Meet the Latest Addition to Our Family

No, it's not another basil plant. As much as I miss my basil plant, I'm not sure if I want to nurture another one again. We bought this thyme plant two months ago.


It is relatively low maintenance - all it needs is direct sun light and just a little bit of water. Thyme is a perfect complement to mushrooms, which I make quite often, especially my Mushroom Pasta. It has an earthy and a slight citrus aroma. I've also used it in making chicken stock. Sadly, two weeks after I brought it home, it became sick. Hoping for a cure, I sprinkled some plant treatment/food that my sister, the avid gardener (aka my plant doctor), gave me.


It has recovered since then, but the plant isn't as full as it was before. Let's hope this herb plant lives longer than my basil.

RIP, My Sweet Basil

My basil has sadly left us after being with us for less than six months. I repotted the basil after it outgrew its planter, and it had been on a growth spurt ever since. More than a month after, I noticed that the bottom leaves were yellowing. I thought perhaps they weren't getting as much sun as the top leaves.

The basil grew so tall that I had to wrap a rope around it to support the plant. It had started to flower, so I clipped them off, as I learned that it could affect the basil's flavor.


Then I noticed something that looked like root rot and some gray & silver colored spots on the leaves. Its symptoms are some what similar to that of fusarium wilt, which is prevalent in basils after they reach six to twelve inches tall.


I consulted my sister, the avid gardener (aka my plant doctor), who suggested that I cut off the infected leaves. It couldn't be saved. The disease quickly reached the top of the plant afterwards. Prior to its end, the leaves were covered with large brown spots. It happened quite fast.


I miss my basil...it spoiled me, really. I made my roasted tomato pasta recently, and felt it was missing the extra flavor from fresh basil. Well, at least it served its purpose while it was with us in the past few months.

Repotting My Baby, Part II

I am happy to announce that the repotting of my basil was a success! Thanks to some Miracle Grow and plant food from my sister, the avid gardener, my basil has gone through a huge growth spurt. It wasn't without some dirty work though.

There were some white bugs living in the Miracle Grow, so I sterilized it by baking it in the oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes before I used it to fill the new container. The container was much bigger than the original one (see photo below), but it was the only one I had. After I put in the basil and filled in the rest of the container with the soil, I sprinkled on a little bit of plant food and watered the basil to make sure the soil stayed moist. This is what my basil looked like a little more than a week after it was repotted...


...and more than two weeks after...


The yellow leaves were no longer...

...look at it now!

Repotting My Baby, Part I

I was so thrilled to add basil to my family that I've been keeping an eye on this little growing baby every day. After having it for more than a month, I noticed that it was starting to look sad. I had to get down to the root of the problem (pun intended).


The first obvious problem was that the leaves near the bottom of the plant were turning yellow.


I took a look at the bottom of the plant and don't recall seeing roots sticking out of the pot when I first brought it home. I had a hunch that maybe it was outgrowing its original home.


I called my sister, who I think is the other half of my being Martha since she's the avid gardener (and I'm the avid cook), so she can diagnose my plant. The plant doctor said yellowing could mean 2 things: over-watering or it has outgrown the pot. The fact that you can see its roots indicates the latter. I had a much larger pot lying around. All I needed was some soil from the good doctor, then we'll be good to go.


Stay tuned for my baby's new home!

April Sunshine

The April weather has been depressing. Rain rain and more rain. That's why it makes me happy to see these pictures from my sister! She sent me these about 2 weeks ago. Our hard work last year is beginning to pay off. I don't think I can take credit for this particular patch near my sister's driveway though.

Crocuses of all colors have popped out of the ground. There's yellow...

White with yellow center...

And my favorite, purple with yellow center.

Unfortunately, I have been under voluntary house arrest (and will be until June, and sorry to sneak this in here, but I'll be cutting down more on blogging until then), so I haven't paid my sister a visit yet to see the fruits of our labor. Hopefully, it won't be too late in June to see the results!

Spring is Coming!

I was at Central Park last weekend and guess what I spotted?


