The Rain

It's been raining unpredictably lately and I've just been stressing over whether my newly potted plants will survive this wet spell. Just wanted to share that the rainy may appear to be a friend but can, to lazy amateurs like me, be a greater foe!

My balcony has an open roof-top and whenever it rains, it feels like it poured. Being the complacent beginner that I was, I assumed that my plants would be drinking enough and I didn't have to water that much. I was also worried that the roots would rot more than they would dry. Never was I so wrong. Within a couple of days, two of my best greens dried out, despite the heavy downpour just that very day. Not all my plants died because as it turned out, some had better access to the water.

One big warning for me: Just because Nature's watering doesn't mean I can neglect. So fellow urban gardeners, if you have a balcony just like mine and are considering letting Nature do its job, do consider doing yours too and check those greens of yours before it's too late!

Summertime Blossoms. Can you guess from where?

All you need to pot a plant

These photos were, again, taken at night. A big thank you to my friend who stayed & took them for me while I occupied myself with the plants.

Here're the items I used for re-potting:
Organic compost, my hand shovel & pair of scissors, Japanese loose tea bags, medium-sized kitchen bag, the plant I intend to re-pot and my new container from Ikea.

Trimming the kitchen bag. 

Ripping the tea bag and laying it flat.

First, I trim the bag so it fits nicely in the container. Then, I poke a few holes at the base of the bag and use it to line the container. Then I prepare to line the base with the tea bag that I've ripped open. I use it as a base, primarily to minimize the loss of soil while ensuring that excess water can drain easily.

This is what the base of the bag should look like after it's lined with the tea bag. 

I start filling the bag with soil once the prep-work is done. I usually use a mix of potting soil, compost and the mixed soil I get from nurseries. You might want to research the type of soil your plant favours. My orchids tend to have little to no soil - I use just charcoal because orchid roots are sensitive to the amount of water they sit in. Too much and they start rotting.

Filling the bag with soil. 

This time, I am re-potting the false heather I bought from Ikea. The plants you get from nurseries, supermarkets and Ikea usually come in unattractive plastic pots. Some people choose to keep the plants in those pots and place them in more decorative ceramic pots. I usually re-pot mine, primarily so they have a bigger space to grow and also because I like having more than one type of plant in each pot.

Placing the heather to the left of the pot.

I've trimmed some branches off my lemon-balm and in the picture, you'll notice that I've cleared off most of the leaves, leaving just some at the top and a nearly bare stem. These stems are then inserted into the soil. Once they're where I want them to be, I place them in the sunniest spot of the house and wait for those lemon balm to take root and the false heather to adapt to its new home.

Newly potted greens

If you're adventurous and would like to try growing a plant from seed, just be sure to follow the instructions given at the back of the pack. Seed packets are sold in all supermarkets that have a plant section and of course, in the nurseries. They usually feature a picture of the plant in bloom or with fruit and clear instructions on care for the plant.

A periwinkle seed packet. 

The seeds come in a sealed packet. 

Here I have a sample of periwinkle seeds. The outer package is usually paper while the seeds are contained in a sealed bag within. If you have a bag of seeds but don't intend to plant all of them at once, make sure you seal the inner bag again. Otherwise, you'll find it hard for your leftover seeds to germinate when you eventually decide to plant them.

Gardening can be as easy or as tedious as you want it to be. If you're an amateur like me, there's no harm in starting out simple!

Potting plants

We shifted into our current flat nearly two years ago. Before the move, I'd re-potted my Indian rubber plant in a super big pot and placed a few of my small cacti at the base, along with the zig-zag. My rationale had been to make use of the moving service and save myself the hard labour of shifting a huge plant. It worked. My Indian rubber grew and it was really only a couple months ago that I realised it's supposed to be a tree. Very intelligent, I know. But since I'd also seen this plant in a nursery being shaped as a big "bonsai", I decided to saw off its branches the other day. I'm hoping it'll still thrive and I get to cultivate it as a home-plant. 

A picture of a baby bird we saved (which unfortunately didn't survive) with my bonsai as a backdrop. 

A restriction I set for myself when I shifted into the new pad was avoid making holes in the walls, no matter the purpose. But I am always tempted by those hanging, draping plants and was aware that orchids grow best when hung. Within months, I caved in and hammered a hook out on the balcony. I remembered it was the beginning of the year and the morning sun shone into the right of the apartment. I stupidly forgot that the location shifts as the year progresses and decided to place the hook in the rightmost corner, where I assumed the plant would be able to get max. morning shine. Within weeks, it shifted and the left of the balcony had most sun. My orchid (the white one I featured in a previous entry) grew really sad and withered. I've not placed any hanging plants there since and decided that I am not going to get any plants that need to be hung. 

I am glad that I had excess containers from IKEA that were under-utilised. I decided to make use of them to re-pot my dying herbs. They are so nifty and I can hang my plants virtually anywhere now, without making any holes in the wall. I've been posting pictures of these containers so I won't include one here. But do check my next entry on how I pot my plants in them. 

Weekend of rest

Had a pretty long weekend to plan and think about the plants to be potted in my new containers! Will be sharing how I plant my greens and herbs in the next entry.
Meanwhile, I'm keeping my eyes wide open for more plants that are suitable as HDB greens...

A new pot of plant. Taken at night from the kitchen window.

