Showing posts with label Going Green. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Going Green. Show all posts

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Butterfly Kisses

Don't blink and miss the little brown moth on my portulaca
It's a joke really, because it is actually a moth. argh. But hey, if the thing can fly all the way to a penthouse unit and pollinate my flowers, kudos to its effort :D

The portulaca, lime plants and zinnias are my Christmas gift from B1. Unfortunately till date I have killed 5 out of the 8 zinnias already due to my noobish lack of knowledge, e.g. of the need to transplant them out of being overcrowded into 2 pots by the nursery.

It's kind of embarrassing because zinnias are supposed to be a beginner plant. On the other hand, the portulaca is super popular, with me, the moth and the crazy ass bird who lives upstairs. 

The stupid bird has been by, tick tocking on my hapless portulaca, and the bloody thing can't aim, bombing his nasty shit on the leaves.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

A little baby mushroom

I was mournfully watering my plants this morning (it was a bad morning), when I noticed a little mushroom growing at the base of my aloe vera. wtf?
It kinda faded in the afternoon
This is going to sound extremely blonde but how in the world did mushroom pores reach where I am living? Considering that I live on the top floor (I like to think of it as a penthouse, but it is more like a juvie hangout).

On another note, my quest to grow edamame plants (so that I can have lots of edamame to eat) is failing badly. My edamame plants do not look like those that my mother grows in her garden. The little bastards look defeated, crawling out of the pot for sunshine, unlike the strong stalwart soldiers my mother has. I have to admit the area outside my apartment is not very plant-friendly, considering how it can very windy outside (never windy inside the house *%##@). So far I have lost a corn plant and a edamame due to strong gusts of wind snapping their stems.

Monday, June 18, 2012

My new Cactus

I kidnapped this from my mother's garden. At first it only had the 4 stems. Soon after I brought it home, it started sprouting a little stem, which I thought was a flower at first... But as it became bigger and bigger, it was obviously a new baby stem, isn't it cute?

I should include photos of my crazy ass aloe vera plantation soon. Being very abysmal in my watering, the only things that survive in my house are cacti, aloe vera, 1 strangely resolute chilli padi plant and two potato plants (you heard me, potato plants). Casualties so far include 2 lime plants, 2 pandan plants, 1 baby papaya tree, and 1 strawberry plant.

Updated!!!
The potatoes didn't make it either. Sigh.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Chinese New Year Flowers @ the Nursery

I was running ragged yesterday. I dashed home to pick up my Dad's electronic scale (to make my Love Letters and bier brot), then to the library then to two supermarkets and one market. 

When I returned to the new apartment, Mutter called to say that the Tante (her gardening friend) was heading to the nursery near the market garden and told me to meet them at 1.30pm. So I drove like a devil to the nursery only to find the Tante hauling chrysanthemums. 

I love flowers. Their brilliant colors and variety reinvigorate me the same way that paintings can, though at a less disturbing way. Their vibrant beauty is simple yet comforting. I could stare at them for hours (technically I did because the Tante bought a lot of flowers even after I was done).

Discouraged by the stupid avian neighbors and petty thieves I have at the apartment from buying blooms (they tend to have nest-friendly leaves) and my own laziness when it comes to watering, I stuck to replacing my poor thyme plant and buying a pretty oregano as well. I also found a pretty white white bracket which would allow me to keep the herbs inside the house and out of thieving hands. I was so happy when the uncle pointed it out to me (it was on another shelf) after I said that the only black one he had left was rusty. 

They are selling lots of orchids and lime plants. But I cannot upload the photo of the lime plants because Mutter was in the shot and she was wearing an expression just as sour as the limes. Sigh.
 More pretty flowers. =D
Mrs HerrmanMeier's friend's doggie
I took this photo because he reminds me of Mrs HerrmanMeier's friend's doggie. But I realized belatedly I had interrupted him in mid-shit. No wonder the tense stance. Haha. Sorry Mr Poochie san.
Aren't the flowers pretty? I think I will buy some after Chinese New Year, when the prices go down. But truth be told, I don't think they will last long in our heat. Actually these plants are all driven down from another nursery in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia.



