WEEKEND SPENT GARDENING

Spent the weekend gardening with my family. Chinese New Year is just a week away so it was indeed time to spruce up the garden. The grass hasn't been cut for a while now and weeds were everywhere! Usually my daughter hates gardening. She just can't stand dirt on her hands. But last Saturday, for some inexplicable reasons, she actually joined in. Ryan on the other hand loves gardening.

Actually Ryan and Darlene do not really do any "gardening". Much of the time they will be digging out chunks of earth from any one of the unfortunate potted plants and transfer the earth to anywhere they fancy at that moment. Many a beautiful plant has died this painful death. Still, it was good to have them out in the garden and doing something instead of watching Pooh Bear or Narnia or Shrek for the hundreth times (I lost count).



It was a nice surprise to see the flower on my aloe vera which I wrote about earlier has become taller! I can't wait till it blooms, perhaps in time for the CNY.

Much to my utter chagrin, I discovered that my curry leaf plant has been infested by some really really ugly bugs that makes the leaves look sickly and unsightly. I
didn't take any pics of those bugs, figuring they are too ugly for this blog. Ugh! I spent a fair bit of time pruning away all the dying leaves and also spraying inseticides on the remaining healthy ones.



My custard apple tree has been likewise invaded by a whole gang of these tiny "praying mantises". They don't really cause much damage to the leaves. Still, praying didn't help as they went the same way as those ugly bugs.



My lime trees were infested with little catepillars. No wonder my lime did not bloom this year. Sigh.



Our nice little time in the garden were rudely interrupted by what at first seemed like a swarm of locusts but were actually very angry bees. Some idiots must have disturbed their quiet slumber in their nests on the trees just down the road. We had to run helter-skelter to find shelter. Thankfully no one was stung. My son was totally in awe to see the sky temporary darkened by the insects and the loud humming sound in the sky! My daughter could have won an Oscar screaming her lungs out. She should audition for one of those scream fest movies.


Darlene decided to "decorate" the plants a bit with "fishes" and "lanterns" made out of ang pows (red packets containing money traditionally given out during CNY). She made the lanterns herself while her grandpa made the fishes.



After a few hours, the garden was spick and span and ready for the coming new year.