... and a love for life motivates us all.

I really need to apologize for neglecting this blog. To make up for months of silence on this blog, I've been actively seeking a new direction for the space. In addition to exploring various gardening issues, I've lined up themed interviews with experienced gardeners who will be sharing their experience on how gardening in a small space is like. My "gurus" for this quarter are  Ethan and Irene, 2nd runner-ups for the "Cool Ideas for better HDB living - Growing Vegetables at Home" competition. If you haven't heard of their nifty idea yet, because like me, you didn't have a chance to attend the Cool ideas for better HDB living exhibit, do check it out here. Essentially, their idea addressed a major concern for all of us living in small apartments - that of limited space.

Last Friday, when I was fortunate enough to meet up with them, we had a lengthy talk about various issues of gardening in Singapore. Having lived in Japan before and enjoyed gardening with land and four seasons, I was curious about what they felt were the major differences between gardening with land and within containers. Almost unanimously they voiced out a major difference was the lack of space. We're talking about open land, almost unlimited space for the plants to expand versus confined space within the containers and really, limited storage space for the plant pots. Also, with the seasons in Japan, they experienced a different kind of relationship with the plants -- there, sowing and harvests happened at fixed times of the year whereas in a tropical country like Singapore, we can pretty much sow and harvest anytime. 

"In Japan, we had help from the natural environment whereas here [in Singapore], there is no environment for the plants; We have to duplicate the conditions for them."

Like all amateur gardeners, they started out focusing on ornamental plants back in the 80's, after moving back to Singapore. Like Irene shared, they pretty much grew stuff "the usual way" - plant and soil in pot. If plant dies, just buy another pot. When they were busy, the plants were the first to be sacrificed. So you can expect that over the years, they've had experience with a wide variety of plants and found that aloe vera and bamboo plants are the hardiest. Now, they're moving towards sustainability and so are focusing on edibles like herbs and other greens for their salads. 

I could sense their deep love for the plants and Irene passionately agreed with me when I commented on how hard it is kill or throw plants that we've grown from seeds. This is one of the main motivations for Ethan's small bottle solution; there were just too many plants and much too little space to hold all the plants. For an elderly couple in their 60's, they were certainly active and still dynamic. But Ethan revealed that another source of motivation for this idea came from the fact that he could no longer help Irene move big and heavy pots of plants. There was a real need to think of how they could hold on to the plants in containers that were mobile and still had conducive conditions for the plants.

By the end of the interview, I walked off with a petite bottle in which held a healthy, big-leafed lemon balm. I can't help but agree with them that big solutions can indeed come in small bottles. And maybe all we need is a love of life and all creation to motivate us towards our own big solutions. 

A big-leaved lemon balm held in a petite container

Crazy hot weather

Just a quick reminder for all gardeners out there - our weather's just been insanely hot!!! Before I knew it, I've lost quite a few branches (not the whole plant, thankfully) to the extreme heat. Remember to water!!!

Will be updating all of you on the progress of my tomato plants as well as more tips on how to care for them. Hope you're having a nice cool day in the shade of your plants~~

The Garden is now at Etsy!

I finally managed to get the seedlings organized and they are now available for sale on Etsy! Some of the smaller seedlings are placed in pairs within the pot and the slightly more mature ones are in pots by themselves. I've started two listings for the smaller seedlings.

Hopefully, once I get this started, the other projects such as plant starter kits, wall-deco plants, and terrariums will come easier. Do watch this space for updates~~ Happy gardening on this sunny day.

One of the seedling pots available on Etsy

What counts as organic?

We're all increasingly aware of the endless number of chemicals that can go into our bodies now and with so many food scares, it's no wonder that more people are scrambling to get organic food. But, what exactly counts as organic? Are they just food that has no toxic chemicals? Or is it food specially grown and nurtured in a certain way?

Wikipedia defines organic food as "foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives.^"

But it really isn't that simple. For those of us who are trying to build a self-sufficient garden, what are some of the things we need to take note?

So in my search for the definition to what counts as organic produce, I tried to focus on details that matter to gardening organic food at home. I came across a couple of really interesting articles. One of them is an article by Andy Hamilton on Organic Container Gardening. Hamilton gives us some advice on the things we can use when trying to grow food in limited space. Using hanging baskets and going vertical helps. He also suggests growing plants that will last and can be harvested over a long time so we don't waste space. Jackie French's Self-sufficiency on a balcony gives us detailed steps on how to build our little self-sufficient garden right on the balcony. Some steps include choosing the right pots, planting the right plants that will eventually yield us enough produce for our salads and daily green intake.

Perhaps I should consider whether to keep this pandan plant since I hardly ever use it for cooking...?

None of the posts went very much into talking about care of the plants - what should we use to keep those pests away? What do we do when our plants grow ill? What kind of fertilizers should we use? In fact, what soil do we plant our food in? And it all relates back to the idea of what defines organic food.

In some of my previous posts, I introduced homemade pesticides and even home composting. For us to move closer to having an organic home-grown food on a scale way way small, I think it's realistic for us to consider making everything, right down to homemade soil/fertilizer. Of course to start, we could simply pay more attention to the products we buy for our garden - is this organic soil? Can we get any natural pesticide? What kinds of fertilizers are chemical-free?

I hope this post has helped us resolve a little more to build our self-sustaining garden, even if we have very limited space. Even if we only care a little for our health and what goes into our bodies, let the harvest be our motivation; the taste of food from our own garden will definitely be worth the effort!