Cat's Whiskers Care and Propagation

I have to admit.  I haven't been giving my Cat's Whisker plants any love.  What can I say?  It's not as fragrant as mint or basil.  It's not even a relatively well known herb.  In fact, before I got one, I didn't know it existed.  But guess what?  It's been thriving in my garden so it shot up several notches up in my favorites list.  It also has beautiful flowers.    My own Cat's Whiskers have not flowered yet, but the pictures give me something to look forward to.

I think I understand why my Cat's Whiskers are thriving when a lot of my other herbs have been unhealthy and dying lately.  Cat's Whiskers require heavy watering and needs the soil to be always moist (as against letting the soil dry out in between watering). That's exactly what the rainy season is providing: perpetual wetness.   For feeding purposes, it requires lots of compost / organic material in the soil and medium fertilization.  It needs full sun but will survive just fine in partial shade. 

---

Sweet Basil: Wick Watering Setup

Over the past months, a lot of my Sweet Basil plants have died.   I am finding that they're more difficult to care for than Cinnamon Basil, which seems to be fairly hardy.  I've tried a hydroponic set-up for my Sweet Basil.  After a couple of weeks of solid growth, root rot got the best of my plants.  From about 15 stems with roots, I'm down to five small Sweet Basil plants.  Oh well.

So here's something new.  A couple of months ago, I read about wick watering. What is the concept behind it? You have a wick that's submerged into your pot on one end and connected to a water source on the other.  Supposedly, water travels through the wick.  Why not just water the soil straight?  Well, it is said that the wick absorbs only as much as the plant needs, thereby eliminating the chances of over and under watering.  So what's my set-up like?

ISP Customer Service Ranking

The other day, we lost Internet connection in the house.  Usually, it takes a DSL modem reset or two to fix the problem.  By afternoon, I decided to call Bayantel to report the problem.  Guess what?  I think I just had to press one number to get customer service.  In comparison, you'd need about 3-4 choices before getting someone from Globe or Smart.  Even better, someone answered my call within two minutes.  Imagine that.  Here's the best part, in less than ten minutes, I had my Internet connection back.  Kudos to Bayantel!

So here's my Philippine Internet Service Provider (ISP) customer service ranking:

1. Bayantel - consistently good
2. Globe - crappy, but made amends
3. Smart - crappy thieves!

---

Baked Potato Wedges

Since it was father's day over the weekend, Jean and I flexed our cooking muscles once again.  Naturally though, I selected something that made use of our favorite herbs.  At the same time, I also wanted to cook potatoes since they're high in potassium and are good for gout.  Besides, I recall how much I liked baked potatoes from Wendys and how strangely rare it was that I ordered it.

I was pretty excited when I got the basil and the parsley leaves from my backyard.  I used a bottled dried oregano since my Cuban Oregano doesn't really smell like oregano.  How weird is that?  As for the garlic, it'll be months before my plants bear fruit.

Anyway, here's a recipe I ripped and adapted from the Internet

# 4 large baking potatoes, wedged shopping list
# 1/2 cup quality olive oil shopping list
# 2T fresh Italian herbs(basil, oregano, flat leaf parsley, etc), finely minced shopping list
# 2 cloves garlic, minced shopping list
# A couple of slices of grated Parmesan cheese and I added a generous amount of Quick Melt cheese as well.
# fresh ground black pepper
# A tinge of salt 

* Boiled the potatoes for 5 minutes and then quartered them
* Combine all ingredients except potatoes and cheese in a large bowl.
* Dipped the potato wedges in the bowl.  In my opinion though, potato halves might have worked better since the garnish kept slipping off the wedges.
* Place on baking sheet .
* Place potatoes on tray in single layer.
* Top each wedge with Parmesan and Quick Melt cheese
* Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes.

For next time though, I think I'll boil it for 10 minutes first and then I'll bake it for another 10 minutes so that I don't overcook the garnish.  But then again, it was fun eating the crusted cheese too. I'll also be more generous with the herb usage. 

Anyway, in my rush to serve and eat it, I forgot to take pictures after baking.  So the before-shots will have to do.

---

How to Care for Garlic

It's been a couple of weeks since I attempted to grow my garlic plant.   For a while, I was afraid it wasn't going to germinate.  But hey, now I have three little plants in my big pot.  So I did my mandatory research on how to care for my new plant.  Then again, I read about caring for lavender, but it died anyway...tsk.  It's supposed to be low maintenance!  Tsk.  Bitterness aside, here's how to care for your garlic plant:

Give it at least six hours of full sunlight.  Prepare your soil at least 10 inches deep with lots of organic matter.  As the plant matures, it will grow better with a hot and dry environment.  This is supposed to make your garlic more flavorful.  It also needs fertile soil so give it some fertilizer every two weeks.  Some compost would be great too. The soil PH should be around 6.5 - 7.0 and make sure has excellent drainage.  Harvest after about four months...wait and see.

