Bloomed After 4 Years

My friend, Ate Rose, gave me a bunch of cacti and succulents 4 years ago. She gave me some tips how to care for them and I watched videos how best to care for them. She told me to re-pot them, so that's what I did 4 years ago. 

There were two gymnocalycium saglionis originally and I think I gave one to my Mom a week after I re-potted them. The other one that was left with me grew and I didn't even bother re-potting it. I would just give it some fertilizer when I remembered it. 

Gave some to my Mom :)

A month ago, I gave all the plants in the pocket garden some rice water with orange peels and then let Miggy do the watering the cacti and succulents weekly. I checked the plants early this month and was surprised to see something coming out of the gymnocalycium saglionis. My friend from Cebu pointed out that it was a flower. 

Oh! I didn't know that this particular cacti can produce flowers. I ignored the cacti as usual (it doesn't like that much attention) and told Miggy the other day to check if it already bloomed. He sent a photo to me and it looked like it was about to bloom. 

I checked the next day and was surprised to see it had bloomed! It took 4 years! I guess randomly giving it some diluted fermented rice water with orange peels encouraged it to bloom. My friend also said to put it under bright light the whole day. It gets morning sun and afternoon sun, so I guess it's just on the right spot. 

I'm really happy about this achievement because TBH I failed a lot on cacti and succculents. I usually overwater them, but I've managed to correct that and here we are today, haha. 

How's your garden?

#BeKind #StaySafe

What Happens When You Ignore Your Cacti

I got very busy with other plants and it's been almost a year since I properly tended to my cacti. It started with just a few pieces Ate Rose gave me back in July 2022. They looked like this by August 2023 -

And how they looked in November 2024 -

I re-pot them once a year. I moved them to a sunnier spot almost a year ago and water them once a week. One thing about cacti and succulents is they're very low maintenance. They're best left alone. Just top it up with some perlite once a quarter and they'll be fine. 

I was so busy re-potting Mom's other plants, so this is what happened in a year -

Looks like this will be my year-end project!

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Our Eugenia Plant Always have Red Leaves

The Eugenia Plant in our pocket garden has been there since we moved. We try to keep it at 4 feet high so it's easier to manage. One has grown to more than 10 feet. We suspect Brimsley buried one of her kittens under it and that's why it grew so tall. Birds have been making nests on it, so we just trim it.

So far the Eugenia plants have been the easiest to manage. It's not a water guzzler and just requires some trimming every so often. I spray it with Neem oil every few weeks. What I like best about it is when it grows red leaves and sometimes berries.

I discovered the easiest way to encourage it to grow red leaves by accident. I've been using sun dried coffee grounds for my plants and I out some on the ground where the Eugenia plants are located. A few days later it started sprouting red leaves!

Since then I feed it with sundried coffee grinds. It's really nice since it provides color to my otherwise very green garden :)

Happy Sunday everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

3 Hour Gardening Workout

My thighs are so sore after 3 hours of gardening. I sat on bangkito (the plastic kind) for a few hours to re-pot my cacti and succulents. We heard something crash outside my sewing room the other night. I told Sweetie it was likely the cacti. We paused the video we were watching and Sweetie investigated what happened.

We think Grogu was chasing after Anakin. The kitten probably went up the planter and hit the pots. It came tumbling down, hitting the pots below. It was a huge mess. I didn't expect it would happen since we just covered the sides of the plant stand last week to keep the cats away. 

Oh well, I've been meaning to re-pot the cacti and succulents since some have outgrown their pots. It took me awhile to finish re-potting since there were a lot of pups and some had to be separated. Since I re-potted some of them in bigger pots, I asked for help from Sweetie to add support. That way they won't topple down easily if ever a cat goes up again. 

Added bamboo to support the pots

It was a good workout and I enjoy working quietly while gardening. The cats kept me company. Anakin was quite naughty. He even tried biting the cacti. So kulet. I had to separate him and Grogu to avoid having another accident. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Adjusting for the Cats

Eversince feral cats decided to "adopt" us, we realized it required a lot of adjustments. Sweetie recently put together a video showing some things that could get affected in your home (outdoors) when you have cats. Luckily, we only have feral cats and they prefer to be outdoors. They've taken residence in our laundry area. We can't have them indoors because of my health and our home isn't pet (and child) friendly. 

Here's the video:

And here's a list of other things we've had to adjust:

• Garden and plants - biggest adjustment we had to make was with our side garden. It was the best place to grow veggies since it would get morning sun. Unfortunately, the kittens had been sitting on the pots (see photo above). RIP my veggies. I have since removed all my potted plants from the area. We also had to put spikes on the planter to keep the cats from using it as a litter box. 

• Goodbye vertical garden - I really wanted to grow veggies so I had a vertical garden installed. I would find my pots on the ground and soon realized they were using the grids as a ladder to reach the roof. I had it uninstalled last week. 
• Spiked water tank (and washing machine) - since we removed the vertical garden, the kittens have been using the water tank as a jumping board to get to the roof! We're afraid they might damage the pump and the pipes, so Sweetie had to put spikes on top of the water tank to prevent them from going on it. 
• 
  Helmeted faucet - we thought there was a ghost using the water since we hear the water pump working even without any of us using it. The kittens have been jumping on the faucet and have accidentally turned it on many times! Sweetie put a box on it when I was in the hospital, but I suggested to use a water bottle so it's waterproof. It looks like a helmet now, haha. 
• Fortified walls - Kaley Boo had been hanging out on top of our front wall. No harm about it, we thought. Apparently, she scratched off the top of the wall and exposed a pipe. Of course, we're having it fixed. 
• Dressed up car - the cats absolutely love hiding under the car. Good thing we decided to add on a cover for the engine. We wanted to make sure cats/kittens won't be able to hide in the engine area. Well, they like hanging out on top of the car. After some surveillance, we finally saw who was going on top of the car, Meredith and sometimes the Intruder. Sweetie found a cover on Lazada and this has helped keep them away. That's also why I got Meredith a cot, so she can enjoy being on higher ground without having to go on top of the car. 

We love the cats even with the adjustments we had to make. They give us so much joy and love. I just 

remind them to stay out of my pocket garden since they already own the side garden (haha). 

#BeKind #StaySafe