My Little Potted Garden

Turmeric

2012-02-09T22:10:00.003+08:00

I harvested my turmeric as the plant has matured and showing signs of wilting.

My healthy turmeric plant a couple of months ago. The 'nasi lemak makcik' has been receiving my turmeric leaves every now and then, she will be wondering why there are no more leaves from me now, but she still gets my belimbing! :)

My turmeric plant, picture taken last week! Time to harvest the turmeric and start again. Can you see the flower at the bottom?

Well, this flower did not bloom, it is sort of fading away! Time to harvest the plant.

The turmeric! So happy to see my homegrown turmeric! I started with just a small turmeric and see how much they have grown.

Cleaned and washed, about 800gm

Saved some for starting over. There's one with healthy young plant growing.

Into the container they went. Hopefully new shoots will appear in a few weeks time.

I use the turmeric and the leaves for my chicken rendang that I brought for a potluck party last week.

Yummy and fragrant!

Another round of harvest from my Malabar Spinach plants.

Happy Gardening !

My harvest in December

2011-12-29T11:32:00.006+08:00

My garden front is not looking good at all. Too much rain has rotted some of my plants and the most happy garden pests at the moment are the slugs! Each time when it is the rainy season, I can find them hiding in between the pots and up on my plants. I found their hiding spot inside an upturned pot. There are about a dozen garden snails, from baby snails to adult snails resting in it!

The only harvest that I had this month are the ever loyal Malabar Spinach, Belimbing Fruits, Spring Onions, Chives and one Bitter Gourd Melon. The most happy veggie that has been thriving well in the rain is the Malabar Spinach.

I planted 6 seedlings of the Red Capsicum, one is surviving and the other 5 are eaten by the snails. My brocolli seedlings have not escaped the snails either! The other 5 seedlings of the okra seems to be doing well. More snails are having a jolly good time over at my back garden too, seems to be having a party with the grasshoppers! While the snails are enjoying the leaves from my Bitter Gourd Plant, I caught two big grasshoppers, that has been eating my beautiful big, green and healthy Tumeric Leaves. Now the leaves are filled with holes!

Malabar Spinach

Malabar Spinach grown in styrofoam container

Harvest the leaves

Stir fry, topped with fried garlic for dinner. The leaves are sweet and tender.

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Bitter Gourd

This melon wasn't yellow when I checked it two days before! Did not look at it until two days later, when I saw from my window that it has begun to ripen! Harvest it and since it is not very big, used it in omelete. Surprisingly, it is not bitter at all, I think that with too much water from the constant rain, must have affected the taste of the melon.

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Belimbing

Lots of fruits, have been harvesting it almost every week!

The fruits are especially bigger with the constant rain.

Brownie has moved! His owner has moved and taken him along about two weeks ago, kinda miss not seeing him around! Hope he is happy in his new place!

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I would like to wish everyone

A HAPPY NEW YEAR AND A WONDERFUL 2012!

Sweet Basil, From Garden to Table, And Starting Over

2011-12-01T01:15:00.001+08:00

I love the wonderful smell of fresh basil leaves. My basil plants was really lush and healthy a couple of months back. I have not been taking care of my garden for the past two months and my plants are not very happy! I should have cut and pruned off the stems when it starts to flower to encourage more growth but well, that did not happen.

My basil plant in September : )

In November... : (

I removed the whole plant as the stems and branches are not healthy. Harvested all the leaves, what did I do with all the leaves? ....

Made a jar of delicious Basil Pesto. It was my first attempt at making this sauce and definitely won't be the last. I love it. Have you tried Basil Pesto before? It really is delicious and healthy. If you want to give it a try, the recipe is over at my kitchen, click here. What to do with this sauce? You can pour it over your cooked spaghetti, made some bread with it, cooked it with chicken, use it in salad, etc... ! How did I use my jar of Basil Pesto? ....

I made a delicious Pesto Pizza with a delightful crispy crust. If you are a pizza lover, you must certainly try this. For the recipe, click here.

I have a few basil seedlings in my potted garden, which hopefully will grow healthy with lush green leaves. I have finished my jar of pesto, and eagerly waiting for my basil plant to grow, for my next jar.

Happy Gardening !

Another Visitor!

2011-11-19T00:35:00.007+08:00

It has been two months since my last post! How can that be? Time passes by real fast especially when one is busy and occupied with various tasks. Though I have kept my cooking blog active, it has been on the slow pace over at my garden. Sad to say, I have neglected my potted garden and it really, really shows. On top of that, the rainy weather is not making it any better! Most of my veggie plants have died, and the pots have been left idle for the past two months. The only plants that seems to be growing well with continuous supply are the Spring Onions and Malabar Spinach! Well, I've got a lot of work to do now!

I had a visitor, two months ago actually. It was a dog, and a smart one at that!

Found this cute dog, he belongs to one of my neighbours, did not know it's name, I shall just call him "Brownie", since he IS brown! He was resting at my back garden one morning. How come he's over there? His owner must have left him over at their backyard. There is no way out for him except through the front door, and in order to do that he must go through the kitchen door, right into the house and out the front door. Both sides of our backyard lane are gated and no way this dog can get through the grill. So obviously, his owner wants him behind at the backyard. He is usually being let out loose over the frontyard, but not that day.

No idea why, but I just grabbed my camera and took a picture of him, maybe he looks cute!

A few moments later, I was at my kitchen sink, which is next to the grill of my kitchen entrance. Brownie suddenly showed up at the grill, with his two front paws up and was looking at me whining... well obviously, he wanted to go outside to the front of the house.

I told him, "Sorry Brownie, obviously your owner wants you behind, not outside! Go home and whine at your owner's kitchen door, but wait, let me take a picture of you first!" Hahaha! He went away for a few minutes and came back again, whining! My guess is, my door was the only one opened at that time, and he already knows me, as sometimes I gave him some food to eat. He went away again after a couple of times.

He walked away....

and decided to rest after all the whining!

Some ten minutes later, I was at my backyard clearing my messy backyard. I found a dead cat already decaying in between my pots at my backyard a few days earlier! It was really stinky and I had to close my kitchen door and windows for three whole days until the smell disappeared. My hubby had to do the dirty job of disposing the dead cat. No idea whose cat that was, it was beyond recognition, just a mass of grey fur and maggots! All the pots was placed to a corner when my hubby cleared the dead cat. So I was busy clearing my pots, and did not notice that Brownie had already went into my kitchen, as the door was wide open. I heard a whining sound and saw him standing in my kitchen, looking at me!

I, of course immediately went to him, he then went into my house, right to the front door, me following him from behind! He could not get out as it was locked. Look at him! How he wanted so much to go out, he turned to look at me, as though asking me to open the door for him! And I did! Out into my porch he went, and there's another gate! He stopped and looked at me again! I opened the latch and he ran off, happy!

Now that is one smart dog! I heard that Brownie's owner may be moving away soon, so I guess I won't be seeing him around when they do move! Meanwhile, I still see him around, and he would come near sometimes when he sees us, and sometimes even takes his afternoon nap next to my car!

Radish and Some Harvest

2011-09-20T16:11:00.002+08:00

I do not have much success with radish except for this. I almost threw away the seedling initially as it was not growing at all for many months. I then replanted it again in the same container but move it to a different spot and it suddenly started to grow real quick! Guess it wasn't happy with its previous spot!

Harvested it today and that spot is taken by another radish seedling. :) Hopefully the new seedling will grow as well as this one!

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Garlic

My garlic greens! After my initial success with growing garlic greens a couple of months ago, I tried it again, and I'm happy that these are growing well too. My main purpose is for the greens, not the garlic. But when I pulled out a plant a few weeks ago, I was surprised to see a rounded garlic bulb already forming. So I planted it right back and thought it would be interesting to let it grow, just for the garlic. I do not have any experience in growing garlic and when is the right time to harvest. Diana is kind enough to advice me that it would take about 6-8 months to harvest, and when the leaves are turning yellow, it is a sign that it is ready to be harvested. Thank you, Diana, much appreciated. Am waiting very patiently now! (err... actually, very impatiently!) : o)

Spotted a dill seedling in the pot of garlic.

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Harvest, same old veggies!

Malabar spinach, these grow really fast!

More Belimbing fruits! Cook these in Asam Pedas Ikan Pari with Daun Kesum, heavenly delicious! Gave some belimbing fruits away to the makcik selling nasi lemak. She was so happy!

Ladies fingers! The last batch. I left the rest to dry on the plant to collect the seeds. Sowed some new seeds today. Looking forward to see them sprout!

Happy Gardening!

How I Plant Sprouted Onions

2011-09-09T20:33:00.005+08:00

Spring Onions (Scallions)

My organic home-grown Spring Onions

I have received a few emails asking me about how I planted the Spring Onions, what is my 'secret' that they grow so fat and healthy! I was really surprised to see that my Spring Onions have sparked quite an interest. So I have done up a tutorial (if you could it that! haha!).

Spring Onions (Scallions) is one of my favourite veggie which I use constantly in my kitchen. Really good as a garnish for soups, porridge, stir-fries and even in curries. Due to my constant usage of this veggie, I always plant my own. Before I discovered the speedy way to make them grow, I used to plant the whole bulb of onion or shallots directly into the pot or container, but most of the time, the success rate in sprouting is not even 70%. Sometimes only 50%, with the rest rotted in the soil, even when I used sprouted bulbs from my kitchen basket. Even research from the web does not give any detailed info, other than the ones which we already knew, that is, by planting either by seeds or by placing the bulbs directly in the planting spot.

So I tested with the following method (refer below) and to my surprise and delight, the sprouted bulbs have at least 90%, most of the time 100% success of growing into healthy plants with big lovely green leaves, which can be harvested within three weeks.

I'm going to share with you, step-by-step of how I planted the sprouted onions, my way.

First, get some sprouted onions from the market or supermarket. I usually buy these from Tesco, nobody will buy these sprouted ones, if you see a lady choosing the sprouted onions, most likely it will be me!! :)

This onion is perfect, the sprouts are just beginning to grow, the onion looks good, without any rotting or soft spots. Firm and nice.

The roots at the bottom are compact and dried, there's some new roots that can be seen growing. Sometimes the new roots can't be seen from the outside, they are hiding in between the onion layers.

Peel off the dried skin

Peel off the next layer or two. The fresh roots are inside. Depending on the onion, you may need to peel off about 2 to 4 layers, especially if the layers are showing signs of rotting and are not healthy. Just peel them off until you can see that the bulb is firm and nice.

More of the fresh roots are now exposed. See the fresh roots all around the bottom top of the onion, on top of the dried roots.

This is another onion, where the roots can already be seen right under the dried skin. All the better!

Peel off the dried skin to reveal the long fresh roots.

I would usually cut off the clump of dried roots at the bottom to make way for the fresh roots to grow.

These are the good layers of onions that have been peeled off from all the onions. Do not throw them away. They are sweet and can be used for cooking. Great for omelette, pasta and fried rice. You can use these when you blend your paste for sambal, asam pedas or just about anything.

The onions that have been peeled and about to go to the garden pot.

Just give them a quick rinse so they are nice and clean.

