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Day 3 for Spring Garden Show 2019

Saturday, April 27, 2019

I arrived early, around 8 am for one hour of Vinyasa Yoga with Lulumon. I parked inside the parking garage, and went to the South Coast Plaza Terrace, between a café and Macys. I noticed three ducks in one of the modern fountains. It looks cool and cloudy. At 8:30 am, 20 people showed up with their yoga mat. The Lulumon instructor led us in one hour of Vinyasa Yoga. At 9:30 am, salespeople from Macys passed out coupons. After placing my mat inside my car, I went to Macys to get a complimentary Grande Coffee at their Starbucks. Then, I walked to the Spring Garden Show wing for the cooking demonstration at the Macys Home Store. This demo is by a Filipino Chef with the restaurant MixMix Terrace, which is located on the third floor. At 11 am, I watched Chef Ross Pangilinan demonstrate three recipes for one meal—appetizer, main meal, and dessert. I will post it later in a later post.

At 1 pm, I checked out a seminar on African Violets, explaining the basic requirements of water, light, soil, fertilizer, and environment for this plant. A Wasp Blossom is an elongated version. It is tall. Some are under six inches, some grow up to eight inches, and some grow up to nine inches. Repot every 3 to 4 months, and 6 months for standards. Use a shallow pot. The leaves should be level with the container. Feed the plant, every time you water it with 15-15-15 fertilizer. Water soluble. Use fresh soil when repotting. Peat moss, vermiculite, and perlite. African Violets need air—air space and air pockets in soil. They also need tepid water to moisten soil to evenly moist soil. For standards, pot size = diameter of plant divided by 3. The plants need to feel it. 2 ½ inch pots for mini plants. Don’t use those Dixie cups. Water plant with plastic bottle with straw nozzle. Chobani cups are good cups to use; make a hole on the bottom. Place the wick through the hole, making sure it sticks out from the bottom. Place small plastic bag in the container. (line the container with such Baggie. Use yarn for a wick. Don’t use cotton. Use polyester. Lay the top part of the wick across bottom of the pot, before adding perlite and soil mix on top. For water, 2 tends to be acidic, and 7+ is alkaline. Perlite/vermiculite is 50/50; 72 degrees F environment with a little bit humidity is the best temperature. Build on reservoir.

At 2:30 pm, I checked out photographs of vertical gardens and living walls. It involves architectural sculptures and pottery to create living space décor. It also purifies the air as you grow your own veggies, herbs, and fruits. It is all about creating a landscape narrative, which involves storytelling by connecting elements visually within a space or composition. The first step involves figuring out the narrative you want to use, and the work backwards to fit that theme or idea. Use pottery as focal point. Add props in layers—background to foreground to create depth of field. Healthy plants require maintenance and a lot of work. Happy plants need space and irrigation for proper growth so that it can thrive. For hydration, consider an irrigation tubing. It conserves water as it properly feeds plant. Microvalve adjusting to adjust down the amount of water overtime. Know your plants’ needs in order to place them in the proper location. Styling involves creating a design for your space.

At 4 pm, I decided to check out a seminar about indoor garden and houseplants. Coordinate your plants with your furniture and room colors. Match colors in plants to the colors in the furniture, curtains, and artwork inside a room. Indoor plants tend to clean and purify the air quality in the room’s air, which will reduce allergy and improve health. The colors, patterns, and textures of the leaves are used for home décor art installations. Grow organically with healthy soil. To prevent shock, alfalfa meal is healthy food for plants. Add mulch to reduce water. Use organic soil. Make sure the fertilizer goes to the root zone. Use organic fertilizer with sea kelp, worm composting, humic acid, and alfalfa meal. For lighting, you can use artificial lighting, full spectrum, and tubes. Use full spectrum light on indoor avocado tree. Place an African Violet plant by a northern window. Pumice is good for soil drainage. Don’t overwater. Test moisture of soil with finger. High salt can also create problems. Use tepid to warm water, around 70 degrees F is the best water temperature. Softened water tends to be high in salt. Reversed Osmosis is good. Distilled water is good. But fluoride and chlorine are not good for plants. Dry air is not good, either. Rain is important for reducing salt in soil. Place marbles, pebbles, or gravel into a bowl. Add water to create humidity for plant. In a humidity tray, put water below the surface of the marbles, and then place the plant on top. You can grow strawberries indoors with adequate lighting. Use drought-tolerant plants. Since the 4:30 pm seminar was moved to Sunday, I decided to go home at 5 pm.

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