What to grow in autumn

I don't know what to grow cause the Uncle usually close down the garden e.g getting rid of dead plants and mulching the living ones for winter. I am not my uncle and I wanted to do something with my garden. Also I don't like to see empty pots hahaha....

So I googled about what to grow in autumn/winter and google spit out peas, coriander and garlic among other things. I was quite happy to see coriander as I have harvested all the seeds from my coriander during summer. I also spread some into a nearby empty pot. I don't know why I did that.

What do you know, it started sprouting! I didn't even water it or anything and no fertilizer. All natural sun and good old rain water. Proof that nature will do what nature does. 

Also sometimes, you just need to look around for answers - not everything need to google. I was so excited I told uncle.

Me: My coriander seeds sprouted. I was so surprised!

Uncle: Hah, they are gonna die cause winter will be upon them.

Me: I am going to protect them! Will put it in the house since it's in a pot.

Uncle : Well putting inside the house will help as your house will act like a greenhouse.

I will not let you die!

Autumn 2016

This thing almost died because I left it on top of my air con compression on a 42 degree day and the sun fried most of its leaves. I have since then shifted it to the shadiest corner on my balcony - not easy. Since then I slowly see the leaves turning brown and I desperately prayed to all the gods that this little plant survive. It is my only orchid and given to me by Uncle. I will never be able to invite uncle over if this thing died. 

I generally just left it alone to recover and sometimes, the untended plant tends to flourish. Last month I saw a small shoot coming out of the soil. YES MY PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED. It survived. I can ask my uncle over for housewarming after all! 

Please grow, it's going into autumn now and mummy needs you to be strong to survive the cold winter.

Summer is almost over

Can't believe it's gonna be end of summer soon. Come to think of it this summer is actually quite kind. Only a couple of really hot days but generally tolerable.

My portulaca is doing superbly well! I am so proud to see them recovering. They would have definitely flourished even more had it not suffered a quadruple caterpillar attack. Still it is doing well. With summer ending soon, I hope this little fella will take advantage and flower more.

My other little sunflower finally flowered and the best thing is it faces front and not the planter box. I get to enjoy it's bloom although it is smaller. I am so happy to see it. I hope I can harvest the seeds for next year growth. Now that I know how the movements of the sun and how it affect my plants, next season I will know which plants goes into which pot.

Do you know what coriander seeds look like? They look like this. Sorry, photo a bit blurry. Growing coriander make me realize it is such a useful little plant. Coriander leaves and seeds are both use as herbs for different cooking. And yes I also plan to harvest this seeds so I can grow them again next year. Unfortunately the fate of all herbs are as such they die in winter and need to be seeded and grown again in spring.

And my beetroots, although quite sick is still growing quite well. As you can see the tuber is popping out of the soil and that is a sign it will be ready for harvesting soon. It will potentially be a small tuber but still it's my first beetroot harvest and I am proud of my plants.

And lastly my discounted marigolds. Who would have thought Marigolds can be so pretty.

I love looking at my plants. 

My lovely Sunshine

Look who finally decided to flower? Yes it's my long awaited Sunflower! These are dwarf versions but then I really don't how dwarf is dwarf so I pretty glad to see it already flowering at such a short height.

Unfortunately kanasai, east is at the planter box direction so my flower is facing the balcony like super shy, so all I got to see to is the bum area. Sigh~ Yes I tried rotating the pot but it doesn't work.

I had to stand on my chair and take this photo at an awkward angle. Hopefully the other bloom will not shy away.

Bloom my lovelies!

Basil

After so many woes about my garden, must also share some good news. One of them is my basil, my pride and joy. I bought this off Bunnings discount rack.

Not all my plants had it bad like my beets and portulaca, Some like basil did really well. It is always a joy to watch something grow healthy and strong without too much complication. This baby also gave me hope that all is not lost. Herbs generally grow well as they have pungent smell which repels most insects and bugs. 

The cute thing about my basil is there is always an overachiever. A extra high shoot. So cute. This bush of basil has given me at least 4 good harvest to make pesto. One bottle is a bit dodgy and still in my fridge because I wasn't sure if any pesticide got onto it or not while I was spraying the pot behind. By the way pesticide is edible but still, you worry. Also dunno why I didn't harvest before I spray. Anger over aphids cloud my judgement. 

