Greetings!

A few days ago I introduced to the community the first-ever flowering plant that I planted beside our house's outside walls. And just like I said I never planned about planting flowering plants because my elder sister has already an enormous number of flowering and non-flowering plants around our house (which takes a lot of time in watering them). But when I saw a Zinnia I immediately fell in love with it and the rest is history.

I actually planted three types/variants of flowering plants, one is the Zinnia, I am still going to keep the other two as a secret. I will be introducing them to the community once they recover and grow, they are quite so small at the moment and not photography worthy (^_)

So, with that being said, in this blog, I am going to share with the community some of the gardening-related activities that I did in the past few days. I am still waiting for the end of rice harvesting before I can do some major chores in my vegetable garden.

One of the activities that I did are...

Helping out my elder sister

My elder sister has a wood plant stand that was gifted to her by one of her friends, when it arrives it looks so old, so I told my elder sister to buy a Solignum and Varnish for the protection of the wood.

But before that, I have to soften the outer layer of the wood plant stand by using sand paper.

The plant stand after scratching it with a sandpaper

The Solignum that my elder sister is a concentrate so I have to dissolve it in water before applying it.

The Solignum after I dissolved one teaspoon

Applying the solignum is quite easy, I just used a paintbrush, and being careful not to accidentally splash on my eyes, solignum's smell is quite strong too.

Here's a look at the small plant stand after I applied the solignum

I let the Solignum fully penetrate the wood by letting it dry under room temperature for about half an hour. And then after that, I applied the Maple Varnish.

The plant stand after I applied the Maple Varnish

And after it dried my elder sister immediately put it to use.

Here's how it looked after my elder sister put it into use

Experimenting Jicama (2 ways)

Here's another gardening activity that I did a few days ago, experiment with a Jicama. While I am growing up I used to hunt for wild Jicama on my father's little forest which is quite successful in finding one. Also, I used to see Jicamas being sold from a local market nearby.

The Jicamas that I am going to be experimenting with were from the local market (which I bought one day ago).

Here's a look at the small plant stand after I applied the solignum

This is the Jicama that I am going to be experimenting with

Preparing the Jicama

I first trimmed the stem of the Jicama...

And I did not do anything on its roots...

Then I prepared my soil mix which consists of rice chaffs, very fine sand, normal garden soil, and compost.

And here's what it looks like after I mixed them...

I am going to plant the Jicama in an old biscuits container.

I filled the container to almost full.

Then I dug a hole that is exactly the size of the Jicama.

And then I covered it up with the soil mix, only the cut stem is above the soil mix

Then I watered it.

And here's the second version of the experiment that I did on the Jicama. I put the second Jicama on a cup of water just to see if it is going to germinate.

Planting a Chayote

Another activity that I did is planting Chayote. One of the Chayote that I bought from the local market has already germinated. So, I decided to plant it and see if it is going to survive under the shade.

Here's the Chayote that I am going to plant

Materials

Just like the first Jicama that I experimented on, I am also going to plant the Chayote on a container. Below is the container that I am going to use together with the normal soil (This soil is actually from a riverside).

Planting

Just like what everybody else is doing I filled the container with soil.

And then I put the Chayote head first (where the shoot is located), the recommended angle should be 45 degrees. As for me, I cannot make it to 45 degrees because the shoot is in a straight position from its body.

Then I just water it very generously

Planting Sugar Cane

Being a beginner in vegetable gardening, I got lots of outrageous, bonkers, weird, and crazy ideas. One of them is trying to germinate/root almost dried-up sugarcane.

The next two photos are the photos of the sugar cane that I am trying to germinate.

And just like what somebody is doing I cut the sugar into small sections.

In the next two photos, I put the small section into a transparent cup with water in it.

And the other three larger sections are into a larger container also filled with water.

Making a Little Plant Stand

And last but not least is the start of realizing my plan of planting succulents and cacti. As a start, I have to make a small plant stand that I can use as a stand of the containers that I am going to use for the germination and also to change the location at will.

Materials

Since I am only to make a small plant stand I just consolidate some woods that are not in use. I found 2x3.75 good lumber and a small 2x2 good lumber.

Cutting

I cut them into sections that I needed.

Putting Together

Then I put them together using nails.

Finished Product

And here's what it looks like after I put them together.

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I am a Computer Engineer, blogger, farmer, father, and husband. I love countryside living, nature, farming (rice/vegetables), and has two decades of experience as an I.T. professional