Quick Tip #1 - Dampen your seedling potting soil.

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

I will be posting something new called Quick Tips.  This blogging can be time consuming depending how long winded I get, number of images, links and/or videos I place in the blog.  Other times I do something and think I will blog about that with some more info to go along with it....... then it eventually is blogged later than it should be or forgot about it completely.  So, I hope this new format - Quick Tip -  will I be more timely information. 

So, I'll stop banging my gums and get to the tip!

A General Guide to Container Vegetable Gardening

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

I was hunting some info on the www last night and came across some information from my old alma mater Texas A&M University/College Station about container gardening.  I graduated in 1979 with a BS in Agriculture Economics - Farm & Ranch Management.  It's not my profession today but it is something that is imbeded in me and thus I guest I am doing the home gardening thing now.  Had big plans for it but coming to different forks in the road in my lifetime I diverted from it.  Enough on me.

Onions

Howdy!

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

I have started planting onions sets.............  Onion sets?

Finally a Pepper Seedling!!!

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

Well., a bell pepper seedling has finally popped out of the soil!!!  It has been 6 weeks since I started the seeds in my propagating bags.  Some of the seeds sprouted in the bags about 4 weeks ago and so I planted them in peat pots but of the 10 I planted only one came up.  Since the deadly Bulbuls like to munch on helpless freshly sprouted pepper seedlings I have had to put it under Protective Custody.

Comments on my Blog.

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

I ran into a follower of my blog last night and she asked "did you get my comment about your "Know your Capsicum" blog?  All I could say was "No"!  I had just recently replied to a comment on my Honey Bee blog.  I had figured out that perhaps I could reply by going to the comment section of that blog.  I started the reply and then when it came to posting it - it all of a sudden produced a choice of different options as a ways to post it.  Clueless I just clicked on the google option and it worked by luck. 

Back to my follower - she was also confused by the whole process.  So, today I investigated  - how do I post a comment - on the Blogger site.  I found this link that explains it.

My sincere apology to any of you who may have posted a comment but wondered why it never showed up or received a reply.  If it is posted properly I will get it and will do my best to post it and reply asap.

So, if you have any thing to say about what I blogged that will be helpful for others or to correct something I said is most welcome!

Thanks for stopping by!

Charles

Bees revisited

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

I recieved a comment on one of my earlier blogs about bees - http://thedxbgardener.blogspot.com/2011/03/where-are-honey-bees.html

The person has some bees which have decided to make their home in their garden.  They were wondering what to do to remove them.  My question is why do you want to get rid of them?  Is it an unfounded fear you might have of bees just because they have stingers?  As I mentioned in my reply to the comment, if you have young children then it is a prudent decision to have the bees removed.  However, if the family is mature enough to point out the danger to them that playing with or aggravating the bees will result in pain then the family and the bees should be able to live together.

I DO NOT advocate killing bees but .....

Know your Capsicum!!!

Howdy!

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

As the heading says - Know your Capsicum before buying pepper plants in Dubai.  I was out in Satwa and came across a plant shop with some pepper plants that already had flowers on them.  I asked the shopkeeper what the plants were (I knew they were pepper plants but not what kind) and he said "Chili".  I said I did not want chili peppers (being from the West we are not as big a chili pepper eaters as our friends from the subcontinent - that said Peppers orginated in South America I believe).  I must have had "I'm a big dumb Sucker" written on my forehead in his language.  He then said "Oh sir, these are Capsicum - the big ones" making a gesture of a large fruit simliar in shape and size of a bell pepper.