Picking up the threads of gardening - 3

 As Covid receded, we started to venture out and explore our new city. While we knew some nice nurseries by now, we were on the lookout for a place to buy fibre glass pots.

The advantage of fibre-glass pots over plastic pots are that these are more durable in the sun. Plastic pots become brittle easily. In addition, these pots come in beautiful finishes and are sturdy, even in large sizes. Ofcourse, terracotta pots are my favourite, but they are limited in their shapes and sizes. So I buy them for specific plants only.

We found a good shop for fibre-glass pots on Google Maps. We bought two rectangle pots.

Now the question of what to plant? We wanted to place these in our bedroom balcony. This balcony was a utility baclony, so we wanted to plants that would survive without much fuss. But also, they should smell or look beautfiful. This time we went in for some flowering plants. 

I also saw an ad by IFFCO Urban Gardens on Instagram. This was the urban garden arm of IFFCO, who are known for seeds and fertilizers used in agriculture. They had luanched new potting soil and fertilizers for the urban gardeners. I really liked the look of their potting soil as it was a nice mix, designed to be light and airy.

Here's what the baclony looks like now.

Magic Soil by IFFCO

Jasmine

Rose, Wedelia

Picking up the threads of gardening - 2

This post is about the plants we brought back from our Delhi trip. My parents are avid gardeners themselves and can never walk by a nursery without buying a truckload of plants! So it is no surprise that they always have some to give us.

They picked up a jade plant for us from the nursery. 

Jade

My parents are also very fond of green tea in various forms. So they always have a Tulsi plant or two. This one was kept aside for us.

Tulsi

Finally, they picked up this plant from a trip they went on. My mother literally grabbed a handful of cuttings and planted them in various shallow containers. A few cuttings were given to us.

I found it really difficult to identify this plant. Even now I'm not sure whether this is right, but I think it is Pilea Depressa. It is really easy to propogate and looks beautiful cascading down, when placed at a height.

Pilea Depressa (Baby Toes)

Picking up the threads of gardening - 1

My last post was more than 2 years ago (I'm writing this in Oct'23). Not to say that we did not have plants during that time, it was more the fact that I did not have the mindspace to pick up the laptop over the weekend as well. 

So let's recap the last 2 years of our balcony garden, before we move onto our new balcony garden! As always, the posts are published according to the date the plants were bought.

The first thing to arrive after we bought the first set of plants, was a bonsai for Anshuman's birthday from my parents. It's a beautful looking plant! 

Ficus bonsai

Then for some unknown reason, we ordered a big loot from Nurserylive. This order was a big pain as they stalled the delivery for many weeks and communicated nothing to us. Then suddenly, 8 weeks later they came back to life and shipped everything. These are in 10 colourful plastic pots and we hope to brighten up our drawing room balcony with them.

As we get no sun at all, we picked plants that do well even without sunshine. Also, our plant selection consisted of only perrenials. This ensures that we do not have to do anything to maintain them, which is great because we have no tools.

Crotons, Spider Palm

Pandanus

Meanwhile, we also ordered some plants from Ugaoo because we were annoyed with Nurserylive. These were indoor plants.

Aglaonema Red, Money plant, Stromanthe Triostar plant

Snake plant

More about the next set of plants in the next post!