gejala pokok | symptomatic trees

jst got a new toy last week…a PDA! & now i’m blogging with it the possibilities are endless. all i need is wifi & some funky plants & away we go! heheh… YAY

There was a silent intruder on the bryophyllum pot yesterday evening.

When mukaketupat watered it in the morning, it was simply a weird, aggressively-growing pot of pure bryophyllum. When I showed it off to C5 at 4pm, it was still simple a weird, aggressively-growing pot of pure bryophyllum. When tukangkebun came over last night to check out our CPs, it was not longer so pure and simple.

What did we see? Mushrooms!

Where did it come from? How did it manage to grow so fast? Are they aliens? Will they invade all the other plants and spread their spores far and wide? Are there smurfs living in the mushrooms? Can they make magic? What will happen to the bryophyllum now?

Should we panic?(!!!)

In tribute to Louise Gluck, Pulitzer Prize winning poet who uses plants as metaphors, here’s an:

Ode to the Magic Mushroom

Suddenly and without warning you appear
into my life, like the Spice Girls;
Reluctantly I find myself humming
your tunes, seeing
your hues, admiring
your gestures;
I didn’t sow you, or carefully tend to
your needs for survival -
Yet there you are, invading my
peace, my space, my
Emotions.

Oh mushroom, you’re magic,
You almost make me frantic
with weird imagination.

The End

*ahem*

p/s: They have died today (aww…) and no other plants seem to have been invaded. I wonder what else gardening would teach me!

i’m going crazy. i used to have a life. blissful hours of vegging out in front of the telly, going places, seeing people - all the things that makes a person normal.

but the past few weeks, all i’ve done is spend hours, hours, checking on my little seedlings, getting all stressed out and turning into an anxious wreck, panicking over transplanting needs.. even my web search habit has changed drastically.

i used to read socio-political blogs, blogs on poetry, arts stuff, news. but now? all i read are gardening blogs. all kinds of gardening blogs. gardeners who rant, gardeners who rave, gardeners who love their gardens, gardeners who hate other gardeners… it’s a mad, mad world. and it’s not even been a month yet since i started this obsession.

now i have more than twenty pots of seedlings in multiple sizes needing light, shade, water, coaxing conversations, all kinds of attention. i’m really afraid that i might not get out of this bubble. and i’m so totally, crazy in love with this.

oh dear.

so, back to more important things

my sunflowers are doing great! there’s true leaves showing, and none of them have keeled over or died yet. which is super cool. here’s a latest picture.

they’re still under florescent light in the toilet, and i think i might have to invest in some table lamp thing soon. i can’t keep one toilet occupied by pots and trays forever. also a little worried that they shouldn’t be under constant light, so i’m going to give them a rest tonight and switch it off. hopefully they will still be happy and standing tall tomorrow. please, please, please…

so since the sunflowers are alright, decided to transplant the balsam and the sage as well ’cause they were getting a little leggy. also the phlox, ’cause it doesn’t look so healthy sitting in that big pot.

same exercise: take out the gardening mat, mixing up the soil (regular hummus mix, with a little bit of peat moss and vermiculite, and layering the bottom of the pot with coconut fibre), putting it in the pot, carefully pricking out the seedlings with a chopstick, then spoon, then fork (works the best if seedlings are quite tiny), putting them in new pots with more space between each one so that they can grow, tamping down the soil around the roots and stem gently, water from below, and under the florescent light they go (just for the night).

very, very anxious that they might suffer the same fate as the statice, but this morning, they seemed fine! no flopping over, no looking like they’re shriveling up slowly but surely, no signs of impending death.

yay!

the phlox, as of an hour ago.

the sage with new leaves still growing fine. though this particular one suffered from my clumsy fingers. one of the cotyledons snapped off when i was trying to loosen it from the soil. but with a lot of hope (and pillow talk :|), hopefully it’ll turn out fine.

and finally the balsam. notice the one that also suffered from my clumsy fingers - with more dire effect. i snapped off not only one of the cotyledons, but severed the other one as well. boo hoo! may the others survive in lush-fullness.

that took more than 2 hours and a very cramped back. ah well, they’re worth it

Cinta durian

Cintaku padamu bagaikan durian;
mungkin disalah anggap,
mungkin dianggap hodoh,
mungkin dihodohi mereka
yang tak faham apa tu cinta.

Tetapi jikalau pernah
dibaham berahi durian,
mesti mengangguk-angguk
mengerti nikmat
bau & taklimat
cinta ni yang berjiran syurga

Oh, cintaku padamu
yang bagaikan durian;
Berisi montok,
Tak tertahan keharuman.

Janganla malu, tersipu-sipu,
Jolokkan sayang dan keghairahanmu.
Janganla biar ku sepi berseorang,
Memakan durian, dipandang songsang.
Marilah bercangkung bersama-sama
Memeluk cinta
Durian kita.

Sekian, terima kasih.