To Bee or not to Bee............

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based gardening blog about growing vegetables in containers in the UAE and the Arabian Gulf region.

Ok, so I think I'm a comedian.  Anyway, I recently received a comment the other day on an older blog I did in April 2011 - What vegetables should you plant.    Bradder asked:  Hi, I have a question for you - I was wondering whether I have to pollinate my flowers by hand?  I haven't seen much in the way of bees etc (I'm in the Springs) and concerned now my aubergines and tomatoes are flowering that they will come to naught!  Thanks.

This brings up a point that I would like to mention.  Do not kill ANY honey bees as they are having a tough time around the world surviving for some mysteries reason as I have blogged about in the past here and here.   If some bees decide to make a home in your garden - just leave them alone and they won't bother you.  The little local arabian bees are very docile and you will learn to be able to get very close to them to observe them and they don't mind.  The only exception to this is if you have small children that can reach a bee hive and are too young to understand that the bees can hurt them - then try to find a way to make them leave without killing to many of them.

So, I'll get off the soap box now.  If you do not have any bees buzzing around your vegetables flowers then YES you will need to start buzzing around  some of your vegetables yourself if you want a better harvest.  It might bee a good idea to dress the part so your plants do not get confused as to who is handling their reproductive bits.

But, before you start buzzing your vegetable plants you need to know a few things first to take the sting out of it. :-)

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.