Grew Curry Plant from Seed

I've had a curry plant for a few years now. I was trying to buy lemongrass, but the garden nursery made a mistake and sold a curry plant to me. It's very tall now and has been producing berries. It usually just falls off or eaten by birds. 

The curry plant produced berries again, so I planted the seeds. I chose black ones, removed the flesh and placed them in 3 pots. Two pots of seeds without the flesh and one pot with whole berries. I covered the pots with cut plastic bottles to increase humidity and encourage the seeds to sprout. 

A few weeks later it started to sprout. 

I eventually removed the cover when it looked a bit stable. I also moved it with other plants I'm growing. I would water it sparingly to make sure the roots won't rot. Then it rained and it rained. I only got to check my plants again yesterday. 

The sprout has grown! It's now what I think you can call, a seedling! I'm happy since it was just an experiment to see if the berry seeds would grow. And from that experiment, only the seeds without the flesh grew. Nothing grew from those I planted whole. 

Ahh, new skill unlocked! Yay!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Our Christmas Trees the past 15 Years

I was thinking about what throwback to do today and thought about looking at the past Christmas trees we've put up the past 15 Years. I previously shied away from having huge trees since Mom always had a tall one.

2010

Our first one was in our rented home. I had been collecting decors over the years. I also made framed photo decors which I used for a long time and then it got buried under a lot of other stuff. Maybe I should make a new set?

We eventually moved to smaller homes, so our trees also shrunk, haha. We honestly only made an effort to decorate when Mom would spend Christmas with us. I wanted to honor her by doing the same. So here's our tree the past three years.

2018

2020, pandemic tree

When we finally went home from Singapore, I got a taller tree since we had more space. It wasn't the tree of my dreams, but it worked out for a few years. 

2021

And the tree shirt I finished that year.

It was when we lost Mom in 2023 when I decided to get a proper tree. I saw her always make an effort to decorate. I wanted to honor her memory by doing the same. Here's our current tree.

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My Papaya Trees a Year After

It's been more than a year since I sowed the seeds from grocery bought solo papaya. A couple of them grew and I transferred them to appropriate pots twice. 

A few weeks ago I noticed the leaves were yellowing and with some help from the plant app, I realized it needed fertilizer. It wasn't enough to feed them rice water every other week, I needed to add compost so they would be healthy. 

If grown properly, my papaya trees should be producing fruit by now. The plants are in different stages since I failed to give them appropriate nutrition and they are not getting the right amount of sunlight. Argh! Oh well, I have to get some bigger pots to give them more space to grow. I'm asking advise from a friend on what kind of fertilizer I should give it and how often. 

All part of the learning process, I hope by upping my game we'll be able to harvest some papaya in a few months!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Eugenia Berries and Free Starbucks Coffee Grinds

While watering the plants I noticed that our Eugenia tree has a lot of berries growing. I was so surprised since the last time it produced berries was in 2022.

I have been feeding it with sundried coffee grinds, rice water, and fish water. I just use one of the three once a week. I was doing this to make the Eugenia plants produce red leaves. They look really nice when they're red. (Make sure to water down fish water if you're using it from an aquarium).

I also noticed yesterday that Starbucks used coffee grinds is available again. I saw two packs yesterday and got one. I have also laid it out under the sun to prepare it for use. 

If your nearby SB doesn't display used coffee grinds, you can always ask if they have any available. Sometimes they'll ask you to bring your own bag.

Happy gardening!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Our Other Christmas Tree

I'm used to having more than one Christmas tree at home. I started this when I moved to the basement in my childhood home. The basement had its own living room so I would set up a smaller tree.

Set up one more tree in our family room since that's where we spend most of our time in. We decorated it with music notes and the gnome Christmas decor. Took a more traditional approach when we decorated it. Turned out cute :)

We're still not done clearing up the house since I'm still recuperating. Hopefully will have a nicer living room by Christmas! Also haven't done any Christmas shopping haha.

#BeKind #StaySafe