Plantita Saturdays: My Garden Turned Into a Desert

My garden badly needs a lot of TLC. All the grass died and the bamboo and shrubs all looked thinner. It was Miggy who pointed out that concrete was peeking out from the soil. I always wondered why the grass died despite the fact we watered it frequently. There wasn't enough soil apparently. Architect Wansi explained that the soil likely went into crevices. 

I held off gardening for a few months now because nothing was flourishing. We also need to install proper drains in the garden, plus have the base properly filled up. Work is about to start to fix our exteriors, so I got the help of the boys to gather up my plants. We have to organize them to make space for the work. 

Ornamental plants. They're gonna get a trim in the next few days.

The only thing that survived all the movement at home are the ornamental plants my Mom and Ate Rose gave me! There's probably something in the soil my Mom uses that's kept the plants resilient. I've just been adding some soil when needed and I spray neem oil once a week. They are very low maintenance. Sadly some of my ginger and tumeric dried out. I'll just plant new ones soon, but will check if any of the roots survived. 

It will take a couple of weeks to fix the drainage. Architect also advised to fence off the bamboo so they don't grow wayward. We'll also add soil since the soil has thinned out a lot. We're looking at using turf grass since that would be easier (and cheaper) to maintain. TBH I've browned my Mom's grass a couple of times already, so I definitely cannot be trusted with grass. Even the lemongrass turned to cogon grass under my care! Tsk tsk tsk. 

I'm not giving up and will continue to work on my garden! Praying for good air quality so I can stay outdoors :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

 

Plantita Saturdays: Kitchen Scraps Experiment Results

The past few months I've been trying to grow veggies from kitchen scraps. Some were successful, some did not work out. I've been experimenting so I could learn and hopefully have my own produce. I'll probably continue to experiment until I get things right. Here's a list of what I've tried to grow from kitchen scraps:

Tomatoes

I tried this experiment in Singapore. I cut up one tomato and planted it directly on soil (apparently you're supposed to just get the seeds hehe). I soon enough had a lot of seedlings. Several survived when I transplanted them and I was able to harvest some. They were tiny though and I now know what went wrong (it lacked calcium and phosphate). You can read up more about the experiment here.

Bell Peppers

Best to dry the seeds before you plant them. They are quite prolific, but it takes a bit of time for it to grow. I was able to harvest some, but they were not perfect. Also realized that I should have given it fertilizer so it would grow well. More about the experiment here.

Lemongrass/Tanglad

After cutting off the leaves, I propagated the bottom part of the lemongrass in water for a few days. Then I planted it in soil. It's one of the easier veggies to grow. I just chop off some every so often and it grows back immediately. 

Onions

Made several attempts to grow onions. I tried propagating the roots in water, then planted it. Tried directly growing on soil. I must have overwatered it because they died after a few weeks. Maybe I'll try planting from seed. 

Garlic

It's so easy to propagate roots in water. After planting them in soil they would grow stalks for a few weeks. I'm not sure what went wrong, but they all died too. Gaaaah. I'll probably try again when the weather is hotter. 

Ginger

Ahhh, one of the easier ones to propagate. Just make sure to propagate the roots when the ginger is still fresh. Plant in soil once the roots grow out. The ones I propagated and planted in early August. Should be ready for harvest by summer! More about ginger here.

Tumeric

Got a bunch of tumeric from a friend. Propagated them the same time I tried growing ginger. They have grown nicely and should be ready to harvest by June next year (yeah, longer than ginger!). More about tumeric here.

I've suspended planting anything for now since there's work being done at home. Sawdust hasn't been good for my plants. I think the weather hasn't been good also since my seedlings have been dying from the lack of sun (the angle has noticeably changed). I'll probably focus on maintenance for now and just start planting again early next year. 

#BeKind #StaySafe 

Plantita Saturdays: A Rat Ruined My Germination Project!

Boohoo! It's been a few weeks since I planted some seeds. Not many sprouted since the typhoon hid the sun for over a week. I gave it a few more days before I planted some seeds again. Lo and behold, the day after I planted the seed tray was trashed by a huge rat!

Miggy alerted us about an "animal" that was lurking behind the trash bin in the garage. We normally tie-up our trash every evening and put it in a covered trash bin in the garage. We do this to avoid attracting rodents. It has so far worked well for us since stray cats haven't been able to open the bins. I did not expect the seed tray would attract a rat. 

The seed tray was sitting in the garage untouched for more than two weeks. I only used two-thirds of it and only completed it early this week when I decided to plant more seeds. The sunflower seeds I planted on the last column was probably what attracted the rat. I was inspecting the seed tray when I heard something in the backyard. That was when I saw a huge rat scrambling up the bamboo to get to the property next door. 

The next day our friendly pest control supplier dropped by to check the termite bait. We reported the rat and they advised to just monitor the activity first since it may just be one rat scouting our property. I was  worried though that they might multiply and immediately got some cayenne pepper and Racumin. 

I read that rats don't like it when  you move things around, so we moved the seed tray to a sunnier spot in the garage. Placed the bait under it and hoped the stray cats won't come near it (the cayenne pepper should help ward them off for now). 

Two pieces of the bait and two pieces of the paste were gone the next day. I read it takes 4 to 6 days before it affects the rodent. We haven't seen it since we placed the bait the other day. We're just hoping it went back to its nest. I'm not looking forward to its horrendous smell if it dies in my garden. Sorry bud, pests aren't welcome in our home. We've also gone through a lot already this year and just want to finally get our gardening projects going. 

#BeKind #StaySafe