The great flood part 2

The water remained high in the garden for just over 5 days and my husband was getting worried. As a matter of fact I was terrified that many of my fruit trees and plants would not survive.

 So on November 12th a call was made to our parliamentary representative and explained our dilemma.  Someone from the drainage unit came the next day to assess the situation. The following day November 15th they arrived with their equipment.

 The drainage unit pumped thousands of gallons of water for about 5 hours. There was still quite a lot of water remaining. The supervisor told me that if the water does not recede in a few days time call him and they will return with a smaller pump. Luckily the water receded and the garden started drying out.  I would like to thank Mr Peter Phillips the Parliamentary Representative for St. Lucy for his assistance and the team from the drainage unit.

To be continued.........

The great flood part 1

 Last month on November 08th the rain fell for the whole day in the north of Barbados. The lower areas of my garden had over 5 ft of water. I had only seen this happen once before in April 2011 https://benthamshouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/oh-what-night.html. Traditionally, November is a rainy month, however this amount of rain was not anticipated.

 Water came up to my shade house

 The bird feeder was under water

 My pots of dragon fruit were under water

There is a natural suck that takes the water away however this volume of water was too much so it drained very slowly. Too slow that after a week I had to call in the big guns for help.

 To be continued........

Fire Fire

Hello friends I haven't been blogging for a while and so much has happened at the homestead. Earlier this year around March during a very dry spell, there was a huge bush fire on some land nearby and the fire service was called to put it out. There is a petrol station nearby so the fire service made sure it was extinguished before it got too close.  I was outside observing the path it was taking and was surprised that the fire service left saying that the remaining fire will burn itself out and pose no danger. 

I had some compost heaps along the border and had seen the fire creeping towards my property. I got my hose out and started wetting down the border line. The fire came closer and closer catching any dried grass in its path. I shouted to my husband to call the Fire Service.  I kept wetting along the border where the compost heaps were. The fire got really close and the heat intensified. Finally the Fire Service arrived and one of the officers took over my hose and started trying extinguish the fire. Meanwhile further down the fire reignited and had spread, the fire truck was trying to put out the fire that was heading to the largest compost heap between some mahogany trees near the gas station. It caught the compost heap there so they allowed it to burn itself out and turned their attention to the other compost heap; this heap was further away. 

 Some of the trees in the walled garden were damaged and I decided to cut them down.

When I saw that the flames were going for the heap I told them to let it burn. I had  some very tall coconut trees along the border and was afraid of them catching but they did. 

 So I had the coconut trees cut down and planted dragon fruit.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day July 2019

 Lilac lagerstroemia speciosa aka insulin tree, Queen of flowers, Benaba, Queen crape myrtle

 The leaves of the lagerstroemia are used to treat diabetes, diarrhea and other diseases.

 A red carpet of Delonix Regia petals, aka Flamboyant, Royal Poinciana and Gul mohar in India

 Callistemon aka bottle brush an Australian native.

 Plumeria aka Frangipani,  singapore plumeria

 Ground Orchids are loving the rain

 Quisqualis aka Rangoon creeper in full bloom for the first time after a good pruning. They can be very invasive.

 Petunias still going strong after the rain last night.

Poutria lucuma aka cannistel, egg fruit first one on this tree.

 Dragon fruit

 Hello and welcome to Garden Blogger's Bloom Day where gardeners around the globe post what is blooming in their gardens. We have had some badly needed showers over the weekend. The plants are loving it. It is too wet to do much in the garden today so I will be running errands. To see more blooming gardens please go over to Carol's blog at www.maydreamsgardens
Have a great week gardening!

The great reveal

 Pergola is completed and seating installed.

 Restroom completed

 The door frame or molding was inspired by the Japanese Torii gate.

 Floor and wall tiles are ceramic.

 The vanity is an old sewing machine base, the counter is concrete with a porcelain tile.  The mirror is an antique hat rack I found in a friend's junk heap.

 The sink is a converted old brass bowl.

 Wax jambu aka wax apples were attacked by monkeys. There are none left!

 The rustic Bajan garden will be opening a Tea Garden in a few month's time. I have been toying with this idea for many years and I have finally decided to give it a try. The island is in a severe drought with water restrictions now in place. We get occasional brief showers but it is not enough. The heat is draining and some days I only go out early in the morning and late evenings.