Herbs need to be constantly harvested to maintain optimum production. Otherwise they will grow, flower and die. This will be my fifth harvest soon. Can't praise my basil enough. 

It's a good plant.

Sad Beetroots

I always thought beetroots are the easiest veggies to grow. Turns out I was wrong. The easiest was my lettuce. Does not give me any dramas. My beetroot journey was a whole new ball game.

When my beetroots sprouted I was so so so happy. Like all my other plants, I took so many photos and keep wishing it will grow faster and faster. Everyday I monitor it's growth. But to my noobie gardener's eye everything looked ok.

This is my beetroot after a few weeks. Look so promising! Unfortunately behind these 2 good looking ones are at least 6 failed ones. Their leaves turned all purple. I thought it was normal. But they were actually sick. Sick because the soil is too alkaline. They didn't manage to get the nutrient and then was attacked by virus spread by aphids cause too weak. Did I mention I hate aphids. I.HATE.THEM! By the time I realize what was happening the small ones are pretty much stunted and had to give up on them (read: uproot and throw). These are the ones on individual smaller pots. The ones on my balcony planter are also under attack but they seemed stronger. So I bought sulfur to increase soil acidity. The right measurement took me 1 hour to calculate as my pot area is small and the instruction on the bottle assumes a much bigger surface area. Not to mention pot is not standard size. How do you calculate volume of non standard size? Deviation baby.... but I didn't do it LOL.... I just did rough estimation and pray to god of harvest. Mix it in and observe. 

Unfortunately I can only know the results after 2 or 3 weeks. During that time, my babies continue to turn purple. I start to hate that color. A few weeks later, still no improvement. I mixed in some bone and blood fertilizer. A boost of nutrients will give them a surviving chance (read: DESPERATE). Another few weeks later, things start to slowly turn! The leaves start turning back green. OMG... RELIEF! It's gonna made it after all. Unfortunately it is still suffering from my previous blunder - lack of borium/acidity so the older leaves are rubbery and thick. I culled most of it and the newer ones seemed a bit better. 

The latest problem I noticed is the leaves are getting 2 colours, darker and lighter green. According to internet that means leave virus attack. Spread by GODDAM aphids again. Next year I am gonna grow tomatoes next to beetroots. Apparently tomatoes repel aphids. Despite many ailments, they are still sprouting leaves and every new leave gives me hope that I can salvage the remaining beetroots - about 6 of them.

My uncle never had these problem. Why every known beetroot ailment  is attacking my beets? If anyone needs to learn how to grow healthy beets, they can come tend my garden. It's like baptism by fire. Get to know Beet diseases 101.

My beets please grow healthy. Mama is rooting for you guys!

My hardy Portulaca

I still remember the first time I got my Portulaca. I said I have high hopes for it. I have grown this plant before and it's really easy to grow and have really beautiful flowers. However I have never grown them in a four season country so I was very very relieved to see it sprouting out again during Spring. 

In retrospect I should have boosted it a bit with fertilizer but hey, I am still a noob gardener so I thought it should be able to grow just fine. There are little buds everywhere! I was so happy! I even have hopes of cutting some out for Nite.

I spotted the first bloom in early December. Over the moon. It's a testament of my gardening skills! I took so many photos of the buds and look forward to the day it flowered.

Then tradegy struck in the quadruples. This is the aftermath after the catterpillar attack. All the buds eaten and notice the white spots on its trunk? Leaves bitten off by the goddam buggers. The young shoots - all gone. GONE! All that is left is this patch and I suspect if I had OT and came home late, I might just lost the whole crop. Do you know I found those catterpilars patrolling the perimeter of the pot mowing all the baby shoots?Lucky I intervened in time but I have never seen my Portulaca so pathetic. It looked like it was crying.

As I said, after that I bought some pesticide and spray it all over this plant to protect it. At the same time I fertilized it with some blood and bone fertilizer. No did not kill a hamster and buried it there. It's just a type of fertilizer.

After weeks of TLC and careful nurturing, it came back full force and alive. Phew~ saved.

Just hope no more dramas for my babies.

