Seedless Guava

I went to Sg. Buloh more than  month ago, and bought a Seedless Guava plant, which is suitable to grow in a container. It has grown so much since then. I did not expect it to grow so fast! According to the person I bought this from, this is a fast fruiting variety and should bear fruit in about a year. And happy to say that I have spotted more than a dozen flowers a few days ago. I wonder how many of the flowers will make it to fruit! Finger crossed!

Happy Gardening !

What's blooming in my potted garden

 The majestic and proud looking flower of the Okra

The tiny delicate white flowers of the Chives plants

 Gerbera...the last bloom was ages ago!

 The pretty purple bloom of the Brinjal

Small and pretty Blue Daze. Bought this plant from the nursery months ago and has never stopped flowering since then.

Tecoma Stans; yellow, bell-like shape, very pretty flowers, blooms in clusters. These sunny yellow flowers will brighten up any garden!

Happy Gardening !

Some harvest this week

Harvested these few veggies from my small potted garden this week :

 The long bitter gourd...the first fruit

 It is not very big, but of a medium size

 Kailan

Okra and egg plant

Happy Gardening !

Petola (Ridged Luffa Gourd)

Petola is one of our favourite in my house. It is sweet, and delicious in stir-fries, omelettes and soups.

I have grown these a few times. Since I have limited gardening space, and lots of other veggies on my list of "to-plant", petola will only make an appearance again after a rotation of a few other plants. 

The first fruit

More petola fruits

Some of the harvest. For young tender fruits, best harvested about 12 days after pollination.

More petola, along with some spring onions.

Total petola fruits harvested was 11 fruits, from one single plant. The plant has already done its part, and that space is now occupied by another variety of gourd. Will update on that in another post.

Happy Gardening!

Brinjals, Okra and Bitter Gourd harvests

Harvested some veggies from my potted garden about two weeks ago 

The last of the harvests from the brinjals, bitter gourd and okra plants. New seedlings awaiting to be transplanted.

Happy Gardening !

Pak Choy

Harvested Pak Choy today!

The same plants, a month ago.

 The biggest, from one plant.

Happy Gardening !

Hot Cherry Bomb Pepper

I started this pepper with some seeds which I bought from My Lestary Seeds. After 5 months from date of sowing the seeds, there's only three fruits on the plant. There are dozens of flowers, except for these three, the rest dropped off after blooming their pretty white petals. Perhaps because of the heat wave which we are experiencing the last few months. The high temperature stresses the plant and it quit fruiting!. Even though in general, peppers are warm weather loving plants, but overly high temperature is not good too. 

 Three peppers are better than none at all!

Very cute!

Even cuter when it has turned a ripe red! It does look like a ripe red cherry!

Happy Gardening !

What's growing right now

Some update on what's growing at my little potted garden :

One small plant with very few fruits. 

 More Heizi Bitter Gourd... just love it!

 Kai Lan, another favourite

 Canton Pak Choy

 Kai Choy (Heading Mustard) 

My project : First time growing Water Chestnut... I wonder is there any chestnut at all. Will know in a few months time. 

Happy Gardening!

Kale

I have a Kale plant growing in my garden pot, and the leaves are getting big, it's time for harvest. Kale is a veggie that is not easily available here in Malaysia, so I have not eaten Kale before!  I was lucky, I guess, that out of the many little seeds that I sowed, at least one seedling survived, taking into consideration that our weather is really hot and Kale is a cool weather plant. 

I have come across so many recipes using Kale that I was really curious about this nutritious veggie. I was so glad to see that My Lestary Seeds has a few variety of Kale seeds available. The variety I bought is Red Russian Kale, but it looks different from the ones in their photo, which is very curly and reddish in colour. The one in my pot has large green leaves with little curls, though the stems do have a tinge of purplish red. Kale is a cool weather plant, but according to their website, this Red Russian Kale variety is suitable to grow in our hot climate.

I planted the only surviving seedling in a container sharing with other veggies, and place the container where it can get about one to two hours of morning sun, then shaded for the rest of the day. It was growing really slow at first, then it started to grow at a steady rate. 

