Meme award

Dot over at A Faerie's Garden has been kind enough to pass a Meme Award on to me She has small space like me and ripe tomatoes on her site is just a sight to watch. so thank you dot, for the award. I am really amazed that its not even one month ago i had joined blotanical and i got an award. That also makes me proud that i seem to be the first pakistani on blotanical to have that.

The requirement of the award is that you reveal 7 things about yourself, so here they go.

1. I started gardening 2 years ago. nobody can believe it that i progressed so much in this short time. I had no soil bed at that time. it was covered with thick layer of concrete and i had to dig it deep so that i could utilize the mother nature earth.
2. I love eating!!!!! yap i can cook as well but the point is, i can eat better. i like everything which puts on weight :P and i try various baking recipes as well.
3. Books are my another passion. mostly i read books in my native language urdu but that does not apply to gardening books. Right now on my bed side table is lying "The essesntial flower gardening encyclopaedia" by Fog City Press. I also have "The Gardener" by master gardener of pakistan Mr A.K.Khan.

4. I love traveling. Specially northern region mountains. i have been there a lot and had some dangerous routes like that to lake saif-ul-malook lake, aansoo lake, dudi-pat-sar lake. I enjoyed the calmness there and not to mention those wild flowers which i can only think of growing in my subtropical climate.

5. My spiritual aspect. Being a muslim i am into this thing really deep. My favorite exercise is meditation which reduces the stress and keeps your mind fresh.

6. Poetry. I have written almost 25+ poems and most of them are romantic ones :P but i am not interested in showing them on a website cause they are personal. They are however published on poetry.com

7. There is one person in my home more passionate about gardening and that is my wife. when i got married last year i had no idea that how much does it matter if your spouse has similar hobby. but now i know it matters really big. I wonder what would have happened if otherwise.

Now for passing the award on. These are the blogs i am fond of, and they deserve it as well. i am not sure whether they all are on blotanical or not. but even if they are not, they will join it after the award. cool, isn't it.

Sunita at The urban gardener , Zindagi at lost in dreams , Mars at Mars on earth , Birdie at Amateur Photography| Nature Pictures, Green thumb at India Garden, Urban green at The urban balcony and paula at Singapore plants lover

The Meme award guidelines:

1. Link back to the person who gave you the award
2. Reveal the 7 things about yourself
3. Tag 7 other bloggers at the end of your post and link to them
4. Let each blogger know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Let the tagger know when your post is up.

Growing in pots? you have to see this!!!!!

Now this is something very encouraging for those who have no space like me and are restricted to pot culture. Folks, this railway creeper is at least 15 feet and the plastic container is only 4 inches deep. and i have placed it on a concrete shade which is further 8 feet high from the ground. Now don't ask me how did i manage to put this clay filled container on this shade!!!. The pic is taken from roof top.
















Allamanda in same container, almost 10 feet high.
Acutally there is another vine in the middle, morning glory. But i think she is over taken by these two and hardly nourishing. But she will bloom too, for sure, just wait a while. This pic taken at 4x optical zoom of canon powershot.

















Who says you cannot attract butterflies and bees with container gardening? well i surely think otherwise. now i am not good at bees and i think this is a carpenter bee. sorry for not capturing this bee closer, actually i am afraid of their sting!!!!!


























































I captured this butterfly when thick black clouds had taken over and rain was just coming by. This cutie took shelter on my jasmine nitidum leaf. It was very low light and you can see some grains in the picture
















Isn't it strange that this mushroom sprouted, oops i think we can use this word sprout with fungi as well, right? in this D shaped pot instead of my soil bed. They grow almost every year during monsoon rains.

The giggling morning glories

The affair was going on for several weeks but not disclosed until today morning. Rain drops hugging the gorgeous blooms of morning glory. MG blooms were looking so happy and went on blooming and blooming with pleasure. Even those stubborn blooms which had no intention to open up and always showed as they were spent but actually not, also participated in the carnival. They did not stop as i caught them in the "act", in fact they cheered and giggled.
















Now these vines are covering my front wall of about 15 feet at least. As they reached the top of wall, you can see they sort of had a get together, a junction. i am trying to cover my first floor terrace with these. now they have reached the top, i am guiding them to upper top, makes total of 35 feet.
















Now this is interesting. She is trying to elbow her neighbour, C'mon sleepy head, wake up. but she is sort of dozing. Maybe trying to gather the energy to open up and join the party. i hope you enjoyed the show as well. cheers.

Angelwing jasmine,barleria,railway creeper in my garden

This is jasmine nitidum - one of my favorite jasmines because it blooms nonstop from April till november. divine fragrance. i am growing it in a 16 inches clay pot.
















Gomphrena - bachelor's button, pink color - seems out of focus pic.
















Can someone help me Id this butterfly bush?. it has fragrant white blossoms and flowers in late summer from August-October here. its leaves are broad as compared to buddleia davidii.
















some dragon fly on star jasmine stem
















Barleria. not one of my favorite but color is good
















Water hyacinth, the official flower of province sindh in pakistan. gorwing in a round clay pot of 10 inches diameter. it is found abundant and wild not only in sindh but in our province punjab as well. considered a weed here.

































what a shot, isnt' it? both my tropical water lilies in one shot. and both are blooming non stop. they will go dormant in winter. the upper pot is bigger than the other. i just love them. note that the the first one is fully opened but panama pacific below is just starting to open. first one is also viviparous and you can see the viviparous leaf in the picture.
















close up of waterlily in smaller pot
















Tradescantia blooming

































And last but not least, the railway creeper. i am growing this vine in a plastic square container in which i am also growing allamanda and morning glory. and that container is placed 12 feet high on a concrete shade. just parallel to my terrace. now this is what i call urban/small space gardening.