---

DUNLOP ADRENALIN RAGE OVERSIZED TENNIS RACKET FOR SALE

USED VERY SPARINGLY SINCE I STOPPED PLAYING TENNIS SHORTLY AFTER I BOUGHT IT.

FEATURES INCLUDE:

EXTENDED SWEET SPOT
RECOMMENDED TENSION 25-29 KGS
CROSSES 19
MAINS 16
GRIP TYPE DUNLOP HYDRAMAX SOFT
CONSTRUCTION GRAPHITE
FEATURE SEMI CONCAVE TECHNOLOGY
HEADSIZE 108
LENGTH 27.5"
FRAME WEIGHT 285g
COLOR METALLIC BLUE & BLACK

JUST ADD P1,000, I'LL ALSO GIVE YOU MY WILSON AERODYNAMIC 110 TENNIS RACKET

I'D RECOMMEND THE WILSON ONE FOR BEGINNERS. ONCE YOU'VE HAD SOME TENNIS EXPERIENCE, MOVE ON TO THE DUNLOP. I LIKE THE DUNLOP BECAUSE IT SHOWED GOOD CONTROL.

IF INTERESTED, PLEASE CALL ME AT 577-2085. IF YOU WANT TO DROP BY, I'M JUST IN PROJECT 6, QUEZON CITY, METRO MANILA, PHILIPPINES

---

Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Siling Labuyo, Bell Pepper, Jalapeño Update

You have to love pepper plants.  Seeds germinate in a few days.  The seedlings survive my harsh transplants (I just pull them out without digging).  Type of soil and amount of water almost doesn't matter.  They find a way to survive and grow.  They're certainly easier to grow than any of my herbs (mints included).  Today, I'll just post pictures of my original siling labuyo plants and my bell peppers.  Unfortunately, I can't tell which is which anymore.  They look the same.  And that, my friends, is why you should tag your seedlings.  The first picture is the Jalapeño (which Jean forcibly gave me...she's been giving me tons of plants, half of which die on me! Argh!).  The next two pictures provide an assortment.  I won't know which is which until they bear their hot fruits.  Anyway, if anyone wants to buy small sili plants, just let me know.  I have too much already.

Did you know that siling labuyo or Bird's Eye Chili is just a mid-heat type of pepper (50,000-100,000 in the Scoville scale), but that it's a lot hotter than Jalapeño (2,500 - 8,000)?   Well that's what I read...

---

What to Do With Tons of Bottle Caps

When you have an entire row of plants in bottles with water like me (go hydroponic!), you're bound to have a few extra bottle caps on hand.  I think I just used to throw them away before, but mostly I just throw them in with my other gardening accessories like used cups and bottles.  Before you know it, I had over a dozen of assorted caps.  So I made use of them to make a little walkway in my garden.  Well for now it's just a "step way" (one step and that's it), but when I get more, it'll become a full fledged walkway.  That should minimize the dirt under my slippers. Cool huh?

---

Mint and Soil

Whenever I read about mint in other sites, they make it out to be some kind of weed that spreads and takes over the garden.  Supposedly, it's not very particular in terms of care.  However, I have found that mint can be quite particular with soil.  Case in point.  Look at the Japanese Mint planted in the pot.  I've had mints planted on the ground about four months ago and yet, they're still really small.  Granted, I've pruned them a couple of times, there have been no signs of a garden takeover.   In this pot, however, the tomato I planted with this mint died.  Oh well.  However, the mint is about a foot and a half tall already with really nice big leaves.  What's the soil?  Not a lot actually.  I planted shallow then I put in a good amount of organic mulch (dried leaves, grass and egg shells).  I guess it helps that there are also stakes.   In other cases, when the soil is compact, the mint would die.  This leads me to believe that soil aeration and organic content matters when growing mints.   What's your experience?

---

Once Upon a Time, Not Too Long Ago...a fascinating read about the Marcoses...

We seem to have forgotten that once upon a time, not too long ago, there was this family, the Marcoses, comprised of Ferdinand (now deceased), Imelda (still gallivanting and traipsing the light fantastic in Manila and occasionally, kung maka lusot, overseas), and 3 children, including Ferdinand “Bongbong” Jr who’s now running, under Presidential candidate Manny Villar, in the SAME Senatorial slate as political activists (??) Liza Maza and Satur Ocampo.

Charlie Avila, who HAS NOT forgotten what the Marcoses did, reminds us, in his CHRONOLOGY OF THE MARCOS PLUNDER, that in…

September 1976

This month the Marcoses bought their first property in the U.S. - a condo in the exclusive Olympic Towers on Fifth Avenue in New York . Five months later they would also buy the three adjoining apartments, paying a total of $4,000,000.00 for the four and using Antonio Floirendo's company, Theaventures Limited in Hong Kong , as front for these purchases.

