Sunday 18 September 2011

The Lemon Tree




   One of the few "fruit trees" to bear fruit on my terrace, this lemon tree is loaded with lemons. I picked up the sapling from a local nursery. Not very sure of the exact species, but it produces an abundance of fruit.
   This small "tree" was bearing so much fruit that my mom had to pickle it so that it doesn't get wasted.

Thursday 15 September 2011

Water Lilies in bloom


  Its been a few months since I pushed tiny bulbs into the "water containers". Now I have white and pink blooms showing up every other day.
 Container water gardening was something I always wanted to try, so I just moved an old glass aquarium to the terrace and setup my first water lily container. Now i have two containers with three varieties of lilies.

Setting up a water lily container is simple, all you need is:
  • Any container that holds water, I have tried glass, cement and plastic.
  • At least six inches of heavy garden soil (more the better) at the bottom of the container.
  • Six to twelve inches of water above the soil.
  • A variety of lily that is suitable for your climate. I live in Bangalore so almost any variety will thrive here.
  • Plenty of sunlight (At least six hours of sunlight)
 White lilly, water cabbage and rush grass

Night blooming tropical lily


   I also fertilized the soil before adding water. I used regular garden fertilizer and topped it with layer of regular soil without fertz (hoping the fertilizer doesn't leach out into the water and cause an algae bloom, it worked :)).
  Oh, I forgot to mention that I also have a few fish in the containers. Mollies in the cement tanks (shown in picture) and gold fish in the glass tanks.