Wednesday, November 20, 2013

My 5th Floor Pets

Pets are basically not allowed where i live in the city. Four legged breathing entities are banned inside condominium units, but sometimes 6-legged ones can easily get in.  Rooting entities are not mentioned as exemptions, so I opted to have them. There are units with indoor plants, so they open the curtains during the day for light to feed them. I am the only one with plants outside the window as i am facing the west position not very obvious to the public. So i have them both inside and out. 

 Caladium bicolor is trying its best to live inside the room, with only some light passing through the west glass window.  It is not doing its best but it gives me some color.

 Bitter gourd or ampalaya is living outside the window, creeping on the cement wall aided by other plants near it. A variegated hoya at the background is allowing its tendrils to hold on tight, and the hoya gets some partial shade from its leaves, i hope it is a good symbiotic relationship.

 My hippeastrum puniceum is growing profusely. A lot of bulblets are growing simultaneously with the mother bulbs. I have a lot of bulblets to give friends at the end of the season before the dry season starts.

 And inside my big bathroom i have basins of water to help these other unusual entities. These are oyster mushrooms. I have 5 of those bags which produce them at staggered intervals. The above bag is producing a good harvest than can give me a plateful of delicious omelet.

One bag obviously got too dry when i went home to the province one weekend. Only one big mushroom is produced during the first growth. These bags still produce more growths several times before it finally succumb to contaminating fungus. The above round shape is not a common shape for this species. 

This omelet is one of the plenty of omelets i've produced from the very productive mushroom bags. Those green spring onions are also from a pot in my window garden. My living pets are giving a lot of satisfaction not only for the show they are giving me through their growths but also through the food they provide me.

Now who wants more of the 4-legged entities!

11 comments:

  1. We do like your 'pets' Andrea, and that omelet looks yummy!

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  2. I'm impressed. I've never heard of bag mushrooms until now either. What a nice way to be able to grow them.
    Cher Sunray Gardens

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  3. Wonderful photos. I especially love your mushroom "pets"!

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  4. i'd love to propagate mushrooms someday since i love mushrooms. great job in bringing plants indoors.

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  5. I really like your pets. And it's nice that some of them enable you to make such yummy dishes.

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  6. I never tried omelette with mushrooms.
    Sounds like a great idea.

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    Replies
    1. Oh James, maybe you haven't been to the famous Pancake House!

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  7. Looks like you have a lot of 'pets' in your condo. How great to have 'living' pets --and to be able also to grow some of your own food. NEAT…

    Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  8. Wow, good for you with the Oyster Mushrooms! Even in your photos, they look good enough to eat! I keep thinking I'll find Morel Mushrooms in the woods behind my house, because the conditions are right--but I've never found any.

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  9. The omelet looks delicious! Knowing how much you like plant life, I am glad that you are allowed to have that kind of "pet" in (and outside) of your home.

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