Jardinerong Sunog (the Burnt Gardener)

When my then girlfriend and I went to Ilocos Norte on northern Luzon two years ago, I saw some plants growing on the beach which I thought at first to be Sesuvium portulacastrum , from the Family Aizoaceae . I collected one and it established well for me in no time. So well, that I soon found seedlings growing nearby- seedlings that grew fast and produced more seedlings. I brought home an invader. Two years later and the descendants from that original plant is still with me, growing where they should not be. Admittedly, I could have adopted a more drastic stance and these plants would have been gone long ago, but I still could not resist having them around. Here below is an illegal occupant on a pot of a blue Clitoria ternatea : And here you can see the tiny black seeds from an opened capsule; in a matter of days I am going to see tiny replicas appearing on neighboring plants' pots. I suppose this species is apomictic, or forming viable seeds even without pollination. The...

For this post I am going to show to you how to easily root succulent cuttings and divisions using materials available from your nearby hardware store. And for this purpose, all you are going to need is equal parts S1 (left) and white sand (right): You can use either sifted or unsifted white sand and S1, but you cannot use both materials in their sifted form because the mix would be too fine which can impede air circulation around the forming roots. In this post I am using unsifted S1 and sifted white sand. White sand, by the way, is mined from the lahar fields of Central Luzon and is where pumice stones are obtained. White sand is NOT the same as the more commonly available river/construction sand! S1 is crushed aggregate from basalt rocks; it's the same material as ordinary gravel used in construction. If you are keen, you can tweak the mix slightly by adding other minerals; when I do, I often use laterite (often available in some pet shops, especially those that cater to aq...