CHOY SUM...

Yes, this is my 2nd post for today...why not? :P

I'm not a big fan of choy sum because of its bitter taste...but my mum loves it very much especially in noodles with fishball soup.....A fren of mine gave me the seeds a few months ago, so i'm not going to waste it & let it germicide about a month ago...maybe more that a month...but the growth rate was quite slow at first..maybe because they were cramped in 1 small container....I was busy with a lot of things i didnt really have time to take a good care of them & didnt manage to transplant those seedlings into a bigger pot..if you look at the size of what my sister harvested yesterday, it's considered quite small compared to the commercially produced choy sum..but it tastes less bitter than the store bought ones...but still,not a fan! & i need those containers to grow something else...:P

before & after harvest :)

fresh from the garden choy sum :)

it finally goes into this fried noodle dish together with beef & beansprout, made by my sister :)

"Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables.  They probably get jet-lagged, just like people." 

~Elizabeth Berry

EARLY VISITORS....

Just wanna share what i saw in my small kebon laman apakenamanya neh?? garden today when i was rushing to work....too bad i didnt have my camera with me.....so, these pics are not crystal clear because i was using my handphone's camera to capture them...:)

A snail on it's way to all u can eat buffet :P

Some facts on snails : snails tend to feed on a variety of items found in their natural habitat. What they will actually consume depends on where they live and the type of snail that they are. Some common items for their diet include plants, fruits, vegetables, and algae. Plants that are decaying are often a good meal for them. When they can’t find much else to consume they will eat the dirt. They are herbivores which means they won’t consume meat items. You will likely find snails around your garden as this offers them plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables to eat. If you use herbicides or pesticides on them you may be causing the death of many of them without even realizing it. (quoted from this site : http://www.snail-world.com/What-do-Snails-Eat.html)

A helicopter grasshopper dragonfly having an early tour in the garden :)

C'mon dragonfly! Please eat all those insects that are having luxurious buffet in my edible garden...:P

Here's some facts on dragonfly : What do dragonflies eat? A dragonfly is an agile predator. Adult dragonflies and dragonfly nymphs (the stage of the dragonfly that lives in the water) are excellent hunters and mainly eat other insects. Have you ever heard of a dragonfly going on a diet? No? We haven’t either, because these little critters are carnivorous in their minds, bodies and soul. A fun fact here - A dragonfly can eat food equal to its own weight in about 30 minutes. Which roughly translates into a you trying to eat as much as 100 lb…let alone in half an hour.  We don’t eat that amount of food in a week! (all infos are quoted from http://www.dragonfly-site.com/what-do-dragonflies-eat.html)

"None of God's Creatures absolutely consider'd are in their own Nature Contemptible; the meanest Fly, the poorest Insect has its Use and Vertue." -Mary Astell 

BLOSSOMING TOMATOES

Growing tomatoes for the first time,i didnt know a lot of things about tomatoes! All i knew is i was so happy & all excited seeing them growing, flowering and now producing some tomatoes until last night i noticed something that i was trying very hard to avoid from happening to my tomatoes...I saw 2 tomatoes with slightly damp & dark bottom.....from what i've read about tomatoes,i knew straight away that my tomatoes are facing the blossom end rot problem...:(

Blossom end rot is a condition where the tomato (or any flowering vegetable/fruit ) begins to get a brown or darkening spot on the blossom, or “bottom” end. The rotten spot will get larger as the tomato grows larger. The best thing to do is to pick off the rotted fruit. That's so hard for me to do especially with my  first tomatoes..sob.. sob.. sob... :'P 

beautiful from this angle..

not a beautiful sight from the bottom..:(

There is nothing more frustrating than looking at what once appears to be nice tomatoes, only to find that the blossom end has started to rot :( & as for the other tomato plant, i saw some powdery white thingy on some of its leaves..& it has not shown any sign that it's gonna bear any flowers yet and the size is smaller compared to the other 4 tomatoes i have...any idea what those are? havent done my research on those powdery thingy yet...Fyi, both problems are happening to my upside down tomatoes....(but i havent check on those that are grown the normal way..hopefully they're ok) Hmm..i'm still learning....I'll do my best to save the rest of the tomatoes...I wont give up! Wish me luck....:)

