With a growing interest in homegrown food, more and more people are trying their luck at creating their own indoor gardens. Creating your own garden doesn’t just save you money; with indoor gardening, you can make sure that your food is safe and healthy. While there are a large number of plants to choose from, here are five plants that can start you off on your new indoor HDB garden.

1. Air Plants
Air Plants don’t need a lot of water, as they get their water from absorbing moisture in the air. Despite this, however, they still need to be lightly misted at least once a week (which you can do using a spray bottle). You would also need to occasionally soak your plants in water, especially for plants that are in airconditioned environments; for those who live in air-conditioned flats, soak your plants for two hours every two weeks.

2. Basil
Even if basil is more commonly grown outdoors, it could also thrive potted indoors. To grow them successfully, make sure that your plant has adequate drainage so that water doesn’t pool at the bottom of the pot. Make sure to add fertilizer to your pot, and use half the recommended fertilizer strength; if you’re going to use your basil mainly for flavoring, you’ll need to use an organic fertilizer. In terms of lighting, make sure that your basil plant receives six hours of direct sunlight daily or about ten hours under artificial lighting.

3. Thyme
Growing thyme indoors can be invaluable, as it a versatile herb that can be used in a large variety of dishes. It’s easy to grow thyme, as they can be hardy plants that could still thrive despite a lack of attention. To grow thyme, you will need direct sunlight at least six hours a day. You could use many different pots for planting thyme, but the best kind would be clay pots, as they allow the soil to drain in between watering. Whatever pot you use, make sure to create drainage holes at the bottom of the pot.

4. Mint
To the surprise of many beginner gardeners, mint can easily thrive indoors. All you’ll need is a container with the right amount of drainage, filled with good potting mix (which means that it has equal amounts of sand, peat, and perlite). To make sure that your plant grows well, try to look for a spot that has a temperature of about 20 degrees Celsius in the day and around 14 degrees at night.

5. Lemongrass
Lemongrass is one of the many plants that you can propagate using grocery produce. It’s also pretty easy to grow indoors, and in fact, should be harvested frequently to encourage new growth. Make sure that it receives at least six hours of natural lighting or at least 14 hours of artificial lighting. For the soil, use a potting soil mix with good amounts of perlite.

Housekeeping and laundry are two of the most important and most common functions of hotels and spas here in Singapore, yet they are often left at the bottom of the priority list. Today, we’ll look at how outsourcing your laundry and dry cleaning can benefit your business.

When deciding to outsource laundry service, the quality of work and the cost is often the most important factors to keep in mind. Whether you have a 50-storey hotel with over 500 staff or a five-room inn with no more than 20 personnel, linen and towel washing and uniform laundry are among the most repetitive and time-consuming tasks you need to face every single day. Keeping your staff—and even yourself—motivated in doing this job can be difficult, especially if there are a lot of other tasks demanding for your attention.

To lessen the burden, entrust your laundry works to a good shirt and pants cleaning firm or a commercial laundry services company. These professionals can do dry cleaning, wash and fold, laundry for spa, laundry pick up and laundry delivery all for your convenience, as well as provide you these advantages that your business will surely benefit from.

• Reduction in operational costs
Savings on capital expenses eases the financial pressure during off-peak seasons. It also makes your business look attractive to the eyes of the investors, opening the doors to further business expansion of hotel facilities.

• Focus on running your business
Whether you are a manager or an owner of a business, it’s easy to overload yourself with tasks across the different departments of the establishment. Partnering with a 24 hour laundry in Singapore gives you and your staff more time to take care of other more important tasks.

• Save on utilities
Taking advantage of laundry service companies here in Singapore will get the laundry task off of the untrained staff for the job, which can otherwise result to inefficient use of water and electricity.

• Guaranteed quality
Dry cleaning and doing the linen and uniform laundry may seem basic, but due to the task’s monotony, it’s hard to retain in-house staff to do the job. And if you really want to maintain an in-house laundry team, you need to invest some time to train them; unfortunately, you do not have the luxury of time to do that. Instead of having to return from scratch every single time, why not work with commercial laundry services that can do laundry pick up and laundry delivery for you? No more training needed, and you can always guarantee superior quality of work.

Commercial laundry services may seem like an additional cost for businesses, but really it is the other way around. Especially if you are in the hospitality industry, nothing beats superior laundry quality when it comes to providing optimum cleanliness for your hotel’s facilities.

What happens to your body when you do 300 push-ups a day? Well, exercise as awe all know is a very healthy thing to do every single day as it does not only improve our performance and the condition of our body but it also keeps our body strong and healthy, ready for whatever lies ahead. One thing we do not always realize is that growth is part of life and if we are not growing towards improvement, we are growing in reverse as we become weaker and weaker the more we do not take care of our bodies.

Discipline may be a hard thing to cultivate if you are only starting but the more you practice discipline, the more disciplined you actually get. Most people think that the more you practice discipline, your discipline depletes and you end up becoming less disciplined than you actually were, this theory is definitely wrong. Being able to keep yourself disciplined is a hard thing to do. You see, consistency is not a sexy word, but it is very effective. Without consistency, we would hardly be able to move anywhere forward and would be stuck just where we are. Growth does not always happen when you sprint into doing something new, sometimes growth happens when you do one thing countless times until you have mastered it. The more you do something over and over again, the less of an effort you have to extend for you to actually do it.

