Grinnie all Grown

This must be the proudest moment of the gardening life to date! Remember when we planted that baby grinadella plant (pic below)? Well, look at her now (pic below)... And how amazing it was to see her first blooms... I've never seen such an extraordinary flower in my life! What a miraculous marvel! And here you can see our very first fruit from the vine. One thing I must say to those of you out there that are struggling to grow food in your garden is, never give up. Even if you have impossible soil or weather conditions, keep trying... you might just find a plant that is perfectly happy in your yard! This will make up for everything else that's not! :)

My Mulch

It was not until the dead heat of summer truly arrived when I put aside my stubbornness and really started listening to everyone's advice about mulching. I however was determined not to go on a spending spree. Instead, I just did some trimming in my garden and turned the result of that trimming into mulch. A combination of dead leaves, half alive succulents and other plant offcuts, pine needles, little twigs, etc... and voila!...mulch! And it paid off because where nothing was growing before, life started sprouting up everywhere. Believe it... listen to the professionals and mulch... just use whatever organic material you can find in your own garden and have fun with it!

So many uses for my palm leaves

From making placards for use in a procession doubling up as 'umbrellas' for shade, to 'mulch' in my tree beds, to camouflage for my latest experiment (a 'boxed' compost heap), I never thought palm leaves would serve me so well! And let's not forget the shade they create while still attached to the tree.