Hibiscus love

the big red

R.I.P Gigantasaur red flower. So beautiful you were, wish you had lasted longer!

The sweet scented Raat ki rani (Queen of the nights), in bloom these days.

First tomato from our garden.

Coming back to life

It took almost an entire year, but the very first bougainvillea we got is finally blooming. I had almost given up on it. After the first week we got it, it stopped flowering. Just leaves and more leaves. So after months of waiting I finally did some research on what went wrong. I implemented a few simple steps,

1. Moved it to a different balcony. It was initially in a place where it received good sunlight in the afternoons through evening. I thought it would suffice, but apparently not. So i shifted it to our bedroom balcony which is super duper hot and sunny through the day. I was initially concerned that this amount of heat might burn the leaves, as it did to some other plants, but it seems bougainvilleas love it!

2. Prune-trim-prune-trim, make it look totally anorexic. Mercilessly chop down leaves, some branches, down to the bare minimum. I was nervous doing this initially, but I read that you need to cut about 75-90% of the leaves and branches, and wait. I waited for a good two months after this, and then all of a sudden, it almost seemed as if the plant fought back in the form of colorful blooms! 

3. Organic manure. I underestimated the importance of regular nourishment. Now I add the manure granules at least once in 4-5 days. I can visibly see the difference in growth rate.

4. Minimal watering once a day. I may have over-watered it hoping it would flower, but what I needed to do was just the opposite. It’s not surprising now, when I see such huge flowering bougainvillea shrubs on the roads, growing so well with no one watering them. 

So far, so good, but the real test now is to watch how well it’s going to flower and flourish.

Happy D

We strung some fairly lights in our balcony for Diwali, and it looks very pretty and romantic. Loki as usual was very excited and kept jumping about the place.

Home composting

How exciting to put garbage to good use. I wanted to give this a shot for a long time, and after long weeks of procrastination, I looked up a website called ‘Daily Dump’ on the internet. Reading about home composting, it seemed like a very simple and non fussy way to turn your vegetable and garden waste to rich organic manure. It seemed like something I should be doing, since I do have a few vegetable and flowering plants that require quite a bit of nourishment.

The composting kit includes three terracota pots or ‘khambas’. I have started using two of them, dividing my daily waste. After a month or so, or when they are half full, I have to empty the contents of both the pots, (which are semi- decomposed) into the third pot, and leave it in there for maybe another month or two for the process to complete.

Apart from the khambas, I also got packets of powdered cow dung (which acts like the compost accelerator) and neem powder (to keep flies away). I also got an accelerator spray (lemon grass scented). A bag of dry leaves, and a bag of saw dust, along with a rake and basket for sieving the compost when done.

While you need to stir the contents of the pots once everyday, a spoon each of cow-dung and neem powder are to be added once in three days, while the spray- once a week. If your compost mixture is too wet, you need to add the saw dust or dry leaves to absorb the moisture.

The process seems a bit slower for me, since we do not produce a large quantity of vegetable leftovers on a daily basis. But hopefully, in due time I would have a pot full rich nutritious compost! I will keep you posted.

Blushing buddies

My experiments with growing tomatoes so far have been rather unsuccessful. You need have a lot of patience and affection when it comes to gardening or tending to plants, but this apart a lot perseverance. I first tried growing from seed, which was a total flops show. Even after a month it didn’t show even a hint of sprouting. I then got a sapling in a small pot. In a few weeks time, the leaves started to dry and wilt. I then read somewhere that tomatoes require space to spread their roots and grow deep. Maybe the small pot wasn’t the best idea. 

So this time I got a fairly big pot with a semi grown plant, and placed it in an east facing balcony, so it gets large amounts of sunlight though most parts of the day. Care needed to be taken like stirring the soil once in three to four days and adding handfuls of organic manure once a week at least.

After two months, I’m finally seeing my first blushing tomato ball. The leaves and branches are looking good, now we have to wait and watch whether if manages to grow further in the current pot.

Loki has been a good boy so far and hasn’t gone for the ripe tomato yet. Hopefully he doesn’t get to it before I do :)

Will keep you updated on tomato two!

Pink Paper Lanterns

The bougainvilleas looked crisp and fresh on a relatively sunny Sunday evening. Curious Mr Loki who had his monthly shower, spent the rest of the day running around the balconies sniffing flowers and chasing little sparrows. 

He kept hovering around the bougainvillea but he totally preferred messing around with the roses!