I bought two chilli plants, oregano and thyme and a leafy lime plant. I also bought the pretty bracket, which I discovered could not fit in anywhere except off my bathroom wall. Lame.
I am going to bring my Lemon Basil over from the other house

I was super glad that I bought the bracket because later in the night there was a super bad rain howling outside the window. I had fears that it was going to blow out my netting which I put on my plants to discourage the thieving birds. But B1 refused to let me go out into the bad rain.  

This morning we came out to examine the damage. The bloody rain destroyed my poor corn plant which I had been very carefully cultivating for the past few weeks, surrounding it with netting and a box frame. Even the box frame could not protect it from the wrath of the angry torrential rain. I could cry. 

Deader than a doornail
I brought my new chili plants out for a little bit of sun tanning

Friday, November 4, 2011

My first Erdbeeren crop

May it be the first of many. I am happily trying to grow more of them from the 3 runners =D

I read that potassium helps. Hmmm. The damn things are SAUER though.




Saturday, October 29, 2011

Mutters Garten Part II

I know that my mother's friend (let's call her G for generous and kind) has a discount at a gardening centre because she runs a florist business. So being the tight pussy I am, I decided to stay up all night Friday then accompany my mother and her friends to their garden. We will then head to the gardening centre which is nicht weit von the garden. This way, I thought, was the best because I can play CoH and still go to the garden. I have attempted to go a few times before, but because I play CoH till 3am on Fridays, and my mother heads for the garden at 645am, there is no way I can wake up with at best 3 hours of sleep.
Look at all that water *pissed* 3 inches deep!!!
Cranky from lack of zzz (me only), we arrived at the garden to discover that the place was flooded. Recently Singapore has been experiencing a lot of rain, which is so different from a few weeks ago, G said, because they had to pump water into the very dry garden then. 
Lady's fingers and flower
Our neighbour (we had gotten to know G through her) was being a cow as usual. She immediately tasked me to shovel the water out. I wouldn't mind at all if she also helped as well. But no, she decided to do the easier job of harvesting the fruits and vegetables. Clever. And then she got mad at me, because I slipped on the water. When I did, I immediately grabbed at the nearest tall plant, which was a budding banana tree, to steady myself. There were several of them, all planted by her, and not bearing fruits at all.

But I only managed to grab a banana leaf. Fortunately I managed to right myself. Gott sei dank, because I have a persistent back injury, and I was going to become very nasty looking if I had fallen in the dirty water. All the preying in Kirche (CoHers will know which one I mean) must have helped *giggle*. She decided to go on and on about how I might have destroyed her plant. Woman, there are 3 banana trees!!! And it was an accident!!!

While I ignored her (other than thinking *censored* in my mind), I was very surprised when my mother muttered about it later to G while we three were heading to the gardening centre. My mother was actually mad at our neighbour about the incident, and asked G if our neighbour thought that a bloody banana plant is more precious than her daughter (meaning me). I am even more surprised that I am surprised that Mutter is angry on my behalf. Guess I am not used to people standing in my corner, until I have forgotten Mutter is my greatest Cheerleader. She has supported me through various trials and events in my life, esp prize giving ceremonies, and presentations at prestigious events (she wasn't invited, but we don't care!) and *censored*.

Back to the stupid water. Before I fell down, I lifted the shovel and thought to myself, this is really inefficient to use a shovel because it is heavy and cannot carry much water at each lift. So I asked Mutter if there was something else I could use, she passed me two dustpans *so lucky*. I happily pushed water from one dustpan to another and got more water out at each attempt. It was kind of fun, even though I would have much preferred to be harvesting the vegetables.


Mutter and G helped me as well after they finished their own tasks and soon we managed to get rid of most of the water. G even passed me a scissors and said I could take anything I wanted from the garden. So I took some seed (I dumped them into the same bag, this should be fun when I start planting my own garden) and harvested some daikon leaves for salad (with goma dressing) and some cuttings (my precious lemon basil which was stolen from my new apartment's corridor, i.e. my new garden *haha*).
Daikon (White Radish). The leaves and the root can be eaten.
This is someone else's garden =D He has 3 of them!!!
Ginger flowers
I will continue with the gardening centre trip in another post because I forgot to take photos of what I had bought there.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Gratz Mutter, your Garten looks fantastisch!!!

My paternal and maternal Tanten went with B1 and I to loot meine Mutter's garten of her Aloe Vera. You see, some asshole has stolen my lemon basil plant (if I can, I want to plant an electric shock or itchy powder around the pots *feeling wicked*). So B1 says let's stick to Aloe Vera, Cactus, or whatever prickly plant with an extremely heavy pot. 

