Backyard Landscape Change

In the last 2 to 3 months my (and neighbors too!) backyard was invaded! Yup, the Decepticons made their appearances. They came, they demolished but with all that ends well, they even tidied it up for us. Apparently, the area considered our backyard actually belonged to another property owner and now that they have decided to develop the piece of land behind, they had come to claim back their portion of the land. Luckily they left us with about 10 feet of land and they built a new wall to mark the border. Sadly, the day they demolished the original wall and excavated and flattened the slope behind, I had to tear down 3 of my cucumber plants that were at peak production stage. My 2.5 year old jujube tree had to go too. Sob!

The original backyard was on a slope. Weeds grow like crazy fast. Difficult to maintain. So in the end, this invasion was a good thing after all.

There goes my jujube tree :(

Excavation work to flatten the backyard.

Building a new wall.

All that survived in containers were one tomato plant, one brinjal plant and a few stalks of red amaranth.

Wall nearing completion when this pic was taken end of July.

As of today, the new wall is completed and my backyard is much smaller but neater nonetheless. It's looking pretty good with a couple of newly planted fruit trees (dwarf version). I'm also preparing for a small vegetable patch. Right now, I think I'm a little bit sun-burnt with all the recent gardening! Tiring but fun and exciting indeed! Will update more soonest.

Go garden! ;)

Some Pickings

Some recent harvest .... 

The middle one was my 1st cuke, and the fattest among all. It had turned yellow as I had forgotten to check on it

 

A week later, harvested 3 more cukes. Juicy, tasty and crunchy. Not a tinge of bitterness.

A few thin stalks of celery, a brinjal and a couple of ladies' fingers

Unfortunately, my gardening adventure has come to a temporary halt at the moment because...

THE DECEPTICONS HAVE REARED THEIR UGLY HEADS!

More updates on unwelcome intruders in next post......

Backyard Update March '12

My backyard has gone through several transformations since we moved in slightly over 2 yrs ago. Main challenge in maintaining it was of course, every home gardener's nightmare...weeds weeds and weeds that are so stubborn and just wouldn't die off no matter how many roots you pull out. The weeds root system is so invasive that they would just grow and grow in the whole row of backyard from one neighbor to another. We got tired of seeing how messy the backyard can get with overgrown weeds (and they grow so fast!!) and becoming potential home for snakes (yes, they have been spotted!!!), so we decided to lay bricks and tiles. The weeds still find its way out for sunlight at every nook and corner but overall they are pretty much under better control now. We've also started to plant in polystyrene containers collected from anywhere and everywhere we can get. There's a long list of plants yet to be planted but in the last 2 months or so, here are what that are growing.

Currently there are bamboo mustard green (2 stalks left as I've harvested some already - I don't quite like this variety as it's kinda bitter), spring onions, celery, chives, beetroot, radish, ladies' finger and brinjal plants. My dwarf beans in the top left container do not seem to be sprouting this time. I planted 6 seeds and only 1 has sprouted.

Here's a beetroot. It's tiny but I'm not complaining. Think I'll probably juice it with a mixture of other fruits.

Flower of chive. My neighbor in Melaka gave me a few of her plants and I re-planted them after a few hours later. I thought they wouldn't survive but they did. In fact, they've surpassed my expectation. Chive plants seem to transplant easily and although they may look like they're wilting in the first few days after transplanting, just leave them be. They just need some time to pick things up. Chives are great as cut-and-grow again. New shoots will start growing in just a matter of few days only. Our plants are flowering quite frequently. I'll be collecting the seeds for sure.




Winged bean plant. Needs to be transplanted into a 5 gallon bucket. Am trying to see if it can thrive in a pot. Hope it can and that we'll get some beans for chili stir fry soon.




The winged bean plant will soon grow on the top level vertical trellis. Am saving the smaller lower level trellis for cucumbers. Hopefully they will sprout successful first of all.

Here's another pic of the top level trellis. We've laid 2x2 feet tiles to prevent weeds. This is my short cut trellis. 3 long poles inserted randomly in and out of the chicken coop wire and just stick them into the ground. Not sure if they will hold, so only time will tell, if my winged bean grows successfully.




Our 2nd bitter gourd from the same single plant we have.

One of the radish plant has started to flower.

Plan to sow more seeds next week when time permits. Happy gardening!