that are every rose grower’s dream. In fact I love to see shoots like these even more than the flowers themselves because they hold so much promise for the new season.

So it remains to be seen if this was indeed a pruning fiasco or a fortunate mistake on my part.

It’s just remotely possible that this was a mistake that I may wish to repeat next year.

I’ll keep you posted.

And as gardeners it comes as no surprise to us when the actual process of gardening is recognized for its healing quality.

Just recently BBC news presented a slide show of pictures called Seeds of Recovery.  It’s all about the Headley Court Rehabilitation Centre in Surrey that has started a gardening therapy project for recovering servicemen.

They have a green house, and gardening facilities where injured and recovering soldiers can feel the therapeutic benefits of tending plants and getting their hands into the soil.

Here it is: Seeds of Recovery

And only from 6 cucumber seeds!

For some reason, we had been buying those long tunnel-grown cucumbers and it had been ages since I’d planted any of my own.

So early this summer I decided to give it a go. I chose a north-facing spot along the fence of my vegetable garden because I prefer cucumbers to climb.

Cucumbers that lie on the ground are liable to be eaten by insects.  And in any case, they always have a white underbelly where they have been in contact with the ground.

So I prepared the soil with lots of home grown compost. And then I bought a packet of cucumber seed and planted about 18 seeds.

It wasn’t a big patch as I reckoned we only needed one or two cucumbers a day.

In a few days the seedlings sprouted.  And once they were well established I thinned them out to only six plants at about 50 cm apart.

You’ll notice that I didn’t use seed trays or seed boxes.  I always prefer to grow in situ wherever possible so that the seedlings don’t get disturbed.

I watered them well every day and very soon they started to climb up the fence.  They didn’t need any help at all and seemed to take on a life of their own. It wasn’t long before dozens of perfectly formed baby cucumbers began to sprout all over the vine.

Luckily we had good rains during the season and I soon had more cucumbers than we could possibly use.  I gave away a lot of cucumbers to family and friends and of course I pickled cucumbers and made cucumber salad till the family went on strike!

Trouble-free Vegetable Gardening

The bottom line is that my cucumbers grew easily and without any fuss.

I found it to be an ideal crop for trouble free vegetable gardening. And I really mean trouble-free because I am into organic gardening and I didn’t use any sprays or artificial fertilizers.

If there were one or two bug-bitten plants I simply threw them out to the birds!  There were more than enough for all of us!

Next time I’ll give you my very quick and easy recipe for cucumber pickles.

It’s all about my own family recipes – tried and trusted recipes that I use personally to create mouth-watering dishes from the fresh, organic vegetables and fruit produced in our garden.

You may have seen one or two already – for example, my family recipes for pumpkin fritters and creamed spinach – directly from the garden to the pot. There can be no better flavour than using such fresh organic vegetables.

I will be giving you more recipes in the future as the seasons dictate!

For example, it has just been mulberry season and our mulberry tree was laden with juicy black mulberries.  There was enough for the birds as well as for us.

I made 20 mulberry pies and froze a lot of them for winter. What could be nicer than a hot mulberry pie and custard in the dead of winter?

If you would like my mulberry pie recipe just let me know in the comment section below and I will write it up for you.

I hope that you will enjoy the new section about my home recipes – “Fresh from the Garden.”  And by the way, if you try the recipes do let me know how they turn out.

“Enchanted gardens and magic forests!”

What a magical and inspirational quote!  If you nurture the scene in your mind you can create that same ambiance on the ground.

I have always been a secret admirer of magical gardens and enchanted forests.  And I have always had a secret desire to have one of my own because I am a self-confessed gardening addict.

I find that I am renewed, sustained and revitalized by a garden. And it doesn’t even have to be my own garden.  Any beautiful garden has the same effect on me.

Because of this passion I can truthfully say that my garden was seeded and took root from my obsessive interest.

And today I walk among the trees and flowers and I have what I truly think of as a magic garden and an enchanted forest of my own.

Organic vegetables

My parents had a wonderful farm and I soon acquired a love of home-grown produce.

Now, many years later, although we don’t have a farm, our garden has quite a nice assortment of interesting flowers and vegetables.  All organic of course because I hate poisons.