And then it's time to harvest! Look at the beautiful green leaves. I just can't believe it that I'm growing Kale! Feel happy each time I see the plant! I cut a few of the leaves for a stir-fry dish, pictured below. I love this veggie, and I'll be sowing  more seeds soon. 

Kale, Chilli and Squid Stir-Fry, get the recipe here.

My other harvests for this week :

Daikon, out of six plants, only two with daikons! But it is not wasted, the leafy greens from all six plants goes into my pot of daikon soup.

Okra

Happy Gardening!

Heading Mustard (Kai Choy)

When I received Heading Mustard seeds from My Lestary Seeds, I thought that this veggie would not be an easy one to grow as the ones I've seen from the morning market are huge! I sowed six seeds and all seeds germinated. Transferred the seedlings to a container, and  they grow quite quickly. Happy to see that Heading Mustard are easy to grow. They need full sun, though with our extremely hot scorching sun especially, in the afternoon, best to shade them during the afternoon when the sun is at its "peak"!

 The growing stage, probably almost 7-8 weeks old.

Since these are homegrown and the weather is much warmer over here, than the highlands where these are grown, they will not be as huge as the ones I've seen from the morning market. But I am not complaining, these veggies are rather impressive and lovely to look at, with their big leaves and wide broad stems.

Harvest of Heading Mustard, about 3 months from date of sowing the seeds.

I've stir-fried these with slices of meat and ginger. If you have eaten Heading Mustard before, you would know of their slightly pungent and bitter taste. This veggie can be stir-fried, use in soups and braised with meat. I especially love it in a sour and spicy braised dish, where these veggies are braised till they are soft and tender, with roasted or leftover meat,  dried chillies and dried tamarind slices. Delish!

New seedlings! Growing more of this veggie!

Happy Gardening !

Canton Pak Choy

Harvested some Canton Pak Choy (seeds from My Lestary Seeds). These are easy to grow. Some  of my plants are eaten up by snails, but managed to harvest enough for a stir-fry. Very nice, crunchy and fresh. 

 Canton Pak Choy

 Canton Pack Choy 

 More Chinese Spinach (Amaranth). Love this veggie! This goes into our noodle soup for dinner.

More cucumber. One of the plants dried up after I came back from CNY holidays. Am left with one plant. I sowed some seeds and now there are two new seedlings.

Happy Gardening !

Heizi Bitter Gourd

Heizi Bitter Gourd is easy to grow in containers. I bought the seeds from My Lestary Seeds and according to their information on their website, "This hybrid bitter gourd produce pale green cone type of fruits with glossy, tubercles and thick meat than the average. The top are much bigger, bitter and thicker. The size is about 6" with wide and flat shoulder, general fruit weight about 400 grams, up to 600 grams or more. Sweet, slightly bitter flavour."

 Young bittergourd seedling. Prepare the stakes for the plant to creep on as it gets bigger.

The plant starts to produce the first set of flowers and there are many, at about 45-50 days from date of transplanting the seedlings. This is the male flower.

The female flowers comes very soon after. Notice the undeveloped bitter gourd at the base, the flower has yet to open.

 I hand-pollinated all the female flowers. This is about two days after a successful pollination.

 The fruit has a rounded top with a pointed end. Cute!

 The Heizi Bitter Gourd Plant growing in a container, supported by stakes all around.

Another fruit, I like the shape of this one. This is just about right for picking. About 5-1/5 inches in length.

 A few more from the same plant.

 The second plant, it's vines are supported by an old recycle TV aerial.

One of the many harvests. 

I have been enjoying bitter gourd melons for a few months now. So far, I have harvested more than 20 fruits and there are a few more which should be ready for harvest in about a week's time. One of the plant was infested by beetles and I have since discarded it and have replaced with a new seedling,. This is one variety that I would grow again. It is easy to grow, and the seeds takes just 3-4 days to germinate.  

Happy Gardening !