Tag Archives: garden

A Colorful Bloom

2 Nov

I may not be a garden or plant person like hubby but I do appreciate a full bloom when I see one. Yesterday when he showed me this colorful air plant, I must say the heart did a funny flip albeit tiny. Still… a flip’s a flip.

Other times when hubby showed me little baby shoots coming out at the sides of a mummy air plant, honestly I don’t know what I am looking at. Likewise when I stand in front of his bromeliad collection, I can’t relate. I don’t know what I am looking at to appreciate. I’m pathetic…

But colors on a bloom, they are different and I can appreciate. So perhaps I am not that pathetic after all?

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Mounted on a piece of wood and hanging with a wire, this beauty is looking darn pretty!

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Thriving Garden

29 Oct

Although I am not a garden person, I am happy to say that our garden and plants are thriving despite the wonky weather that we are experiencing. Wonky in the sense that it’s either super hot or super wet.

The frangipani tree is all good, so are hubby’s collection of air plants and bromeliads. Even the staghorn ferns that he acquired are healthy.

The smaller ones, remounted on wood planks, are doing really well and now hangs in one corner of the garden. They were purchased from our trip back to his hometown for Chinese New Year early this year.

As for the two big ones, they are mounted on the trees in front of the house and are also thriving beautifully despite their exposed fern leaves or fronds looking brown. These fronds are known as the shield frond because they protect the roots from damage and store water and nutrients. And the brown look is due to humidity issues and not because the fern is dying, so they should never be removed.

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The three amigos

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Giant staghorn #1

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Giant staghorn #2

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Our Frangipani Tree, Part 3

25 Oct

It is slightly more than a month since its pruning and our frangipani tree has stabilised. New leaves are growing and so far they look healthy. No rust fungus splotches in other words.

I hope the netting covering the top, which has been providing an excellent shade for all the plants hanging on the branches beneath, won’t hinder the sprouting leaves. Maybe in time, the netting has to be removed; we will monitor the situation.

Thank goodness we didn’t have the tree chopped down as it’s been given a new lease in life.

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It’s Not a Box

16 Oct

Hubby has won the battle of the boxes this time around with his latest online purchase except that it didn’t come in a box. So what could it be that it did not come in a box? Obviously it’s not another plant but a rack for plants!

The package, if you can call it that, came just wrapped in newspaper and clear plastic wrap, and not even bubble wrap! At three feet tall and flattened, I guess it’s the sensible thing to do for transporting purposes; we have to assemble it when we bring it home.

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Pretty Colors

11 Oct

Hubby’s air plants have bloomed and the colors are so so pretty. I guess staying under the shaded Frangipani tree has really done wonders for them, protected from the onslaught of direct sunlight and rain.

I should go out to the garden more often to admire and appreciate all the greens and colors, weather permitting of course as rainy season has started.

 

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We Have to Be Patient

9 Oct

The habanero plant has grown but it’s fruiting very slowly. Last week, we had only two precious chilli to show, plucked a day apart, compared to the last harvest. Currently, there’s a bunch growing and we are hoping the rain won’t affect their growth as rainy season has kicked in. Keeping our fingers crossed.

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How many chillies can you see on the plant?

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My Silly Dog

25 Sep

Official pet number one, Rooney, is one silly dog. Every time when I am set up at the garden terrace to do my carving, he would be my little vacuum cleaner. I know it’s bad for him but sometimes he gets to the wood shavings much faster than me!

Two weeks ago, over the three-day weekend when I was working on two pieces of Meranti simultaneously, the mess was everywhere on the floor and he just took the liberty to crawl under my workbench and helped himself. One silly dog indeed.

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Hmm…. tit bits! I like….

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Gosh… they taste soooooo good! Ohm nom nom…

 

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What?! Another Box of Plant?

18 Sep

Two weeks ago, I ‘secretly’ order something online. Heheh. Thinking I am now one up on hubby on the battle of the boxes, I was taken aback when I walked into the office last Thursday to find a box on the table that was too big to be my order! A box that measured 18” long by 8” wide and 9.5” deep. How could he? Another plant?! Geez.

When will my box arrive?

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They arrive in all sorts of boxes

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Our Frangipani Tree, Part 2

13 Sep

The last few days the garden was looking a bit messy with potted plants everywhere and air plants hanging at wherever possible. They had to be relocated when the gardener came to treat the Frangipani tree; we kept the branches intact but the poor tree’s looking pretty bald without any leaves.

During those few days out in the open, the poor plants were burnt by direct sunlight because no other parts of the garden have shades to protect them like the Frangipani tree.

So after the anti-fungal medication settled on the tree, it’s time to move the plants back to their original location and hubby had to improvise to create a temporary shade for the delicate air plants and bromeliads.

This is the end result. I think it works.

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Our Frangipani Tree

7 Sep

We have a lovely garden at the back of the house. And in the corner, facing the garden patio is our lovely Frangipani tree. Over the years, the tree blossomed and is perfect for hubby to hang all his air plants on its branches.

Years passed and the corner thrived. But recently, our tree fell sick, noticeable with most of the leaves having orange splotches – rust fungus. Yikes.

Now all this while, the tree has been treated with organic anti-fungal spray but perhaps it’s not effective enough resulting in its state today. So it was either we chop down the tree as an easy solution to get rid of the fungus or trim it and treat with a super strong poisonous anti-fungal spray to contain the situation.

We opted for the latter because we can’t bear to lose the tree and now it is looking rather bald. Poor tree! But we hope the treatment will do wonders and the tree will regain its full beauty. Only time can tell.

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Looking lush and looking bald

Frangipani leaves

Orange culprit be gone!

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