Mix some organic fertilizer in the soil and plant the onions, with the sprouts up. Place the pot where they can get full sun, and do not let the soil dried up. They will be most happy in lightly damp soil, under full sun . Water once a day, and on extremely hot weather when the soil is dry, water twice a day. Well that's it... wait for a week...

.... these are exactly one week later. Water them on the base of the plant, that is on the soil. Try to avoid watering them with force over the leaves, as they might snap and bend, and would not look nice. They would still grow, but they would not look 'pretty'.!

.... two and a half weeks later. All the bulbs are growing great! Look at the bended leaves, blame it on the rain!

Harvested some spring onions yesterday morning. This batch is from another pot which I planted two weeks earlier than the one above. Just harvest how much you need, leave the rest until you need them. You may harvest only the green part by cutting the leaves about 3 inches from the bulb. The leaves will grow again. But I prefer to pull out the whole plant and start over, as the leaves that grow the second time round are usually not as big. Besides, I love using the white part of the onions, really fragrant.

Goes into my fried beehoon (rice vermicelli) for our lunch.

I hope the above is a useful guide. It is my method of how I plant my Spring Onions and it works for me, each time. I enjoy harvesting the spring onions right from my garden, it makes me happy, having fresh organic homegrown veggie for my cooking pot. If you are trying this out, please let me know how it works for you, I would love to know. Happy Gardening!

Some harvest!

2011-09-03T20:00:00.001+08:00

Weather has been extremely hot this past week. Other than frequent watering of the plants, did not do much gardening lately. Some of my harvest the past week :

Kangkung. The last batch. I'm using the containers for carrots, radish and sweet peas. Due to lack of space, I need to rotate my plants. Hopefully the new plants will grow well, as I do not have much luck with carrots at all! Keeping my fingers crossed!

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My 2nd harvest of Malabar spinach

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Sweet Basil

Harvested the leaves for a pasta dish.

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Belimbing, the first fruits after I pruned the tree about 8 months ago.

These belimbing goes into my sambal tumis ikan bilis with hard-boiled eggs.

Okra

2011-08-16T09:39:00.001+08:00

Okra plants in pots, both red and green, at my front garden. Planted these plants almost two months ago.

Harvested the okras. I steamed these with a dash of salt. Really sweet!

Happy Gardening!

Belimbing And Some Mint Yumminess!

2011-08-06T00:30:00.002+08:00

Seven months since I cut the belimbing tree at the main stem, now it has grown tall and is flowering again. I am missing the fruits, thinking of sambal tumis with belimbing lately! Even the nasi lemak seller in the market whom I have given some fruits before, was asking for the fruits. Soon, there will be enough to share.

The flowers are growing and spotted them popping in small clusters all over the branches. So happy!

Very soon, I will have some fruits in my sambal tumis. Couldn't wait!

My pot of mint plant. Got to cut the stems as they are getting long and lanky!

Harvested the leaves and what to do with these much leaves?

Fresh Mint Ice Cream with Fudge Ripple! Yummy!

Make some yummy Fresh Mint Ice Cream of course! I swirl it with some Chocolate Fudge Ripple. If you would like the recipe, come over to my kitchen, just click here. The Fudge Ripple can be omitted and you will have just Fresh Mint Ice Cream. The flavour of the mint is fabulous and the smell is wonderful! This is one delicious, really creamy ice cream. Waiting for the next batch of Mint harvest now! :)

I think I'm gonna plant another pot of Mint Plant! I just love Mint Leaves! Do you?

Happy Gardening !

Curry Leaf Plant

2011-07-29T22:10:00.002+08:00

This Curry Leaf Plant was cut at the main stem back in February when it was heavily infested by Tortoise Beetle. Six months since then, it has now bounced back and has 5 clusters of flowers. This is a nice surprise as I did not expect the plant to flower so soon. On and off, I do find the Tortoise Beetle and managed to rid of them before they start to multiply.

Found these insects on the plant. Know what these are?

There are about 6 to 8 black ones and only one red. Queen perhaps? :)

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Time for some little harvest

I can finally confirm that this is not a lemon tree, it is definitely lime! I don't mind, since I have always wanted to get a lime tree, now I have to get a lemon tree instead!

Harvested all three limes.

A bunch of San Choy (Malabar Spinach) leaves, harvested two days ago.

Happy Gardening

2011-07-23T17:04:00.006+08:00

The weather has been so hot these few weeks that I have not done any gardening until two days ago. Weeds have been growing in most of my pots, and they are the ones that are most happy with the hot spell. Besides frequent watering, I have stayed away from gardening until two days ago when the weeds became unbearable!

This pot of mint leaves has wilted and died, and I left the pot in a corner two months ago, forgotten all about it, to my surprised found new sprouts and leaves growing. I transferred the pot where it can get full sun and now it is growing well.

Sweet Basil plant which I bought many months ago have wilted and died, and now I find the baby plants sprouting in many of the pots with other plants. Transferred two baby plants into the foam container about four weeks ago and they are growing well, behind these two are another two tiny plants which I just transferred two days ago. Found a few more baby plants and have planted those in other pots as well. Very soon I will have enough of leaves for my cooking pot! So happy just thinking about it, can't wait!

I bought some San Choy (Malabar Spinach) for a vegetable dish, and planted the stems about a month ago, many leaves have grown since then, and soon it will be harvest time!

Another round of harvest of spring onions, which I planted almost three weeks ago.

Harvested my chives!

Happy Gardening!

A Visitor...and Some Harvests

2011-07-10T12:47:00.000+08:00

I have a very cocky visitor a couple of weeks ago. This cockerel came from nowhere, just out of the blue, I saw it at my backyard, never seen it before! It "stayed" over at my backyard about a week and my neighbour's son caught it, brought it to somewhere else and have not seen it since. Now why would he do that?

This cockerel does not like cats! I have seen it chased away the cats from my backyard a couple of times, much to my delight! The cats ran with their tails between their legs!!! Whenever the cats came near, it will chase them away! Remember, my neighbour who has eight cats that was annoying me? Her son does not like what this cockerel is doing to his beloved cats, and the cockerel even poo over at their back yard, sounds familiar, right?

One afternoon while I was in my kitchen, I saw her son chased after the cockerel and finally managed to catch it. He carried it away (I do not know where), and this cockerel has not been seen since. Should I get a cockerel and rear it at my back yard? .... hmmm :) The cats do not poo as often as before, because I covered my unused pots, but the smell from their backyard is yucks! Two of my neighbours have complained about the stench, but what can we do?... sigh! Perhaps we should do exactly what he did to the cockerel?

Give him a taste of his own medicine? ... just a thought!

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Time for some harvest :

Harvested all the spring onions. Planted some new ones again.

Garlic greens! I planted some garlic bulbs for the greens. Since it was successful, I have sowed another two pots of bulbs. Looking forward for the greens to use in my cooking. The ones above, I used them for my omelette. I will try to leave a few plants and see whether can I actually get any garlic bulbs from them, which I really doubt so. My main purpose is actually for the greens.

Harvested my kangkung, goes into my Nasi Goreng Kampung!

Happy Gardening!

Why!!!

2011-07-05T14:10:00.009+08:00

First of all, I would like to apologize for not visiting all your blogs these few weeks! I'm not being a very good bloggie friend! I'm ashamed to admit that I am hiding myself in self-pity as far as my garden is concerned. I am really disappointed at how my plants turned out. Two of my favourite plants that was growing really well, suddenly decided to stop growing, for whatever reasons, I do not know.

Two Long Beans plants, back in May

Beautiful, long beans growing

I only managed to harvest about a dozen beans before....

Both plants dried up! Sudden, isn't it?
I was so disappointed and upset that it took me two weeks later before I could bring myself to clear this!
: o(

The place is now vacant, waiting for the next occupant! It was so disappointing, plants do die in the end, but I only had about a dozen beans! Strange isn't it?

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Next, my prized tomatoes, the one plant (besides chilli) that I have never succeeded in growing until now!

I think these tomatoes are just beautiful! Their shape is long and I do not know the name of this tomato.
I just planted the seeds from some cherry tomatoes that I ate.

These tomaotes are really juicy, crunchy and sweet, really delicious! These are from one plant, which only yields about two dozen tomatoes. The plant is in the "process" of drying up now! This plant is in a pot at my back kitchen garden. Originally, I have six of these plants, five of which I planted in pots at my front garden, have all wilted and died after hundreds of flowers, but no fruits!

The thought about planting these tomatoes again really drains me out! These plants are huge and need lots of space and supports. So I'll be trying some other varieties which my sister gave me (she bought it from UK). which will not need any supports and suitable for container growing. Crossing my fingers that these will germinate! Otherwise, I'll just keep on growing kangkung and spring onions, at least I have constant supply from these two faithful veggies!

Happy Gardening!

More Pictures!

2011-06-16T22:56:00.000+08:00

More pictures taken at National Science Centre

Kiasu Fun 2, more butterflies!

2011-06-13T22:35:00.012+08:00

Butterflies at National Science Centre.

Kiasu fun !

2011-06-08T11:14:00.006+08:00

My family went to the National Science Centre and among the dinosaurs and science information, there is a small butterfly garden, which is a nice surprise. Took some pictures and learn some interesting facts. Finally I get to join in the kiasu gang, (Hi, One!) , thought I missed the boat, and happy to see another kiasu post at Onenezz!

Pretty butterfly.

The eggs

The caterpillar or larva, feeding and growing stage

The chrysalis (pupa), the stage where the caterpillar tissues are broken down and the adult structures are formed.

These are empty, the butterflies have flown away.

Beautiful colour of gold, but surprisingly, the butterflies from these pupa are blue, as I was told.

The different colours, shapes and sizes of the pupas.

The small cage where they keep the pupas. Looks like earrings for sale from afar!

This photo was taken from the butterfly garden, under the leaf of a plant, looks very familiar.....

This photo was taken from my garden, I did a post on it on May 14th, Strange Creature . Now the mystery is solved, I think that this is the pupa of a butterfly. I saw it crawled itself up on the leaf of my yam plant and finally settled itself upside down under the leaf. The beauty of nature!

More butterflies pictures coming up in next post! Being kiasu once, is not enough! :)

Lemon

2011-05-27T19:13:00.004+08:00

I bought the young lemon seedling from a nursery about two and a half years ago. Waited very patiently for it to flower. It finally did, in February. I was so excited!

After almost four months, it is now as big as a ping-pong ball.

I wonder how much longer must I wait before I could harvest, there are only three fruits! From what I read from the internet websites, lemon will mature about 6 months later. Now I am wondering whether is this lime or lemon, as I could not remember which variety of lemon I bought, I only remembered that I paid for a lemon plant. Could this mistakenly be lime?

Guess I've got to wait for a couple of months more, hopefully they will turn yellow, like lemons do!

Happy Gardening !

Long Bean, Harvest

2011-05-24T22:25:00.002+08:00

I harvested only ONE long bean today!

The first long bean from the plant

The second long bean, should be ready to be harvested in about two days time.

This is the fourth and fifth beans, probably will harvest in about three days time.

More flowers growing at the top of the beans!

