wordless wednesday: a pause



bangchik

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pumpkins germinating

Just to be on the safe side, I sow four pumpkin seeds. 

One seed rooted first, the rest are still working on it. I have to wait for the others to really come out before putting them into the Three Sisters garden to join sweet corns.

pumpkin germinating, root first

pumpkin germinating, 

stem becoming green and leaves about to break open.

I do hope the eventual fruits 

will look like those in the seed cover.



bangchik

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A succulent garden

The perfect symmetry of agaves

San Francisco is a garden bloggers dream-with gardens, nurseries and farmers markets galore. This was my second visit to the San Francisco Botanical Gardens but my first time seeing the succulent garden.

This was an enormous lovely specimen

Grass tree

aloes galore

Got some ideas for the succulent rock garden I an planning on doing soon

aeoniums

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The story of a vegetable bed.

 First lets see what was there before. It was the very site of our first papaya, which has grown so tall almost to the roof of our double storey semi detached bungalow. We had enjoyed a lot of sweet red slices of papaya over many months. At the end the plant  had died due to termite attacks.

papaya was the first plant to grow

I quickly filled up the void with sunflowers which grew into little forest. That too has gone with their bright yellow flowers.

then replaced by sunflowers

When we first transplanted the three seedlings of clitoria ternatea, sunflowers were still around, still flowering. Now the whole bed is for clitoria. 

Clitoria ternatea, the latest.

clitoria already at the top of trellis

The three seedlings are at different stages:

One, the most vigorous plant has completed its winding to the top of trellis. The shoot would probably be wondering why it has to go horizontal now.

The second clitoria has different story. It was not as energetic as the first one, trailing behind. It has completed two rounds of winding around the slanting bamboo stake before a strong gusts of wind loosened the grip and the whole tiny stem was dangling, dancing in the air with nothing to grab. I offered assistance by tying it back to the stake. Now the plant is making a new winding process. If we look closely we can see the missing loop due to wind.

The third one was a late comer, It germinated weeks after the first two. In fact I was about to give up and empty the tiny pot that I notice a tiny shoot appearing. With me now is three clitoria ternatea at 3 different stage of growth even though, there were sown at the same time and seeds coming from the same place. I am expecting a pretty blue flower anytime now.

bangchik

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The whiteness of white

chive flower, earlier

chive flower, 2 days ago

chive flower today

white rain lily

white rain lily

white periwinkle

close-up of white periwinkle





 Serene would probably be the best word to describe the inner beauty of white.

Tranquility.



bangchik

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a glimpse at container gardening

 Three crude plastic container housing kale 

at varying stage of growth

 a close-up of kale in 

plastic containers



 I can offer three benefits of container gardening. 

Firstly, 

its flexibility, a chance to get away from the traditional vegetable bed on the ground. Containers can come in various sizes, small and big. Some can be hanged too, and some can be placed indoor. We can do experiment with plants easier, in fact container gardening offers opportunity to study and observe closely. Arranging them to our liking is easy. We can redo and redo, to suit the age of plants, blooming time etc. In my case, I can even try cooking oil plastic container, to gear up the recycling drive. 

Secondly, 

containers offer mobility. We can just shift them around to our needs, space available, the right amount of light exposure. As the seasons change, we can easily do re-potting or replanting to brighten up the place.

Lastly 

the control on pest problem is very beneficial. Most pests will not venture close to the house. Pests treat open space of the garden and lawn as their playground. Putting containers away from pests playing field will increase the chance of plants to survive pest-free.





bangchik

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