Gardening

 

My Seven Stars Needle Plant or Rose Cactus Plant

Gardening is my hobby.  Every day when I walk to my garden and see flowers at my plants, I feel so happy.  Besides the above Seven Stars Needle Plant, I also have curry leaves plant (Murraya koenigii), money plant, Mexican petunia or Ruellia simplex, ferns (Nephrolepis exaltata), Money plant (Epipremnum Aureum), Basket/ Corn plant (Dracaena fragrans), Arrowhead (Syngonium Prodophyllum), Mother of thousands or Mexican hat plant (Bryophyllum daigremontianum), Water Jasmine (Wrightia Religiosa), Plyscias Balfouriana, Oyster plant (Tradescantia spathacea), bougainvillea, chilli plant, butterfly pea plant, Papaya plant, clover (Oxalis corniculata), cactus, cotton plant and Adenium obesum (福贵花).

Recently I sold some plants and this give me more motivation to grow and propagate more plants.  I bought lots of soil from Shopee and Lazada.  When the buyer wanted to buy my plants, I gave them the good nice ones.  If they are not so healthy, I gave them a cheaper rate.  When I sell them my plants, I gave them pots with so much soil as compared to the nurseries, where they gave half pot of soil or sometimes three quarter of soil.  

 Potting Soil that I purchased from Shopee

Garden Soil that I purchased from Shopee

Good soil is so important for the plants.  It gave them the good nutrients to thrive in the environment.  So when the soil I ordered came, I need to mix the soil before repotting my plants.  

Picture of the containers I used to mix the soil

I mostly do my gardening at night, where it would be not too hot.  At night the plants would not lose much water content too.  

If you want to buy soil in bulk, Shopee is selling a bundle of 3 at $13, a bundle of 5 at $25.  These prices are for the potting soil on the above photograph.  Yesterday I ordered 10 packets of  potting soil from Shopee!  As for the other photograph of the garden soil, Shopee is selling at 1 packet $6.80 (5 Litres).  There are so many varieties of medium you can used for your plants at Shopee.  Buying in bulk saves money and you do not need to carry them too.  

Seven-stars Needle Plant (七星针)

 

Rose cactus blooming in my garden

Went to my garden just now and saw the buds of the rose cactus had fully opened!!  Three beautiful rose cactus flowers!  I quickly grabbed my handphone and capture the beautiful flowers -- photographs and video.  At the same time I took a video of the birds in the bird's nest.  I saw two babies opening their mouth and chirping.  How beautiful that was. 

I saw on Lazada a pot of Pereskia bleo/ Seven stars needle plant or the rose cactus plant cost about $20, just a short plant.  Mine would cost a lot!  I first got the plant from a parent plant found under a tree.  Someone had thrown the plant away.  One man's trash is another man's treasure!  I saw that it was flowering and it was a nice plant.  However the one that was being thrown the plant was not in the perfect shape.  It was like the height of a person so I think no one took it.  I wondered if it can be propagated via stem cutting.  So I tried.  I pluck down 2 branches and I went home to plant it.  

The beginning was hard.  I put the plants in the soil and it survived.  For many years now, about 11 years now, it had prospered well.  It had blooms many times and I had seen its fruits twice -- one rippened (yellow fruit), and one more green fruit (unripe), as can see from the picture below: 

The green unripe fruit of the rose cactus plant

A closer look at the flower of the rose cactus

It is said that this plant is a medicinal plant.  It is known to act against cancer and helps in the gut.  I had never tried the leaves or flowers or fruit even though people said it is edible.  When Ah Wai came to my house and saw the fruit, he loved it so much.  Mum plucked the fruit and gave it to him to eat.  That was a yellow fruit, the one and only one in 10 years of growing the plant.  Now I have another fruit, but it is green for so long.  And it takes time to grow so big!  Good things or good fruit need to wait!

I don't know how the fruit or the whole plant taste like.  But base on hearsay, the plants can be boiled, chewed on and ate it raw.  I never wanted to try as yet.  

This plant is like the cactus because it has many sharp thorns on its stem/branches.  Every time when the plant grew out of shape or get in the way, I would trim the plant, cut it off and replant it again.  That is how I get so many rose cactus plants in my garden.  

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Praise the Lord, Alleluia!!!

 

 You make all things beautiful in your time! 

In His Time Lyrics: 

In his time, in his time 

He makes all things beautiful In his time 

Lord please show me everyday 

As you're teaching me your way 

That you do just what you say 

In your time 

In your time, in your time 

You make all things beautiful In your time 

Lord my life to you I bring 

May each song I have to sing 

Be to you a lovely thing 

In your time 

(instrumental) 

Lord please show me everyday 

As you teaching me your way 

That you do just what you say 

In your time 

In your time (in your time), in your time (in your time lord) 

You make all things beautiful In your time 

Lord my life to you I bring 

May each song I have to sing 

Be to you a lovely thing 

In your time 

Be to you a lovely thing 

In your time

What a perfect timing.  Today is the day after Good Friday where Jesus is Risen.  Happy Easter day and on this day, the eggs in the bird nest has hatched!  Last night, after midnight, the eggs were still not hatched.  Just now around noon, when I went to the garden to see the Green Chillies and the nest, I heard sound and it was the birds have hatched!!!  Praise the Lord, Alleluia!!!

In my garden, the seven stars needles flowers buds are plenty.  They were flourishing very well.  I am awaiting for the day to come when all the flowers bloom.  The chillies plants are growing very well too.  I am awaiting to see the chillies plants to grow bigger as well.  

At Woodlands MRT station, the birds build their nest at holes at the control switch

A further view of the control switch where I saw the bird nest at Woodlands MRT Station

I was walking along the pathway between Woodlands MRT Station and Causeway Point.  Then a bird flew by and my eyes followed it.  It flew into the hole at the control switch.  It was the 'modern' bird nest of the birds.  

John 14:23 -- Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.  

Picture of the big green chillies on the chilli plant

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