Could not help measuring the first bean....

a beautiful 20-inches long!

Long bean, the product from this beautiful flower, amazing, isn't it?

Spotted a few more flowers, not as many as I had hoped, but it makes me happy!

Happy Gardening !

Long Beans Debut!

2011-05-17T00:02:00.001+08:00

My Long Beans Plant finally decided to flower!

Found about half a dozen flowers a few days ago!

They bloomed very prettily and most of them dropped off, where are the beans?

Only found one so far!

Pot of kangkung

Ladies Fingers (Okra)

My harvest : Kangkung, Spring Onions, Chives and Ladies Fingers

I have harvested a total of 2.2kg of spring onions from a packet of sprouted onions bought for only less than RM1.00! Wow! Definitely my favourite veggie, my house's favourite!

Happy Gardening !

Strange creature!

2011-05-14T13:12:00.004+08:00

Anyone know what insect or bug this creature is?

Found it crawling up the leaf of my yam plant a few days ago.

Slowly making it's way up.

Looks like it has found a perfect spot to rest.

It stayed this way hanging down for 10 minutes.... then I have other things to do!

Found this when I was pruning some leaves at my backyard a couple of days later, did not know from which plant, it just crawls onto my kitchen counter, probably from the leaves. It is really small, only 1cm! I do not know whether this is the same one or there are more than one! Probably the same one, notice the two white cushiony "pillows" on its back, it wasn't there a couple of days earlier when I spoted it.

I find it fascinating! It looks like some small rotten wood with some blue plastic stuck to it at a glance. I have seen this creature a number of times at my backyard. Wondering what it is. Anyone knows?

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T09:44:00.001+08:00

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

to all mothers!

4 YEARS OF AGE Y My Mommy can do anything!
8 YEARS OF AGE Y My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!
12 YEARS OF AGE Y My Mother doesn't really know quite everything.
14 YEARS OF AGE Y Naturally , Mother doesn't know that , either!
16 YEARS OF AGE Y Mother? She's hopelessly old-fashioned.
18 YEARS OF AGE Y That old woman? She's way out of date!
25 YEARS OF AGE Y Well , she might know a little bit about it.
35 YEARS OF AGE Y Before we decide , let's get Mom's opinion.
45 YEARS OF AGE Y Wonder what Mom would have thought about it?
65 YEARS OF AGE Y Wish I could talk it over with Mom.

Here's wishing you a sweet and wonderful day with your family!

Have fun!

Long Beans, where are you?

2011-05-03T22:22:00.000+08:00

My Long Bean plants are growing very lush and healthy.....but where are the flowers?

Photo taken on 17/03

Photo taken this morning

I have two of these planted in the ground near my belimbing tree, supported by the recycle TV antenna. These plants are already four months old and they are not showing any signs of flowering yet! According to my neighbour's friend, who used to grow lots of long beans, I should prune the leaves to make way for the flowers, and what shall I do with the leaves, boil it in soup! My neighbour told me that the leaves can be cooked in ikan bilis soup, and it is very tasty. Have any of you tried eating the leaves before? I never knew the leaves can be eaten! Did a search from the net, and found out that the young and tender stems and leaves can be eaten. So I cut some leaves this morning and cook it in some ikan bilis soup, surprisingly it is quite good, taste a little bit like our local spinach. The young and tender leaves are nice, but the big ones are tough. This is just a trial, as I was very curious how it will taste like! Will be cooking it again when I have time to prune the leaves these few days.

Found a leech under one of the leaves and ....

a couple of snails, no wonder they love to eat the leaves, the young and tender leaves tastes good!

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Harvested more spring onions today!

Harvested half a kilo of spring onions, 528gm! And this is just from one container, I have two more containers that I will harvest soon! This is definitely my favourite veggie to plant!

My Little Harvest

2011-04-26T22:06:00.002+08:00

My front garden is starting to look like a vegetable garden, that's what my hubby said today. That is nice actually! The only veggie at the moment are the spring onions, kangkung and a few pots of cherry tomatoes.

These are some spring onions which I planted more than two weeks ago. I have already harvested some, and some of the smaller ones, I planted just a few days ago.

Another two pots of spring onions which I planted about a week ago, and a pot of kangkung.

Some kangkung which I planted today, look at the snail already enjoying the veggies!

My little harvest !

Some spring onions and parsley harvested yesterday.

My first cute little radish, it is so tiny! After months of growing, that's all there is! Hopefully the new batch will fare better!

Harvested more spring onions and some kangkung today.

I love growing spring onions, they are extremely easy to grow and I use them frequently in my kitchen. There are more growing at my front garden. Thanks to Tesco again, I bought the sprouted onions at a bargain and now they are rewarding me with lovely greens. Gave some fresh spring onions to a friend in my neighbourhood and she is requesting me to get some sprouted onions for her when I'm at Tesco the next time! She is excited at growing her own spring onions now!

The carrots and broccoli seeds which I sowed have already sprouted and I saw some very tiny seedlings of the celery seeds growing too. I'm waiting for these seedlings to grow a little bigger before I could transfer them to their new veggie bed, at least not for another two weeks or so.

Happy Gardening !

My dear Rosemary!

2011-04-20T08:24:00.037+08:00

I'm in the midst of clearing the front garden, with lots of interruption in between, rain, an "official driver" for my kids, preparing meals, household chores, blah, blah, blah....! So meanwhile, here's one of my favourite pot of plant.....Rosemary.

Rosemary is one of my favourite herb. I have a few favourite herbs, I don't actually know which one I like the best, I like all of them! But then again, Rosemary definitely belongs amongst one of the top spot on my list of herbs.

Rosemary is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant leaves. Rosemary is high in iron, calcium,, and vitamin B6. For more info on Rosemary Herbs, refer to Wikipedia, it is really interesting to read about this amazing herb.

This is my third pot of Rosemary for the last two years or so. Each time it was infested by a small lice like bug, looks like the "kutu" which can be found in uncooked rice grains. The only way to control this lice-like bug is to do it manually, remove them by hand. I do not use the spray as I use the leaves quite frequently.

Spotted them on my Rosemary plant this morning. Got to remove them soon or the whole plant will be full of them. I noticed that this bug only infest on Rosemary and Sage, they do not infest on other herbs that I placed nearby. Have you seen this bug in your pot of Rosemary before? Get rid of them quick, they won't kill the plant instantly, but the plant will eventually die at a slow pace. Does anyone know the name of this bug?

I have never been successful at propagating rosemary until now, I failed each time I tried. Seems like the last batch that I did a little over a month ago has succeeded! I propagated two stems and both of them have roots now. Rosemary cuttings should be taken from the soft or new wood on the plant.

I use a lot of parsley and coriander in my kitchen, and rosemary follow closely behind. I have been asked before about how I make use of the herbs from my garden. These are some of the meals that I've made using Rosemary which can be found over at my kitchen blog. Just click on the name of the dish for the full recipe :

Rosemary Bread

Rosemary Ciabatta Rolls

Chicken Burger with Garlic-Rosemary Mayonnaise

Baked Chicken Wing with Rosemary and Sesame Seeds

Herb Roast Chicken

Pineapple-Rosemary Sorbet

Happy Gardening !

My New Plans

2011-04-18T15:20:00.003+08:00

Now that I am looking forward to start planting veggies again, I am a little cool now, over my anger at the cats. I know that I have said it before, but I'll say it again, Thank You, all, for 'listening' and cracking your heads for ideas and suggestions to help me with this irritating problem. I deeply appreciate all your lovely gestures.

My new plan is to turn my front garden to a veggie garden, as I am done with thinking of ways on how to protect my plants, it is a mentally tiring and torturing way of gardening! Not to mention how that has affected my mood, hopefully I won't get hypertension from the stress! I have not been sowing more seeds than I should, since the problem with the cats arise, even the few veggies that I sowed was destroyed, the worst thing was, the Komatsuna seedlings from the seeds that Diana sent to me from her beloved garden in Adelaide has been destroyed. That really upsets me. So I'm putting these problems aside and start afresh, sounds great, isn't it?

At the moment, the "residents" over at my front potted garden are the herbs, a few gerberas and some other plants. Since some of the plants are also showing signs of wilting, they will make way for my new veggies. I have started to sow some seeds, nai pak, brocolli, celery, kangkung and carrots. I'm looking forward for these seeds to germinate, and will have to clear the space and prepare the new veggie beds. One happy news is my cherry tomatoes which I planted in pots at my front garden, are showing fruits! Though they are still very, very, tiny, I am thrilled to bits! Keeping my fingers crossed that they won't drop off!

Over at the back garden, I'm planning to plant serai, pineapple, more yam and perhaps get a few bigger plants from Sg. Buloh. I have planted two heads of pineapple today, even though I may not harvest any fruits for the next 18 months or so, I do not mind. I have successfully planted pineapples before, as they are really easy, and doesn't require much care. The plant can grow really huge, even better to keep those irritating creatures away.

Tesco is having a gardening carnival now, nothing much of interest, except the black soil is selling at RM1.18 per packet. Just bought a big pack of sprouted onions at only RM0.79! These onions will be planted in the new veggie bed at the front. I do have a container of onions at my front garden which I planted two weeks ago, they are growing well, safe and sound! So I think my decision of turning my front yard to a vegetable garden, hopefully, is a right one.

Just for smiles! You won't expect to see a toy water gun in a gardening blog!

But I thought that it deserves to be introduced. My personal weapon against those irritating creatures. My son's toy water gun. This gun can shoot quite a distance! I don't have toys like this when I was young, so this is great to play with! Satisfaction guaranteed when those creatures run with their tails between their legs! But they always come back, then I get to play again!

Happy Gardening !

Thank you, my friends for your concern!

2011-04-16T17:46:00.000+08:00

Firstly, I would like to thank you for your concern and all your advices on my previous post. That being said, I feel that is only right that I do a post on this instead of replying in the comment section. I just cleaned up another mess at my backyard! Another pot of okra seedling has been destroyed. The spring onions pot of container on my previous post which has been attacked, I have since placed 5 overturned pots in the container to cover the soil. Guess what, they stupid cats poo on the containers! Cats, by nature, are supposed to dig in the soil, do their business, then cover it up, right? Well this stupid bunch of cats just do it on containers, on stones and even on the cement walkway, how stupid can they get? Sorry, you cat lovers out there, I'm just letting go of my frustations. You would not want to know what is on my mind if I catch hold of them! Now why are they stupid, because their owner said so!

In reply to all your comments :

Hi Food So Delicious :

I'm glad that I don't have rats in the garden. But then again, I would be able to trap them without feelng guilty to the owners! Plastic containers seems like a good idea, but in order to keep off the cats, the containers need to be very high,at least at a certain height. Would be great if you could keep us updated when you do decide to use these containers, it will be interesting to see how this will help in keeping them away. Thank you!

Hi milka :

Lucky you, to have a big doberman, like a guardian angel to your veggies and plants! I do not have a dog nor intend to get one.

