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Just updated my gardening blog, Gardens and Empty Spaces located in my blog links here.

Evergreen. It’s been so long that this book was in my shelf. It was published in 1978, first book of Belva Plain. I wonder why I ignored reading it for so long. It is my first book of the author, a wonderful saga of an American-Jew family. A richly written and finely detailed story about the family’s struggle in American soil. This is the second time I am giving ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to a novel. Have you read it?

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When Nature Speaks

Another photo of the lovely Mt. Matwiltwil. Sunrise at its best. The world is certainly a lovely place.

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Something Orange

Glitches again?

I don’t know what happened earlier today. For some reasons, I could not publish my post and when I opened another window and tried publishing it, only a third of it was published so I erased the whole thing because I could not even edit it.  Sometimes, it is just so frustrating when you’ve done something you need lots of patience in the process to finish.

Orange is not exactly  a favorite color but since time immemorial, I have loved things with the color orange. When I was done with my chemotherapy years ago, I blogged  about this color (twice) and one of my friends honored me by wearing orange polo shirt to work.  He sent me a picture with a small note attached to it.

Accordingly, “orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation. It is the color of fall and harvest”.

What inspired me to blog about it today? I saw these lovely orange blooms of my Cassandra plants while I was pruning and weeding early this morning and I took shot of one cluster of flowers. A vibrant and fiery orange bloom.

Sometimes I wish I could grow one color of blooms in my garden. I specially love white. It’s a good thing I have some of them but I miss my Gardenia bush. I don’t know if it is a coincidence again (something happened last week that made me smile and I asked my friend on FB if it was a coincidence. Wilma, you know about this, right?).  A friend, a mother of one of Nissa’s best friends sent me a picture of a lovely white flower and she thought I could identify it but  it was the first time that I saw it. She said that they grow  plants with scented flowers in the garden because her Mom likes  them.  Gosh, how did she know I was also thinking  of my Gardenia? All I have now by way of scents and smell are my Kamuning plant and the flowers of our two calamansi trees.  She told that she would plant some cuttings of their Gardenia and will give me one.  Wow! Dreaming of those heady scents again.

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Starting All Over Again

I lost most of the photos I uploaded on my documents in my computer. I should have copied them to my hard drive but I was so lazy. Anyway, at least some of them are still in my camera.

I could not concentrate reading until I master this block editor a bit. I am finally getting the hang of it. Hopefully in the next few days, I’ll be well acquainted to it.

Spent the time gardening the last two days. I was able to trim our carabao grass and plant more seedlings in the process. I actually ordered three air plants together with air plant holders at Lazada. Here’s the first one.

It is called Ionantha CV air plant. I hope I could propagate it someday. My order of different colors of Zinnia has just arrived from Lazada. I hope they thrive as well. I divided my Sedum, planted them into four pots. They love the sun.

People call those who love plants plantitos and plantitas here. I’ve been a gardener for too long to be called such, I’d rather be called a simple gardener.  Those who are crazy about those lovely plastic pots, some with even corrugated designs  just love to show off what they have planted.  I’d rather plant them direct to the soil if I can.

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I’m Back

My, we didn’t have internet connection since last night until about 4pm today. Maintenance again? At least it didn’t take them long but I’ve missed Interaktib last night. I could always watch the video but it is kind of different when you watch it live online. The interaction there is addicting.

Surprise!

Of the three seeds of Adenium that I bought a week ago, two has sprouted yesterday. This is just a trial and when they grow a little in the coming days, I will buy more. Some sellers don’t really care if they give you old seeds that won’t even grow so one has to choose a seller who is reliable and has nice reviews.  The three bonus Sunflower seeds haven’t shown their faces yet. Waiting with bated breath.

You know that feeling of joy when you see some of your plants sprout and grow. It is just so wonderful. I ordered different colors of Zinnia, but they haven’t arrived yet. So excited.

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Growing Things

I need potting bags or seedling bags.

My youngest brother and I had a nice talk last night.  We talked about gardening and he showed me his garden, his vegetable plot and some plants that Lanette, his wife is nurturing inside the house.  Some had LED lights focused on them so frost would not let them die.

I showed him several photos I took  of the garden. He was so impressed and suggested to have some  replanted so I could sell them too. Anyway, gardening is the “in” thing here now because most people stay in their homes with not much to do because of this pandemic. Why not indeed?

This morning, I transferred some Fish Eye  in five pots. Since I don’t have extra pots, I decided to order seedling bags at Lazada and  I plan to grow some cuttings of our  plants here.  I haven’t seen any Arius tree around except the one in our garden. Crossandras are self-propagating like crazy at the back of the house. Maybe I need to separate my Bichetti grass too into several pots. I need soil, looking for sellers on the net. My Shrimp plants and Syngonium need to be trimmed so I am thinking of propagating those too.  Bleeding Hearts are aplenty, so with my Fukien Tea plants.

My brother said, “start now so you would have something by December”.  He talked to  Alden, my brother who resides in the province and the latter told him about the plants they have sold lately there. Our garden in the province is quite big and my sis-in-law is an avid gardener too.

A friend promised to send me one of his plants this week – a gold moss stonecrop.  I saw their  garden and some are growing in bottles with water.  A few months ago, I sent him some seeds of our Ternatea plant for his collection of dragons. Yes, they eat flowers. Maybe, he is just returning the favor and I appreciate it.

