Spanish Moss

The Spanish moss adds value point of interest on its host live tree. As an ornamental air plant it needs less care or attention. Just a gentle spray of water on some days is just enough.

Personal Theme Day: Green for Tomatoes

Aside from the grape tomatoes (below) that still gives us those small reddish fruits, we also have the regular tomatoes now starting to bloom, a few flowers, though. Still practicing the intercropping method because of the limited space, the four “trees” co-exist now with the aloe vera and grape tomatoes. I planted the seedlings in this arrangement to take advantage of the support from the aloe vera leaves instead of placing sticks. So far, the technique is holding on.

Personal Theme Day: Green for Aloe Vera

The aloe vera on our pic is about two years old, having been planted when it was just a small “seedling” detached from our first mature plant. Separating the “offspings” and replanting some on the ground, others I have to dispose for there were plenty, gave the succulent plant limited sunlight but ample space for growth. The aloe flowers are greenish-yellow and blooms on a trident like stem (Look for the brown, dry looking "stem, that's what is left of the "trident" after prunng the flowers). I should have taken pics of the flowers, maybe next time. The aloes share a common ground with our tomato plants; the tomatoes hang its branches on the thorny cool leaves of the aloes. Have to figure out, aside from being ornamental, the useful usage of the plant for us.

Personal Theme Day: Green Gladiola

Late week of April, I planted the perennial gladiola corms from last year's plants and now am looking forward for some bright flowers to pop out. I remember there were blooms of yellow, pink, red, and some with mixed colors, but for this first flower spike, I just guess it could be more reddish than the other colors. Have to wait for few more days before it would burst into full bloom so I can check out what really is the real color. Nature has a way of keeping us guessing, though.
Since this post had been preempted for weeks, so no more guessing now, but enjoy the flowers, instead.

Personal Theme Day: Potted Green Lima Beans

Green lima beans for its leaves and pod, but the beans inside the pod should come out white, though.

At the onset of spring, I test planted two lima bean seeds, the packet says “Beans, Lima- Fordhook Bush #22,” on a pottted soil. Now I have these not so green-leafedf lima, but was really expecting that it was a “climber.” Plant growth is quite slow and stunted, somehow unhealthy looking, was expecting the leaves should be more green than yellowish, anyhow, the flowers start coming out with some pods now with a promise of a limited, if not dainty harvest. I should have mixed ground soil on the potting soil to make the mix better. Texture of the potting soil alone if left unwatered for a day looks dry and barren. Could it be the cause of the plants’ stunted growth plus the fact the roots can not spread and cover enough space underneath? Yesterday, I transferred the plants on the ground.

Anyhow, I planted more seeds of what was left of the packet on the ground to check if it is better planting lima on the ground than potted. I checked today and the plants have sprouted, the cotyledons are now reaching out for the sun's rays. Will post an update later.

Personal Theme Day: Potted Green Onions

I did some recycling here, actually it was more of re-growing thing. Each time a bundle of green onion comes fresh from the market everything is consumed of the tuber from tip of the leaf to the small bulb that comes with the stem. So I just cut off the leaves, kept it in the crisper for future use and the remaining short lower portion of the tuber devoid of roots I stick on a prepared pot of ground soil mixed with potting soil from a local outlet. So far, every time we need some of the onion leaves, we’ll just head off to the backyard and harvest some without plucking the plant off the soil. We’ve been doing that close to a year now. Few months ago, the plants had their first spring, some green and white flowers burst from a few of them only to find out that tiny seeds developed and start a new generation of tiny onions.

Plants on a Tire

Some catchy title, but no, just placed the potted plants inside the tire “hole” after having watered the backyard. I was testing the photo capability of my phone sans no aid of focus and good light. Past pics here, including this one, unless stated otherwise, were taken using a Palm Centro only.
I used to have a Canon powershot S400 until it got dropped on the floor, would not record on the memory card anymore. (Can I get it repaired? Is the cost of repair worth it?) The replacement was a Canon digital Elph 750, borrowed by my daughter right now on vacation overseas. Still have to test a new unopened Nikon coolpix S220, a birthday gift (this July 28) for another daughter.
Was thinking of a "cheapest” SLR but the thought of using one, kind of intimidate me, I’m not into serious photography so I settled for a new Sony handycam HDR-CX100 capable of HD video and a 4-megapixel still photo, which is for me, quite a good trade off.
Yesterday, took some stills but currently figuring out how to transfer the images that resides on the hardware’s internal flash memory into the removable eight gig memory stick pro duo without the necessity of installing the accompanying program Picture Motion Browser into my computer. Already I have one that takes charge of converting all photos and home videos into either a slide show or home movie in somewhat professional presentation DVD format. (Will discuss this on a forthcoming blog.) Also, I don’t want to cram programs any more than is necessary into my main multi media computer.
The HD cam is a replacement of an old reliable, heavy weight, but am still using, digital 8 Sony DCR- TRV330, my second. The first was a JVC.
I have no idea on the plant specie(s)/ name, got any? Will check it out later. By the way, the one with flowers I just stick the stem my wife brought home from office one afternoon and let it grow that way up to now. Click on the picture for a larger image.