Blue attractions - Bunga Telang.

I like blue flowers:) They draw me into the realm of a calm blue ocean. And Bunga Telang flowers are the 'blue-est' I can get on this tropical island.

Here's the flowers in single-petalled form,

and double-petal form.


The plants grows easily, with little maintenance. Let them indulge in abundance of sunshine, and they'll be bloom their heads away. That delighted Kimi-the-cat. She has taken to eating the blue flowers (one big chomp) and leaves!

Majoram flowers.

The majorams flowered on the last day of 2009:)

Little white flowers, so tiny that I would have missed it if I haven't been putting my nose on the plants (something tat I enjoy very much given the addictive fragrance of majoram).

The balcony evolved...

120kg of pebbles, One happy kitten, and A slimming plan, led to the maturing of our balcony-garden.

The pebbles clearly demarcated the growing strips. Water drained out of pots flow right under the pebbles, keeping the feet and the paws out of the dirt. Thus, the balcony-garden are free to roam again :)



This balcony-garden started at the beginning of 2008. Took a few months to settle into the first completed look in this photo (last Oct), which I liked very much for its dreamy feel sans the congestion (which was a problem this year until The Slimming Plan was written).

New era - Period of Toms

Changes bring new lifes!

I am excited with the new direction coming Nov. Then, new lifestyles spells adaptations for the existing. Kimi will have to adapt. The garden will have to adapt too.

The present balcony garden is slowing growing out of the existing planting list. We are downsizing the plant list so as to upsize the produces. Too much riddle? Simply, the new lifestyle coming Nov do not give me much time for gardening. Thus a very selective collection will be grown, and whatever is growing out there has to be 'independent'. Too much to ask for from pampered indoor plants? Not really! Tomatoes, cucumbers and many herbs grow wonderfully in hydroponic, which is so addictive cos working-time was reduced from watering everyday to topping up nutrients one/twice a week. There will be lots of heirloom tomatoes in future. And the rosemary, thymes, bay, lemon myrtle, pandan and curry plants in soil are happy to continue standing in lesser-sun and drinking only every 2/3days. The remainings such as mints and basils are really easy-going plants too.

So now we have (on the way) a balcony-garden with more walking space and less work :)

Btw, my dear toms are fruiting again. Looks like a bountiful harvest this round.

Joy-machine

Thymes are my Happy-Herbs. They witnessed some most enjoyable periods of my life- the Hawaii and New Zealand.

Bring them into our house is like installing a Joy-machine: Brush brush-> Sniff sniff-> Floated with sense of joy:)

Balcony update

Our green-pets on the balcony are enjoying their lifes, generally.

Those perched on the low balcony wall get good wind and nice views of the communal garden downstairs.

The siverbeets especially, are enjoying their spa-bath while taking in the views out there.

Missy Picotees (the morning glories) climbed to get an even more advantages viewpoint.

Bay-sir grows himself up and out of the gap between the wall and railing.


All's good. The Hydroponic box of PakChoy (KY-early fr Known-You) was harvested a few rounds before being 'taken down'. Purple french beans are harvested too, and they continue to throw up flowers and new pods. New vegetable seeds are sown. Sweet basils grew up to 40cm tall, and upgraded to their own container. Ditto dills who stand in their own tub, perched on the low wall, looking out of the balcony.

... Except an unlucky chap, Bonsai-Shuimei, who's infected with black spots on the leaves. Skyfiery came visiting yesterday, smelled rat, and got diagnosis from Sixhunter that its probably black spot disease. Tat is a messy problem.

Poor handsome Shuimei got trimmed down brutally (ALL leaves n secondary branches gone), soil changed plus a root trim to downsize the root ball. He probably will take a long time to recover from tis brutal trim down. IF he survives :p

Today will be an April Fool's gardening day -making concoctions to spray down the plants from fungus-growth (in case of spread), and continue fixing the spider mites problem in the mint box.

Textures are fun

Herbs need not be just an aroma-thing. Give the nose a break, and use the fingers some times ;)

Sage (above)
Lavendar Goodwin Creek (below)

Growing up in spa-bath

Different treatments for different plants. Some prefer mud-bath (soil media); others like spa-bath (hydroponic)!

My plants... hmm, still experimenting to determine who prefers what...

Pakchoy (KY-early from Known-you) grows faster and taller in my hydroponic boxes.

These are the happiest sweet basils I'd ever grown! ...in hydroponic too.

Silverbeet Bright Lights (from Mcgregor, NZ) is a variety that i had not been able to grow beyond the seedling-stage in the past. Note : in soil media.

Yet they look healthy enough in hydroponic, and should grow to maturity ;)

Durian IN ; Catnip OUT

Live in Singapore, then eat like a Spore (err) cat! Kimi loves to eat durian. An overwhelming interest she showed to durian which do not exist in catnip.