Wanna sell seedlings? Why not? Gonna try it one of these days.

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The Beauty of Gardening

After the heavy rain last night, my garden is happy. Good thing I transferred my six  pots of Adenium in the shade so they were not saturated. They love the sun and require once-a-week watering.

I have dwarf Snake plants in a big rounded pot but they have grown so I transferred some of them direct to the soil. Put some in bigger pots and I had one planted in this little vase to put inside the house.

Do you know that “the Snake Plant cleans air better than most other indoor plants as it has the ability to absorb excessive amounts of carbon monoxide? Additionally, it emits oxygen and filters other toxins from the air such as benzene, xylene, trichloroethylene and formaldehyde”.

A few days ago, I harvested green chili peppers and left two to ripen. They just did and I planted them today. We use these for our famous “sinigang”.

The beauty of gardening!

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Excited

Oh my!

This is exciting!

I finally got the Adenium seeds I ordered from Lazada. Just a trial if it would grow. When they do, I will order some more with multi-colored blooms. There is a bonus of three Sunflower seeds in the packet.

Anyway, I am keeping my fingers crossed they would all thrive. I planted them in small plastic pots.  Our compost pit is a big help. The pulverized leaves which turned into rich soil  has a lot of earthworms. Yeay 🙂

I found a page on Facebook called Adenium Growers of the Philippines. My, but they have lots of seedlings in different parts of the archipelago and like the grown ones with large caudex,  they are quite expensive. They can even ship to several places but the shipping fees are also sky-high. Grafted ones are the best. They could combine several colors in one plant.

Wish me luck please.

Oh, the drizzle  has just stopped. Just enough to water the grass and my plants.

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A Blessed Weekend To All

Just a thought: At the rate this pandemic is going, we might be able to reach more than 300,000 before  September ends. So really, really sad. And because it is so expensive to stay in the hospital for treatment, many probably don’t seek medical help anymore. 

Finally, Josef and I were able to prune the Eugenia, Fookien Tea plants and Tagaytay cherries.  The garden is looking good now, bagong gupit….haha!

He helped me pick kalamansi and we were able to harvest those at the top since he used a ladder to pick them. We harvested almost two kilos of ripe ones and gave some to our neighbors. I also made juice out of it. So soothing. Lots of vitamin C there.

I was supposed to end up reading the three books of  Pooh for my year-ender  reading challenge at Goodreads but I only finished one because I got distracted again by another book called  The True Story of Hansel and Gretel  by Louise Murphy. A reimagined fairy tale  and a war story retold.  It happened in the region in Eastern Poland  which was overrun  first by Russians then the  Germans during WWII.

“In prose both luminous and enlightening, Murphy explores the power of memory, the necessity of love in times of great trauma, and the redemption that can come about through the refusal to erase one’s own past. This is the tale of two brave children who never give up, of women who refuse to be defined by convention, and of the bitter cost of survival. Over the course of the winter, Hansel and Gretel will come of age. Their mother dead, their father and stepmother in hiding, by necessity forced to alter their own identities, they become survivors.”  (from Penguin Books).

And I agree with the other reviewers, this is a fairy tale rewritten for adults and I can’t put it down.  I’ve always been attracted to reading historical fiction. It is also classified as a literary fiction and fairy tales.

Indeed, it is a heartening  message of hope.

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What’s In My Garden?

Six months of lockdown. Whatever you may call it, we’ve reached six months of quarantine.

Home-based small businesses  have suddenly sprouted in the metro and most of them are selling food – cooked  for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you’ll have it here. Even small- scale selling of meat, poultry and vegetables have also suddenly grown. The thing is, as long as we remain in the comfort of our home and we don’t go out unnecessarily, it’s okay. So long as your neighbors in the subdivision deliver for free, it’s okay. For those you can’t buy nearby, there are always vendors who charge for delivery fees and you can just wait for your orders.

Yesterday, I ordered several kinds of dried fish and today my order of Gyoza from David’s Tea House arrived. A few days ago I also ordered several items from Lazada including a desk fan and some gifts for Nissa’s upcoming birthday.  Online transactions are the “in” thing nowadays although I only use cash to pay them all. I am afraid to use my credit card without seeing my purchase in advance. I haven’t been to the mall for more than six months now. Bank transactions are online too except when I need cash and I let Josef  withdraw some money from the ATM.

I am taking photos of my garden blooms almost every day, documenting every bud and flowers worth-capturing.  Gardening has suddenly boomed here. Never mind if some have started a few pots and they call it a garden. I just smile seeing friends suddenly interested in nurturing a few plants. Even if these are not indoor plants, they place them in one corner of their homes. Not all plants could thrive indoors, they need the sun to grow.  There  are indoor plants that help us in lessening the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There are indoor plants that are anti-oxidants.

Ah, these are my green peppers. I  am waiting for some seeds to mature so I could replant them.

Look, one is about to ripen.

 

We use them for our famous sinigang. They are also called green chilies.

I have transferred my Adenium seedlings to pots several months ago. I have grown them from pods  from my lone Adenium plant. They need the sun so I transferred them to a sunny spot near our grotto.

It’s nice to see these plants thriving well. I wonder if they will bear the same pink flowers later on.

I hope everyone is COVID-free. This pandemic doesn’t choose its victims. I wonder when it will die a natural death. Praying for our safely.

 

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