A moment of silence...

... for my squash plant that did not make it through the week-long rains and cold wintry wind...

Technorati tags: gardening

Recycle your cereal box into a magazine organizer

As I finished my last bowl of cereal this morning with its now-empty carton waiting for its fate as it stood on the dining table, I thought it can still be of some use. I immediately thought it can be a nice container for some of our magazines which are taking up more shelf space than necessary (which are at the back of Jo-Lo and the mouse in the photo below).

On one spine of the box, draw a horizontal line about a third of the way up.  Then extend this line to the corner at the other end.  Repeat in the other side.  Then cut across these lines.

It should be as easy as that.  But whoopsies!  My cereal box is narrower than the magazines!

In case your cereal box is also not up to scratch, here's my remedy: cut off the smaller end of the box then put the magazines in the box.  Take the top piece of the box which was cut-off earlier, and place this against the open end to measure the piece of cardboard needed to extend the box.

Tape up this up to the box.  Voila, a magazine organizer.

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Fall flowers

These flowers appear just before Winter rolls in. Snow Drops, I think they're called. This comes from bulbs and have a rather short life. They appear in the middle of autum and would stay for a couple of months, displaying these delicate white flowers with a green spot per petal. It looks real nice when there's a bunch of them, especially when they sway with the wind.

Surprisingly, our African Violets also started flowering in Autumn. I was expecting it to be in bloom last summer, but I guess it liked the cold season better.

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How to propagate African Violets

African Violets are probably one of the more popular flowering plants. I became acquainted with these back in college when I was a working student in the Library. The Librarians would have small pots of African Violets by their windowsill with flowers ranging from blues to pinks to... um... violets.

My curiosity got the better of me when I noticed that some pots had a sole leaf in it. I learned that this was the way African Violets are propagated. How easy! They gave me some to take home and that's how I became familiar with the species.

I bought this potted plant about a year ago as a Mother's Day present to my wife. And in the final days of spring I took three healthy leaves to propagate. I did not have any rooting medium, unfortunately. But we did not need any either back then. So I tried it to propagate it the best way I know how: get some soil and place the leaf in it, watering every now and then when the soil dries up.

And last weekend, a new plant has finally started to appear! It never ceases to amaze me. I planted three leaves. Two made it. Not bad at all. It took quite a while, though. It passed summer and most of autumn!

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Five little peas in a peapod pressed

I have another patch of green peas growing at the veggie patch facing the kitchen, and while preparing food I noticed that among the white flowers were something that looked like green peas.  And they were!

Another gardening success!  I planted these last March and, true to the packaging instructions, the peas have delivered after a couple of months.  This tops the list of my veggie gardening favourites.  The plants need little attention (though I watered them everyday), have not been attacked by caterpillars (unlike my broccoli patch!), and flowered readily.  A truly fun plant to have in the veggie patch.

The batch in front of the house is doing well too.  We'll be able to have fresh sweet peas on the dinner table before winter!

Technorati tags: gardening