Plants for everyone

I never thought myself as having a green thumb but I guess perseverance works. I can't tell you how many times I've excitedly bought a pot of healthy looking herb, only to have it die on me weeks later. Most of the time, I just can't figure out how much water the herbs should have. If I get rosemary, for example, will it wither in this tropical climate? What about mint? Or basil? Most of my herbs usually end up looking sad and covered by mealy bugs when I water them frequently. When I decide that maybe too much water is bad, they wither on me. I just never managed to find a way to get them to survive. 
Out of desperation and necessity, I suppose, I decided to re-pot four of my dying herbs in two containers from Ikea. These plastic containers were meant for drying cutlery and had handles which allow me to hang them off my kitchen rail. The holes at the base of the container made it perfect for excess water to drain from the soil. I've always had the idea that I wanted to have pots of herbs right above my kitchen sink so that I could access them easily when I cook. So I was so happy that this wish was going to materialize.
But the challenge was in making sure they would survive. I decided that having a clear plastic bag and a tea bag contain the soil and plant would make it easier for me to track how wet the soil was. Because the water could easily drain out and I had them in the kitchen above my sink, I didn't have to worry about the excess water making a mess.
I am so glad I tried. In the end, I've had to move them to the kitchen window where they can get more sunshine but my basil and mint are so happy now, they're thriving. My oregano and rosemary combi-pot is also doing very well. It just shows that even for the very amateur, with the right pot and right way, our plants can do really well.

My thriving pot of mint & basil from 4 short branches snipped off the mother plants.

A twirl around the B

Thanks to a friend, I managed to get some shots of the plants around my balcony (my camera is permanently resting, thanks to the healthy chewing of my JR terrier). These photos were taken at night and I made use of an app she had to create different effects.

This is one of my favorite. I recently re-potted the plants around my increasingly cluttered balcony and decided to pot all the bamboos together. What you see here is the base of my latest bamboo addition: the Bambusa oldhamii. It's surrounded by two smaller varieties: the Punctulata Draceana and the Spotted Draceana. They are known locally as Japanese bamboos although they are considered as succulent plants. I picked up my Punctulata from a pot my neighbour threw out. The spotted was my first successful 'accident' from leaves that were meant to be discarded after a floral arrangement for a wedding.

This is my curry plant. We had a scare earlier this year - it was severely infected by aphids and looked on the verge of withering. Thankfully, spraying the white oil helped solve this problem and it's looking really healthy now.

Using a metal screen cheaply available from the Japanese shop, Daiso, I was able to hang my air plants and miniature orchid on the wall. The lizard is a momento from my trip to Barcelona, Spain and really reflects the mesh of colours I hope to eventually achieve on that wall. The spiky ball of tillandsia you see hanging somewhere in the center of the screen regularly blooms and provides a very lovely splash of red to the collection. If you are worried about your ability to maintain a potted plant, you might want to start with an air plant.

I am currently trying my hand at planting potatoes and pumpkin on the balcony. Will be sharing my experiences with herbs next.

Planting Indoors

 One of my very first attempts with an air-plant...

Taken when my white orchid bloomed again after 2 years of being barren! Unfortunately, this plant did not survive the move to my current flat. 

 One of the plants in the B&B we stayed at during a trip to Hakodate, Japan. The flowers were shaped like a lantern.

This was how they had their plants set up in Hakodatemura. A great way to have a variety of greens in a tight corner of your house.

Floral accidents

I've always found it difficult to head out to a nursery and be told that I am only allowed to get a single pot of plant. There are just too many plants at home and the poor balcony is too cluttered with my seemingly endless pots of greens. Yet, the nursery houses so many more varieties of flowers, herbs and greens I covet. Out of sheer desperation, I've kept with my single-pot-per-nursery-trip budget but started creating "accidents"; I snip short branches off plants I really like from the oddest places or uprooting some from their homes -- off the slope when I'm out for a walk with the dogs, from a bush just along the street, off the bark of a tree... 

The ferns always survive and actually grow to be giants. Some of the branches I snip off various bushes survive too. I collect leaves that are meant to be discarded after floral arrangement classes and am proud to say that the product of one such lovely accident (my spotted bamboo plant) is thriving. Sometimes, when neighbours throw out perfectly healthy plants, I pick them up and re-pot them too. So maybe they were looking a little scruffy when I found them but the one I last picked up is growing real well now and I have the plant in two different pots. It makes me happy every time I look at new shoots, happy leaves. One of my favourite accidents is the "lipstick" plant. I snipped off a branch outside my school library the year I started on my doctorate. It's been 5 years since and the plant is nearly one meter tall.

I recently finished rearranging the balcony plants and it looks so much neater. When I told my husband that I managed to save space for new plants, he gave me a very predictable look of incredulity. Nonetheless, I'm determined to forge on, create more accidents and work at turning my balcony into a very green space...

Flowers around the house

I'm obsessed with the idea of creating a very green space right at home and I guess this has gained an even greater priority since our move to a flat that faces the main road. We not only get to enjoy the fumes of the traffic daily, the sounds these vehicles and yelling drunks produce, the cigarette stench from passers-by has come too annoyingly close for any sort of comfort.
I do realise that I could opt to seal off the balcony like so many of my neighbours have done. Have solid sound-proof windows installed that I can shut at will. But I like my plants and would like to have my own "urban garden" right on the balcony. So while searching around online, I've found really nifty ideas on how to use plants as a shield for privacy, cut back the fumes and really filter out some of the noise.
I hope to share some of these attempts in my blog and convince more to consider having some green in their space too.