A Cape Town Flat by Chris M houses two lovely plants, ok, actually three, but these are my two. Fred, on the right, is a gift from Fe and Nameless, on the left, is a gift from my sister.
Both of these plants have been living in the flat for a good while now and have experience some ups and downs, from too much sun, to being blown around the flat from crazy wind to lacking lots of water. I do water them and I even feed them from time to time, but you can never gets things spot on all the time.
Instructables featured a great article on how to keep your house plants alive and after reading the following 7 points, it certainly is going to help:
1. Try to figure out what your plant is called
2. Give it the light it needs
3. Water it
4. Determine the kind of soil
5. Give it fertilizer
6. Repot it
7. Check air supply.
I must admit, some of these points are a little hectic for my liking, but I’m definitely going to give it a bash and see what the outcome is like!
Do you have plants in your place? If not, read my article about plants in the work place to understand just how important they are!
I have a san pedro mescal cactus, it’s indestructible and I can water it once a year and it still grows.
Wanted to get something big and solid like a mini-palm or one of those rubber plants, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Talking of cactii, when I was about 8 I was given one, then another, then I bought one and I think I ended up with about 6 in the same pot. Long story short, they’ve been through some hectic times, and they’re still 100% strong – amazing how hardy they are hey!
Palms are a nightmare, I’m sure you know the drill with living in town and the wind, the poor things get blown away if they’re outside, but if they inside, they don’t get strong because of the lack of wind and direct sunlight isn’t easy – does your balcony get decent sun?
I want it for the house, need more plants inside. I have the opposite of a green thumb, despite having a mother who cleans up at the Fuchsia Show and is show secretary, lol.
Maybe a yuka or big rubber plant type thing will be better, something tough that doesn’t mind not being watered every day. Or a delicious monster!!
Hehe, ah yes you’ve told me about this before :)
Perhaps the best idea is to start with incredibly hardy plants and work your way from there. The one Fe got me, Fred, he’s pretty darn hardy. In fact, they both are, but I do make sure give them the strength of the wind, water and plant food quite often.. :)
Hahhaha, a rubber plant, that’s just classic!
Fir trees are cool, just not really my vibe so wouldn’t suit the flat.
I saw what I wanted a few months ago, forgot what it’s called though – one of those standard ‘office’ type tree vibes, which are good with water and pretty tough.
And I need more cacti, haven’t seen the dude I got my mescal cactus from in a while – it’s a damn good specimen though, and is a nice size. San pedro, ftw… but let me tell you that when those babies get knocked over, it’s one heck of a mission replanting them!!
Have to admit – plants aren’t really my thing. I have a small “Love Palm” for my office which I think is on the fridge or somewhere in the kitchen now… Impulse buy at Checkers if I remember correctly.
Then I decided to get a small bowl and a goldfish for my office, but that got out of hand… I am now the proud owner of a 250L tropical fish tank in my office, and 4 more scattered throughout the flat. Word of advice: all you need for guppies to breed, is a male & female, and a glass of luke warm water – ie, don’t buy too many at once, they fill up their ranks quite quickly all by themselves.
Heya, ah I love plants, my flat is full of them as well as the office :)
Tropical Fish – Well bud, truth be told, I know more about tropical fish than I do computers! At one stage I was the owner of 15 tanks, breeding golden angels and all sorts of interesting tropical fish. I had a tank once with over 400 guppies, all bread in over several months – highly dense vegetation and very warm water! I’d love to get another tank and have been thinking about it, my main concern is that I don’t have space in my flat :(
Well – I don’t know that much, but I am learning as I go along. (I’m Fixxxer when I’m logged in, by the way. It depends whether I’m on the Mac or the PC)
I recently got two Peacock Eels. Beautiful, but the buggers tend to dig up my plants, which in turn gets eaten by my Tinfoil Barbs. I had some Ghost/Glass shrimps as well, but they died, unfortunately. Might be getting some again soon, they’re just hard to find.
It’s such a wonderful learning experience! I really do miss having fish, those were some really great times in my life, I think I should explore the option again to be honest. I reckon I could make some room in my bedroom perhaps for a rather vertical tank. Barbs are not my favourite, they’re quite violent at times and they always eat plants. Those shrimps are incredibly hard to keep, they’re not hardy at all, but they do look wicked. Eels.. I had a couple, can’t remember the names to be honest.
Hmmm, I must explore this, you’ve triggered good memories!
Myself and my neighbor just finished building his 585L tank this weekend. 12mm glass – broke both my back and my arse carrying those sheets of glass. He lives above me, so I’m just praying his 1/2 ton fish tank is not going to come crashing through my ceiling.
The thing with the shrimps is that they are very sensitive to any medicine you put in your tank, something my pet shop owner forgot to mention. Other than that, they are a joy. Very busy little fellows, and always out on the patrol, cleaning the tank.
My pride and joy of course are my Kuhli Loaches (http://www.loaches.com/species-index/pangio-kuhlii )Very beautiful, nocturnal, and very playful. That, and my 12cm Rainbow Shark.
Geez, that is a big tank!
Where do you stay? There’s an amazing place in Cape Town for tropical fish, which I can share with you if you’re from here.
Kuhli Loaches are awesome, I had several in one of my tanks and I’ll definitely get a couple if I decide to get a tank going again. Although, I must admit, after having so many tanks and fish, I think I might try Malawi’s this time as I’ve only had them once before or I could explore a marine tank, but worry that I don’t have enough time to put into maintaining salt water life at this moment in time.
It’s 1.3 x 600 x 750 – the latter being the height/depth of the tank. And it weighs a lot.
I live in Durbanville. Actually looked at the pics of your view from the flat, trying to figure out exactly where in C-Town you stay. (I won’t stalk you, don’t worry.) I worked in Town a while back, so know the place pretty well.
There’s a little Pet Shop here in Durbanville, stone’s throw from the police station that I always go to. The owner’s name is Jamie Gibbons, and he knows his stuff when it comes to fish.
I’m thinking of getting some Malawi’s as well. I would love a marine tank, but I know that the setup is stupid expensive, so I will steer clear of that for now. But when I do – you can be sure that I’m heading off to Blouberg beach to fetch me a baby great white. IMO, it’s not a marine tank if you ain’t got a shark. (I’ll probably get into a lot of trouble for that, but who cares. It’s easier to say sorry afterward than get permission before hand in any case. )
Ye, from the litres, I got a good idea on the dimensions, it’s a great size!
I stay in Perspectives on Roeland Street, 16th floor to be exact. Stunning view ey?
There’s a place in Tokai known as Sam’s Aquarium, it’s probably the best aquarium in Cape Town to be honest, great prices, HUGE assortment of fish and the prices are very good. Oh, they also have a room dedicated to equipment and another dedicated to marine fish and coral – you must definitely go have a look.
Hehe, ye, a shark is definitely a rad idea, catching it might be tricky ;) I have the money to start up a marine tank, I did all the research, but for me it’s the time to continually test the water levels and maintain the fresh salt ratio, which often means water changes on a very frequent basis, which actually becomes incredibly expensive, not to forget that getting rid of lots of water when you’re 16 flights up isn’t a joy, haha. The fish are also incredibly expensive, we’re looking at R300 for a cheap one, and up to R2000 for the interesting ones, which is far too much money to take a chance on! The marine tanks are also far bigger and require a lot more space for the sump, etc. which isn’t ideal.
I’ll have a ponder over it, look at the space in my room and perhaps venture out next weekend to have a look at tank options – I’m too lazy to build a tank this time around. I wouldn’t actually mind buying one of those semi-self-maintainable tanks..