Hi One :

It is stressful! I go to bed thinking about whether will I be seeing buzzing flies around any of my pots in the morning! Talking to the owner will definitely not helped at all, she has promised to look into the matter and it seems that she has not done a single thing about it. Thank you for your suggestions, I will have to try the orange peel method. Will the coffee ground in any way damage the plants, as my plants are all in pots, and when it rains, all the water will flow right into the roots. I need a big tiger, not the poops, to scare the cats away and hopefully the owner will move too, somewhere, far, far, away! And I could not possibly have some words with the cats, they are stupid! The exact words from their owner's mouth "Binatang, mana ada kepala otak!". Yup, she said it loud and clear, over at her kitchen window so that I can hear her!

Hi Bangchik and Kakdah,

Thank you for your technique! It made me smile...! I did that a few times, but then the stupid cats, probably do not understand...!

Hi Diana,

Thank you for your concern and thoughts! The sawtooth coriander can grow to quite a big plant, they need quite a space to grow and very prickly, it will deter them away, but it will be a problem for me to get to my plants, I did cut a few leaves from the sawtooth coriander and scatter them over the pots, no idea whether they works! Most of the young seedlings are destroyed, there's no established plant except one or two. My neighbour did have a patch of soil behind their house, according to the owner, only the mother cat has been toilet trained! I do not understand how can she cook in her kitchen when the cats' poo are directly outside her kitchen window. Imagine the flies that are flying around in her kitchen! Urgh! I did put some leaves around the pot last time, but it doesn't help either. Did not try with serai leaves, as I do not have any serai plants. Will give this a try. Thank you, Diana.

Hi Shidah,

Thank you for your suggestions too. It is difficult to install a wire netting as my garden is at the back lane. I'm staying in an intermediate lot and there's no private entry at the back, it is like a common back lane. I did thought of this before, and it is quite impossible to do, still cracking my head over this!

Hi petite nyonya,
I need your serai leaves! Thumbtacks is a really good idea! I'm tempted! Ha! Ha!

Hi Autumn Belle,

Yes, I agree with you, talking to the owner doesn't help at all. They have much to learn about being responsible as pets' owner. I always sprayed the area where they poo before, but they still come back if not to the same place, then the next! I have not tried the method with the empty Nescafe pack. It will be sometime when I will need a fresh pack. Can I instead use a teaspoon of Nescafe, dilute it with lots of water and pour this into the pot? Will it damage the plant as they are all in pots. The mineral bottle method sounds interesting. But if they did it during the night, which they usually do, then it won't keep them away! Sigh...!

*************

Thank you, friends, for being there to listen to all my frustations! I was actually thinking of 'closing up' my back garden, and I'm not ashamed to admit that, the thought of doing that and seeing nothing from my kitchen window almost leave me in tears! LOL! So, my next plan is to plant bigger plants like pineapple and serai over at the back and some veggies over at my front porch. I have a small porch and do not have enough of space, so careful planning is required.

I am done with placing stones, sticks and whatever that I can think of to protect the plants, the only solution is I'm hoping that they will move away, even that is out of the question! And I'm not one to hurt an animal, no matter how angry I am, I'll just ignore and be done with them, stupid cats and irresponsible owners. I'll just use my energy into putting my plan to action. In fact, bought two pineapples yesterday, for a start!

Meanwhile, I will try the few methods suggested, until my front porch is ready. Thank you everyone! I really appreciate all your thoughts and suggestions! You are the best! :)

Garden Pest Strikes Again and Again!

2011-04-12T12:04:00.000+08:00

What am I to do?? My neighbour's cats are continuing harassing my garden!

I planted this okra in a round pot, protected by a smaller pot with cut-out bottoms and surrounded with wooden chopsticks.

This is another pot of okra seedling. I did not surround the plant with chopsticks, cause I have run out of them, so many pots to protect, and I have yet to buy more! Look at what the cat did! I think that I should get more sticks that are much longer and place them around my pots like a protective shield! All the inconvenience, just because the owner is irresponsible!

My container of spring onions, which I placed some sticks across and around. Look at it now!

The owner is getting irritated with me for complaining again the last time. Ever since my last post on the cats' mischief, they have been doing it again and again for at least a dozen time. Most of the time they did their "little bussines" in the pot! I would not like to pick a quarrel with a neighbour over some cats, but I am at a loss over what to do! These are not the only pots of plants they destory!

I could not plant my veggies without the thought of finding ways of protecting my plant! This is stressful gardening! Hobbies are supposed to be stress free, and joyful, in my case, it is exactly the opposite! I have this fear of my veggies being dug out and would constantly check my veggies each morning to see whether are they in place as they should be. And would check for any disgusting smell! Now this is SGS, Stressful Garden Syndrome! So I have not been planting my veggies as much as I would love to!

Obviously talking to the owner again is out of the question now! I think that she is ready to pick a quarrel with me anytime now!

Do you have a cat or problems with cats in your garden? How do you overcome them? Would love to hear any advice, please!

Different Shapes and Shades of Greens

2011-03-25T23:14:00.001+08:00

My herb plants ......

Oregano

Sweet Basil

Rosemary

Thai Basil

Sawtooth Coriander

Stevia

Dill

Mint

Thymes

Parsley

Curry Leaf

Some updates on my backyard potted garden

2011-03-17T22:40:00.003+08:00

The Belimbing Tree, growing lush and full of leaves and new branches.

Belimbing fruits hidden by the leaves, it is like looking for treasures. Got to push away the leaves to find the hidden treasure!

They even grow in the narrow space between the trunks. Can you see the two snails behind the fruits?

Their peace, quite and really dark home momentarily disturbed by the sudden light!

Sawtooth coriander, the first flower spotted on 7th February, a little over a month later, look at how much flowers they have grown.

Radish! I only have one plant! Wonder when is the right time to harvest?

The flower of the French Bean plant has got a little company.

Happy Gardening !

Some potted greens...and yellow

2011-03-08T13:59:00.000+08:00

Some plants from my potted front porch @ garden!

Philodendron Selloum

The huge leaves

Dumb Cane, also know as Dieffenbachia, not sure which variety, anyone know the exact name?

Croton Gold Dust

Happy Gardening !

No words today, just blooms!

2011-02-27T12:00:00.002+08:00

Happy Gardening !

Old Ye Faithful!

2011-02-21T11:25:00.003+08:00

My faithful old belimbing tree, has never fails me! I cut off the top of the tree as it was getting too big and less than two months later, lush branches has grown. And that is not all, it has continue to flower, and I thought that it will only flower perhaps six to eight months later!

Such a pretty sigh! So happy to see the lush green leaves!

Flowers growing at the top of the stump!

Flowers growing at the bottom, close to the ground, and some fruits too! That's not all, there are more flowers all over! Amazing, isn't it! Looks like since it has less branches and leaves to nurture, all the nutrients goes into growing more flowers, which is great!

My chives! Finally look more like chives instead of weeds of grass! These are extremely, extremely slow! Guess how old are these? They are seven months old! I'm gonna harvest them soon and use the pot for something else, as I think that these are a waste of space and time. Look at the 'bountiful' yield! Just enough for my omelette! The next time I'll look for clumps of established chives to plant instead of from seeds, which seems to take forever.

Komatsuna, seeds courtesy from Diana, Kebun Malay-Kadazan girls. Thank you Diana!

The seeds of komatsuna

Yam! This is only about 2 months old. They will be ready to be harvested at around 10 months, it will be a long wait! Hope that it will continue to grow healthily!

Happy Gardening !

Beware Of the White Beetle!

2011-02-14T16:22:00.008+08:00

My curry leaf plant has been infested by this uncommon leaf beetle, for the second time. The first time when it happened, I did not recognise this insect or bug, all I know is, the larva is really, really disgusting! I did a search from the web and almost all the info on the web states that curry leaf plant is practically pest-free as most pests do not like the rather strong smell of the leaves! Upon further search from the web, I've found out the name of this pest is Tortoise Beetle.

Excerpt from What's That Bug in reply to a query by someone in Malaysia who found this bug on her curry leaf plant too :

This is the larva of a Leaf Beetle in the family Chrysomelidae, possibly a Tortoise Beetle. Providing the name of the food plant, curry, should make the identification easier. We found a Local Beetles’ Battles page of the Asian Entomology Collection and Studies website, that pictures a Tortoise Beetle, Aspidomorpha deusta, and the quote:
“IN 1994, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia entomologist Prof Mohamed S. Mohamedsaid noticed strange white beetles on curry leaf plants. Careful study revealed that the beetles came from a genus restricted to Sri Lanka where it is represented by one species, Silana farinosa, commonly known as the tortoise beetle.
‘The occurrence of Silana farinosa feeding on curry leaves in Malaysia is probably a very recent introduction. It has never been reported before in the country,’ he says.
‘Aspidomorpha deusta’ is a common tortoise beetle east of Java. This foreign species was found on a beach off Kapar, Selangor. –
‘It’s very unlikely that its presence would have gone unnoticed, for the host plant is also an important crop,’ he explains, adding that the leaves of the plant are an essential ingredient in Malaysian cooking, especially curries.
The taxonomist, who works with UKM’s Centre for Insect Systematics, reckons the creatures might have been feeding on dry curry leaves when they were unwittingly packed into someone’s luggage and brought into Malaysia from Sri Lanka.
‘They are real pests as these popular plants are endangered by them,’ he says, adding that the curry leaf plant had never before been attacked by insects as it emits a powerful smell.
More recently, another species of foreign tortoise beetle was found on our shores.
‘In all my years of studying beetles, which included combing the beaches of Malaysia for tortoise beetles, I have never encountered a specimen belonging to the species collected in March last year,’ he says.
According to Prof Mohamed, Aspidomorpha deusta is common from Java eastwards to Papua New Guinea and Australia.”
We then found photos of larval Silana farinosa on the photomalaysia website, and they appear to match your photos.

This is the Tortoise Beetle

The larva are usually found at the underside of the leaves.

This is only from one stalk of leaves, more than half of my plant has been infested.

They are extremely yucky! Just by looking at them, gave me goose bumps! I have never seen any yucky larva like this before! The only way to get rid of them is by removing them manually, this was the information I got from one of the sites which I read when I was browsing for the information months ago. I've even printed out the article but I lost it somehow. Remove them manually? I shudder just looking at them! So I cover the whole top with a plastic bag and just cut the stem off, since the plant has already been infested rather badly! When the plant was infested previously, I did try to get rid of them by spraying with organic spray and even homemade ones, but without any success at all.

Cut the whole top away

After about a week, new shoots have started to grow. When it happened the first time, I was careful and always on the lookout for this beetle. There was one of two every now and then, but I always managed to get rid of the matured beetle before they started to breed. But then, due to my lack of attention after that, by the time I checked, I was too late! The plant has been infested by these yurky larva again. And my poor plant has got to be 'chopped off' again!

Photo taken this morning, about a week from the above photo.

Look at what I've found under one new leaf this morning!

Have you seen this white beetle before? This is one beetle that you would not want for your garden! Remember, get rid of them before their larva destroy your plants!

Happy Gardening !

Harvest Spring Onions, The Express Way!

2011-02-09T18:00:00.004+08:00

Spring onions are my favourite! I constantly use it for garnishing, stir-fry in meat, chicken and fish dishes, stir-fry noodles and in instant noodles too! There's always a bunch of spring onions in my fridge. Look at the lovely green, these are from my potted garden.

