edenstrauss

This is my bottle of IJO Organic Worm Castings which is pre-packed in an air-tight bottle and could be bought from nurseries owned by Far East. When Powan of IJO Corporation first introduced the idea of worm castings to me, I had mistaken such fertilisers as that being derived from compost as that's commonly practiced & featured in You-tube videos. By the time I realised what worm castings was, I almost gagged as I was munching on some titbits while reading up on what that was. Worm castings is the FAECES (i.e. stools) of worms!!! So here's how IJO organic worm castings look like - due to the lighting effect, the actual colour of the worm castings are alot darker than what's shown in the photograph below. Contrary to our expectations & creative imagination whereby faeces / stools are being associated with bad stench, the worm castings had a very earthy smell & is far from being revolting & assaulting to our common senses as humans!

Hi folks, I've finally got my hands on an air-tight bottle of organic worm castings to be made into worm tea for watering my plants every morning. Firstly, I would like to share that I got this through IJO Corporation who is the owner of their housebrand of worm castings which could be bought from nurseries owned by Far East. This was first introduced to me by IJO Corporation when I had difficulties locating their organic fertiliser in the form of gray granules. And I was pleasantly surprised when IJO volunteered to acquire & set up the dispenser for the worm tea in my home so as to facilitate the use of worm tea with great ease for first-timers like myself. The outcome was great! And before I draw on the conclusion as to why IJO's organic worm castings are great for my plants, please allow me to share how the organic worm tea had been prepared by IJO's professional representative, Powan. I would like to take this opportunity here in this thread to thank Powan from IJO Corporation for her time & effort in doing whatever she has done for me as a plant owner & for imparting knowledge & gardening skills - Just look at the photographs of the outcome of my plants after the use of IJO's fertilisers & you'll understand why I'm so grateful as my "babies" are well-taken care of with the use of IJO Organic Worm Tea & of course, in conjunction with "behind-the-scenes" support from Powan of IJO Corporation. And to thank her & IJO Corporation for 2 bottles of their complimentary worm tea which had been dispensed from the office. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Disclaimer: Permission has been sought from IJO Corporation Pte Ltd for their products, such as IJO Organic Worm Castings & Organic neem Pesticide to be featured in this thread. Kindly note that this thread is strictly for the purpose of sharing my humble & objective views of the value-added services & gardening products e.g. fertilisers provided by the aforesaid company. And is not an advertising platform. I am not affliated to this company and am an existing client who had a very good response from my plants after we started using IJO Organic Worm Castings & its neem pesticide. Reader's discretion is therefore sought when viewing this thread. For the ease of viewing and any enquiries related to IJO's contact numbers & address, the company's address & telephone numbers are uploaded in photographs featuring their products. Thank you for visiting this thread & showing your support as a lover for nature.

I think it's an inherent in a cat's nature to be scratching as it's trying to sharpen its claws. We've encountered a few stray cats who loved stratching their claws against bicycle tyres even though a huge tree with a thick sturdy trunk was jux planted next door. And the thing about cats is that they aren't like dogs. They have a mindset of their own & I found them challenging to train to the likes of that of pet dogs.

Hi folks, I have finally decided on an Electrolux cooker hood EFC-9563X. Would be updating further details after it had been instdlled...

I managed to take a snap shot of the plants during the late evening on 11th January 2012.

Photographs taken in the late afternoon, towards evening when the sun has already set about a couple of hours ago :

More photographs of the buds bursting open when they are fully bloomed on 11 January 2012 :

More photographs of buds being pushed out of the red "scales" & in the process of blooming soon.

I thought that this was really cute as the flower bud had been pushed out right at the top of the red "corn". It's quite a pity that the red "corn" was burnt off earlier in view of overfertilising & also, over watering. Before the flower buds were being pushed out of the red "scales", it had already started rotting. After the unbloomed buds rot & die off, they would simply turn brown & dry up like how it's featured in the above photograph.

Did you see the flower (which had already been "attacked" by the bird) being flanked by 2 other flower buds which are going to bloom at any point in time.

After we made such a discovery by the naughty bird, we no longer based its presence on its chirping since it's been quiet nowadays. Instead, the freshly bloomed buds which were marked with such holes were a very clear indication that the silly bird has already visited & drank its fill of flower nectar.

