Mommy Pehpot, Author at Mommy Pehpot

My mother’s thumb is so green she can make everything come to life.. plants I mean. She throws a mango seed in front of our house and now a year after it’s going bigger and greener everyday. Oh well, I don’t have the same thumb as her (but there is something in me that is as green LOL).For any consolation though, whatever I plant, it grows, it’s not just like her that even seeds that she just throw, grows. I like planting, really (why do I have this feeling that nobody will believe me). I never talked about it right? Because I don’t plant that much. You see, we don’t have a lawn or even a place where I can get soils. It would too hassle for me to look around for a healthy soil.

Really, I would love to have a small garden of herbs and spices and some local plants like oregano, tanglad and other medicinal plants. But sine I don’t have enough soil, I have been putting that off for a long time now. Then I heard about GreenHearts’ Enrico. A soil less mix that is perfect for planting fruits and herbs.

ENRICO is made from an ultra-rich blend of natural ingredients and premium organic fertilizers. It is packed with all the nutrients your potted edibles need to perform the task of producing fresh fruits and greens continuously for your kitchen table. Supplement with fresh applications of organic fertilizers beginning two months after potting up.

ENRICO is pH neutral, making it well-suited for most edibles grown in the tropics
ENRICO is ideal for herbs, vegetables and fruits from seedling stage onwards
In case you’re wondering about the name — it’s called ENRICO because it’s ENRIChed Organically! That’s why it’s Enric-O!

This would be a perfect mixture for my herbs and spices. So late last week, I tried it with two pots of Basil:

SOIL- LESS.. so what is wrong about our soil? and what are the benefits of going soil-less?

from the website of GreenHearts:

Ordinary garden soil is generally made up of loam, clay, silt, stones, organic matter and a multitude of organisms (both good and bad), soil-borne diseases, weed-seeds and even bits of trash. Potted plants will have to deal with the diseases, pests and weeds that come with the soil — the effects of which are aggravated in the confines of a pot. In addition, when plain garden soil is used in pots, it gets hard or compacted over time and both water and air find it difficult to get to the plant roots.

Good quality soil-less potting mixes are made up of varying proportions of organic matter and other naturally-occurring materials that have been pre-measured to give the perfect levels of aeration, drainage and moisture-retention for maximum plant performance. If you’ve ever purchased a potted plant from a professional grower or a plant nursery, you will notice that a special mix was used as the growing medium, not ordinary soil. Any soil used by nurseries for pots is also sterilized to remove harmful soil-borne bacteria, pests and weed seeds before it is mixed in with other ingredients. The mixture changes depending on the plant.

The absence of dirt and mud in soil-less mixes is also of extra benefit to the urban gardener. Garden with a soil-less mix and you’ll spend a fraction of the time washing your hands afterwards — no cloying mud clinging to your skin and under your fingernails. Not only are soil-less potting mixes cleaner, they’re also lighter –- making it easier to move pots in and out of the house.

But how can we be assured that SOIL LESS can really deliver the need of our plants?

All our formulas have been garden-tested at GreenHearts and are proven to deliver the best results. Give your plants the best home they can get and help ensure their happiness and health. Choose from our various soil-less formulas — there’s one to suit your needs.

Other soil- less formulas are:

PLANTASTIC- All-Purpose Soil-less Mix
RED EARTH- For flowers
MEDITERRANEA- For high-pH loving herbs
HOMEGROWN- Seed-Starting Mix
BROMELIAD MIX

and of course ENRICO.

Where to buy and how much?

Plantastic, Enrico and Plantastic Red Earth are available nationwide in 6 liter bags at:

Ace Hardware
Corner Hardware
Handyman Do-it-Best
GreenHearts
SM Hardware Workshop
Robinsons True Value

Homegrown and Plantastic Bromeliad Mix are available at Ace Hardware branches nationwide.

All other package sizes (2L, 18L and 100L) and other soil-less mix varieties are available exclusively at Thyme Square. Call GreenHearts at (02) 411-6868 for inquiries or email questions@soil-less.com. Like Enrico Soil-less at Facebook.

And voila! The start of my herbs garden (kilig moment here). I’ll be back for more updates. This week, I’ll buy more pots this week and more plants.

So I have been shopping lately saying NO to plastic bags. Bought some toys for the kids last week and I did not use plastic bag. If ever I will buy some natural acne treatment, I won’t use plastic bag either. Let me see if I can remember all the plastic bags I said no to this week.

Picking up from my last post about saying no to plastic bags, my last post then was Wednesday. Oh! I can’t remember what I did then. LOL Anyways, last Monday, went to an event and then drop by at Robinson’s to buy them some animals, 1 plastic. I really should have a notebook for this.. I am getting more forgetful everyday. Friday and I went to Ever Dept Store and I forgot to bring my bag. Good thing EVER was selling nice and big eco bags. And why I am in that store yesterday? I bought some plastic wears, REUSABLE may I add. And for what?

As my title says, we are making a drastic change on wet market shopping. It means that our NO to plastic move will now move to our fish, meat and seafood shopping. And the solution is to bring our own plastic container. I realized that whenever we buy meat, each cut was placed in two plastics. Imagine if we are to buy 10 cuts, that would be 20 plastics! not to mention the bigger plastic bag where it will be placed. In our effort to make this world greener, cleaner and better, we are now going to use REUSABLE plastic containers on our wet goods.

How about you? What are you doing to make our world a lot safer for our kids?