U can refer to these links for some info on blossom end rot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_deficiency_(plant_disorder)

http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetablepatch/f/BlossomEndRot.htm

http://www.veggiegardeningtips.com/tomato-blossom-end-rot/

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3117.html

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/DiagnosticKeys/TomLeaf/TomLeafKey.html

"There is no gardening without humility.  Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder."  
-Alfred Austin

LOVE YOUR GREENS.... :)

Just a walkthrough on some useful leaves/herbs that's considered a must have in my pantry. I love and enjoy cooking very much whenever i have time to do it. OK! Let's rephrase it. I love food. That's the fact. But, who doesnt, right?  :P

Screwpine Leaves /Pandan Leaves 

~are used in Southeast Asian cooking to add a distinct aroma to rice and curry dishes such as nasi lemak, kaya ('jam') preserves, and desserts such as pandan cake. Pandan leaf can be used as a complement to chocolate in many dishes, such as ice cream. They are known as daun pandan in Indonesian and Malay; and 斑蘭 (bān lán) in Mandarin. Fresh leaves are typically torn into strips, tied in a knot to facilitate removal, placed in the cooking liquid, then removed at the end of cooking. Dried leaves and bottled extract may be bought in some places. I'm growing this especially for making traditional Malay cakes & for some rice & curry dish :)

Mint Leaves

~ The leaf, fresh or dried, is the culinary source of mint. Fresh mint is usually preferred over dried mint when storage of the mint is not a problem. The leaves have a pleasant warm, fresh, aromatic, sweet flavor with a cool aftertaste. Mint leaves are used in teas, beverages, jellies, syrups, candies, and ice creams. In Middle Eastern cuisine, mint is used on lamb dishes, while in British cuisine and American cuisine, mint sauce and mint jelly are used, respectively. I'm growing this for laksa dish,mint tea & Briyani rice dish (Biryani, biriani, or beriani is a set of rice-based foods made with spices, rice (usually basmati) and meat, fish,eggs or vegetables.Biryani was originated in Iran (Persia) and it was brought to South Asia by Iranian travelers and merchants. Local variants of this dish are popular not only in South Asia but also in Arabia and within various South Asian communities in Western countries.) :)

Turmeric 

~ Turmeric grows wild in the forests of South and Southeast Asia. It is one of the key ingredient for many Indian, Persian and Thai dishes such as in curry and many more..In Indonesia, the turmeric leaves are used for Minangese or Padangese curry base of Sumatra, such as rendang, sate padang and many other varieties. When i started growing turmeric, i was thinking of growing it for its leaves only...but since it's doing quite well i've decided to use it for its roots as well...fyi, we use both its root & its leaves in our cooking..now i need to transfer them to a bigger pot to ensure there's enough space for their growth. I'm growing this to be used in rendang & other indonesian dish especially Padang cuisines :) 

Flat Parsley

~ Parsley is widely used in Middle Eastern, European, and American cooking. Curly leaf parsley is often used as a garnish. In central and eastern Europe and in western Asia, many dishes are served with fresh green chopped parsley sprinkled on top. Green parsley is often used as a garnish on potato dishes (boiled or mashed potatoes), on rice dishes (risotto orpilaf), on fish, fried chicken, lamb or goose, steaks, meat or vegetable stews (like beef bourguignon,goulash or chicken paprikash). I'm growing this for garnishing my western cuisines :)

Vietnamese Mint

~In Singapore and Malaysia, the shredded leaf is an essential ingredient of laksa, a spicy soup, so much so that the Malay name daun laksa means "laksa leaf." We also use it in another dish called asam pedas. I love laksa & asam pedas.  :)

Curry

~The leaves are highly valued as seasoning in southern and west-coast Indian cooking, and Sri Lankan cooking, especially in curries, usually fried along with the chopped onion in the first stage of the preparation. I'm growing this for curries & did u know that we could use the curry shoots as salad? It's good with sambal belacan (a chili based sauce which is normally used as a condiment, typically made from a variety of chili peppers pounded with shrimp paste ) :)

p/s : all infos are copied from wiki :)


I've tried to grow coriander for its leaves but those seeds failed to germinate during my first attempt. I'll definately try it again next time.. :)

"It pleases me to take amateur photographs of my garden, and it pleases my garden to make my photographs look professional. " ~Robert Brault

WORTH WAITING FOR...