Uninvited guests in my garden

What do I hate as much as I hate aphids? CATERPILLARS! OMG they invaded my garden in phases! I don't understand why Uncle never have this issue. Maybe he has too much greenery to bother much about them or maybe Churro is eating them.

First is this fat green thing. Caught it snacking on one of the two leaves of my budding sunflower. What the heck. There is only 2 leaves. Ate already left one! I relocate this greedy bugger to what Bits called, caterpillar retirement village a.k.a car park green space. The plant has never recover. Although still alive but it was stunted no thanks to this bugger.

Within the same week, come this idiot eating my budding Beetroot. In this instance, I did not mange to save the plant. It died because there was no leaves left. Only trunk. I mean what is this idiot even thinking. It's body is bigger than my entire plant from root to tip and it still try to cling on to it. For what? For me to spot it and relocate it.

A month later, I saw not one, not two but 4 caterpillars happily playing in my Portulaca patch! Bulu also naik I tell you. My Portulaca was in so much distress being chewed and eaten by them. These little shits were not dumb yo. They target flower buds and succulent young budding leaves. Again I had to relocate them to the retirement village. Lucky manage to save my Portulaca. Gr...~

This is last straw man, I was so pissed not to mention geli,  I went to Bunnings and got an edible pesticide and I sprayed all over my non edible plants to protect them.

Best decision ever.

My bushy lettuce

Lettuce is one of my garden pride and joy. Having never grow lettuce before I googled after I bought my lettuce. In retrospect I probably should have googled before I bought it but I really can't resist a good sale. This poor baby was on the sales rack for $1.00. So I got it home, also partly because Bits love his salad and I have thoughts of serving him fresh salad leaves. I really am a good girlfriend (narcissist again~).

After 2 weeks of settling down, it flourished wonderfully in my pot. I purposely kept it in a small pot as I don't want to be big and bushy.

I trimmed it a bit and enjoyed my first harvest within a month. It never tasted sweeter. With lettuce, you have to trim the plant to keep it healthy and producing. The more you trim the bigger and better it gets.

The flamboyant look after a good trim.

Once you trim them, the top leaves will lower down to make way for younger leaves growing from the top. Actually I didn't really googled the proper harvesting method. I just go trimming the older leaves as they will wilt on the plant.

Just to show you how fast it grows, I neglected to trim it for a month and it became Rosmah's hair. See how productive it can be.

So I give it a vigorous trim which turn it into a short tree. I trimmed off so many leaves I gave a big bunch to Bit's family. It took them 2 dinners to finish them. They were all praises on my home grown lettuces. Who would have thought my lettuce is racking up brownie points for me 

Closer to Christmas, the older leaves have grown down and the lettuce had a sudden growth spurt. It now looks like a Christmas tree! SO CUTE! Felt like I should hang some tinsel around it.

I was very charmed with it until I saw that it is has stopped producing juicy leaves and concentrates on procreating. Multiple flower buds are getting ready to sprout. Very little lettuce now...

Have you ever seen lettuce flower?

Throwback: My little garden

I didn't realize I did not mention my little garden at all! How remiss. I have a nice balcony with some pre build planter boxes. Uncle gave me some oregano and mint. The rest I got from Bunnings. Some seeds and discounted plants.

I'd like to think I inherit my mum's green thumb or at least some of it. The seeds are a bit hard to grow though the little plants are thriving really well in my garden now.

I got some rosemary, thyme, coriander and basil. I am not a big fan of basil but Bits love to eat basil. He got expensive taste. Anyway I don't like him eating canned pesto all the time so I decided to plant some basil and make him pesto. It has proven to be a good investment.

The seed plants are not doing too well except for the pink flowers.I guess even with some green thumb I lack the farming knowledge that comes with experience or extensive youtubing.

Patience and perseverance!

First pink buds

I am diagnosed with new toilet syndrome as I can't get enough of my blog. I wanted to re-read all my old posts as well as keep blogging. Crazy and narcissist, I know..

Now that summer is in full swing, my pink flowers have started to bloom. It was quite a relief. Initially I thought they will die but they grew. Then I worry they are weeds cause I can't tell the difference. I kid you not! Some weeds do bear very nice flowers. The seed packet said pink flowers and it did not disappoint me. It truly is pink! Look at the first delicate pink bloom!

Tell me this doesn't look like weed?

