Sprouts

I bought "Known-You" seeds from Eco-city for tomatoes and red coleus plant months ago but was stuck with a pile of work. The other day, when I finally managed to get a break from work (and from being ill), I thought about them. The main worry I had was, would they still germinate and sprout? After all, it's been months and I have to admit, I didn't quite take care of where to store these seeds. Nonetheless, I decided to try my luck with the tomatoes, since I just managed to get some nice planter pots from Daiso. Plus, I felt confident that my shelf would be an ideal place for the tomato plants.

It's only been 5 days since I planted those seeds and they have sprouted!! In addition, I now have seedlings from the lime and yellow watermelon we had at home recently. My husband scoffed at me when I dumped the lemon seed into the pot last night. Yes, I know lemons grow on trees. But hey, I can have it as a bonsai. I hope. Besides, I am of the opinion that it pays off to try dumping seeds into your existing pots because you never know what kind of surprise you might get.

Front right pot of baby lime plant. Cased in greenhouse from Ikea

Growing mess of yellow-watermelon seedlings

Tomato seedlings basking in the sun

So here's hoping all of you have fun trying out those seeds you've always thought of planting and may your little seedlings grow!

Raindrops on the background

I just couldn't resist switching the template of this blog to reflect the kind of weather I would like for this part of the world!

Ok, maybe I wouldn't want it to be rainy everyday. But I do wish that when it rains, it would rain moderately and when it's sunny, it wouldn't be too scorching. Primary reason being, my bamboo is facing a crisis! I guess it really enjoyed the previous location and now that I've shifted it, it's getting a little bit more of the afternoon sun. The leaves have been looking so sad, I decided to crop most of the branches off. As a result, it is looking rather bare... I am not going to post a picture of it looking sad and bare but I would like to report that the vines have been growing slowly, but definitely in the right direction as planned.

Another thing I've been trying to get my hands on are good lavender seeds. Amazon has some wonderful sources but unfortunately, they only ship within the country! I wish I knew a source here we could rely on to get wonderful perennials and plants like lavender, shiso.... The search will continue and when I do track it down, I will be sure to share!

Cheers and hope everyone's been enjoying their holidays & weekends with their plants~~

Re-Organising the Balcony

I mentioned in my last post that I finally received Fern Richardson's Small-Space Container Gardens. In the book, she described how we can first design our container gardens by laying out a plan for where each plant goes. I followed her advice and tried applying some form of order for my rectangular-shaped balcony. The results were pretty amazing.

Previously, I had two sets of shelves on both and left and right ends of my balcony and a solo shelf in the middle facing the sliding doors. I then filled the empty space with a big bamboo plant to the left of that shelf in the middle and a big cactus and an aloe vera to the right of the same shelf. For some reason, I was obsessed with having a patio table out on the balcony and it had to be set right in the middle. The end result was a decent looking balcony with bits of plants all over. I believe I've shared some pictures of what the old layout was like in previous posts so I shall not repeat them here.

I re-arranged my shelves and now have three shelves in the middle of the balcony facing the sliding doors, and my bamboo over to the left end of the balcony. It looks like this:

Big Bamboo plant now occupies left end of balcony & neighbours my Indian Rubber plant

 After the move, I realised that not only do I now have access to drainage, I have more space to move about and enough to keep my ladder and other bulky items in the corner, out of sight. Also, by having three shelves in the middle of the balcony, I've immediately gained some privacy.

The row of 3 shelves that now occupy center place

This time, I was determined to use plants as a shield from the traffic and from the prying eyes (I assume they are prying) of our next-block neighbours. I wanted to build a wall of plants and so got myself a pot of white bleeding hearts vine and ivy to go in a long planter. The planter goes smack in the middle of the three shelves and is placed a little higher up where the plants can get most sun.

What the "wall" looks like - can't wait for the vines to grow!

I also got several small pots of fern (they were on sale at the nursery near me) as well as flowers that need partial shade to go on the lower racks of the shelves. My existing plants and herbs now occupy all the other spots and have gained centerpiece status.

My husband watched me do the move on Sunday and asked me, "Why didn't we think of this sooner?" Yeah, I am also amazed at how little tips from another person or a book can help transform the space so much. I still have my patio table; it's no longer placed in the middle but to the left of the balcony, in a little corner where I can sit surrounded by plants and sunshine, but still have a little privacy if I choose. I now have a space which looks so much neater and so much bigger. It made me realise that I was cluttering up my balcony before!

Perhaps you are not quite satisfied with how your garden looks right now. Maybe you can consider a little "reformation" too. Cheers and hope you have a good gardening day~

The 2nd quarter of 2012 already??

I cannot believe how quickly time just flew by.  Since the last post on New Year's, I've been remiss online. However, the gardening hasn't paused.

I've been waiting for Fern Richardson's book on Small Space Container Gardens and finally got a copy of it last week. So over the past weekend, I followed some of her tips and redesigned my balcony. The effects were so wonderful, even my husband commented: "Why didn't we think of this sooner?" I haven't quite filled it out with the plants I have in mind yet but I do believe it's been a good start!

Will be sharing pictures of the new layout soon. Hope you'll return to this space for my updates and meanwhile, happy planting!