Looking at these makes me smile....no wonder some people are willing to spend so much time & effort in their garden...hopefully these signs of fruitful promises will do well and we could enjoy it :)

                          

Okras :)

Tomatoes :)

Bird's Eye Chillies :)

"Weather means more when you have a garden. There's nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans. " ~Marcelene Cox

VISITORS...

Found some visitors having free Sunday afternoon buffet in my edible garden... :P & sprayed some garlic & pepper concoction on the leaves..hopefully these uninvited guest wont come again...;) For more info on homemade & natural pesticides & fungicides, please visit this link or here if u have problem with ants :) 

 Snail...found him climbing my chilli tree :)

Mr. Itsy Bitsy Spidey happens to be there too :)

I dunno what type of beetle is this... :)

I dunno what's its name either... :)

Though snails are exceedingly slow,
There is one thing I'd like to know.
If I out run 'em round the yard,
How come they beat me to the chard? ~Allen Klein

SHARING IS CARING....

Hmm...i wonder if i'm kind enough to share my edible garden produce with insects,caterpillar,etc...well..maybe not.....LOL *evil laugh* :P


I've been using this self-claimed natural neem spray to combat them...but still, those insects managed to have a bite or two on those beautiful leaves of my bok choy,turmeric leaves,okra leaves..ok..almost all plants have "lovebites"  (LOL :P) holes on at least one or two of their leaves...


I wonder if u guys know who's the culprits? I saw one caterpillar the other day but that's the one and only..& a group of very tiny black color ant-like insect crawling on those leaves..i wonder what could it be? Now, let's "enjoy" have a look at the photos of the bitten leaves..

p/s : tapi sebagai orang Islam, kita niat sedekah je la daun2 tuh kat ulat2 tu kan....bukannya dia makan satu pokok pon.....sehelai dua je.....sharing is caring....huhuhu ;)

On every stem, on every leaf,... and at the root of everything that grew, was a professional specialist in the shape of grub, caterpillar, aphis, or other expert, whose business it was to devour that particular part.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

FLOWERING STAGE...

So far, i've managed to sow 3 fruit  (Is an okra a fruit or vegetable? The definition of a fruit is anything containing seeds. Okra has seeds and is therefore a fruit. Weird but true. Same goes with tomatoes, pumpkins, peppers, squash, etc. A vegetable would be an onion or potato.)  fruit bearing plants....they're tomatoes, eggplant & okra..


One of the tomatoes & 3 okras have reached the flowering stage..i'm so excited..can't wait to see the results..:)

Okra flowers :)

Tomato flowers :)

Small red chilli plant is doing great...i only planted 1 small tree, but it's more than enough for my small family... :)

And i wanna share this site i found about tomatoes :)

http://www.geochembio.com/biology/organisms/tomato/#fruit

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change." -Buddha

TOPSY TURVY TOMATOES....

Growing tomatoes upside down?? Never heard of it until i  saw the topsy turvy tomato commercial on the internet when i was googling about container gardening...& it got me interested right away to try it in my container garden...so i'm kinda experimenting now...2 pots of upside down tomatoes  & another 2 pots using the conventional way of planting tomatoes..i really hope that both will work out great..:)

You can refer to these sites if you're interested in growing tomatoes upside down...:)

http://knol.google.com/k/how-to-grow-upside-down-tomatoes-in-pictures#

http://www.ehow.com/how_2062318_grow-tomatoes-upside-down-bucket.html

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bella/2010/08/turn_your_gardening_upside-dow.php

I'm using the normal hanging pot but i have to manually drill the bottom of the pot in order to insert the tomato seedling...then left it for one week to make sure that it is strong enough before i hang it upside down

2 pots of topsy turvy tomato plant

"Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes."  ~Author Unknown