I bought these already sprouted onions from TESCO. When the next time you go to TESCO or any other supermarkets, make sure to visit their corner "REDUCED - TO CLEAR" section, they would usually clear the leftover veggies which are not that fresh anymore by reducing the price. What I look for are the onions! Found a packet of big onions already sprouted for only RM1.94 per packet! What a bargain. Took these home, clean them and goes into my pot, not my cooking pot, but in my garden pot!

Most of the onions already have two or three bulbs joined together as one big onion. All the better!

Peel off the outer layer, wash and clean them and I got two spring onions "seedlings" from each onion. Yeah~!

Into my containers they go, already thinking about my menu when they are ready to be harvested!

Two weeks later, see how much they have grown!

Harvested these on 1st Feb, from 2 bunches, gave these to a friend.

Harvested these on 9/02, from three bunches

After three weeks from date of planting, full grown, fresh, beautiful greens are ready to be harvested! Half of these goes into the fried noodles for the kids' lunch and the other half will be for my prawn dish tomorrow. There are still a few bunches left which I will harvest soon.

I'm off to TESCO again!

Happy Gardening !

A Welcoming Surprise

2011-02-07T20:23:00.004+08:00

I'm back from my Chinese New Year holidays, and am pleasantly surprised to see that my sawtooth coriander has started to flower! I did a post on sawtooth coriander just before the holidays, on 27th January and there was no sign of the flowers at that time, and yes, I did look and look, and was actually very disappointed that there was no sign of any flowers. So this a wonderful surprise!

Wonder how many flowers will it grow? Dozens I hope! Really looking forward to save more seeds, to share!

My tarragon has sprouted new leaves! I'm so relieved! Let's just hope that it will grow healthy, keeping my fingers crossed. The ones which I propagate from the cuttings doesn't look good. There's no sign of any new leaves, they just look like dead twigs, and I dare not touch them as I'm afraid that I might disturb the new roots, if there are any! Will wait for another week and see. I have not sowed the seeds yet! Hope to do that these few days as I'm extremely busy with household duties after back from the holidays.

The miracle of nature. With healthy roots and the will to survive, nothing can stop them!

This really brings a smile to me!

Happy Gardening !

Stylish Blogger Award & Gong Xi Fa Cai Greetings

2011-01-30T23:00:00.011+08:00

Miz Helen of Miz Helen's Country Cottage has graciously extended the Stylish Blogger Award to My Little Potted Garden.

In accepting this award, the following applies:

Post linking back to the person that gave you the award.
Share 7 random things about yourself.
Award 15 recently discovered bloggers
Drop them a note, and tell them about it!

Thank you, Miz Helen, for extending this lovely award to My Little Potted Garden. I'm really honoured that you enjoyed visiting my little tiny garden! Miz Helen is really charming, she has that motherly quality and can be seen as soon as you step into her site. She's a very talented cook, take a look at her scrumptious meals and wonderful desserts and treats, you would know what I mean. Miz Helen is a keen gardener too, she has a lovely garden which rewards her with home-grown veggies for her cooking pot! Please do visit Miz Helen's Country Cottage and read her posts on The Garden Gate. I especially love her post on The Garden Journal. Thank you, Miz Helen!

Seven things about myself !

I love spicy food, the spicier the yummier! I eat chili almost everyday, either in a spicy dish or as an accompaniment!
I failed miserably at growing my own chili plants! They never survived after the first flowers! Perhaps they saw a 'hungry chili eater' who is always "staring" at them, and that gave them a scare! But I'm still trying!
I have always been interested to grow my own herb plants, mainly to be used in my own cooking pot. I am planning to add on the varieties of herb plants that I have at the moment, this may take a while, but I'm not in a rush, will do it one at a time. Planning is the most important key factor to me. Got to do lots of reading up on these plants first.
I'm really frustrated at not being able to successfully grow my own tomatoes. Well, I did once, with only one fruit, that does not count at all! Still trying, I have a new batch of cherry tomatoes seedlings now, keeping my fingers crossed for this! Wish me luck! (I need lots of it!)
Love to visit all your gardens! Love to see all the veggies and blooms, some I have not seen before!
I'm still waiting for Book 4 on the Eragon series, though, by the time when they do publish it, I've got to start all over from Book 1! Memory is not as good as it used to be! Signs of getting old? Nah.......!
Wishing for a bigger garden with grounds!

I am honoured to extend this Stylish Blogger Award to these following fantastic blogs, at random order :

p3chandan - Go Right In ...My Garden

Priscilla - Blossom Hideaway

Diana- Kebun Malay-Kadazan girls

Malar - My Little Garden

Fer - My Little Garden In Japan

Bangchik - My Little Vegetable Garden

Autumn Belle - My Nice Garden

J.C. - My Sunny Happy Garden

K.P. - Onenezz

Orchid de dangau

Stephanie - Steph's Green Space

Hafez - Clumsy Gardener Diary
Milka - Milka's Jishiben

Lrong Lim - Kedahan Malaysian In Japan

*****************************************

I would like to wish all my Chinese gardening pals, family and readers,

GONG XI FA CAI

May this year of the RABBIT brings you good health, great happiness, wonderful love, joyful laughter, sweet contentment, lots, lots, lots of prosperity, and all the good things that life can offer!

Will be away for a week, see you when I get back!

**********************

Tarragon

2011-01-29T15:20:00.003+08:00

Tarragon is another herb plant that I bought from Sg. Buloh in August, the same batch with the dill. I did a search from the web, and found out that this variety is the French Tarragon.

These are some interesting facts about tarragon from the web :

"Also known as Artemisia dracunculus, tarragon is a perennial herb and the leaves are used for seasoning, especially vinegar.

Tarragon grows to two or three feet tall and likes moderate sun, preferring a little shade during the warmest part of the day. It grows well in a rich loamy soil that holds moisture, but drains well. Mulching is beneficial to this end.

Tarragon is unique in that during growth, it seems to have little aroma, yet after the leaves or tops are harvested, the oils concentrate and start emitting their unique tarragon sweet smell, similar to freshly cut hay.

Tarragon propagates best through root division, planting the divisions at least 18 inches apart. Since tarragon has a shallow root system, care must be taken not to damage the roots when weeding, and special care must be shown during the winter after transplanting, as the root systems will not have developed fully.

Tarragon is used in vegetable dishes and soups, mild cheeses, egg dishes, fish and white sauces."

The plant started to flower in November, and this interesting info from the web states that there are approx 6000 seeds for each gram of dried seeds! Can you believe it!

It grows very well during the first few months and even harvested some leaves for my dinner!

These are the leaves which I "harvest" from the plant for a baked chicken, see photo below,

Yummy!

Unfortunately, the plant starts to show signs of wilting after it started to flower,

The flowers of a tarragon plant, yellow in colour and really small

Are these seeds? Further research from the web states that "French tarragon can only be grown from root or stem cuttings, or by dividing an already established plant. Even if your French tarragon blooms, the chance of it actually setting seeds is virtually nil."

That's all the "seeds" collected

I'm not sure whether I did it right. The flowers are still visible although it is dried. It is extremely small, so it is very difficult to see. These may not be the seeds after all. They may just be the dried flowers! The only way to find out is to sow the "seeds" and wait for them to germinate!

This is what's left, I pruned the branches, hoping that it will grow new leaves! I propagate some of the stems when I pruned the plant and keeping my fingers crossed that they will root. If all these three methods fails, then I guess, I just have to pay a visit to Sg. Buloh again!

Does anyone knows about the seeds of tarragon? Would appreciate for more details on this. Funny thing is, a search from the web for a picture of the seeds are fruitless.

There are much for me to learn about growing Tarragon!

I'm linking this to "Seed Week" over at Kebun Malay-Kadazan girls.

Sawtooth Coriander Seeds

2011-01-27T11:00:00.003+08:00

It has been almost five months since my last post on sawtooth coriander in September. It has grown quite huge and many young seedlings have appeared by the sides of the pot. The seeds was harvested in December, they are really tiny!

The photos above were taken in September when it started to flower. The flower does not look like a flower! They look more like a cluster of leaves grown together to form a flower-like pattern and in the centre are the seeds which look like the green version of conifer seeds!

This photo below was taken a few weeks before I harvested the seeds. You can see from this photo, the flowers has multiplied, when I counted it was more than 50. And the flowers are spread out to a few 'tiers' from one single stem. It gets too heavy and taking up space, and they are rather spikey, so I cut off the flower stem at the bottom as soon as it is shows signs of drying.

This plant can be really big, see how one plant spreads out and occupies the space of the pot.

Many young seedlings growing at the sides of the pot.

The dried seeds.

The seeds are extremely small. (They look like small little bugs, don't they?) From the 50 over flowers, the seeds collected are only about 1 teaspoon! But imagine if the sowing of these seeds is 100% success, then, that will a big number of plants!

So far, there has been no signs of any flowers from the rest of the sawtooth corianders! I'm really hoping that they will flower soon, as there would be more seeds to share. I'm liking this to "Seed Week" over at Kebun Malay-Kadazan girls.

Happy Gardening !

Dill Seeds

2011-01-24T14:20:00.010+08:00

About 3 months back, I have done a post on dill, here. These are the photos which I have posted earlier in that post. To summarize, I bought this dill plant from Sg. Buloh, along with several other herb plants. My dill plant has since wilted. The flowers are really very beautiful. Grown in clusters of umbels, with tiny yellow flowers. When I did a search from the web, found out that dill is an annual herb with a short life span. How short is short? I've got no idea!

These are the seeds which I've collected. I tried sowing them once but did not germinate. Soon after that, I found some young seedlings among few of my pots! They must have self seeded as the pots are placed around the pot of dill.

Found this young seedling and ....

another one....

another one growing among my corianders. Got to replant this in another pot soon.

Hopefully my dill plants will grow healthily and provide me with more seeds to share. I'm really looking forward to save other seeds, but my experience in seed-saving is still very new and there are many things that I'm not sure. Apart from the seeds, the leaves are usually picked when mature and dried and then stored for uses in the kitchen. Do leaves already dried on the plants serve the same purpose? I saved the dried leaves from my dill plant before disposing of the plant when it wilted. The smell of the leaves are still wonderful. Any advise from anyone regarding this? Any difference between the leaves that were picked and then dried, and the leaves already dried naturally on the plants?

The only other seeds that I have saved are from my sawtooth coriander. There will be another post on this.

I'm linking this post to "Seed Week" over at Kebun Malay-Kadazan Girls, a fabulous blog about home-grown veggies and blooms, really a pleasure to read and an inspiration for "green-horn" like me!

Happy Gardening !

Four-Legged Garden Pest! Caught Ya!

2011-01-22T17:40:00.004+08:00

Cats generally are very cute, adorable and extremely "free-running". You may own a cat, and in the case of my neighbour, seven cats!, Cats can never be locked up in the house the whole day and expected to stay indoors without ever venturing anywhere they so desire! Except, of course, if you keep them lock up in a cage and of course, it is not a right thing to do! They come and go as they pleases!

