Hit & Miss

I have been pretty diligent lately, spending more time at the balcony taking care of the plants and watering a lot more since it has been really hot. 

Monkey pitcher is now sharing the pot with a rogue fern.

Alor Vera from Spain, succulent from Santorini are doing pretty well after much care and fertilizing. 

Bentong ginger isn't doing well - it doesn't need as much water that I thought it'd be. 

My pot of random succulents are looking better. A lot had died as you can see and I've started to fertilize them. See those fertilizers? They stink like chicken poo. 

More basil seedlings popped out on the mint pot. 

Transplanted the hydrangea to a bigger pot with Miracle-Gro soil that used to house the miniature gardenia. Oh the gardenia died after almost week of transplant. 

Desert rose flowering again!

Okra plants are still producing - this time shooting out from the leaves too. 

Okra container is sharing with a single shallot that grew shoot. Those seedlings in the egg box are basil seedlings for my colleague.

Sowed some Japanese kale seeds and they have sprouted the next day. It's sharing container with white turnip (free seeds from the usual site I bought my seeds).

Wild strawberries are growing pretty slow. I have made a mistake by planting them too deep covering the crown. 

The rest of baby Chinese kales that I grew the last time. 

Those aren't evening primrose, they are mints actually. 

My chives are so small! 

Supermarket lemon seedling!

Pictorial Update

 Just when I thought I really sucked at growing edibles and ruined the seeds, I was proved wrong again. The weather could be a factor. My arugula seedlings showed growth. I also added more soil as the seedlings were a bit too leggy. The bok choy (v. Baby White) seedlings germinated on the 2nd day and I have transplanted them to the arugula planter box.

Baby White Bok Choy seedlings that I germinated on cotton pads. I know this doesn't look good.

My Spanish Aloe Vera grew another leaf whilst the cactus grew a new but very spiky shoot.

Many new baby pitchers.

Carrot seedlings also show a little growth.

 Kaffir lime seedlings are fantastic!

My bigger than the rest lavender seedling grew true leaves!

Aster pot. These two seedlings look particularly different - one is of sharper leaves while another have many side shoots. I wonder what they are.

 Bali Hai Gold.

Something different - how a sunset looks like from my balcony.

Fickle Weather and A Quick Garden Update

The day started with overcast dark heavy clouds and it was pretty cold to be honest - the BF had to cover himself with a throw whilst sitting on the balcony reading his book. 

Within an hour, the clouds blown over to another area unveiling a happy sun. Oh it was so hot we had to evacuate the balcony. LOL. I suppose my plumeria troop would be happier.

The Spanish aloe vera BF's mom brought from Germany. It was dying after it was potted but I withheld watering for almost one month it grew a new leaf.

My cute purslane. It seems the left side is diseased whilst the right side is growing fantastically!

 BF's monkey pitcher's growing taller that it hooked itself onto the rope for stability.

My water-loving hydrangea withered a bit despite lower-than-usual-temperature. Gotta amp up my self-watering system on Monday!

My arugula seedlings turned yellow. Have I done something wrong? Shot an email to the seed seller for advice.

Went to the local florist after breakfast and bought this cute cactus for BF. He has a bowl of cacti at work. A few died so it's time to replace them.

And some roses and 'mums to brighten up the apartment. :)

A broken rose and a few stray 'mums at the balcony. Never waste!

Meanwhile, my kaffir lime seeds are growing pretty well despite at different rate, in fact one of them has a set of true leaves already. To encourage growth, I removed the husk of some of the seedlings and re-positioning them. I can say the success rate to this germination is 70% which is very high. :) I should potting them soon after I come back from a short new year holiday. I will be keeping two and giving away the rest to a tree society unless any of you local gardeners want it I can give them to you. Let me know at the comments section!

This is the mother plant.

Oh Hello!

Been a busy week so I did little gardening. 

One of my Plumerias died so I replaced it with the Aster. Moved the aster seedlings prematurely as the BF knocked the tray off with his butt when he was climbing down from a ladder.

The reason why he was using the ladder - hanging the cactus up.

Arugula seedlings are rather slow-growing - only one of them slowly growing true leaves.

Florence Fennels are slower than carrots. I should be moving the carrot seedlings to a pot soon. 

Potatoes are growing quite rapidly. Soil was added twice. 

4 of 8 tomatoes seedlings were already transferred to a planter. A pack of vermicompost was added to the soil.

 The amaryllis is blooming!

Process of Learning & A Little Update

My Cameron Hydrangea died the same way as my first hydrangea; shoots dying after another, blackened branch and white fungus at the surface of the soil. After a little online research, I figured out how they died; root rot. The soil that I have used, Baba lazy soil isn't as well-drained as I thought it would be and I was so stupid I reused the same soil as my first hydrangea. So sad.

On another hand, the BF bought a huge bloom of mophead hydrangea with a long stem for me the other day so I had it propagated. It started to shoot just the next day, amazing. I vow not to buy Baba lazy soil anymore - instead I would buy the loose soil I got from the nursery at Sg Buloh.

The bloom the BF bought.

My Malaysian Red plumeria is doing great except the flowers now have orange-colour throat and lighter-coloured petals compared to the first round of blooms.

New leaf! Looks like its giving a middle finger. LOL

Two shoots appearing .

BF's monkey cup grew 2 pitchers.

My balsams are growing turning to the direction of the sun.

MY acclimatized hydrangea is doing pretty good too albeit slow-growing shoots.

Can't say about my pale pink plumeria, the branches are rather soft I shouldn't have watered it so much when I repotted it. The flowers buds dropped. Have stop watering since.