I am so happy to see it after so many tribulations with my beetroots and sunflower. Tell you later. However it is not the first flower to bloom in my small garden. The first bloom is my Portulaca! Reborn after the winter!

With the summer ramping up, more and more flowers are budding except for my sunflower who remains slightly stunted and doesn't seem ready to bloom at all....

C'mon sunnies...mama wanna see some sunflowers!

Summer 2015

Summer is here people. It still feel quite spring as some days you still get 15 16 degree but there is an upward trend towards mid 20s. It will be good for my babies (aka plants). 

By the way this plant is not my plant. I wish LOL. I have a drawf version that flowered this spring (below). It is so skinny as it is in a small pot. I planted this a year ago and uncle asked me to throw it away as it didn't flower. Mana tau, this year there are at least 3 flower stalks. Lucky didn't listen to uncle. But this uncle also satu macam, mulut ask me to buang but he nurtured this plant throughout the whole year and sheltered it under the cherry tree throughout winter.

Mulut keras, hati lembut. I miss him.

Spring 2015

Is not quite here yet but soon. It was just not long ago that I was asking myself will this wet winter never end and viola, the plum tree is blooming.

As usual the Japanese plums are the first to bloom. Such a joy to see the garden awaken.

I am sure no one realize I did not blog Winter 2015. That's cause there is nothing to blog. The garden is absolutely dormant. The orchids did not bloom and the ones that are going to bloom are only budding now. Is that considered Spring orchids now? LOL. The reason why they are not blooming if anyone care to know is because of Churro. He ate the buds so there are no flowers.

This is all that is left of the late bloomers. This year uncle is more ambitious. See the cactus below. It is a dragon fruit tree. I told uncle the dragon fruit tree I saw was really big before it bear fruit. So I guess it will be a number of years before we get something out of this cutie.

Uncle also up his bird defense. He's gonna build a fotress. Look at the foundation he laid. The Owl which is on holiday will be back. I guess no bird will harvest our trees this summer.

I will miss this terribly.

Winter World of Koala Land

Came back and straight into winter. Nothing is left, leaves have withered away, warm mild weather is a thing of the past.  Look at the persimmon, nothing left except fruits which is a sign that the fruits is ripe for harvest. Uncle's persimmons are the soft type you eat with a spoon where else I prefer the harder chewy ones.

Lemons, not be left out have turned yellow at last! For awhile I thought they will be eternally green. This poor chap got some disease where wasp lay eggs in the saplings and the larvae is eating it inside out. Uncle did so much to save it and now it's finally bearing fruit.

Show Bro the photo and he go " Oh our lemons are riping...". Sometimes it's shocking how under appreciated uncle's efforts are from his children.

Autumn 2015

Aunty said we are officially in autumn! But where is summer? Aunt said this year the weather has been kind, our summer is not too hot. I can only recall one or two days of extreme heat which is excellent! No wonder the apple looks like it is ready for harvest. Uncle managed to track down the apple name (which eludes me at the moment). In short it is a green yellow apple with streaks of red. The below picture showed it's almost ready to harvest state. Uncle is like a proud papa until we taste the first one. It was pretty sour. Hopefully it will get better with second harvest.

Our persimmons, after one year of pouting and lots of TLC from uncle, decided to go into production again this year. The boughs are so heavy with fruits - this year will be a bountiful harvest.

After coming back from China, Aunt developed the notion that she wanted to farm. She even booked a veggie patch from uncle and started growing cucumbers, butter beans, snow peas, lettuce, eggplants and lady fingers. The cucumber took a while to show any results and we were all pretty excited when we spotted two growing out.

However Aunty has gotten a bit dejected as the harvest was small. Can't even sustain a meal. Last I heard, she has given up and Uncle said he will try and rescue to veggies. Watch this space.

First 2015 Harvest

It's the first harvest of any kind that I have done. Remember my chives? Well they are so big now, they are ready for harvest. While I look after it but it's uncle's constant TLC that keep it healthy and strong. There was a modest harvest from my two pots and way too much for our household. Nite has kindly agreed to take it.

Also the chives from one of the pots had died except for one. I report it into this cute pig pot - gift from dear Cousin. I think the pig would look really cute when the chives grows out again, don't you think?