Look at these little kittens. There are actually four of them. An orange one is not in the picture. Aren't they cute? Do not let their cute faces gets to you, they are really a nuisance to my garden! I do like cats, when I was young, our family had a cat, a dog, a guinea pig, 2 ducks and a chicken as our pets!

Three older cats, relaxing at the back of the owner's house.

One of the kitten, hiding behind the pot of curry leaf plant when it saw me. Guess what he did before that .....

It overturned my pot when it tried to climb onto it! This pot is half full, so it is not very heavy! It's okay, little one, there's another pot or two for you.... take your pick!

Wanted to go into my pot of chives, I caught him sleeping on my chives one afternoon! I then poked all around the pot with 'satay sticks'. He did put a paw in, intended to go into the pot, look around at the sticks, put a tip of the chive into his mouth, and changes his mind....

well, this looks like a nice spot to sunbathe! Into my pot of curry plant he lies! ......

But not for long, decided to get away from this human creature who is staring at him, clicking away with some black instrument! But that chives is really tempting, couldn't help it, push one down and sniff... got to go... that human creature is after me!

My new kangkung seedlings! One of the cats dug a hole and I guess you know why! It "poo-ed" and of course, the flies had a party! I sprayed with water-based aerosol and later, scoop it up to dispose of it, and guess what, little crawly maggots are underneath! Yucks! Yucks! Yucks! Sprayed again, and a few hours later, did the dirty job of disposing it off. Sprayed one more time, left the pot in the sun for two whole days, covered with some bamboo sticks, just in case the little cuties thought this is their private potty pot! Threw the kangkung away, that was one whole packet of seeds!

There's more ....

I have two little yam seedlings planted on the ground. One of it was dug out and guess what they did again? The flies had another party!

My french beans plant which was growing well, wilted within a day. Upon inspection, I noticed that the bottom stem has been snapped in two! How could this be? I then remembered that the day before, I saw the kittens was climbing on my belimbing tree, when they jumped down from the tree, they landed near my french beans, but I thought nothing of this! They must have snapped the stems when they landed!

They love my kitchen too! A piece of mackerel fish gone missing, a packet of unopened anchovies bought from the morning market mysteriously has traces of holes and tear marks on the plastic with some anchovies sticking out. A large piece of promfret (luckily it was still in the packet) was found on the floor at my kitchen door, because the packet was too big to go through the holes at the grill.

The last straw was when I took some meat from the freezer, put that packet in a bowl filled with water to defrost, close it with the food cover, and went outside to hang out my laundry. When I came into the kitchen, guess what I found, a wet kitchen floor, the bowl and cover in one corner, but the packet of meat still intact on the floor. They did not manage to take that away in time! Saw the culprit outside, it was a stray cat!

Because of these cats, do I have to close my kitchen door all the time? I like bright sunny kitchen with nice ventilation! I should really buy some wire mesh to protect my pots, and send the bills to the owner! I had a 'chit-chat' with their owner, who says that she doesn't have the time to care for so many cats and intend to send the kittens either to the SPCA or to give away to some friends, keeping only the older ones. I told her what her cats did, I know that she is not to be blamed for what her cats did, but as the owner, she is responsible. She laughingly told me to buy a cat spray (what is that?), supposedly to keep cats away if sprayed at that particular area! Maybe I should and pass the bill over to her! Well, I did told her that I will shoo them away with water and elastic sling! Guess what? I have her blessings!

Not to worry, I won't use the elastic sling, I'm not that cruel, maybe extremely mad, but not one to hurt any pets! Besides, I don't own any elastic sling!

I have a gun in my kitchen now! My son's toy water gun has some good uses after all!

And yes, my neighbour and I, we are still friends!

Happy Gardening !

Of Cherries and Berries!

2011-01-14T15:00:00.001+08:00

The last two weeks has been very busy, clearing my potted garden. Most of my plants are not growing well, have to get rid of them and start anew. My belimbing tree has not been spared too. It has gone from lush to 'botak'! Not to worry, it will grow soon enough, maybe in six months time, it will be lush again with new branches and leaves. It is getting too high, almost touching the telephone cable lines at the top, and also almost touching my neighbour's roof!

This tree has given me lots of belimbing fruits these few months! The grounds were covered with fallen fruits, when I came back from my short holiday. Harvested all of the fruits last week and gave away to several people. The makcik selling nasi lemak in the market was very happy!

These are all that's left! Picture was taken this morning. This little bunch is enough for my sambal tumis. Got to wait for at least 8 to 10 months for next batch of fruits!

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Went to Sg. Buloh two weeks ago, and bought a few plants. If you have read my post on Acerola Cherry, you might remember that I cut some stems from a tree in Ipoh and took them back to propagate. The roots did not sprout. Well, I bought a small plant from Sg. Buloh and it only cost RM5.00!! I have no idea it is that cheap!

There are even a few cherries on the plant, but they are all green. Now one has ripen.

The flower of acerola

Beautiful, striking ripe red acerola cherry. I'm waiting for it to turn a slightly darker red, which will taste sweeter!

Waiting patiently for it to ripen!

Spotted some new flowers today! Not many, but quite a few scattered here and there! I was thinking that I should have bought 2 or 3 plants instead! Maybe on my next visit ...

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This is another plant which I bought from Sg. Buloh. The miracle berry plant. Bangchik from My Little Vegetable Garden has mentioned about this berry in his blog. I bought this for RM8.00. According to the seller from the nursery, there has been quite a huge demand for this plant.

Interesting info on miracle berry, excerpt taken from http://www.miraclefruitusa.com/ :

Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum), sometimes known as the Miracle Berry, is a plant native to West Africa. The berry has a mildly sweet flavor; however, the fruit is treasured not for its own taste, but for the fruit’s unique effect on the taste buds.

Miracle Fruit contains a glycoprotein called miraculin, which binds to the tongue’s taste buds when the fruit is consumed. Miraculin acts as a sweetness inducer when it comes in contact with acids, causing bitter and sour foods to taste sweet, temporarily. This effect usually lasts between 30 minutes and 2 hours.

Miracle Fruit is available in three forms: The actual berries (which are usually frozen due to their high perishability), freeze-dried fruit granules, and miracle fruit tablets.

Experiencing Miracle Fruit

Berries : Put one berry in your mouth and gently scrape the fleshy part off the seed. Swirl this around your mouth for 2 minutes before swallowing.
Freeze-Dried Granules : Place approximately 1 gram of the granules in your mouth and let them slowly dissolve on and around your tongue. Wait at least one minute before swallowing.
Tablets : Place one tablet in your mouth and gently swirl it around with your tongue until dissolved.

Once you have consumed your Miracle Fruit, the tasting can begin!

Miracle Berry is suitable for growing in a pot! This is great, seeing that I do not have ground space! Waiting patiently (well, almost!) for it to flower. According to the info from the web, it will start to flower when it reaches 1-1/2 feet in height and will start to fruit when it reaches 2 feet. This is a great plant to have in the garden, as this is recommended to be grown in a pot. I should have bought one more! Have to wait for next visit to Sg. Buloh! Are you planning to get one (or two) for your garden?

Happy Gardening !

New Year Wish and A "Bud-dy" Day!

2010-12-29T11:00:00.019+08:00

Hi everyone, here's wishing,

A Happy New Year and a great 2011! Wishing all of you, good health, happiness, laughter, love and of course, prosperity! And may your garden blooms and shine throughout the year!

Pretty Orchid Blooms

2010-12-17T00:05:00.004+08:00

Look at the beautiful blooms of these orchids. I do not know the names! These beauties are not mine, they belong to my sister, who resides in Ipoh. She loves orchids and has been growing them for several years now.

Now, this little one belongs to me! I only have one orchid plant, because I have no luck with orchids. They don't seem to bloom for me. I have bought some plants over the years, and they bloom only once or some never at all and finally wilted away. This is the only one that survived. For the past few years, this plant has only bloom once a year! But then this year, surprisingly, it has bloomed not once, but thrice. I have not bothered with any fertilisers at all for the past two years, as I have sort of given up on this plant! This little plant has remain little, it has not grown at all! Maybe this is a dwarf orchid plant?? No idea! Is there such thing as a dwarf orchid plant? My sister's orchids are all very tall!

I love the colour, it is a lovely shade of orange and looks very striking and pretty. I hang this little pot in between my two hanging pots of bushy ferns, and it makes a very beautiful contrast among the two greens.

What is the name of this orchid? I've got no idea!

Happy Gardening !

Am I called Acerola???

2010-12-10T22:28:00.003+08:00

Can anyone tell me please, what is the name of this fruit? I saw this fruit tree at a roadside coffee shop in Ipoh. The cute, pretty fruit caught my eye! It looks like a miniature apple. The fruit is green when young, and change to red when ripen and then very dark maroon when mature. According to an Indian uncle who sells food at this coffee shop, this fruit can be eaten but he does not know its name, nobody does!

To prove that it can be eaten and is not poisonous, he ate one. He says that nobody likes the fruit as it is sour, he is the only one consuming it. Sometimes, he wife uses this fruit for cooking replacing the asam jawa. My sisters and myself tried this fruit, and find that it is quite nice with a sour taste but definitely not as sour as my belimbing! We cut off some stems, courtesy from the kind uncle, and took them home to try our luck at propagating these.

I did a search on the web, and found that it is called Acerola or Barbados Cherry. Do any of you have this plant? Is it Acerola Cherry? If it is, then the good news is, it is loaded with Vitamin C.

On the way back from Ipoh, at the Sg Buloh resthouse, we saw about five of these plants growing by the side of the road with some fruits! They are however much smaller that the one above. I guess that some of you probably know and familiar about this fruit plant. If you do, please enlighten me! Thank you!

Happy Gardening !

French Beans, Ladies Fingers and Belimbing Fruit

2010-12-02T21:42:00.001+08:00

My french beans are flowering and there's two tiny beans growing!

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Harvesting The Ladies Fingers ! I just love these plants, they are really easy to grow and are fast producing too!

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My ever favourite, belimbing tree! More fruits, my sis came to stay for a week and took back with her a bag of belimbing fruits, there's more on the tree!

Happy Gardening !

Beyond Gardening 2!

2010-11-20T15:20:00.007+08:00

Echinodorus Cordifolius Ovalis

Wow, the name is a mouthful! I love this plant. It is very easy to grow, I did not use any fertiliser, I guess they get it from the natural organic fish fertiliser in the little mini pond! This plant can be found in most nurseries.

One of my 'mini-pond' with some goldfish

"Echinodorus cordifolius "Ovalis" is a small, orbiculate "sword" plant whose low, wide growth makes it suitable for small aquariums. A nutritious bottom promotes growth, and if the leaves turn light this indicates a shortage of micro-nutrients. The plant forms stems which (unlike most other "sword" plants) bend down towards the bottom and form their own adventive plants. It is hardy and easy for both beginners and the more experienced". That is the description I got from the internet.