The latest news about our regular visitor, the olive-backed sunbird, is that it has gone mute as it came without chirping at all. Initially, when I spotted these holes on all my flower buds, I thought that the plants were infested with worms. And there was further confusion as my plant was also concurrently undergoing the after-effects of over-fertilising. However, before I barge into the nursery to consult the Aunty who coached me in gardening, I caught the olive-backed sunbird red-handed. Well, it didn't commit the "crimes" with any hands since they weren't part of its anatomy. We discovered that instead of sticking its long, pin-like beak into the opening at the top of flower buds, it was a really lazy bird. Our friend use its pin-like beak to prick the flower buds & finally drilled a huge hole into the buds mid-way to suck out the flower nectar. As such, there were many pin--like holes & 1 huge gaping hole on all the flowers buds. If you asked me if it looked awful, yes it does affect the appearance of the poor plants.

new shoots (continued) : The new shoot growing out from the stem of the mother plant has already been harvested & repotted in the neighbourhood nursery. In fact, we were surprised that the new shoot grew out from the stem of the main plant even though the red "corn" has still been blooming actively! In the past, when we "harvest" the stem-bound newly grown "babies", the mother plant was already ready to be cut away from the flower pot as it had already withered or is already withering. However, these recent ocassions fascinated us as the mother plant was still thriving & blooming healthy with flowers.

Photographs of new additions to the "Ginger" family: (The grayish blackish spot that you see on the baby shoot is dirt; the wind is extremely strong. As such, there's alot of dust & dirt on the plants.)

Hi folks, I've taken some new photographs of my "Ginger" plants & I noticed that there are new flower blooms almost every day without the use of fertiliser. Thus, it is true that a good compost soil is extremely important for optimum growth of plants. Here comes some of the photographs - I've got more which I would upload later on as I couldn't resist taking photographs of the plants as they were blooming so prettily that they have become a heart-stopper for any nature lovers. This batch of photographs were taken in the late morning when there was a slight dizzle:

Hi folks, so sorry for the delay as everything DIY is on hold until probabbly after the CNY. We're crawling @ snail's speed in getting things done after resting for a couple of months. Once we have relocated our swing door cabinets, photographs of the finished product with the cabinet standing on the newly created base would be uploaded on this thread. Thank you for your kind patience & understanding!

More photographs of Ddung dolls - PENDING

More photographs of Ddung dolls - PENDING

Another portrait of the D-I dolls

I would like to refer to these Ddung-inspired dolls as the D-I dolls in this thread as it's quite a handful of letters to type on the keyboard ... In view of time constraints, I have uploaded a portrait of the D-I dolls that I have bought recently. Here comes ... The D-I dolls

More photographs of my niece's Ddung-inspired dolls: This is a photograph of the doll being taken under white lighting. This other photograph is taken in my storeroom under warm light during the night. The doll would look alot better if the photography was taken during the day as there would be a combination of both natural light & the warm light @ the same location. Although I've not seen the original Ddung dolls in person yet, they were supposedly made in Korea & are definitely more well-made & unlike these Ddung-inspired dolls from the Pasar Malam, the accessories of the authentic versions could be taken down & allows a a change of clothes, shoes, pins, hats, etc. I even came across a version online whereby the collection came with a snood & netting for bunning up the Ddung doll's hair! She looks absolutely beautiful & exquisite in her finery.

As for my niece's doll & the other newbie, he had done such a terrific & neat job of extracting the chain from the crown of their head. I was relieved that they had emerged unscath from the minor "surgery".

Pulling off the chain that was attached to the doll's head The Ddung-inspired dolls came with a chain embedded at the top of their heads as you would realise if you have seen any of them being sold @ the local Pasar Malam here in Singapore. Chances are these dolls were manufactured & shipped from China. And as we all would have realised by now, the manufacturers for fashionable stuff in China are fond of duplicating what's popular among the reputable designers but adding "extras" to differentiate their versions from the originals. These dolls were no exception. They too weren't spared of being embellished with "extras" such as keychains or a string for attaching them to mobile phones. Well, I didn't think that iPhone had such a function for hanging objects... Anyways, that string of chain which was attached to the crown of the doll's head was redundant for us so my hubby had decided to take the risk of removing the chain with 2 pliers. However, we didn't try it out straight on the doll that we were going to give to our niece. We went back to the stall the following day & selected 2 other dollies. The first doll that he tried on was quite a disaster: He twisted the catch the wrong way & by the time the chain came off with the arrow-shaped "plug", the doll's hair at the crown area came loose! The doll is spotting a bald patch across her crown from ear to ear. (PHOTO on balding patch on top of doll's head) To improvise it, I have decided to paste a strip of pink velvet ribbon to that crown area when I've got the time & I'm sure that little doll would still look pretty!

Prior to passing the doll to her, I've decided that the doll looked too plain for a fashion-conscious & vain pot like myself. As such, I've stitched on tiny white pearls on the doll's dress & even added a multi-string of pearls with the help of my hubby as it was quite a challenge for us to swirl it around the neck of the doll such that there's a multi-layering effect. Without it becoming an entangled mess... Isn't this Ddung-inspired doll cute?

This is the first Ddung doll that I acquired @ a Pasar Malam stall set up in Tampines Central. The purpose of acquiring this doll was for my 3 year old niece whose a bubbly, adorable toddler fast blooming into a pretty little rose! The little girl loved it as the doll looked absolutely appealing to the eyes of even adults like myself & the rest of the family members.