My New Hobby

It started a year ago... I was invited to my freelance workplace's event at The Garden By the Bay for a Kokedama workshop. Kokedama is a Japanese art form where a plant's root ball is covered with a soil mixture, wrapped in moss, and then bound with string to be displayed on a decorative surface or hung like a "string garden". The name translates to "moss ball" in Japanese, and it can be used as a decorative indoor or outdoor display, sometimes considered a more accessible version of bonsai.

So I came home with a version of the money plant and it soon sat on my balcony window ledge as that's the only place in the whole house that have good sunlight. When I bought my home 21 years ago, I was young and never considered keeping plants. I did tried but I soon realised the common corridor didn't have sunlight shining in as my house is a corner unit. Those previous plants I bought and kept at the corridor area all died eventually. So I didn't keep plants again for a long time.

And when I started relying on wheelchair after my incident, I started to have issues with inconsiderate neighbours who grow too many plants outside their corridors that I cannot access to the lift lobby. So somehow the moment I think of plants, I would be turned off thinking of these neighbours who made my life hell just for me trying to go out for work or stuff. So I never thought one day I would be interested to start my own mini garden.

I would try to water my lonely money plant once in a few days... but it wasn't doing well at first. So after a few months, I ordered a slow-acting fertilizer from an online supemart. And it started to grow a little better. But it seems so lonely by itself. Came August while I was on my way to bible school, I noticed a plant seller that would come occasionally to the market opposite my school. She told me she would come every fortnight to sell her plants by laying all her wares on the pathway outside the shops. I can't resist her super cheap deals (due to being a pop up stall) and bought a mint plant, a Japanese rose plant and a devil chili plant home that very day.

The additional 3 plants added a lot of colours and new life next to the lonely money plant. And when my last day of bible school came about a month later, I saw the pop up stall again and bought 2 more plants to add to my collection! And one of my bible school team mate also gifted me a plant when she saw my FB posts on my new hobby. In total I now have 7 plants!

I began to learn how much water is needed as I observed how each plant grows... or which plant needs more sunlight, etc. My mint plant is growing so well that I keep trimming to give away to my Hubby's part time Myanmar caregiver for her to consume. And I also realized that this new hobby helped me to still get up daily to walk around the house, so I won't slipped back into non active lifestyle when there's no more physical need to go school anymore. I would still make my way to the balcony to make sure I watered the plants and sprinkled some on the leaves or fruits up to 2-3 times a day as Singapore is pretty hot!

But flowering plants do not flowered so well and one pot is withering away. So tomorrow I am planning to go to the market and hope the pop up stall would be there again. I am planning to look for more herbal type of plants (curry leaf plant/lime plant/lemongrass plant/pandan leaf plant/rosemary plant, etc) that I can use for cooking. As well as getting some soil & fertilizer so I can change some of my current plants to bigger pot size. I do wish for a bigger space for my garden but Singapore land is scarce so I should be contented with my city life apartment with a balcony already.

Currently my balcony is also used for laundry once or twice a week. Thus I also felt that I need to re-organize the limited area again to define the tiny spaces well. Good to keep myself busy with these home improvement stuff that made my day!