Produce that I don’t have to buy anymore

Maintaining the edible garden to always be in good shape is challenging lately because of the return-to-work albeit alternate weeks. It survives so far nevertheless and I am proud to say that I no longer need to buy the following from the market. I have sufficient fresh supply of them.

• Ginger
• Tumeric (and its leaves)
• ‘Ulam raja’
• Curry leaves
• ‘Daun kesum’
• Aubergine
• Green vegetables like spinach & pak choy
• Kaffir lime leaves
• ‘Limau nipis’
• ‘Daun pandan’
• ‘Cili padi’
• ‘Daun sup’

Quite a number for such a small garden. Proud.

Experimenting with upside down planting

This is an option when space is limited where we can not only look at the ground for the needed planting space, but also the space above the ground.  Using used bottles that are cut into half (or quarter depending on how much soil do you want to put), we insert seedlings into them such that the leaves pass through the opening of the bottles like below.  We then create the holes such that the bottles can be hanged.

Day 1: 17 July 2021

Used bottles are abundant at our house and we have this one kaffir lime that has grown so big with lots of branches and twigs such that it offers lots of room for hanging the makeshift pots.  So I have no reason not to give this a try.  Note that this technique is only suitable for plants that creep or climb.

Stages of a long bean

This is what, among others, keeping me occupied during this work from home period.  First thing every early morning before starting my office routine, I wake up looking forward to see the progress of each plant that I grow.

Long beans grow at dedicated stem, different from where the big leaves are.  The stem shoots from between the main stem and the stem of the leaves.

Flowering

Like most other vegetables, it will first flower.  Once bloomed, the flower will fall and you will see the tiny little bean like below.  

Blooming

Drooping before falling

Tiny long bean appearing

Mandarin orange anyone?

After the successful attempt with lemon, well, at least so far, my edible garden adventure continues with another species in the series, mandarin orange.  A pack of them bought recently tasted so naturally sweet unlike others before.  So I decided to try to grow some.  

I collected some 12 seeds from one orange.  I dried them under the sun for a while, the same technique used for the lemon seeds last time.  I peeled three of them and left the rest as they are.  Just to see if this makes any difference.  Experiment.  As usual.  Scientist at heart.  I then covered them with moistened kitchen towel folded according to my creativity and put them in a not-so-tight container for about two weeks to hopefully germinate.

The 12 seeds

The reused container

Putting it on the blog also helps me to keep track of the important dates.  So next update would be by the end of the month, some two weeks from now.

'Ulam Raja' at our edible garden

After a year of dealing the with the COVID-19, it looks like we're all going to return to the office beginning next week.  So ...  No 'new normal' I guess.  Everything will be back to where it was before COVID-19 struck.

While still having some spare time early in the morning due to the work form home, I am experimenting with Ulam Raja, less famously known as Cosmos Caudatus to be a new edition at our edible garden.  Trying to grow them from the stems, after a friend successfully did it.  Yes, the English garden that we once had has now turned into edible garden, which I think will be more beneficial economically 😊

Below is the progress of this experiment.

Day 1.  Not so promising, except perhaps one stem

60 days later on 2nd June 2021

We officially have Ulam Raja at our garden and they have offsprings!

90 days later on 2nd July 2021

So full of Ulam Raja that we can barely see the ground.

Stone painting

This is one of my very few DIY projects for the garden.  I have twelve river stones, ten of which are being been used to create border that separates the grass and the gravels.  The remaining two are randomly placed in the garden.

Two are heavily covered in moss and need cleaning

I had recently managed to transform one of the remaining stones into an artwork that is not that artistic at all.

Before ...

    

Base colour done

Painting began

After ...

It is now nicely placed at the still and will forever be in progress English pocket garden at our house.

Excuse the background.  The wall is in dire need of repainting.