Bulbuls-2 / Bubba-0

Howdy,

Well, it's official - Bulbuls are smarter than pigeons!   Sorry, Carol & Amanda but the snake thing did not work for me with the Bulbuls.  They were not more than 30cm away from one of the rubber snakes having a Bulbul Buffet on my few remaing cherry tamaters!!!  It might be scaring other birds but the other birds are not feasting themselves on my tamaters.  So, I guess I was premature in giving myself points. 

I was even changing the postions of the snakes whenever I would walk by so as to fool them.  But, who is the fool now!  I learned more today - Bulbuls are Pakistani - well at least that's what the Pakistani guys said who were laying down some interlocking at the house today.  They had a good laugh about my snakes!  I'm glad somebody found some humor over the outcome! :-( 

Take Care!

Bubba

There's snakes in my tamater patch!!!

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.  As you see I have a snake in my tamater patch.  This one is a particularly nasty one - it is Corbrais Latexus Serpentem!!!  Or the more common name is Rubber Cobra Snake! :-)  He is not alone -  he has buddies.

Let your Internet do the walking!

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based hobbyist vegetable gardening blog.

Remember, the old Yellow Pages saying "Let your fingers do the walking"?  Well, Google Blogger has added a new gadget to their arsenal of gadgets to add to a blog.  This new one is called "Following by email" - it is designed so that if you are interested in what I have to blog about you can submit your email address and they will send you a notice that a new blog has been posted.  Pretty neat I think - so now you do not have to waste time going to a blog and discovering there is nothing new to read.   I would of thought that the "Followers" would had been designed with that built in but no.  So, if you are interested look over to the right and you will see just under Followers - Follow by Email.  Just write in your email address and follow their instructions.  I tested it on myself and I did get a notice but it came by snail mail - I only found the notice the next morning (15 hours later)  - maybe they still have a few bugs to iron out.  That reminds me - one of the gadgets I added is called "Profile" but I do not see it anywhere on the blog - does anybody else see it?

Take Care!

Bubba

Q&A

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based vegatable gardening blog.  I hope you can take the time to view some of my previous blogs.   Make yourself  at home!

A photography blog I follow the Strobist will every once in a while do a Question & Answer (Q&A) blog.  He collects questions from comments made and/or emails he gets and does his best to answer those questions that he feels will be of interest to his readers.   So, ripping off David Hobby's idea - I would like to do the same.  You might even notice that I model the layout of my blog after his.

So, don't be shy about posting a question in the comment box to be found below each blog.  You just might ask where to buy something in Dubai or your region, when to plant, what fertiziler to use, something that others are wondering about also or  has the same problem.  Hopefully someone else can answer better than me in the comment box of the Q&A blog.  As I said in one of my earlier blogs - "there are no dumb questions just dumb answers".  I hope my answers will not be too dumb!:-)

If you had tried to post a comment or question in the past and it would not allow it  - my deepest apologies!   It is because dumb dumb here who did not set up his blog correctly.  But , now it is set up so that anyone can now make comments - after any blog at any time.  So, you can make a comment on this blog or go back to the first blog and make a comment and I will get it. 

Thanks for stopping.

Take Care!

Bubba

The AGRAme comes to town.

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based vegatable gardening blog.  I hope you can take the time to view some of my previous blogs.   Relax and make yourself  at home!

The AGRAME ( http://www.agramiddleeast.com/ )  is coming to town between March 29-31 at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre.  It is an agricultural exhibition showcasing five different sectors:

• Agri Business
• Poltry & Livestock
• Agricultural Machinery & Supplies
• Fish & Aquaculture
• Flower & Garden

There will also be seminars during the three day event that are free of charge - click here for details of the seminars.

I attended last year when it was held at the Airport Expo.  It was a small trade exhibition but still it had interesting things to see.  For example, Mirak had a small working hydrophonic strawberry growing  kit set up.  Another gentlemen had another small hyrophonic example set up where the pots were stacked 6-8 high and plants added with the irrigation feeding at the top going thru the pots and again the water being recyled through the growing medium in the pots.  HOWEVER, you can not buy these items (or you could not last time) as the exhibitors are here looking for agents/companies to sell & represent their products here in the UAE and other Gulf States.  BUT, it was still interesting to see some of the things exhibited.  The different sectors are situated  together at the exhibition - meaning  they are not all mixed up making it hard to find the particluar sector you want to see.  ALSO, you can sometimes get free samples of some of the products being shown!!! 