Anyway it's been a while since I have been to Mutter's Garten. I went only two times when they first rented the plot. The place was a nightmare, all covered with Aloe Vera, weeds, snails and stones. Lots of backbreaking stones.  I think the previous person who rented the plot was going for a rock garden or something...

I stopped going after that because (1) I hated the work, I wanted to plant not clear weeds (2) I cannot wake up at 6 like them, not if I want to play CoH to 3am every weekend. -.-
So I was somewhat pleasantly surprised by what Mutter and gang had done...The rest of the shots are from the nearby plots.
Cactus

die meisten schön Aloe Vera (Ich werde züruck für dich kommen)

This seems to be a Mexican chili plant. I shall look forward to its spawns

KangKong (water spinach) plant

Peas. yucky

Anyone guessed what this is? It's my favourite veg, Sweet Potato. I love its leaves. I wish I can stomp through the veil and lie on the leaves...

My favorite flower (for drawing). My favorite flower remains calla lillies
Wild Flowers
If this is written by my mother, she should be ashamed of herself *haha*

My Chili Plant is experiencing Autumn now


Well, ever since I bought the initial lemon basil plant (which has now spawned off many children plants even a stolen one), I decided this was the best and the only way to go without killing myself or the plant in the process.

Not this poor chili plant... It was supposed to be an intriguing chili species that bear fruit which ripen from a weird purple to red. But one day Vater saw some very weird tiny white insects on the live and dead leaves... so he went to mix a tablespoon of vinegar to some water and sprayed my poor plant... It definitely looks like going through Autumn now...

I wanted to get advice from one of the CoH guys on how to revive this dead plant. But I don't see him around in Skype or in CoH, and I am too lazy to do my usual cyberstalking. Too bad then =D.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

I cheated... by buying the plant this time

I nearly starved my family with my harvest of a puny little radish (smallest than my little finger's digit), yes, and that was after I had nine little plants, which almost all perished after Mutter's well-intentioned transplantation.

So this time, after we had dinner at our favourite pho restaurant in Holland Ville, we did a lap around Cold Storage (once I came across my fav cheap wine *actually not alcoholic enough to be called wine, methinks*, selling at S$5 a bottle). I saw that they were selling lemon basil plants, which leaves were used in the pho.

I was so tempted... I bought it. After my mother transplanted it (well, I was too lazy, and happy to leave it in the pot instead of risking its life) into my sad ice-cream tub plot, it's now growing like crazy, after sulking for a few days after the transplantation and looking like it was going to "up lorry".


Friday, July 16, 2010

Mama is a Farmer - Can you tell what veggie this is?

Mutter brought this back from the farm today. We are not quite sure what kind of vegetable is this. Mutter says it is 芥菜 (mustard), then after we consulted Google... she now says it's 小白菜 (chinese cabbage).

I thought it looked like 菊苣根 (chicory. Yucks!)

Updated!!!
I was right.

Friday, May 21, 2010

If I were a Farmer

Starving villagers, the people will become.

Turnip episode?

A disastrous conclusion in the making. The other turnip, being transplanted by a good-intentioned Mutter, perished in the night. I was left with the other tiny turnip, literally the size of the smallest digit on my little finger.

I am switching to tomatoes!!!



Saturday, March 6, 2010

I am a Farmer - 1 Month on

As you can see, most of the seedlings did not survive my good-intentioned but unwise transplantation. When am I going to be able to harvest them stupid turnips. I'd be lucky if they at least turn up the size of marbles...

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

I am a Farmer - Day 8 of Turnip Adventure

Into Day 8 of my salad days, I realized two big booboos.... (1) an ice-cream box can't possibly be a good garden plot for turnips (2) I only put in 2 inches of soil, not very smart, my turnips are going to be the size of peas if they do survive my evil hands (I was the accomplice in the genocide of 4 hapless cacti. 5 survived, because I left them alone after that).

So I did some transplanting. Hope they survive.


Before transplanting

After transplanting

Thursday, February 4, 2010

I am a Farmer - Day 4 of Turnip Adventure

Looks awfully like bean sprouts, nicht wahr? Looks better than my earthworm farm, at least. My one and only earthworm dried up... cos I forgot to water. All I had were ants.

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