Friday, July 28, 2017

Seed Saving

I couldn't find the heirloom tomatoes anymore so I bought heirloom beefsteaks instead. The orange one is overripe but it's the yummiest. The biggest one was the fleshiest and the red one wasn't yummy. The seeds weren't as many surprisingly. 

We decided to rent out the other apartment and the new tenant doesn't want to care for the green wall (plus it's quite neglected) so I have changed them to artificial plants.

It doesn't look too bad for a DIY.

One Step at A Time

I did quite a lot for the past few days. I hired gardeners to prune the rambutan tree which hung too low. The grass around the area would benefit a lot too. The plot's quite bald. 

Finding the lowland hydrangea has been quite a challenge. I finally got of 2 from an online seller in Johor. I thought I needed 4 of them but turned out 2 was just nice for the plot under the Kauka Wilder. 

Impatient as usual, I transplanted them during the hottest of the day, so they withered. 

This is 2 days later - they looked happy. 

Odyssey dug herself a little hole and rested herself in while watching me digging holes for the hydrangeas.

A quick look at my heirloom tomatoes. Heavy rain pelted one of my tomato plants and broke the stem so all of them droop to the ground. I noticed the stems are growing nodes which could be aerial roots. 

The tomatoes love it here I must say. I am going to have quite a harvest (compared to my previous attempt). 

A random jasmine-lookalike plant previous tenant hid among bird of paradise bush(?). I got her out and gave her some fertilizer. She seems to have a flower bud.

My plumerias with lemon/mandarin seedlings.


I've transplanted my tuberose and amaryllis to the ground. They don't look too good and occasionally walked upon by Odyssey. 

Our driveway is flanked by ruellia and ruellia isn't really my favourite. Odyssey loves to walk over them since she was young. And she did the same here so they went all over the place and messy which I really hate. So I pruned them to the ground on one side of the sideway and stuck some cuttings into the sparser area (they need to be dense to support each other). I don't hope to work so I can grow sunflowers here. The bigger plumeria is my Kauka Wilder and the shorter one to the left is a dwarf variety that was water-logged and isn't doing too well now. I can't remember the other one. We have the best sun here so I wouldn't have to wait too long to her bloom.

I brought my epiphyte gang out for a water and tanning session. 

But will you look at my Chinese kale! I harvested some yesterday for dinner.

My backyard that has a pergola made out of PVC pipe by previous tenant is intended to be my herb garden. I've acquired most of the herbs I wanted except dill and Thai basil. Actually, I don't really need to Thai Basil but....

A close-up of the neglected hoya. Fertilizer has been given to her, hope she bounces back.


Clockwise from 12 o'clock - rosemary, coriander, thyme, Italian parsley, bird's eye chilli (cili padi), Vietnamese basil (according to the nursery lady) and 2 pots of lavender.

My own basil, gingers, aloe veras and mint which also go into that plot.

Let' not forget kaffir lime, curry plant and chives!

I also scored these - maidenhair fern and Platycerium Superbum.

I pinched this but it doesn't seem to survive when I looked at it this morning.

Here it is! Now I just need to observe how the sun works on this plot to see if I need to put the black netting up for more shade. I'm growing mint in the existing styrofoam box to control its crazy evasive nature.

 I will add that the rosemary I acquired isn't the common rosemary you'd find at the supermarket. The leaves are tinier and denser with purple flower, instead of white. This particular plant also is growing aerial roots that I cut one stem to propagate. Let's see if it works. 


I plan to kokedama this maidenhair and feature her in the dining area.
  
I'm very surprised to find the nursery selling platyceriums and a variety that isn't that common. A platycerium group member confirmed that it's a Superbum.

My dinner last night.

I really can't remember what this is called. I'm thinking if I should remove birds of paradise and just let this be. **It's called Heliconia, False Birds of Paradise**

When your neighbour's plumeria game is strong. This Penang Peach is so pretty. She also has Rangoon Creeper creeps all over her.


My wall! 

My huperzia beside my lounging chair.

Oakleaf fern outside the maindoor.

And more in our dining area.

This Bifurcatum resides in our bedroom.

After dark orchids at the kitchen windowsill.

This is how my magnolia lily is now. 

What the heck is this!?


Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Challenge with the Size of a Mammoth

We have moved into the new house and it proved to be a pretty challenging house. Since it's an old house with so many trees, the house is full of ants. The size of the house is also something that I need to get used to it. We haven't finished unpacking as we have another 2 houses/condos to deal with due to last minute development. It's really been a crazy week. That said, let's focus on what's on this house.
This is how our porch looks like. Few portulaca plants and some palm-like plants. 

 We have fake dill and a huge Kauka Wilder which has rust right now. This house has plenty of birdnest ferns that some of them I mounted to their natural habitat - trees.

Coco posing at the driveway. Speaking of Coco, it has also been challenging as she became blind two weeks ago. She's struggling a little right now as she does not know this house. This picture is also deceiving - she sat down because she was scared to move around.

The movers broke the pot of my Kauka Wilder so I've grounded her. She's a little wilted but I think she will do fine.

How my condo plants currently are right now. Avocado Miki died and Magnolia Lily doesn't seem to be doing too good. The new green shoot died. the 2 plumerias in the picture came from the other apartment of ours. They should be doing well here. There's so much sun here, I've already got pretty tanned.

Rangoon creeper at our backyard. We have another one in frontyard. 

 We have 2 pots of this cute purple flowered-plant,

One of the ferns I mounted.

I should do a better job with this!

I found an oakleaf fern at my garbage bin so I tied it up on the mango tree.

I bought another Platycerium - Elephantosis (furthest left) and have it mounted on a Daiso chopping board.

The oakleaf ferns that I collected last week, finally mounted on Daiso chopping board.

Saw this oakleaf fern at one of my neighbour's when walking Odyssey earlier this evening. And to think it was a rare fern...?