But to me this is not a small plant, it can grow as high as about 5 feet and I really like the flowers. The flowers are about the size of a 50cent coin, white in colour, papery thin and extremely dainty and lovely! But these flowers are short-lived, they can last about 2 days and will wilt and dry off. The flowers grow along the long stem that grows from the centre of the plant. There can be many 'tiers' of flowers along this long stem. Plantlets (new small daughter plants) will develop from the nodes of this 'tier', and can be propagated by cutting just below the plantlets. However when grown permanently submersed in the aquarium, most species will not flower.

I have two of this plants outside my house and two small ones in the aquarium which I posted here, earlier on.

I got one small plantlet from my neighbour several years ago and it has been growing well and flourish and over the years I have given many small plantlets to my sisters and friends. If you have a pond in your garden, this would be the ideal plant.

Another one of the 'mini-pond' with some Guppies and Red Mollies.

Close-up picture of the leaves.

The tip of the long stem with flower buds

The beautiful, white and dainty flowers fully bloomed

Another photo of the lovely flower

More pictures!

The small plantlet. The flowers has wilted and new leaves are growing. To propagate, just cut below the plantlets.

Some cute Goldfish

Another picture of the 'mini-pond' with Guppies and Red Mollies.

Guppies and Red Mollies

A heavily pregnant Guppy!

This post is for Stephanie of Steph's Green Space, who has asked me before about this plant. (Stephanie, I was waiting for the flowers to grow and bloom to show you the beauty of the flowers!) and also to Autumn Belle of My Nice Garden. Autumn Belle, there were four pregnant guppies, one has already given birth, now waiting for the other three. The picture above shows one of the pregnant guppy. When you buy guppies, make sure you buy more females than males!)

Happy Gardening !

A Day of Blooms

2010-11-15T10:25:00.008+08:00

Happy Gardening !

A Welcoming Busybody!

2010-11-09T14:07:00.001+08:00

Torenia needs plenty of sun to grow, but they must be well-watered. I have noticed that they wilt very fast too! The flowers are continuous with lots of blooms. Torenia makes great containers and window boxes plants and if you are looking for a plant that has continuous blooms, then this will be suitable. I bought these plants ages ago at the nursery, with different colours. Ever since then, this plant has been sprouting everywhere! I guess that the seeds are extremely light, so it is easily carried away by the wind.

I collected all the small little plants from my backyard and planted them in this pot last month. The plants has flowered and small plants are sprouting. Took that photo this morning and look at the rest :

My dill plant is wilting away. Waiting for the last batch of flowers to dry. Look at the Torenia, happily making themselves at home. If you have seen my post on "Dill" on Oct 19th, there was not even a Torenia in the pot. Look at it now, only a matter of three weeks!

This is my pot of sage, already wilted! Torenia making this pot their home!

My tarragon plant. The uninvited Torenia sharing a home with the tarragon!

My pot of Pentas is undergoing "nursing" care. It has been 'sick' , and I left it at a corner to get well. It is getting better, perhaps it is just lonely, now that it has the Torenia to keep it company! But it seems like the Torenia is taking over!

Pot of capsicum plant. Torenia has made it's presence known.

This Torenia is growing at the corner of my Aspidistra plant. Wondering when will the other friends show up!

Torenia popping up at the pot of Hibiscus plant!

Torenia and other weeds sharing a pot with my palm.

It even grows in between cracks on the cement floor right outside my house!

This pot has been abandoned for so long, looks like Torenia has made it their family home! The whole pot is full of them. Wondering why there is a hole? I dug out a batch of the bigger plants for my sister. She refused to take the whole pot! She said, "a little of this will go a long way"! She's right!

I will have to collect all the lonely Torenia and place them in a proper pot to grow. I have not bought this plant for ages. I don't have to. I have most of the colours too. They are spreading and popping out in places where they are not invited, a real busybody! But I welcome this busybody anytime!

Happy Gardening !

Shoe Rack, What Are You Doing In My Garden?

2010-10-22T23:29:00.002+08:00

The shoe rack replied, "I'm not wanted where I'm supposed to be, where else can I be, except be a friend to whoever needs a friend, you can always lean on me!"

This extra piece of shoe rack has been in my mini store for ages! Finally put it to good use! Two of my french beans are happily creeping towards the shoe rack supported by two bamboo sticks. This 'handiwork' was done by my dear hubby.

Do you know what that is? Well.... it is our very old TV aerial! It has been on the roof for years! Ever since Astro was installed years ago, this aerial has "ceased operation"! Almost two months ago, our Astro has gone ga-ga, the Astro guys came to repair and told them to bring it down. Hubby wanted to dispose of it, but I have better use for it! Ha! Ha! Hubby modified it for me and ta...da... I have a sturdy plant stake! On the left, another french bean plant is making its way up and to the right is the bitter gourd plant. Never realise that I like an aerial so much!

OK, time for some harvest!

My little harvest of nai pak. Too little to stir-fry, so goes into my yong-tau-foo noodles. Very crunchy and good! The rest of the nai pak, eaten by snails and the culprit below!

The flat grasshopper. I do not know what it is called, but I think flat grasshopper seems suitable!

Another harvest :

Belimbing! I pickled these! Yummy!

The extremely hot weather turns the leaves yellow real fast! It's like having autumn in my backyard, which can be very irritating! The leaves keep dropping even as I sweep! But I am being rewarded with lots of fruits. Gave some to my sisters and neighbours. Look at the bird's nest. It is still up there after so many months! There are no birds now, but really amazing, this nest can withstand strong heavy rain and sometimes very windy days too! I hope that the birds will be back to their "delivery nursery" soon.

Happy Gardening !

Dill

2010-10-19T14:45:00.002+08:00

Back to gardening!

Dill has slender stems, and alternate, finely divided, softly delicate leaves which can range from 10-20cm long. The flowers are white to yellow, in small umbels diameter, about 2 to 9cm. Dill is originated from Eastern Europe and are now widespread throughout the Mediterranean and West Asia. The fern-like leaves are aromatic and are used to flavour many food such as soups, pickles, dips and other culinary uses.

Dill needs full sun to grow with rich well-drained soil. This is a short-lived perennial herb. Now that explains why my dill plant is slowly drying and wilting away. I bought this plant from Sg. Buloh for RM5.00. I have never seen this being sold anywhere else.

Surprisingly, this plant is a member of the parsley family! Dills are grown from seeds. I have yet to try this! It has some medicinal value too. The seeds are used to control flatulence by brewing it as a tea and by chewing a few seeds will help to freshen the breath!

This photo was taken in August.

This photo was taken in September. In just a month the plant has grown taller with lovely small yellow flowers

A close-up picture of the leaves

Another photo of the leaves

Look at the lovely umbel of small yellow flowers

Close-up photo of the flowers

The dried seeds. Photo taken a few days ago.

Close up photo of the dried seeds. They are very small.

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This is for you to drool........

This photo was taken last week at my sister's garden. She planted this vine about less than 2 years ago, and look at the little grapes, are you drooling already?? I sure did! This is the second time that the plant is fruiting and it is only one cluster of grapes, bigger bunch than the first time. I have not tasted it yet! Keeping my fingers crossed that I will have the chance to try this when it ripens, maybe no chance at all, may have to wait for the next batch, hopefully more bunches next time round!

Beyond Gardening!

2010-10-15T14:29:00.003+08:00

A short break from gardening!

Balloon Molly
This is a cute fish with rounded, large belly.

This little mama is pregnant. Look at the rounded belly. We were waiting almost very patiently for the babies to appear!

Can you see the baby's tail coming out from the mother? I actually waited and wanted to video the birthing, waited for more than half an hour and finally gave up, as I really had to go out at that time. When I came back more two hours later, she has already given birth to a few babies! But sadly, this mama fish died the next day, and she's the prettiest mama in the aquarium!

See the two little fishes following closely behind? They love to do this, I guess it's one their natural habits. These two are siblings! The are about 3 months old. The rest of their siblings died, along with their mother.

This cute little yellow molly is another little mama. She gave birth to more than 20 baby fish about 2 weeks ago. She seems to be doing well.

These are some of her babies

This is one mighty proud male fish. He likes to spread out his top fins when pursuing the female, male ego? I don't see other male fish doing this!

Baby fish gets to hide in little caves and holes. The bigger fish, even their own mother are known to eat their young, and I have seen this before. My hubby and myself witness the birthing of the babies a couple of months back and saw the mother ate one of her young just minutes after birth! Both of us are speechless at that very moment! But that is nature.

There are four of this little fish with the black stripe, all siblings. They are about 3 weeks old.

Our little aquarium! Watching the cute little antics and habits of these little fishes can have a calming effect. They always seems to know the feeding time, they will get very excited and swam to the top waiting for the food when its time for feeding. The lovely green plant is from our own bigger plant (this will be a separate post). It can last for at least 4 months, sometimes even longer, in the aquarium.

Beyond Gardening shall continue.... in due time!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-13T10:19:00.001+08:00

Rangoon Creeper

2010-10-04T20:42:00.001+08:00

Quisqualis Indica is also known as Rangoon Creeper or Chinese Honeysuckle. It is a vine with red cluster flowers, the colours varies from white to pink to red, and is very fragrant. This plant can be found in Philippines, India and Malaysia and is mainly used for traditional medicine. The roots, flowers, leaves, seeds and fruits, can be used to treat various ailments such as diarrhea and rheumatism.

This is a perennial climber plant which needs a wall or fence to climb. I plant this in a pot and place it at my front porch where it gets full sun. This plant needs a lot of water especially when it is very hot, just like today, I need to water it twice. The flowers are really fragrant, almost similar to our local jasmine. When it starts to flower, the whole plant will be full of blooms, like it is blooming now. It is indeed beautiful when this happens! My plant is about 6 ft high but it is not very big. Usually after the flowers faded off, most of the leaves will turn to yellow and will soon drop off too. (Just like autumn, ya??). I will then prune and cut off the dead wilted branches and soon new leaves will grow, followed soon after by another batch of blooms. Anyone of you have this plant? Does this happen to your rangoon creeper? A few of the houses in my neighbourhood grew this plant on the ground, their plant is so much bigger and lush!

This rangoon creeper of mine has faithfully blooms thousands of flowers these past eight years of so. Even though it is not big in size, but it makes its presence known each time it blooms.

Some New Plants

2010-09-26T15:16:00.008+08:00

Some new plants in pots:

Baby carrots. Boy are these slow! These are more than one month old!

Capsicum! Knowing my experience with chillies, will this be the same?

Radish! I have three of this. Planning to add more, three is not enough for my family!

The ever popular, easy growing spring onions. The one right in front with the bigger shoots is grown from big onions. The one behind it is grown from shallots. Shallots will give a more fragrant but narrower shoots. I usually use this for garnishing. For the big onions, I plant the smaller sized ones, these will give larger, broader shoots which I usually use for stir-fries. Do you call these leaves or shoots or stems? Can anyone clarify on this? Whatever it is called, this is a must have with my kids when they have their chicken porridge.

Chives! I have a battle with chives. They just refused to grow for me and I have been trying again and again. I think this is the third packet of seeds that finally have grown to this height. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will continue to grow. It is actually growing ever so slowly! I think that it is testing my patience! I have never seen chives sold in the market with the roots still intact, unlike the corianders. Otherwise they can be grown direct from the market!

