Garden Diary - Page 1

9 September 2007
It has been raining non-stop for 3 days. Rainy season should be nearing the end now. I think it has decided to end with a big bang or should I say big downpour! This is a good time to start my website diary as there is no point in going out and getting drenched. The wet weather is definitely not doing good to some of my plants though! 

I have got involved in tropical gardening on a serious level when we moved back to our house two years ago. The house was rented while myself and my 3 boys lived in England. Now that the "kids" are grown up, my husband and myself took over our house once more. It was sad to see that my lovely garden of hibiscus and roses was now nothing more than few miserable trees and lots of weeds.

Firstly, one huge mango tree had to go, it was full of not so good-to-eat mangoes which were attracting swarms of ugly mango flies. Next the casourina hedge was removed from around the wall of the compound. Casourina is a good hedging plant, or can be left to grow into tall trees. Ours was full of mosquitoes, not a good thing in Africa. The clearing completed, the whole place became clean, tidy and airy. And empty of all green soul! I had to do something fast. The only trees in the compound were three, not so healthy coconut trees, an orange tree and three date palms which require a separate mention later. Oh, and two small, lovely trees bearing yellow bell flowers (my husband's favourite!).

Two years later, I am totally hooked on gardening in the tropics - green lush leaves of all shapes and sizes, palms, flowers of beautiful colours and, of course, wonderful and mysterious orchids. I admit it is not easy, you would think tropical climate is heaven for plants. No necessarily. In Gambia we have either too much sun or too much rain, too little or too much humidity. But somehow, against all odds, with lots of tender loving care, the plants grow and surprise us with something new every day.

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