How to Videos , containers gardening, DIY self watering, organic edibles
Ever wince when you have to throw away expired raw kelp because you have forgotten to use it? Instead of throwing out expired raw produce in May 2015, I decided to make my own plant food and liquid feed. STEP 1 – Rinsed a few times in cold water to rid of salt […]
Continue ReadingLiving in a small apartment and no space for homegrown vegetables? This was Lim San’s tomatoes harvest from a cup! Too busy! No time to tend to a garden? How about a Do-It-Yourself – Automatic watering garden out of free-of-charge recycled containers? Having no land […]
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Strawberry plants with dainty flowers, lush green leaves, and vivid red stems do not remain pretty forever. Even in our climate, there will be a season for fruiting and dormancy. In dormancy, they rest but will not attain full dormancy as plants with winter. Our observation regarding winter in tropical strawberries post. […]
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I chanced upon a post by Ms. Yong Kit Chin on May 16 2015 about growing Meyer Lemons from seeds. These were her advice on how to germinate Meyer lemon seeds : Peel off the hard shell covering the seed. Use a nail clipper to pull the husk off. This makes it […]
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2018 UPDATE – HYDROPONIC MINT 2019 UPDATE – HYDROPONIC HERBS, VEGETABLES OR LAVENDERS WORKSHOPS AVAILABLE ROOTING HERBS METHOD Many herbs can be propagated this way. First, cut a stem from a plant or use any stem from the market with lower leaves removed. Stick the stem cutting in water until roots appear. […]
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During our live radio chat with DJ Mei Xiang from 883FM on March 18, 2016, Summer was asked how I was as a mom and what her childhood was like? I am glad to say I passed with flying colors as a mom! I love kids, and it’s my regret that due to […]
Continue ReadingNew data in 2017 – Strawberries are heat and cold tolerant at the same time. They are extremely adaptable plants once they are mature. This observation lead to new trials to see how far I can pushed this boundary. In outdoor trials, plants successfully fruit in spite of aphids infestation and without hand pollination. No […]
Continue ReadingLim San, a fellow gardener in our Facebook gardening group, “SG Farming in Apartments” , often shared his creative gardening projects with us. More than once, I was inspired by his recycling efforts to use plastic bottles or paper cups to grow edibles using either hydroponics or aquaponic methods. This time though, by his 10 […]
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2015 October 22 Our first experience with runners occurred after our plants began their fruiting journey. We had fruits on many flowering stems but also noticed odd little joints on some other stems. Members of our gardening groups who lived abroad and had strawberries in their gardens told us these were runners […]
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I remembered when I wrote this post in 2015, it was during the worst haze experience in Singapore. Many people were stuck at home. There were no schools. But it became the best time to make gardening crafts from recyclables. The original post in 2015 – Going away for holidays? Worried […]
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When reading posts on mulberries, one name keeps popping up. This lady with her bottomless pit of knowledge is Ms. Wisteria Lesley. I saw her posts in Green Culture Singapore and Urban Farmers (Singapore) quite by accident. Pictures of her lush plentiful mulberries caught my attention. I don’t think I ever […]
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Updated 2018 June 30 – We completed the full cycle journal on Kau Kee cutting to fruits and other observations. These plants continue to surprise while gifting us knowledge and food. As fresh berries were not available in our markets, we grew to share them with our family and neighbors. Last but not least, we can grow […]
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The goal is to test how to adapt strawberries to fruit without air conditioning in Singapore. On October 19 2015, I began the first outdoor trial with Alpine strawberries from my niece’s sickly lot. These outdoor plants had a traumatic start ! 🙂 Summer and I decided to self pollinate the strawberry flowers in the […]
Continue ReadingWhy? The most obvious reason is the taste. If you have the chance to meet my daughter, she will tell you with shining eyes, “because they taste like jelly beans!” Imagine, strawberries that looked and tasted like jelly beans, and packed with vitamins and all the natural goodness that jelly beans don’t have! Just ask […]
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When Alan Tan visited me on Oct 26 2015 and saw my new transplant strawberry patient, he said, ” This one cannot liao! “… and for most plants, he would be right too ! 🙂 Treatment – Strawberries plants CAN RECOVER ! 🙂 Alan Tan’s sick seedlings also recovered under his excellent care 🙂 […]
Continue ReadingThe plants that often intrigue us in Singapore are ones thats not meant to grow in our tropical climate! 🙂 Lavender today (Oct 29 2015) from one post in our Facebook group, ” SG Farming in Apartments”, and strawberries are my all time favorite plants to grow in Singapore! If we cannot put our plants […]
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Home Made Compost is possible in crowded, urban tropical cities like Singapore. This process of recycling kitchen green waste into compost for gardening is good for plants, ourselves, and the environment. Look at how my edibles garden turned out with this “homemade” super soil for yourself! From THIS – An abandoned dying citrus […]
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More than half of our 30 strawberry plants died from transplanting woes than from Singapore tropical weather. This is an experience earned the hardest way. And the reason why this blog is set up, to share our knowledge. 2 weeks old Seedlings Transplant Young Seedlings ( 1 – 3 […]
Continue ReadingPossible to add ground coffee to top soil without increasing pests in tropical Singapore’s apartment? No Time!!! Rushing for work in the morning!! Strawberries care is only for people who are not working? 🙂 Actually, it takes less time than you need to water normal plants and still add to the acidic and cooler soil […]
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2015 When we started on this journey in March 2015, it was just one nondescript table by a sunny window in a bedroom. Then two tables started filling up with plants as we gained confidence in gardening. Papaya, lychee, and any seed that stroke our curiosity were tried. We saw how […]
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Our wild strawberries’ journey began on September 1, 2015. This was our second alpine variety in 2015. Please follow the germination tips in this link. My variety was “Fragaria Vesca” or Woodlands Strawberries. This pack (local supermarkets’ brand) of seeds did not have a good germination rate. Out of 30 seeds, […]
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In 2017, we began a new exploration of white wild Alpine strawberries varieties in KRATKY (passive hydroponic) method. These varieties are not common commercially and too fragile to ship, thus we had to grow them from seeds. We were keen to grow them out of curiosity because their taste profiles were described as intensely […]
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3 EASY steps to germinate strawberry seeds in Singapore : I) Bright morning sun room in normal SG temperature (NO air-conditioning) Cool breeze ventilated the germinating trays which were recycled from fruit packaging. 2) Don’t bury the seeds! Seeds sowed on the soil surface as shown: […]
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The day finally arrived to pick and taste the fruits of our labor! No one, not even ourselves, anticipated that this day would arrive so quickly. We picked our first SG strawberries on October 20, 2015, two months earlier than expected. As our plants are cultivated in water bottles and not […]
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In March 2015, my 11-year-old daughter’s birthday wish was to harvest strawberries in our apartment. 🙂 It would not be a hard wish to grant if we were living in a temperate climate region, but we are living in Singapore, a tropical country. Right from the start, we were met with disbelief and skepticism […]
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