So, if you are a bit interested in agriculture or not but still interested in Flower & Garden try to find so time to head down to the exhibition.  Pre-Registar online and save yourself  some time checking in.  Here is the logo for the show.

Thanks for checking out the blog.  There are more blogs below to read if you have the time.  And feel free to make comments, give advice or ask a question in the comment box below each blog.

Take Care!

Bubba

Bubba got a bit of radio time on Dubai Eye!

I was luckly enough to get a bit of air time on Dubai Eye FM 103.8 here in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, March 15, 2011.  I was on the show "Dubai Today" hosted by the wonderful Ms. Jessica Swann (who unfortunately will be going back to her native Australia on March 24th for good) and her co-host for Techno Tuesdays - Mr. Alexander McNabb.   I thought we were going to talk about blogging - being it was a Techno show that day - but once they tasted some of the cherry tamaters I brought to the studio - we talked mostly about my gardening.  You can listen to a podcast of the show here.  Then scroll down to the last section where it mentions Bubba Tamatas and click on it.  It is a 20 minute clip.

A big Oopps and apoloizes for those that may have wanted to make a comment in the past but could not.  I believe I had my settings set incorrectly and have now changed them so anyone can make a comment - not just registered members. Really sorry, the settings for this blogging thing get's more complicated as you dig around.

Thanks for stopping by.

Take Care!

Bubba

What's Being Green?

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based blog about container vegetable gardening.

What is it to be GREEN?  Is it living at the Greens or Greens Community in Dubai?  Is it planting trees and bushes to green up our brown, dusty, hazy environment?   Maybe it's driving an electric or hyrid car?  Is it joining a political Green Party of your country?   Maybe it's joining up with Greenpeace?   Maybe it's celebrating St. Patrick's Day in style.  Maybe it's going out into the forest and hugging a tree?  Maybe it is not using plastic shopping bags?  Maybe it is recycling?  Maybe it's changing to low watt light bulbs?  Or maybe it is just

Where can I find some 5 gal. buckets?

Howdy,

Just a quick one - does anybody know where I can find some semi-clean plactic 5 Gal. buckets such as shown below?

I would like to make some more global buckets for my new planting coming soon.  It takes two 5 Gal. buckets to make one Gobal Bucket.  Shown here are some tamater plants I started earlier this growing season and they worked very well.  I will Bubbaized any future ones and will blog what I do to make it the way I need it to be but I need some buckets first.

Just let me know in the comments below and anybody else looking to make some  global buckets can do the same.

Any help will be much appreicated!

Take care!

Bubba

My Tamaters

Howdy,

Welcome back!   For first time vistors there are several other postings below to check out as well.

Today I will be blogging about the tamaters I planted this year.  I had a much better year than last year, at least until they became sick with a very rare tamater disease - more on that later!   I planted from seed four different types of cherry tamaters, a regular type of tamater (Better Boy) and two tamater plants I bought at a plant shop in Satwa - he called them "Local Tomatoes" - whatever that might be.  At their peak I had 25 tamater plants all healthy and doing fine with fruit at various stages.

Where are the Honey Bees?

Howdy,

Welcome back!    And if this your first time to my blog - Welcome - and hope you have the time to read my earlier blogs.   Here's a quick intro about today's topic.

Did you watch both videos?

What's with the dancing bees thing?  You will find out further along in the blog.   Just click "Read More" below.

Wecome to my Vegetable Patch!

Howdy to all,

Just wanted to invite y'all to my vegetable patch - I quess I can not really call it a garden as my plants are in containers and scattered around the yard.   Much to the annoyance of my most patience wife,  I have placed them where they could get the most sunlight - sometimes blocking the light to her flowers, taking up space on the clothes line and hanging in the doorway of the laundry room.   Next year I have been giving permission to move it to the roof as long as I do not carry the water up the stairs as it appears to be a bit rickety - a bit like me!

It all started at the back of the house on top of a particleboard storage unit that was against a wall and under a section of the clothes line.  But after a couple of years of weathering and one growing season it collapsed so I built another work table in it's place made from metal and plywood.  Yeah, I know the plywood will one day fall apart also but since it is bolted in place - it can be replaced easily.  

Last year I had my tamater plants on the work table and installed a support system for them on the wall which worked fine because they did not really do well and never got that big.

Not the case this year - the plants out grew the old support system earlier on and I needed to tie them to the clothes line and to the wall.