I've tried a few, some have come and gone, others have lingeringly tried to hold on, and others are now bursting with growth and flowers. I started in the front of my house...
Just to give you an idea of what things looked like to begin with. I moved in with nothing but the scrubby "lemon grass" shrubs growing. Very sharp blades of grass-like leaves and not too appealing for looks, yet the Thai people use it for cooking and flavoring.
There is also a tall tree that was originally imported from China. It grows easily in any hot conditions, and I learned about this tree while living in Burundi, Africa. China infiltrated Burundi with these trees, plastic household needs in shops, and black pavement for roads. The Burundi people explained to me that the tree was invasive and was overgrowing other kinds of natural trees through the rooting system.
Other than that, the reality office had the weeds and large growth cut down (not removed), so it looked fresh and new.
I started with the left side of the front. Silly me cleaned out the section and went about buying and planting plants without doing research as to the particular plants' needs.
I was delighted with my work. The bushy-type greenery in the front and white/green growth that would hope to grow into full size bushes behind them. These offered nice white flowers in abundance (when I first bought them anyway).
After a couple of weeks, I realized that all the watering in the world would not save these lovely plants from the sun. Too much exposure dried them right up.
Also, I learned the black dirt that was sold to me in bags, was not a 'natural' combination for our dirt here. It actually helped dry the plants out. That will be a discussion in another post.
So after a month, I dug up what was left of the bushy green growth and moved them to the 'shade' garden in hopes of reviving them. What was left were the sickly looking white leafed stems of my dream bush. This is what I tried next:
I guess just because plants are growing prolifically in the nursery, I thought they would grow easily at my home. Not so! The cute, very green and healthy mini-bush that would grow beautiful, delicate white flowers dried up in no time what-so-ever!
None of the front row of flowing bushes were left after another month. Again, too much sunlight and too dark of soil. However, the purple flowering gangling stalks you see in the back ground took hold~
The purple flowers actually are doing quite well now and the neighbors keep telling me to cut them off the top and simply stick them in the dirt for regrowing. Apparently, I haven't believed them yet since I haven't done it... or maybe, it's because I just haven't devoted time to stop long enough to do it and take care of them.
Just above, you'll see the stone placed in down in the front of the garden. My neighbor watched me try to keep the dirt in every time I watered it. In fact, he swept the dirt back in a couple of times until he offered to give me stone. When I was ready (and had time), he came over with all this and dug it in himself. I was so very pleased, as you can well imagine!
This is what the purple flowers look like now, thriving. But not until after I laid down the coconut chips to help keep moisture in. Maybe that's what I needed all along!
My "gangling" purple flowers thriving with the coconut chips so easily found her in Thailand.
The next photo shows my poor little white bushes (that will hopefully flower again one day) barely surviving. Out of the original six, I now have two.
