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Vegetable gardening using H-CUPS

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For this year, my new learning is using H-Cups...Hydroponics.  Using the SNAP solution invented at the UP Los Banos center, Filipinos can now start low-cost hydroponics.  I'm still learning the process. Its definitely not as easy as it looks and as always, I advise patience. I did two versions.  One is using bottles and the other is in big container. My first mistake was using seedlings that were still too young.  I advise you to start with seedlings that have already at least 2 young leaves and not just their first sprout. Materials needed to set up: 1. Styro cup 2. Container for the solution 3. Vermiculite 4. solution 5. Seedling Just these 5 materials and you're all set to start. You'll know its a success if at the end of the day and your seedling is still alive, they are doing well using the H-cup. My first batch using plastic bottles already survived a week. Well only 3 cups out of 12 cups I started with survived. Reality bites. But I'm...
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Container Gardening_Sweet Basil

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My  love for gardening started with my success in growing Sweet Basil. That was 7 years ago, 2010. Below is my picture with my new tools and this feels just like yesterday... Seven years later, I am still at it.  I now grow my basil from cuttings and I have lost count of how many generations of basils I've had from my original seedlings. Whenever I prune my basil plants before thy bolt, I set aside seedlings into glass containers. Just put them in water and leave them at a sunny spot for 2 weeks and voila! they're ready to be planted. I've learned to freeze my basils. I don't use that much for pesto anyway. I first run them through a food processor and just put them in ice trays.  No water or oil needed.  Sometimes I run out of ice trays so I just keep them in plastic.  This has been proven helpful since there are times that I became busy and my garden was not at its best condition...yes my plants do die at some point.  But every time, I st...
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Container Gardening _ Tomatoes

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Raising my first batch of Tomatoes has been a success.  This batch contains seeds sent from Canada so I'm looking forward to how it will look different from our local tomatoes. Starting from seeds is quite easy once you know the trick. First, make sure you use organic soil. I use compost from our "project green" which is an advantage. But I have started with ordinary soil before and were relatively successful as long as it has good drainage. Second, it helped that I covered my seed tray with plastic to keep the moisture.  The pictures shown below clearly show moisture and you don't have to make holes. After 5 days, I think we had 90% success in sprouting our seeds. But only 25% of our sprouts grew into seedlings. Here's how it looks after 2 weeks. I planted them in their containers already and I used 3 seedlings max in a pot. After about 4 weeks, I added stakes already to encourage growth.  By this stage, the plants were growing very...
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My Garden

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A new inspiration for me is my garden.  It is still a work in progress but it has been a great pick me up when I have so many worries in my mind.  I will be posting my work soon as I share my everyday victories in the garden.
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I Love my Husband

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I was named after a woman who dedicated her life to her husband.  She outsmarted the God of death and put the interests of her husband first in her life.  She never gave up and with all her will power, she gave her husband all his dreams.  That is how I hope to be for Jamie...
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I love to Run

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I love how Running is helping me  meet my weight targets.  Ever since I hit my 30s, I've been struggling with my weight.  I don't want to blame my pregnancy since my husband made sure I was within my weight limits then.  It began after I gave birth when I was free to choose what I ate, I found myself eating without control.  I used to think when I was in my twenties that hitting weights over 130 would be impossible.  My mom was 138 lbs and I thought she was huge.  This year, I hit that weight and I actually thought I was okay.  Cringe!@#! Thankfully, my husband got me already interested in running. Of course, I also realized its important to change my diet.  Just exercising without changing my diet proved futile in my earlier attempts to lose weight.  I finally found the diet and running combination that is now helping me lose weight.  I've lost 8 kg to date and I'm honestly taking it slow.  What's important is to change my lif...
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The Love of my Life...

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Last night, my newly engaged BFF and I had a long talk about love and marriage life.  With caution, I shared some of my wisdom, or so I think, from my 7 years of marriage.  Instantly, I had to dig deep from my own memories with the goal of assuaging her cold feet. The funny part of it was it was not as hard as I thought it would be... Although miles away, Jamie has remained as sweet, caring, demanding husband he has always been.  I love him for who he is and how he can show me the realities surrounding me.  He is an artist and a realist. He is hardworking and at the same time knows how to have fun. He is daring at the same time cowardly. He is generous and at the same time selfish. He is diligent but is totally impatient. He is older but young in spirit, he loves music that I don't get, he has an eye for beauty in unlikely places, he is the life of a party, he is original, he is my better half. God has his way of leading us to our fate as long as we follow.  I...
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