Doing 300 push-ups a day may be a hard thing to do at the start because your body is still rejecting the change in lifestyle. The trick is to not think of the task too much but then actually just do it. At first, it would be really hard to do 300 push-ups straight which is why we suggest that you divide your 300 pus-ups into 100 push-ups thrice a day. If you have a hard time with 100 push-ups, you can divide it into three sets. The first set would be 50 push-ups, the second set would be 30 push-ups and the last set would be composed of 20 push-ups.

Once you’ve started doing that for over a week, you can start adjusting your workout into twice a day with 70 push-ups for the first set, 50 push-ups for the second set, and 30 push-ups for the last set. This might still be a challenge but hey, the point of doing push-ups is to improve right?

Push-ups aren’t just good for your body but also a great way for you to improve your discipline. The more important thing to be cultivated is discipline because without the necessary discipline, you won’t be able to improve different skills.

Let’s face it, blogging in Singapore isn’t that hard compared to other places since the overall population of Singapore may be smaller than others but the important thing is you are able to penetrate your target market. The hard thing about Singapore is that there aren’t too many communities and instead of people gathered together, you might have to target people from a larger group directly instead of as a whole.

Getting your work not only published but also appreciated in Singapore would be hard if you do not know Singapore by heart. It doesn’t matter if you are a foreigner or a local, knowing the place and the culture is still very important. You should be able to distinguish the places where certain groups hang out or certain things in which certain groups enjoy doing.

Being familiar with popular places like Clark Quay, Little India, or any other place in Singapore could work towards your advantage as you not only have a wide range of comparison but also a lot of things you can relate towards your topic. Getting the right information will always be important and as long as you are willing to go the extra mile just for accuracy, you won’t have that much of a problem.

Blogging is a lifestyle and you must learn how to live like a blogger. For many people, what they see is what they get but for a blogger, you do not only have to see the things around you but you also have to absorb them in a way which makes you capable of present what you digest into a more acceptable and appealing blog.

Becoming a blogger can actually be hard work as it does not only require your time to think and do your research but also your effort in making sure the content of your articles are not only accurate but also colorful. There might be times in which writing may be difficult for you but to remain a Singaporean blogger, you must also be consistent with posting your material online as your audience’s attention might have a very short lifespan.

Keeping not only the schedule of your posts consistent but also the quality of your posts are very important. Consistency in this sense does not mean that there is no more room for improvement. Improvement is very important and you should constantly be growing with every blog you write. Writing is a skill and as almost every skill, the more you practice, the more you improve.

Popularity should be the last of your concerns as it comes with your growth and improvement. Focus on your blogs and not just on how many people read them.

As first-time parents, you already have a lot to deal with but almost everyone forgets that when it comes to disposable diapers, the size isn’t the only thing you should worry about.

Here are tips on how to choose the right diaper for your newborn.

Disposables or Cloth Diapers
Cloth diapers are still an option even if there are a lot of choices available in markets in Singapore. Cloth diapers can be hand-washed and machine-washed so that you can save more money instead of buying packs of diapers every week. To make life easier, you can use a flushable liner that will trap baby’s poo so that it’s easier to clean by dropping it in the toilet. If you want to save more, there are washable cloth wipes that are better alternatives to disposable wipes. Cloth diapers don’t expose your baby’s skin to petro-chemicals such as super absorbent polymer (SAP) that absorb the fluids. Most parents, however, choose disposable diapers because they involve less work and effort to use.

Diaper Absorbency
For disposable diapers, absorbency should be your first concern because it they must be effective in holding the body fluids away from your baby’s skin. If the diaper is always damp, the moisture can cause irritation and rashes. Make sure that the inner layer of the diaper is soft and can stay dry by wicking the moisture into the diaper’s core. Inspect the absorbent core that is supposed to keep away the moisture from baby’s skin to prevent the development of rashes, and check the outer layer that is supposed to be waterproof to prevent leaks.

Diapers Should Fit
How do you find the correct diaper size for your baby? The best way is to base it on your baby’s weight. By finding the correct size, there is less chance of leaks because the diaper fits properly. You have to make sure as well that the diaper has double elastic sealing edges, meaning that there should be one sealing edge each for the absorbent core and the outer shell. For extra comfort, inspect the quality of the materials the diaper is made of such as the elasticity and the softness of the diaper. But even with these factors in mind, you will still go through a trial-and-error process when looking for the best diapers for your baby.

Skin- and Environment-Friendly
If your baby is sensitive to materials such as latex and fragrance, use hypoallergenic diapers that are free from the following: chlorine, fragrance, and dye. SAP is found to be safe in most studies, so there’s not need to worry if you can’t find an alternative. There are green disposable diapers available for parents who want to be Earth-friendly. These types of diapers usually use less chlorine during the manufacturing process, are made of biodegradable materials, use renewable resources in the factories, and pay attention to minimizing their carbon footprint.