And NOPE, im not putting any durian tree on the growlist, LOL

Its delightful ! - more fragrance, more colors

This Xmas sees happy nursery-shopping trips with Renee n Waimun.

Renee is excited about moving back to tampines. She picked up loads of flowers, greens n hardware overnite to start her lovely little corridor garden.

And after 1 year of watching Rummi-at-work, Waimun starts to displays interest in what's growing within his compound. He'll like more fragrance, which sounds like a strange request from a person who wakes up with stuffy nose most of the days, hehe !!

I luv how the corridor look now, with the ornamental greens n flowers.

The balcony air is 'puffed' with Wrightia Religiosa and Jasminum Sambac... waiting for the combination of blooming flowers paired with breeze from the river. Here's pic of left section of balcony.

These 2 colorful pots of Pentas added splashes of colors to Rosemary n Indian Borage.

Maidenhair fern is a Pot-Of-Elegance:)
However, the two pots of polka-dot faces are under stress from repotting, some leaves are curling up at the edge, and some 'faces' losing their polkadots. Opps.

Here's a close-up of the little red lantern flowers on the hanging pot of Abutilon Megapotamicum, in the balcony. Ohh, its a conversation piece ;)

Jaminum Sambac is the flower that is used for chinese jasmine tea.

And finally, a pot of must-have =Wrightia Religiosa. After re-potting in small pot and trimming, it acquired kindofa bonsai-look;)

New season new pets - Green & Blue

Nov/Dec is very pleasant on a tropical island. Rain comes frequently while the clouds shield off the blazing sun rays. Even the view from our little balcony got all dreamy and holiday-resort-looking ;)


With all the buzz-buzz in work n studies completed/procrastinated, now is a good time to start the 'food chain' for 2009. Here's the new Green-pets coming up...


On top of these, our new Blue-pet is coming home with us tis friday. She's a British Blue Shorthair kitten. Susan gave these catnip plants to Kimi. Hmm, Kimi is all pampered with gifts even before she come!


Mister-Oregano is my favourite. He's been around since this little balcony-garden started in Jan. We haven't been able to cook him fast enough to match his growth speed; so tat's how he became a hanging-pot-of-oregano, shaggy hair and moustache. LOL

Bay leaves

In Wellington botanical garden (NZ), bay leaves grow into bushes at the herbs garden:)
Wed's Worldfarm-excursion, little bay leaves plants from Holland are for sale at $18 each. That's expensive for a small herbs... but i simply couldn't resist. So it was acquired!

Tell me how to cook oregano

Its only a 15cm pot but they grow really quick. Oregano must have love Singapore very much! Till i find more ways to utilize them... ...

Indian borage is an independent herb

Indian borages are such sweet companions on the little balcony. Leave them pretty much alone, and they will take care of themselves. A little caress and they give u nice sweet aroma for a long while.

Wonder if they will ever flower for me... cos its unheard of IB to flower in tropical singapore.

These kids are capable of growing into big 'bushes'. To keep them compact, i am 'restricting' them in small pots, like these.

Hungry! Waiting for the harvest...

Amidst my busy schedule now, juggling work, study and housekeeping, watching the little balcony garden grow become my top stress-reliever. nevermind if the students or husband or sprained-ankle had been cranky, simply sharing my joy on this blog is good enough to nullify all unhappiness :)

Fruiting tomato, flowering cucumbers and maturing XiaoPaiChai.



Herbs are really fast growing! We just cant seem to be eating them fast enough.




Here's BungaTelang growing up nicely.

Holy, Thai & Sweet basils - Collection completed

With the acquisition of holy basil from Monday's shopping trip, my collection of Basils-Trios for kitchen adventures is complete ;)

Propagating from stems & leaves cuttings

Learning to propagate from stem cuttings and leaves cuttings. Both the Indian Borage and Thai Basil cuttings had nicely grown new roots. Time to pot them.

And Esther, Thai Basil babies are ready for your adoption :) See photo below...

Thai basils for the wok

Love thai food ! My own basils (grown from seeds) are simply not growing fast enough to go into the wok :p

Last weekend, I bought this pot of Thai-Basil from FEF nursery Kovan. That should feed us for a long while :) The purple flower-stalks are really pretty. Pity that i'll have to snip them off soon so that the plant can concentrate on generating leaves for our cooking.

Oregano are cute-looking herbs

Some of their growing-up photos...

Culinary herbs

At this moment, there are only coriander, rosemary, indian borage and oregano.

Thymes, parsley and basils are still germinating.

Chives are a dismal (twice), they grew half-heartedly, then stay put at 20cm. I gave up on them :p