Spring MUST be coming! My sister confirmed this too - she said she saw the beginnings of our hard work last year!

Here're some other shots I took from Central Park. My fiance and I were doing some research for our engagement photoshoot. I've been to the park many times...we've had picnics there and rollerbladed there, but I've never really explored it. Did you know there is a castle in the park? Now I do!

Living Walls

I saw living walls or vertical gardens on the Martha Stewart show yesterday and was taken right away! Not only are these pretty, but they are environmentally friendly as well. Living walls are basically plants planted on panels that could be attached to walls for indoor use or on flat structures for outdoor use. The irrigation system is built in and looked simple. If you want to purify air, pick what you want to grow from NASA's top 15 plants.

Above from ELT Living Walls

Personally, I would use them in the foyer in my future house...or I can make one for my wedding for a designated photo area and use them for my house later! Anyways, they're great if you live in a tight space, and they would be perfect outdoors if you have a small balcony or outside space like the one below.

Above from ELT Living Walls

The living walls really remind me of the eye catching cactus wall I saw from Instyle Home two years ago. Believe it or not, I still have that issue!

Above from David Tsay

Above close up, my original photography of the magazine page

A Long Wait Til Spring

I helped out my sister with some gardening over the weekend. She's planting down the bulbs now and hopes that they'll shoot up in the spring. She was very systematic with planning down what to plant - a very interesting system using alphabets to code every variety of bulbs she's got, from A to Za, Zb, etc.

Above, my sister looking at her mad system

Above, her madness all planned out on paper

We planted one 2-foot wide strip next to her driveway, which took about 3 hours. First, she wrote out each letter in chalk on a landscape fabric, then scored where the letters are so the bulb planter can be inserted to dig up the soil. The bulb planter is a really cool tool - you dig it deep into the soil, lift it up, place the bulb into the soil, press the release handle on the tool to release the soil that was dug up.

Above, putting the bulb planter to work

We worked til night with the help of some lights that looked like they were meant for construction (I felt like a construction worker for a while). Towards the end, we got a special guest appearance from a very hungry squirrel. After circling the potential buffet, it crawled into the drainage pipe and refused to get out. My sister and brother-in-law thought it was looking for a place to die. Apparently, this was not the first time they've seen this happen. I guess that's life in the suburbs!

Above, a squirrel that refused to get out of the drainage pipe

Fruits of Our Labor

A couple of months back, my sister and I planted some flowers in her yard. Unfortunately, all of the hydrangea bulbs we planted were eaten by presummably very hungry creatures. Luckily, our Dahlias and Calla Lilies survived.

The Dahlias haven't bloomed yet, but will very soon (so exciting!). They grow very interestingly...their stems wind in a loop on the ground before shooting up straight. My sister added some wires to support these little babies.

As for the Calla Lilies...we had planted some multi-colored ones. The ones that bloomed were the pink variation. They have a slight purple edge.

We made an amazing discovery a while back...my sister has a pear tree in her backyard! Free fruit is really gonna help with the wallet since the price of food has been going up. I just hope we get there before the birds do.

That's all for now. I'll show you some tomatoes and herbs next time!

When Bad Plants Happen to Good People

It was about time that I checked on my sister's new house. Since spring was in full bloom (as alerted by my allergies), we, or shall I say my sister, did some gardening. All under my supervision and direction of course. :-) I may be Martha, but I am no gardener.

I must tell you though it wasn't a good idea. Fighting fire (allergies) with fire (gardening) did not work well. Anyhow, we planted some white & purple hydrangeas, multi-color calla lilies, and multi-color peonies. My sister wanted to test if she can successfully grow some flowers for my wedding next year. She was also growing some narcissus indoor, and here's when bad plants happen to good people...or is it when good plants happen to bad people.

Above, a 4ft plant vs. a 5ft4 woman (my sister)

Apparently, there's a trick you can use with rubbing alcohol to stop narcissus from growing that tall, but we only learned after it bloomed. Good thing we're just testing right now. I think a table lined up with a couple pots of (normal height) narcissus makes a pretty powerful impact on the eye, don't you?