"the dxb gardener" is under going a transformation

Howdy,

I recently attended at Blogging & Social Media workshop here in Dubai by David Hobby of the blog Strobist during GPP 2012.  If you are interested in taking photography courses here in Dubai check out GPP's website. If you are interested in learning how to use your flash off of your camera check out David's blog.

One of his workshops at GPP 2012 was about blogging and social media - he had a few other course as well. It was a  great course but I felt it was too short - it left me wanting more.  It really needs to be a 2-3 day workshop to get some hands on experience.  Unfortunately for me, I learn by monkey see monkey do (with a few bananas needing to be thrown in).  I also want that safety net if I have a question right then and there I can get a response.  I KNOW there are places on the internet that explain it but if your a bit thick as I am when it comes to internet technology it is nice to have someone hold your hand and explain it. :-)

Anyway, back to the course.  David complied a list of 50 Rules to Blogging and Social Media which he handed out to the class.  There was a rule on the list that gave me pause and convinced me that I should come out of the closet ...

News Alert: School Kid Gardeners

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

I was out & about today and came across the Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012 issue of 7DAYS and found an interesting article I wanted to share.  The article is "Sowing Seeds for the Future".  It is about some students at Dubai International Academy, who are members of the school's Eco Club, and their experiments with growing vegetables at the school.  It is a very interesting article and you can find out more about Dubai International Academy's green initiatives at www.diadubai.com/ecoclub.

Just something I wanted to share.

Thanks for stopping by!

Bubba

Bell Peppers my @$$

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

Well ...... to say the least I am bit pissed off  upset!!!  I wash my face every day and if I am going to go out and buy vegetable plants I even give it a pretty good scrubbing!  I look at it in the mirror and it looks clean ... there nothing else there but my ugly old mug ... so, how is it these plant vendors can still see "Sucker" written all over my face?!?

Does this look like a Bell Pepper to you?

Recent Comment

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.  I recently recieved a comment on one of my blogs I posted last year.  I thought I would share it as others may be in the same situation.  Here is the comment from Divya:

divyaFeb 1, 2012 12:45 AM

hey , im new to gardening and this blog is exactly what i was looking for. i just wanted to know from where did u get the tamater seeds? which shop exactly did you get the tamater plant from? there are many many shops at satwa plant street, do you happen to remember which shop its from? please guide me.

thanks , and keeping up the great posting:)

Blossom Drop

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

As many of you know we have had some rather cool weather lately.  Some of you may have noticed some of the flowers on your tamaters and peppers have fallen off  or have not been producing as many since the start of the cool weather.  Both low & high ambient tempertures can cause Blossom Drop resulting in lower yields.  However, temperature is not the only cause of  Blossom Drop  But, it is the one factor I am going to blog about today.  If you would like more info about "Blossom Drop" and it causes then click here & here.

Strawberry Update

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

Just a quick update on the strawberries I planted a couple weeks back.  If you read the other post, you might remember that against the advice of the folks in the video I left the fruit on two of the four plants I planted.  I just wanted to see what the difference might be.  Well, one of those fruit has turned red!

And of the plants I planted a week or so before these plants and removed any fruit or flowers is starting to make flowers.

So, maybe there is some strawberry jam in the future!!!

For those of you that have not heard the song for awhile and for those youngsters who may never have heard this classic!

Thanks for stopping by.

Bubba

Quick Tip #3 - Labeling

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based vegetable container gardening blog.

Today I planted some pepper seeds that had not germinated since late Oct. 2011(more on this later).  So, I decided instead of throwing them away I would plant several of them in small peat pots and see what happens when the temperature warms up.  As they will be in with other plants that will need watering it is not much extra effort.

As I was putting the seeds into the pots ... I thought I could remember which seeds I put into which pots ... WRONG!!!  Of the 9 pots I planted there where two that were moved around and I could not remember which was which ... so I had to guess.  No big deal as I will be very surprize if any come up but just in case they do I would be nice to know who is who.  So, make your labels BEFORE planting seeds and then you can stick it in right-a-way and not afterwards ... guessing!  A couple of years ago I did not see these plastic labels around but they seem to be everywhere now.

Use a waterproof marker of course!

Thanks for stopping by!

Bubba

Container Gardening

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

I recently recieved a comment from a reader name Sandra.  She was asking if I had anymore information about container gardening other than what I have posted already.  More importantly she also share a website with such information. 

Planting Strawberries!

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

I have just recently planted my first ever strawberry plants.  Mrs. Bubba & I were in the supermarket the other day and she spotted some strawberries but decided against them in the end as we have been disappointed in the past with the sweetness or ripeness of them .... not to mention the price of them!  So, I was passing through Satwa a couple of weeks back and checked out the plant shops to see what they have in the way of vegetable plants ... no I was not looking for pepper plants!  I came across some strawberry plants, i believe, grown by a large local farm produce company as it was in a box with their name on it.  So, I bought three of them.

Are you suffering from BER???

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

Are you suffering from BER?  If so, you need to increase your intake of calcium.