October 13, 1977

Today, after addressing the UN General Assembly, Imelda celebrated by going shopping and spending $384,000 including $50,000 for a platinum bracelet with rubies; $50,000 for a diamond bracelet; and $58,000 for a pin set with diamonds.

The day before, Vilma Bautista, one of her private secretaries, paid $18,500 for a gold pendant with diamonds and emeralds; $9,450 for a gold ring with diamonds and emeralds; and $4,800 for a gold and diamond necklace.

KFC CHICKEN SHRINKING!

I'm not sure if the KFC in The Block SM North EDSA is a franchise or is company owned, but get a load of these one piece chicken meals.   It's not hard to tell what's wrong, right?  The chicken piece is barely bigger than the gravy container and looks smaller than the cup of rice!  How sad is that?  I love KFC as much as the next guy, but this is a rip-off!  It's not as blatant as Smart Bro's thievery, but it's pretty disappointing.  The piece is barely bigger than the spoon!  Augh!   What happened to you KFC???

 

---

Malvarosa and La Niña

No, that's not the title of the newest telenovela. My big Malvarosa reflects what all my other plants are experiencing: heavy downpour.  Summer is truly over.  It's been over a week since I watered anything in my garden.   Look at my poor Malvarosa.  It looks "unruly".  You know why?  I saw it yesterday and it looked like the plant tipped over.  The downpour must have displaced it.  That's how my other plants look too.  It's like a disaster area in my garden.

I'm pretty sure they'll recover, but most of the pots have been getting flooded on a regular basis. So now my Malvarosa has some chopstick support (I collect those from Japanese restaurants since I don't use them).  I'll probably get a cutting within the week so that the plant isn't too heavy.  I'll also put the plant away from the rain so it has a chance to dry up first.  My Basil, Lavender and Rosemary have been out of rain's harm for about a week now and they're still wet! Tsk.

---

How to Grow Garlic

You know it was bound to happen. After talking about pesto, thyme, and rosemary, the garlic part became inevitable.  And so I did my little search on growing garlic.  Amazingly enough, you just put a clove in the ground and wait for it to grow.  No seeds.  No stem cuttings.  Hey, why not?  Plant a clove and get a bulb.  That's not a bad deal.  Except that in my experience (a week's worth), it seems that not all cloves germinate.  I planted like five of them in this pot, and so far, only one has germinated.    And if you see, the pot is almost topped with soil.  That's because garlic grows underground.  I can only hope my pot is big enough.   How do you know your garlic's good?  Well, the plant is supposed to wither and die.   Once that happens, it's your cue to harvest your garlic and dry it.  I'll tell you all about how it happens a couple of months from now.   By the way, I've been wondering why my pesto's taste had too much garlic.  I've been mixing up cloves with bulbs all this time!  Tsk.

---

Koala!

One of my babies, Pandoy wanted me to clarify that the senate has been looking for Koala, not a Panda. He's been hiding under the pillows the past weeks because he heard that the senate's looking for some bear.  Poor baby has been scared each time the phone rang.  Oh well, I reassured him.  ;-)

---

BASIL UPDATE

The rainy season is upon us so sunlight has become a little more valuable.  For my cinnamon basil, it looks like business as usual.  It's still big and bushy although I prune it at least once a week.  Even the ones grown in bottles of water (i.e. hydroponic basil)  have grown enough to be pruned.  I think it's because the front yard has fairly consistent sunlight and the pot is small enough for the water to get drained regularly.  Why is that relevant?  Well, it's been raining buckets so soil has been soggy all over the yard.  Unfortunately, it's not the same story as my sweet basil.

Since I pruned my upside down tomato (well decapitated is the word), it died a few weeks later. So I figured I'd try an upside down basil (picture 1).  Well it's been a couple of days since I planted it.  It looks like it doesn't turn towards the sun as fast as tomatoes do (a day!).  But, it certainly looks like it's bending towards the sun.  The other pots show my other sweet basil plants. I put them beside the wall to avoid the rain.  I need them to dry off a bit since I don't want root rot.  The pots are so heavy since the soil's really wet.  Never mind that they're a little stunted due to lack of sunlight.   I'll just have to move them around everyday to maximize the sunlight exposure.

---

Staking My Tomato: The First Time

I don't know how to stake a tomato.  I have no sense of art.   And those are my disclaimers.  My remaining healthy tomato looks pretty big now doesn't it?   I've been trying to get bugs of it by spraying it with soap solution (the ones I used for washing water containers) twice a day.  And yet, just this morning I saw a couple more leaves with white streaks.  Dang these bugs!

So anyway, I took a couple of dead calamansi branches (we have two big trees in our yard), and I stuck them around the pot.  Then I tried looping these together with plastic straw.  I know.  It looks messy.  But I hope it'll provide ample support.  Otherwise, I'll put another stake just adjacent to the major stem and I'll take it from there.  I hope this one makes it all the way through fruiting.

---