Gardening Thoughts

Gardening is really a great way of de-stressing, a therapeutic activity that does not need too much expertise but just the love of the soil and all its environs. It’s more of experiments really because they say that there are no gardening mistakes, everything that you plant becomes a part of the garden. Every gardener knows the joys of witnessing a seed waiting to sprout or a bulb opening to light and a bud straining to unfurl.

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When Gardening Becomes A Chore

Finally, I’m done weeding outside  but I have two blistered fingers  despite wearing gloves. Some weeds are so hard to uproot but I have to do it. My snake plants can’t grow well because of these stubborn weeds. At least half of the job is done. There is still the carabao grass to trim and the Fukien Tea plants and Pandakaki too.

My Pandakaki blooms. There are several but they are so tiny.

Carabao grass

I hate trimming the carabao grass. We have to use a manual grass cutter because there are lots of  concrete stepping stones in between. Hopefully by the weekend, Josef can help me with it. We also need to trim the Santan plants in front of our concrete fence. They are the dwarf variety but they are growing tall.

my front garden

Side yard with my two Calamansi trees

Ornamental pineapple and my bulb plant. The latter is a pink lily.

Sometimes, gardening becomes a chore that you can’t avoid.

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When Rain Lilies Bloom

Quite a surprise but it is nothing new. When the rain comes, my rain lilies are happy and they produce such lovely tiny  flowers that make the garden so nice  to look at.

rain lilies….

I have them as ground covers in one area of the garden.

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More Veggies On The Table Please

My left ankle still hurts when I accidentally step on uneven surfaces at the garden. And here I thought it has healed well. Now I am afraid to use the ladder to trim the blue ternatea vine which is invading my kalamansi tree.  I am thinking my kalamansi tree might die it it becomes covered by  the vines. I could always plant new blue ternatea but it is hard to wait for kalamansi to bear fruits. It usually takes years.

The burgundy  okra I planted a few months ago is now bearing flowers and fruiting too. I wonder what’s the difference between the green one this, are they more nutritious.  Burgundy looks lovely though than the green. I took a photo this morning but the light was so bright, it came a little blurry. I don’t want t go back and take another shot again.

The three shrubs of pigeon peas are sprouting more branches when I trimmed the tips. Maybe in a few months, they’ll have those pods too. We locally call them “kadyos”. The young green pods could be mixed with other vegetables  while the matured but not dry seeds are usually mixed with chicken recipes.

This is how they look like when they are ready to cook.

photo culled from Market Manila

Would love to plant more veggies even in pots. Our trellis is ready again for hanging vines and vegetables like upo and ampalaya.  Still thinking which I should plant first.

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Waiting For Sunny Days

Busy,  busy  Thursday morning. Several loads of laundry and the sun is not even shining. It is again obscured by clouds.

I was thinking, today is August 23, eight days more to go before the BER months. Aren’t  you excited? Well, I am.  It only means December is getting near.

Gosh, how time flies. It may sound a bit redundant but it really does. Before you know it, 2018 would just be a leaf in the calendar.  And here we are, getting older  but still enjoying what life deals us every day. The little things, the seemingly insignificant things that sometimes we just take for granted really make life worthwhile.

The other day, I spent a little time in the garden pruning our fruiting kalamansi trees, I have to  prune the small trunks touching the steel matting fence. We have to give way  to my growing blue ternatea plants. They come now in blue and white flowers.  I am also excited to plant the mixed Portulaca and  variegated Four O’clock seeds I bought at the grocery store a few days ago.  Just waiting for sunny days so the seeds won’t rot in the so wet soil.

Portulaca or Purslane. Plant them today and they will give you lovely blooms tomorrow.

 

Portulaca is also called moss rose. Although I have them now in yellow and white colors, they only have single-petaled flowers. They are pretty little plants that need only a little moisture to grow and bloom.

I used to grow Four O’clock outside our perimeter wall at the front, but they died after a few years.  They are summer plants too and bloom in the late afternoon (yes, around four o’clock) and early evening. They could be grown in containers too.

Four O’clock. Image from Google.

I bought multi-colored seeds of the Four O’clock plant. I hope they would give me these similar blooms later on.

I am thinking of where to transfer the three seedlings of my Roselle plants. They are still in a pot but they need  a space where they  could also climb since they could grow about three to five meters.

It gives you that nice feeling touching the soil, seeing  the garden plants bloom before your eyes giving you that sense of accomplishment. Somehow, Nature is kind enough to share its blessings with you.

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