It's Not a Bad Thing

With BF not around and a long weekend due to National Day, I have time aplenty. I've been waking up early too so I'm feeling industrious. Spent last two mornings with Coco on long walk. Been fiddling around my garden balcony too. 

My lemon has not been doing so good. 

Today I germinated tomato seeds BF bought few months back.

Pulled the baby of the succulents I have in the bathroom and planted it outside at the balcony.

 Moved the portulaca and purslane to individual pots to save myself the trouble of repotting when they are bigger and also to make space for the ginger.

The small knob of ginger I planted on Friday. There's a growing root already. It takes 8-10 months to harvest.

Happy National Day

This is only blooming plumeria I have right now. The color has turned lighter than the mother plant. I suppose it doesn't have as much sun exposure.

My edibles. I included shallots (middle) this time, found some shallots that sprouted shoots in the kitchen. Probably won't last.

Another new addition for edibles is ginger. I also have Portulaca (pointy-leaf) and Purslane (round-leaf) that I picked from my building's lobby.

My inedible lemongrass/citronella has grown after a drastic prune early this month.

Went to the nursery to exchange the size of the pot plates I bought 2 weeks ago. Came back with a cutting and he gave me another cutting that's rotted during rooting. Why not.

Such a gorgeous cutting. It's a yellow variety with an amazing citrus-y scent.

The free cutting I received. Such a lovely inflo of red bloom. I hope this thrives.

The blooms of the cuttings.

Penang Peach bloom that I collected while walking with Coco this morning.

The Great Pruning

The last spider mite attack really affected my plumerias. I came back to a sick-looking Dwarf Singapore Pink after a 3-day business trip.

The leaves had black spots and dropped.

Close-up. 

This prompted me to prune the leaves - I've been having a lagging but mild issue with mealy bugs too, particularly on the Dwarf Singapore Pink. One of them also had very little rust. Gotta keep them under control!

My pathetic lemon crop.

The Immigrants

 The illegal immigrants in Austria are doing pretty well. :D

A family of hedgehogs are always there. I miss them.

For Once, It's not a Plumeria Update

I suppose I should do a non-plumeria update. I've added avocado to my diet recently to help with my crazy cholesterol level (yes, my bad cholesterol is on the borderline whilst my good cholesterol is triple the optimum level, no shit). Anyway, since I have ample avocado pits, I decided to try to germinate them. 

Because we don't have the woody toothpicks, I use the toothpicks we have. I peeled the skin off as this skin would encourage molds and stuff. Will keep an update when there's progress.

My succulents from my dad's did not flare well. Remember how cute they were in March?

.

.

.

.

.

Here's how they are now.

They are etiolated due to lack of sun. They are placed in my bathroom actually. They were already like this before I moved them here. Oh well. I suppose I could still snap a couple more from my dad's mother plant. :D

I've been watching a lot of gardening/home improvement on YouTube, primarily Australian shows, Burke's Backyard and Better Homes & Gardens. They are so informative and fun to watch!

PS - My green onion died. 

Cornucopia

Maung Pani has been interesting. Her colour fades beautifully as days go by.

Taken on 9th Aug.

 Both taken on 13th Aug.

Taken on 14th Aug.

A NOID dwarf I acquired recently. Smells so good.

Many of the plants are attacked by spider mites from one of the plants I bought bulk few weeks ago. Was recommended to use neem oil to counter this.

Finally found neem oil in the form of spray. Expensive compared to the pure neem oil but it doesn't have the stinky smell. It has a hint of citronella.

Another free cutting from the nursery I frequent. She was supposed to root one and sell to me but it died so she gave me a free cutting instead. The bloom was more to white with pink edge.

 A new addition, well not really, as the seller gave me a wrong colour the other day.

He gave me this instead of below which I wanted.

New addition - salmon pink! Finally!

My ever-growing plumeria collection. I have 3 cuttings being rooted now - Penang Peach that rotted, Aussie Pink & free cutting I received last week.

The 'illegal immigrant' in Austria is doing pretty well albeit slow. Can't wait it to bloom!

On another note, I re-planted garlic and spring onion moved to shaded area. I also chopped the spring onion at the bulb, as per this blog post. Yes, the 3 plumeria cuttings I'm rooting are in the background. (clingwrap method & bag rooting method).

Blessed

Today was a very lucky day for me. I managed to get hold of the dwarf red plumeria and pale pink/yellow plumeria rooted cuttings from the nursery I always frequent for pots. 

 The parents.

 My cutting - it was a broken branch. The blooms smell so good.

The odd-shaped cutting finally has a popcorn.

Potted - the free cuttings, the weird one and popcorned Penang Peach. I cut the shriveled one and let it callus again.

Penang Peach - I'm trying out another technique that I learned from FB group - clingwrap.

For the Aussie Pink, I did bag rooting.

My plumeria collection - currently 18. I have about 3 cuttings and some seeds coming my way.

My Maung Pani finally bloomed! It doesn't look like Maung Pani but I still like her a lot.

The lemongrass has gone crazy so I cut them off.

Bonus - Coco went to the dog spa and got a new cut. Nope, not my style.