My roof top container garden

Welcome back readers! In the quest of adding more color to my garden, recently I have acquired two Azalea plants. Azaleas are a bit difficult growers. There are certain things that needs to be taken care of if we add Azaleas to our garden. The first and the foremost requirement of an Azalea plant is the type and quality of potting mix that is being used to grow these plants. I went through a number sites and browsed various pages so as to conclude on the use of the best potting mix required for these plants. Last year I had killed one of my Azalea by choking its root in a poor quality soil. The characteristics that the potting mix should have is it most be porous so as to circulate enough air in between the  roots and provide good drainage to the excessive water, at the same time the soil should be able to store enough moisture. The soil must have enough organic matter. The potting mix that I have used is half part of soil and one part each vermicompost, compost, cow dung manu...

Gerbera are easy to care for. They can be grown both indoors and outdoors, in pots or directly on the ground. However there are a few things that needs to be taken care of. I will be sharing a few tips for growing gerberas. Soil: I have been using mixture of soil and cow dung manure, and a bit of leaf mulch and believe me, the plants are doing great. But we need to make sure the potting mix is well drained. Light: The plant needs to be kept in direct sunlight for heavy blooms in spring, however with increasing summer  temperatures the plant requires some afternoon shade. Water:  Water your gerberas thoroughly but  make sure the excess water must drain out or else soggy potting mix will lead to root rot. Water your gerberas only when you see the top soil is dry ( do not overwater your gerbs ) Pruning: Remove the dead flower heads and the dead leaves.( you may sun dry the leaves and add them as mulch). Removing the dead flower heads encourages new buds and new gr...

Periwinkles ( Catharanthus roseus ) also commonly known as vinca, rose periwinkle, cape periwinkle are the most common plant that can be easily grown either indoor or outdoor. These are fast growing shrubs which can also form a very good ground cover. The pink or white periwinkles are most easily spotted plant in India. I find them growing everywhere in my locality... beside roads, wall of old buildings, rooftop to name a few.  A mature periwinkle plant, with lots of flower,  attracts ants, bees and other pollinating agent, as a result of pollination they develop seed pods. These seed pods rapture, seeds are scattered which results into new saplings making this plant sometimes invasive in the garden. There are various hybrid varieties of periwinkle which can be easily grown at home. I bought some vincas for there beautiful display of flower. They look attractive and add a lot of color in the garden. Last year due to heat I lost my two vinca plants. I had a red vinca plant...