I prefer to use natural sprays when necessary.  Sprays that don’t harm plants or animals.

So our garden  thrives on natural compost, pine leaves from the “forest section” for mulching the roses and more that I will discuss in future posts.

Planting  by the moon means that you take into consideration the phases of the moon before you do your planting.

Gardeners who plant by the moon also tend to harvest,  cultivate or deal with pests according to the phases of the moon.

Here in the southern hemisphere, the 22nd September is Spring Equinox day when knowledgeable organic and moon gardeners arrange to do their planting.

It’s supposed to be a very favourable time for planting because moon gardeners believe that plants thrive hugely when they are planted this way.

Well, I don’t know if planting by the moon works or not but I was willing to try.  So I prepared the soil carefully with compost the week before.  All my garden beds were ready and waiting for the important day. 

On exactly the right day I bought all my plants and seeds early so that I could spend the day planting.

Then as luck would have it, as soon as I had completed all my planting, the first spring rains came and gently watered all my handiwork. What a win!

All I had to do was to rest my weary limbs and wait patiently for some noteworthy results.

But there’s one more thing – moon gardeners are also supposed to talk to their plants.  I’ll be jolly careful to do this while no-one is watching or listening.  But talk I will.  I’m even prepared to sing to them! No point in doing things half-way!

An update on  my garden – It’s interesting to compare the results on two separate beds of aubergines.  I planted them at the same time but in one bed the plants are twice as tall as those in the other bed.

I can’t quite work out why.  Maybe I haven’t been singing loud enough!

Today organic gardening is becoming more and more popular and even mainstream because the public has become much more health conscious.  Many individuals refuse to buy fruit and vegetables that have been treated with chemicals and sprays.

Green Movements Encourage this Trend

Food industries are very aware of this and are at pains to find ways to get their suppliers to produce “clean” food. Ecology awareness and “Green” movements are encouraging this trend.

These days you can buy a wide variety of organically grown produce in supermarkets from  organic vegetables, free-range eggs, unpasturized milk, natural honey and a host of other naturally produced foods.  All these fetch a higher price simply because they are organic.  The demand for organic food is huge and people are prepared to pay for it.

You just need a little Patience!

To be an organic gardener you need patience and you need to be willing to learn by trial and error.  But the advantages of organic gardening are so obvious that it is worth the extra effort.

Unfortunately Many Gardeners Don’t Want to Go The Organic Route

Unfortunately many gardeners don’t want to go the organic route because they have to learn new ways to manage pests and diseases. They simply lose patience at the first sign of a few aphids. It’s so much easier to get rid of unsightly bugs with a quick spray of insecticide.

The thought of having to do without fungicides and insect sprays can be daunting. But there are many environmentally friendly ways of dealing with pests and diseases. There are also many companies that are becoming involved in this type of research by producing effective non-toxic sprays.

There’s a perception that organic gardeners can only produce flowers and vegetables of inferior quality.  But nothing could be further from the truth. Organic gardeners are capable of producing healthy fruit and vegetables that have far more flavour than those that have been treated with chemicals and poisons.

Organic gardening may require more effort and commitment than conventional gardening.  But the thought of being able to eat health-giving food that is free of chemicals is what makes organic food so popular.

The good news is that anyone can try it. Nature will tell you what to do if you observe your garden carefully.

If you are keen to learn how to get rid of pests without using poisons here is a valuable book “Organic Pest Control Secrets” that you can download instantly:

Determination like that needs to be rewarded and the very least I could do was nurture it. So here it is – a seedling that I hope will flourish.

Nature is a Patient Teacher

Nature is a patient teacher. And that’s just as well because we learn best from our own practical experiences.

But Nature also requires us to be open-minded.  So now and again if we are caught talking to our orchids or planting by the moon, let no one laugh!

And so I hope to put together a collection of tips and ideas gathered from practical, hands on experiences with organic gardening. I am a firm believer in gardening the natural way and I want to explore it personally by recording some of my successes and failures.

Join me by Adding your Comments

I hope you will join me by adding your own comments so that together we can create a practical collection of tips and ideas that will be useful to other organic gardeners.

It promises to be a fun and learning experience and I will be honoured if you will accompany me on my quest to find better ways to garden with nature.