Monday 27 July 2015

Mushrooms growing at Goodview Garden

I Yesterday morning, I walked past the garden and found some mushrooms among the small little plants. The little plants were newly planted and maybe some spores might had landed on the new soil and the conditions were right for the mushrooms to grow. I wonder what kind of mushrooms are these and whether they are edible.
 
Mushrooms
Mushrooms
 
Mushrooms
Mushrooms
Mushrooms
Mushrooms
When I past by again in the late evening, the mushrooms had withered. I think that the conditions were optimum in the morning for the mushrooms to grow but as the temperature got higher and surrounding became warmer, the conditions were not good for the mushrooms to survive.

Mushrooms have withered
Mushrooms have withered
The next morning, new mushrooms start to appear among the little plants. Those edible mushrooms that I have seen will probably last a week. I think either the conditions were not right or they are not edible. Anyone has information on these mushrooms?

Saturday 4 July 2015

Pitcher Plant Repotting into DIY Hanging Pot

For many months, I have planted the pitcher plant in a glass container and left it outside on the window sill. It was growing well but recently due to the hot weather, the pitcher plant starts to dry up and turn brown. The pitcher plant still grows new leaves but the browning of leaves are at a faster pace than the new growth.

It is annoying to see this and I'm thinking of bringing the pitcher plant into the room and want to hang it on the window grills. I have done a DIY container before and wanted to make another one for this pitcher plant.

Today is a good day to repot the pitcher plant.

Pitcher Plant with drying leaves
Pitcher Plant with dried leaves
I have some dried sphagnum moss that I bought last year. I took out some and soaked them into the water. Oops, I forgot to use distilled water and had used tap water instead. My mistake. You must remember that the pitcher plant needs distilled water instead of tap water. I think the minerals and chemicals in the tap water are damaging to the pitcher plant. I put the sphagnum moss into the container and pressed them firmly. But before I do this, I had punctured 9 holes in the plastic cap of the bottle. This will allow for drainage of excess water. Using my fingers, I had cleared an opening in the middle of the sphagnum moss for the pitcher plant.

DIY Hanging Pot
DIY Hanging Pot
I removed the pitcher plant from the old container. I removed the excess soil from the roots and using a cutter to cut away all the dried leaves.
Removing the Pitcher Plant from the pot
Removing the Pitcher Plant from the pot
I placed the pitcher plant into the centre hole and covered the top with more sphagnum moss. The repotting is done and I used some ropes to secure the container and made it into a hanging pot.
Trimmed away the dried leaves
Trimmed away the dried leaves
Mission accomplished! DIY Hanging Pot
Mission accomplished! DIY Hanging Pot