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 !

Kale

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

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

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

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

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

My other harvests for this week :

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

Okra

Happy Gardening!

What's growing in my potted garden

Here are some of the veggies which I'm growing right now in my garden pots and containers :

Cilantro, my favourite, I have two containers of these fragrant herb.

Dwarf Nai Pak

Sweet Baby Corn

White Icicle Radish

Daikon (Chinese Radish), sharing the same container with the White Icicle

Clemson Spineless Green Okra, just beginning to flower.

French Breakfast Radish...only one seed germinated, out the 6 seeds I sowed. I transplanted the little seedling in the same pot with the Okra, and it is growing really well, the Okra too. These two seems to be very good companions.

Cabbage

Broccoli, it is taking forever for the broccoli head to appear. So far nothing yet, and it has been about 9 to 10 months! Will it ever grow the head?

Raab Rapini Broccoli.  Despite its name, it is actually the same family of turnips. It will grow many small florets with long stems. First time I'm growing these and is curious whether it can grow in our hot weather. So far the plants look healthy, but I have not seen any florets yet.

Pomegranate, local variety. There are 5 fruits growing right now, and a few flowers have dropped off after a heavy rain.

Will update on the progress of these plants!! 

Happy Gardening !

Daikon

Daikon is one of my favourite root veggie. I love it any way it is cooked. And absolutely delicious when pickled! I sowed six daikon seeds a few months ago, and I'm left with four, two plants were mysteriously snapped off at the stems (looks like it happens pretty often in my potted garden! remember my chilli plants?). That's not all, last week I transferred one cucumber seedling to a bigger pot which I placed at my backyard, the very next day, that plant was snapped off too, leaving only the stem! Any idea why? Could it be the birds, it could not be the cat! Or maybe garden snails? I don't know!

 Four daikon plants sharing a container.

Makes me smile whenever I see this at my mini front garden, counting the days to harvest, and I finally did!

Admiring it before harvesting! haha!

There, my small harvest! So happy! Into my cooking pot, as Daikon Soup, including the leaves and stems. So yummy! Did you know that the leaves are very nutritious. Usually when I buy daikons from the market, I would discard the leaves, as they are usually already wilted and not fresh-looking. But with homegrown daikons, you can cook both the greens and the root. Pesticide-free! 

Right now, I have a few daikon seedlings growing, looking forward to my next harvest in a few months time.

Happy Gardening!

White Radish

Harvested two of my Radish plants a couple of weeks ago.

See the little snail under the leaf on the left? There are dozens of small snails like these that have been feasting on my new little radish seedlings! Especially, since it has been raining lately, they are everywhere, really a garden pest!

These radishes are a couple of months old, harvested them before they gets old and hardy.

 Nice! I made some radish kuih. But these are not enough, I bought a few from the market to add on!

Most of my new radish seedlings have been eaten by the snails. I removed the snails, there are less now, but I do see them again and again!

Happy Gardening !

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!

My Little Harvest

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 !

Some updates on my backyard potted garden

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 !