Faithful ladies fingers! This is easy to grow and easy to fruit too! I have four of this!

Nai pak. Only these and a few more. The snails has a party with the rest of the seedlings!

Update on the sawtooth coriander. The number of flowers are more than a dozen from one single stem! And they are more sturdy and spikey that the leaves.

Happy Gardening

Gardening A Game

2010-09-23T10:56:00.001+08:00

Malar of My Little Garden has invited me for a game of "Gardening A Game". Now for this game, we are supposed to do the following :

1. Inform who invited you
2. List 10 things you like to do
3. Invite 10 other bloggers

Malar is quite a gardener! As I have mentioned to her (twice), she has more green thumb than brown! If you visit her blog, then you will know what I mean!

10 things I like to do :

1. Gardening ! My love for gardening is inspired by my mother. She loved to plant. When I was small, staying in the village, she grew jambu air (water apple) which is extremely sweet, guava (crunchy and delicious), serai, daun pandan, jasmine, roses.... the list goes on.

2. My first fruit tree that I planted was when I was about 12 years old. I planted a rambutan tree from seed but when the plant was about 2 years old, we had to move. I was almost in tears at leaving behind my beloved tree!

3. I have always love flowers that are yellow in colour! Most of the time I do not know the name of plants! So sometimes it is very difficult to ask about a certain plant at the nursery!

4. I would love to have a big gardening space, my little 'big' private garden, where I could plant all the plants that I love! At the moment I have to make do with pots and containers.

5. Besides gardening, I love to bake and cook! Again, inspired by my mother, who was a great cook. I love trying out new recipes.

6. My favourite section at the bookstore will be at the cookery and gardening section. I could spend hours just browsing and reading the fabulous books! The glossy pictures of perfectly maintained gardens with all the beautiful flowers and greens are enough to dazzle me, hence I would dream about "my own dream garden"!

7. I'm basically a homey person, so travelling is not that important nor at the top of my list.

8. I love to read, though mostly now it has been taken over by gardening books, magazines and cookbooks!

9. I love coffee, must have my cup of coffee first thing in the morning before I start my day.

10. I love to check on my emails, meaning that friends are not that far away!

Invite 10 other bloggers :
I am inviting the following blogger friend for this game and for anyone else, please feel free to join in, it would be fun to know you.

1. Go Right In My Garden - p3Chandan, Selangor, Malaysia

Sawtooth Coriander / My Corianders!

2010-09-14T12:14:00.003+08:00

Since my last posting a week ago, the flower of the sawtooth coriander has branched out to 3. It can branch out to more flowers from one single stem that grows from the root. Went to my sister's house during the weekend, the sawtooth coriander at her neighbour's house are growing very well! They really spread out, and if you are not familiar with this plant, you would have thought that they are perhaps cow grass at a glance (that's what my other sister thought!). Here are the pictures of the flowers taken this morning.

Two more flowers branch out from the single one. Can you see the one on the right, I think another flower is growing from it. Soon there will be four! Wondering how many more flowers can it grow?

View from the top

I think these are the seeds in the centre!

MY CORIANDERS!

Look at the leaves! Attacked by some "fleas", know what these are??

My beautiful corianders!

They have to go. Not risking the unwanted "fleas" to spread to my other two pots!

What's left of the container. Have checked, doubled checked and triple checked for any signs of the fleas or their eggs! So far so good, this particular one seems to be free! Anyway, spray with some organic pesticide just to be sure! Will leave this for a few days before sowing more seeds!

MY NEW PARSLEY

This is my new pot of parsley, sowed them about a little more than a month ago! Hope they will continue to grow well!

Sawtooth Coriander

2010-09-07T11:54:00.001+08:00

Sawtooth coriander goes by many names and is native to Central America. The three most common name for this leafy herb plant is "Sawtooth Coriander" (since the edges all around the leaf has a serrated saw pattern), "Mexican Coriander" or "Culantro". In Thai, it is called "Pak Chi Farang". It's scientific name is Eryngium foetidum. It is extremely fragrant and smells stronger than the normal coriander. It grows well in full sun, hot and humid weather. The fresh leaves are picked and used to flavour curries, soups, stews, rice and fish dishes. Like most herb plants, besides the culinary uses, it also has medicinal values.

I got this plant from my sister (who got it from her neighbour). I have not seen the seeds being sold anywhere. My sister's neighbour got the seeds from Thailand. As you can see from the picture, the leaves grows directly from the root, there are no stems. After the plant has matured, a long stem will grow right in the centre and there will be flowers at the end of this stem. Once it has adapted to its surrounding, this plant multiples and spreads really fast. I took back one plant and now I have five, which I think is a little too slow at spreading. I will have to re-pot one or two of this plant to encourage more growth. The photo above is the mother plant in this little family of five!

This photo was taken about 4 days ago.

This photo taken this morning, the same plant! The flower is growing!

View from the top!

See the jagged saw-like edges round the leaves. It's name certainly fits it very well. Surprisingly, this variety is not known to many people, it can hardly be found in any market. I usually use it when I have steam fish for dinner. I have yet to try it in curries. Will definitely do so as soon as there are many more plants and leaves! Do you know of this plant? If you have seen or eaten this before, please share with us your method of cooking in using the leaves.

Will update on the flower when it blooms!

Happy Gardening !

Sage

2010-09-01T21:52:00.004+08:00

Common sage or garden sage, also known as salvia officinalis, is a perennial plant. It has woody stems with greyish leaves and blue to purplish flowers. The leaves are oblong, grey-green, rugose on the upper side, and nearly white underneath due to the many short soft hairs. This plant is native to the Mediterranean region. Sage is known for its medicinal and culinary value. It has a slight peppery flavour and is used for flavouring meat, poultry, sauces and bread.

I got this plant from Sg. Buloh for RM5.00. It is much bigger now. Some of the leaves have started to turn yellow, but I can see a lot of new leaves growing. I've trimmed off the wilting leaves to enable the new ones to grow. I am very impatient for the flowers to appear, wonder how long I'll have to wait. Sage is a great herb plant to have in the garden, the leaves are actually quite nice to look at, the leaves being grey-green are really different from other plants.

I have used the leaves of this plant to bake a very nice flatbread and also some herb butter. For recipes, please click Garden Herb Flatbread and Herb Butter.

Happy Gardening !

Sometimes I wonder why??

2010-08-25T22:34:00.003+08:00

I don't know what I'm going to do with the kai choy veggies. There are only about half a dozen left. It is too bitter to be eaten, I guess that I have to take a drive to the Bukit Jalil pond and feed to the hundreds of tortoises there! I wonder whether the tortoises will eat this bitter stuff! If they are hungry enough, I think they probably would.

I will need the containers for my other veggies soon, I hope they won't turn out bitter since I'll be using the same soil. Maybe I should mix with some fresh soil. Someone told me that if you use the same soil that was used to grow bitter gourd, then most likely your veggies will have a slight bitter taste. Is it true? Any explanation on this? The kai choy was grown totally on new soil, so no relation there!

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My beautiful, perfect corn, photo taken in June.

My beautiful corn, photo taken in July

A close-up shot of the beautiful corn, after all, one photo is not enough!

Once upon a time, long, long, ago, there was a beautiful corn...... who doesn't like the month of August!

What happened ????****????, Beats me.....!!!

What might have been.... Sigh.....
My sister planted two of this beauties, and they turned out exactly like mine! Any of you familiar with growing corns? Any pointers?

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This is my pathetic chili plant no. 1

The two last chilies from this plant. This plant was pruned and being sent to the corner for misbehaving badly! He! He! I can see new leaves are growing! Keeping my fingers crossed!

This is another pathetic chili plant no. 2

There are no. 3 and 4, need I say more? Figure it out yourself. I have come to the conclusion that I am a jinx with chili plants. Never succeeded in growing a healthy plant full of chilies before. The chilies are usually just a handful and after that, that's it! It will wilt and die..... sigh again..... But I'm not giving up, I will just keep on trying. (JC, if you are reading this, you have a partner!)

THIS IS STILL THE BEST !!!!

Happy Gardening !

Thymes

2010-08-16T16:12:00.001+08:00

Thyme is a great herb to grow in our garden, it loves hot sunny location, with well-drained soil. I love the smell of thyme, it is fragrant, though not overpowering, really pleasant. It is not only used in cooking, but it looks pretty and very attractive, gracefully cascading over the pot. I bought this pot of thyme, common thyme (thymus vulgaris), a couple of months back, and it is growing well. There are many varieties of thymes, but this is the most popular.

Some interesting facts about tyhmes from Wikipedia :

"Thyme is a good source of iron and is used to flavour meat, soups, stews and baking. It has medicinal value, it contains an essential oil, thymol, an antiseptic. A tea made by infusing the herb in water can be used for cough and bronchitis. Because it is antiseptic, thymes boiled in water and cooled is very effective against inflammation of the throat when gargled 3 times a day. The inflammation will normally disappear 2-5 days."

This photo was taken a few days ago.

Thymes can be propagated in a number of ways, seed, root division and from cutting. The quickest way to grow is from root division. Thymes will start to become woody and produce fewer leaves after three or four years, and at this stage, the plant need to be separated by propagation and replanted. I should really try this, it would be great if this works and I will have another pot of thyme and more to pass around!

The sprigs and leaves can be frozen or dried and will retain their original flavour. During full bloom, cut 5-6 inch stems and allow them to air-dry. After the leaves are thoroughly dry and brittle, remove them from the stem and store in an air-tight container. I'm going to try this soon, as I think that my pot is really full.

I have recently made a moist and delightful cake using this wonderful herb. If you would like to try out this cake, please click Golden Pear and Thyme Cake.

If you do not have a pot of thyme in your garden, it's about time you do! I bought mine at a nearby nursery and it cost me around RM8.00, but if you are around Sg. Buloh, you can easily buy it at RM5.00. Growing them with seeds would take forever, for me, at least! Since I would like to use them for cooking and baking, I just buy them from the nursery and let them grow for a bit before using them. I am trying to grow dills by seeds. I sowed the seeds a few days ago, but nothing so far. But I am in no hurry, I have a pot of dill from the nursery too!

Happy Gardening!

Kai Choy (Mustard Greens)

2010-08-13T13:30:00.000+08:00

This is the most bitter vegetable that I have ever tasted! It even overtakes the bitter gourd! I bought the seeds by mistake, thinking that it was parsley. Only upon planting the seeds, then did I realize that I have bought the wrong seeds. Well, I planted it anyway. I have not seen this variety of mustard greens before, the ones that I usually buy from the market have really huge stamps and thick big leaves, which have a slight bitter and pungent taste, but not as bitter as this!

Harvested this and a few more, as the stems are getting old and tough.

The flowers are pretty, though, similar to "choy sum"

Why do most vegetables have yellow flower??

Ready for my wok!

The packet of seeds

I stir-fry the kai choy with garlic and I'm the only one who ate this! My kids and hubby took a bite and did not touch this dish again! It was SO BITTER, I didn't even finish it. When I search the web about this veggie, it was mentioned that to get rid of the bitter taste, boil it in salted water for a few minutes. But I think that it won't make much difference!

Happy Gardening!