Simple Life Matters

Save Trees by printing less, told by my Japanese Colleague. I am currently working as an Office Engineer and I am working on  a Monthly Progress Report for our Construction Project. The report usually exceeds 400 pages and when our Assistant Commercial Manager review the report, he told me to think about saving trees by printing less. So what we did is to put those sections of the report consuming many pages on a CD instead of printing so were able to minimize the hard copy of the report.  Printers consume paper, toner chemicals, and power. Reduce printing and you directly reduce the impact on your environmental footprint.  According to an article from Linkedin, World Paper Free Day used to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in October, but AIIM has recently moved it to a fixed date, November 6. On this day, businesses and people are encouraged to stop using paper for one day in order to stop being so reliant on paper.                                             Photo credit: Joseph

Here's the tutorial on how you can propagate your rubber tree easily. I have a multi-branch rubber tree mother plant (black prince) imported from Thailand which I bought from a local seller in Manila. I bought it in 2021 for five thousand eight hundred pesos, quite expensive at that time. This time you can buy the same size with multiple branches for around three to four thousand five hundred as I've seen from Cubao plant sellers. There are many ways to propagate rubber plants, you can just cut about 10 inches from its branch (top cut) and put it in a bottle with water, and much better if there's a rooting hormone. You can buy rooting hormones online for only five to ten pesos for a sachet. You can also use aloe vera stem as a rooting hormone. After cutting you can also directly plant it on the soil. But for a more rate of success, air layering or marcotting is the best way to propagate rubber plant. See below images of the actual propagation I have made thru marcotting. I

Backyard farming becomes popular during the COVID pandemic. People have learned to plant fruit-bearing trees and crops even in small spaces. Urban Gardening has been a fad in the Metro since there is limited space for gardening. Vertical gardening using pet bottles is one of the methods you can apply when residing in an apartment or condominium. You can have a DIY self-watering pot out of plastic bottles from empty Soft drink bottles. Okra just like eggplant is easy to grow whether on pots or planted directly in the soil. Since I have ample space in my backyard, I plant my Okra seedlings direct into the soil as you can see in the actual photo of my grown-up Okra plant below. The plant needs direct sunlight to grow faster and produce crops faster. You need to water the plant twice daily and you can use "Abono", Urea as a fertilizer or an organic fertilizer such as vermicast is much better if the vegetable is for personal consumption.

Growing Cucumber in our backyard is very easy. You can buy from Pant Garden which also sells vegetable seedlings for only four to five pesos depending on the size of the seedlings. You can also grow cucumber from seeds which you can buy from Puregold and SM Groceries. Preparing the soil:  Cultivate the soil to get it ready for the seedlings. Mostly, the existing backyard soil in the Philippines is almost ready to receive seedlings. If the soil is composed mostly of clay components, you can put garden soil and put on the toppings before planting the seedlings. Water and Sunlight: You need to water the seedling twice a day, before sunrise and after sunrise. The seedling needs enough sunlight to thrive faster. Trellis for Crawling: After two weeks from planting, you will need a trellis for the plant to crawl. After only one and a half months, we have already harvested the actual cucumber fruits. We used an improvised trellis made from bamboo and plastic straw. Please see the actual pictur

Monstera Thai Cons can be grown through tissue cultured. Which means it can be reproduced in mass numbers. Unlike Monstera Borsigiana Albo which can be propagated only by stem cuttings. And what does it mean. Anytime soon the supply of this plant will be greater than the demand and the producer of the plant mostly from Thailand will have to decrease its price.   I remember I have watch one plant vlogger and she said that she bought her Thai Cons (big size) before pandemic for only nine hundred pesos. And during pandemic the price of medium thai cons skyrocketed to forty thousand to eighty thousand and big size or extra large would cost as much as one hundred thousand pesos. I suggest for the buyer to wait the price drop before buying this beautiful pant. Because from personal experience, I have my medium size Thai Cons with only three leaves in 2021 for sixteen thousand pesos. This time you can but such for only three thousand five hundred to four thousand pesos. I believed in third qu

Another McDo toy collectibles is up for grab. I think, I will have to expand my McDo Toy cabinet to accommodate this new collectibles from McDo Happy Meals.  Weekend hits with the fam? Alam na this! Your Warner Bros. superheroes and all-time fave cartoons are waiting in every Happy Meal. Collect them all for your action-packed weekend fam bonding! Order via www.mcdelivery.com.ph!   

In my experience plants can also thrive well in Porcelain Ceramic pots. I used to plant and propagate mg favorite plants in a well-draining plastic pot and sometimes in a clay pot.  One time I tried to plant my Shangrila Pothos propagation in a ceramic pot and it thrive well. So on my next propagation of rare plants, I have chosen to plant them in imported porcelain pots (actual pictures below). Although there is only one hole at the bottom, I used a fast-draining soil mix so the water won't get stuck which might cause root rot. I used a mixture of coco fiber, coco cubes and loam soil to make the soil mix a bit loose. Coco fiber will retain moisture so you don't have to water the plant everyday. I have propagated my Adansonii Albo and Aurea, also my Variegated Bipen and Variegated Philodendron Burle Marx The photo above is five leafer Monstera Adansonii Aurea which I cut from a mother plant bought from Thailand.