Replacement Cactus

Last September when I first arranged the cactuses in a bowl, I had high hopes for it. It was actually a trial project to see, 1. whether cactusses brought from Cameron Highland can lasts in KL climate, and 2. whether it can survive as indoor plants sharing a bowl amongst them.

Well, as you can see from the left picture above, the finished project of Cactus in a Bowl and on the right is the bowl after almost 3 months. When one by one a few cactuses started to die, I was clueless on what to do. I still am now, but yesterday when I shop around, I saw some cute cactusses for sale. And they're pretty cheap too.

So I bought four new cactusses to replace the ones that didn't survive the project. I'll probably do it after coming back from my vacation next week.

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The Hamsters Have a Bathroom....Can You Believe It??

Its raining again this afternoon. That means for 2 days in a row, I cannot do my gardening, except for taking a peek at what's sprouting and what's not.

The Bittergourd is still shy, so is the cucumber. Oh, I didn't update, the earlier healthily flowering cucumber died when I transfered it to the vegetable bed. I suspect Minty or the other cats must've jumped on it. Oh, well....

However the brinjals are sprouting 2 strong twigs almost overnight, and the okra is steadily and slowly growing. I also tried to plant red chilies fresh from.... a red chilli. It's also sprouting now. Amazing!

Since I'm not taking pictures because of the weather, I'll post these ones instead. The hamsters have a bathroom....can you believe it?

The Orange Bathroom........ and Hi Sakura!

Waiting room while the 'house' is being cleaned...Hello Syaoran! Tell Sakura not to climb over, k.

Eeeeekkkkk......! i just killed a bug!

Its the grasshopper who's been eating my Pandan leaves.

And I don't want to talk about it.

Garden Garbles

So far, I am quite happy with the overall progress of my herbal garden. However as you go along, there are things that you learned and discover and discovered that you need to learn more. If you know what I mean...

My tomato plants need to be grounded, but according to the net, you need to build a vegetable bed, ie. create a higher ground for the plant. Where? And how? Will this work?

The kesum or vietnamese mint, or laksa leaves, some called it, is nice and bushy, but somehow the leaves are getting smaller in size. Or am I just imagining it?

The Thai Basil is flowering and germinanting but some leaves are getting yellow and aged. What do I do about it? What I do now, I pinched off some of them and crushed them and hang them at random on the plants prone to pest attack, like the lime families. And if I get mosquito bites while gardening, I'd just rub the leaves on the skin and it would heal fast and good repellant for further attack, I think. Mint seems to be ok but I wonder why the leaveas are so small compared to the ones in supermarkets. Is it of different species? By the way, this plant started from a stalk pinched off from a plant the seller gave us as she tried to convince us to buy it and said that this is the easiest one to grow just by sticking the stalk in the soil. We got convinced. She didn't sell us the plant, but we convinced her to give us a stalk.

My cucumber needs a trainer but I haven't had a hoot how to do it yet. So is my okra. It has to be soon before the poly bag and pot became too small for the plants.

My Pandan and Lemongrass, Galangher, Tumeric and Ginger is growing beautifully but I don't know when they can be harvested. The onion leaves are getting wilty.

My chilli plant looks so thin and well,...thin. I am wondering if it is dying a slow.....very slow death. Seems to still flowering and produce one or two chillies.

Curry, ok.

Lime families, Kaffir Lime, Kasturi and Lime is getting better and less invasion from the leaves eater, whetever it is. I just crushed some kesum leaves and stick it either at the thorns or in between leaves to ward off these pests. The fragrant from the kesum leaves supposedly confuses these bugs from the lime fragrant and they will leave these plants alone. So far, in this last few weeks, it seems to be working well. No more eaten leaves.

Pineapples, ok. Long wait of 1-2 years.

Papaya, grounded. All twelve but left with 10 now as 2 died. Eventually only 2 will be maintained once I determined the male/female plant.

Piper leaves and Betel leaves is growing slow and steady at a shady spot. The Piper leaves tend to have some orange/black spots on some of its leaves, but I haven't find anything online for the causes. The Betel looks ok, but still some infested leaves.

My daily vegetable attempt, lettuces, Butterhead and Salad, not working. Bittergourd, next round.

Oh, my friend also presented me with a house warming gifts of 2 plants and some seeds from Mardi. So, there's additional collection of Nona and Tenggek Burung. And recently I managed to stick a couple of Sambung Nyawa stalks in the ground. Looks ok. Next to Mas Cotek we bought from the nursery.

And my front outside garden, sometimes forgotten because, well... it is outside, is unkempt. This one need bigger mental struggle to do...hahaha!

Well, I am listing all these so that I won't forget the list of things to do or to find out. Its still a learning process for me, but the wonder of discoveries is out of this world!