Created a swamp on my balcony. And no, I didn't just flood the thing (well, to be honest, with all that soil flying around there, it does need flushing once a day, not to mention the rainy season adding to the humidity levels this past month but...).
So there the unsuspecting me was grocery shopping the other day. One of the fun things our favourite shop carries is a small selection of live plants - usually some random pretty-flowers-until-they-wilt things or succulents - fun to glance at, continue on to the meat section and forget about. At least that's been the routine for most of the past year. I seriously regret not getting only one thing - a mess of tied bramble vines that appeared once and never since. Thought I wouldn't have space for it so didn't get it, oeh...
Well, I am sometimes (seldom, hah) known to learn from my mistakes, so when a few 200yen pots of octopus-cranberries (as in, the plant in pot with the long creeping branches just dangling down) showed up, I grabbed one, somehow managed to do all of the rest of the shopping one-handed and brought the little guy home.
But, you see, cranberries really are not well known for their draught and heat tolerance (37 C in shade atm, any takers?). Not to mention that the thing had been stuffed into a seriously tiny pot full of... well.. soil. I, however, have seen the actual habitat of this particular species, so no with no excuses, off to a hyaku-en shop it was.
Up next on the reality show - H sitting on the balcony in the dark covered up to the elbows with whoknowswhat stuffing a large pot full of 4 packs of peat moss, then trying to make the entire thing stay in a bucket of water (without floating up and tipping over) until it soaks the water up, then having a long and serious negotiation with the octopus about entering said pot and not grabbing onto every single other thing in the narrow space, D, in the meanwhile, having an almighty laugh about it all.
I won. And the mini-swamp looks amazingly cute, half-formed berries on the moss, the pot sitting in a deep plate I probably need to be refilling daily once the rains are done. Only thing left to do is to make a harness and hang the entire construction on the wall (spacial issues, remember, also didn't think trying to accomplish that in the dark was too bright of an idea, pun intended) and keep eyes open to find a flytrap or sth as company for the cranberry. ... Well, IF I manage to keep that alive for long enough, of course. Ah, which reminds me, was supposed to go and check the pH of the moss-water. BRB.
...
Shoot, still too high.
...
What, as thou everyone didn't have several packs of different range pH strips at home...
Anyway, I suppose I just found the one and only reason for why our kitchen water-filter has an acidic-water setting.
Cheers,
Hedi
