Hello again!

It has been eight months since my last post! On most part, I have been lazy at updating my blog, since I sometimes post some photos over at my Little Potted Garden facebook page. Here are some photos of what I have been growing and harvesting for the past few months.

Brinjals

 Okra

Kale, the last few leaves, plant died after many harvests!  I have no success in growing this wonderful veggie again, still trying though!

 More daikons...and leaves are excellent in soups, love it!

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 My 15 plus year-old belimbing tree, fruiting heavily. Fruits are especially big during this rainy season.

So many fruits! These were given away to happy recipients! 😊

 My seedless guava. They were crisp, juicy and sweet! I managed to get about 8 fruits. Just noticed that the plant is flowering again. Yay!

Petola/Ridged Gourd...we love these. The plant has since died and it's place is taken over by long beans. Will update on the long beans plant soon.


Can you see the fruits in the soil? Do you know what these are?

Water Chestnuts!

These are water chestnuts! Yes, we can grow them in our home garden. I actually grew them last year but did not get around to post it up.  It took about 9 months to finally harvest them. It is a good experience, but one that I would not want to repeat again. Much easier to just buy them from the market. I grew them because I was really curious and wanted to see whether can they be grown in our home garden. Well, they can!  I'm so glad that I gave a go at growing them! 

Happy Gardening !

Okra (Ladies Fingers) & Belimbing : From garden to table

Okra plant is very easy to grow. I have grown them a number of times before. The okra can be harvested in less than 3 months from date of sowing. I sowed six okra seeds on 13th March, and now I have six plants growing in my potted garden, all the seeds germinated and now are producing okras daily. I harvested the first okra about a week ago, and have been harvesting about 2 okra everyday. 

The flower is really lovely, hard to imagine that okras are from these flowers! 

 The growing okra, see the drying petal of the flower still on the tip.

Lovely healthy okra, homegrown with no pesticide whatsoever. The plants are really hardy and so far I have no problem of any bugs or plant pests.

Harvested 5 okras from this plant alone! Note : Okras are best harvested at 3-4 days. Yup, 3-4 days old. Once the flowers start to produce the okra, they grow really quick, in a matter of a few days! So it is advisable to harvest them when they are 3 to 4 days old. This is the time when they are at their best, tender and delicious. They turned hard and old really quickly, and this could happen overnight!

 More okras, this will be perfect to be harvested in two days time.

 My okra harvest.

I have been harvesting about 2 okras daily and I kept them in a zip lock bag, store them in the fridge for about a week, until I have enough to make a dish.

 Harvested some belimbings too! 

What's for dinner tonight?

Sambal Belimbing Chicken and Stir-Fry Okra with Dried Prawns. 

The okras are young and tender, and tasted delicious!

Happy Gardening !

Malabar Spinach : A Soupy Harvest

I bought a bunch of Malabar Spinach about two months ago, the leaves are small but the stems are very green and healthy, planted them in the styro containers and am happy that they are growing very well with very huge leaves!

The Malabar Spinach are from the container on the right. The stems have grown out of the container, going over to the container on the left and some of the stems have even grown longer and seems to creep up on the wall. Have harvested some leaves and will be clearing the mess soon after my next harvest. Time to replant the stems of the soon-to-be harvested leaves.

 The leaves are rather huge, about the size of my palm.

 Harvested some of the bigger leaves for my cooking pot.

 Malabar Spinach soup, with some fish balls and eggs. Garnish with crispy fried garlic.

Harvested some belimbing for the "nasi-lemak makcik" last week. Seen her today and ask her whether does she still want anymore belimbing, she replied "Oh, yes!"

Happy Gardening !

From Pole to Tree

Found this little caterpillar on the telephone pole at my back yard. 

 A beautiful splash of green against the blackish-grey pole.

Took this little one and place it on my belimbing tree.

 Could not find the little one the next day! Must be hiding somewhere! Anyway, took pictures of the belimbing fruits instead!

The fruits even grow lying down on the ground!

Happy Gardening !

A Bird Nest....Which Was Not Meant To Be

I spotted a bird nest up in my Belimbing Tree at my backyard about a month ago. It was too high for me to actually take a peek in the nest. I saw the mother bird sitting in the nest, with her head and yellow beak visible, looks like a sparrow, very small.

The bird nest, photo taken a month ago, when I first spotted it. It was nestled very nicely on my belimbing tree branch. I have not seen the mother bird since then except that one time. I did wondered about the eggs and baby bird after that, thought that the baby birds have hatched and flown away, leaving the nest.

Found an egg this afternoon in one of my empty pots under the belimbing tree, apparently the egg has dropped out of the nest, could there be a hole in the nest?

I guess that this egg has been here for a few weeks, that's why I have not seen the mother bird anymore. Anyway thought of putting it back even though I think that it is pointless now.

I got a ladder since it is quite high up on the tree, I was so sad to see that the nest has toppled to the side, that explained why the egg was on the ground. See the little twigs and strands that still hold the nest to the branch? Somehow it is not secure enough and the nest has toppled to the left, dropping the eggs on the ground. 

The opening of the nest is facing the side now. I feel so sad for the mother bird.

When I was sweeping the leaves on the ground, I found another egg, already cracked. And the one that I found earlier in the pot, it cracked too even when I picked it up gently. It was brittle, the inside is hollow but sticky at the sides.
I guess it was not meant to be. Hopefully the mother bird would make a better sturdier nest wherever she is the next time round.


Happy Gardening !

My harvest in December

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!

Radish and Some Harvest

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!