It's been raining a lot in the past few days and it's been hard to figure out whether to add water to the plants or not. Our pocket garden looks like a jungle now because the plants had a growth spurt.
Well, some plants continue to bloom even though it's raining. My new gumamela plants have been blooming every week. The new marigold plants were fine for a few weeks, but it hasn't adjusted well. I need to read up more about caring for marigold plants.
Surprisingly, the kalachuchi (desert rose) continues to bloom. I thought it would somehow hibernate since it prefers sunny days. I guess the chicken manure I added last summer is still providing it vitamins to make more flowers. The bonsai ones though are healthy but not flowering.
I'm still amazed by the caladiums that just grew suddenly. We moved some empty pots from Mom's garden and apparently those pots had caladium bulbs in it. They just suddenly grew when it started raining. Not only that, they also grew much bigger than I expected! They are so lovely to look at and I always smile when I see them because it's also called "Heart of Jesus".
The dark side of the rainy season are seasonal pests. We've been battling caterpillars that have been feasting on our calamansi plants. They had eaten about half of the leaves. The plants luckily bounced back, but the caterpillars keep coming back even though I've been spraying Neem oil mixture twice a week. What has helped is watering the soil with hydrogen peroxide which helps kill larvae. Oh well, we'll just need to be more vigilant.
When the weather clears, we'll also trim the plants. The grow spurt has been exponential with just a week of continuous rain. At least our rain drums are always full. It helps us keep the plants hydrated especially during water interruptions.
How's your garden doing?
#BeKind #StaySafe
