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! ;)

Tabebuia Rosea - Almost Like A Cherry Blossom Season

We have been enjoying a really gorgeous sight this week each time we stepped out of our home or drive through the main entrance at our street. The tabebuia rosea trees that line our residential street began to bloom profusely since last weekend. Not one but many of the trees are blooming all at the same time. From a distance, a full blooming tree looks almost similar to a cherry blossom tree, and I think this is about the closest we can get to a real cherry blossom tree in Malaysia! Tabebuia rosea or also known as trumpet rose tree is a tropical tree that can grow to a height of 30 meter or more and is widely planted along city and residential streets all over Malaysia. The flowering season of tabebuia rosea is intense. Some trees will have practically no leaves and all flowers only during this period. So far, I've seen the flowers in white, light pink and pink colours, and I think white is the prettiest. The sight of a profusely flowering tree is truly one deserving of a winning prize. I leave you below some pictures I took yesterday of the flowering tabebuia rosea trees on my street.

A gorgeous welcoming sight at the entrance to our street

Flowers outnumber leaves

 

Playing around with different ISO settings

 

 

 

 

Pink flowers

 

 

Tabebuia rosea lining the whole street

 

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......

Cukes Spotted!!

My first cuke! Yabbadabadoooo!

Its size is progressing well, although I remember the seed packet said 'Japanese Cucumber' but this doesn't look like it. Oh well, I still look forward to my cukes.

More baby cukes spotted. Think there are around 7-8 baby cukes now. Am hoping they all get pollinated. Also spotted lots of insects and a few bees and lady bugs loitering around so I think pollination chances are good (fingers crossed!).

Waiting For Cukes

Last year I attempted at growing cucumbers but both seedlings that grew suddenly wilted and died when they were about 5 inches tall and I have no idea why. This year I sowed about 6-8 seeds and only one survived. Lousy success rate if you consider its ratio to the number of seeds I tried to sprout. So, I then decided to soak 3 more seeds in water for a whole night and it worked better this time as all 3 sprouted about a week after sowing. However, a snail got to one of my seedlings but the other two were spared. I now have 3 pots of cuke plants growing. And all 3 plants have started to produce many male flowers despite the 2 plants that got a later headstart. Production of male flowers will go on for about 10 days as nature's way to habituate insects before the female flowers make their red carpet appearance.

Cuke plant needs consistent watering and never to allow the soil to dry out. I have been away off and on recently and thankfully, despite the hot weather, there have been some rain in between my away days. 

This is my first surviving cucumber plant, taken in April, last month. I think this was about a month old.

Its first delicate tendril latching for support

About 2 weeks later the same plant has grown by leaps and bounds. They love nitrogen rich fertiliser like chicken manure.

My hubby helped move the pot to a proper trellis to join the other 2 pots of smaller cuke plants. All 3 plants are now male flowering profusely.

 

Can't wait for my 1st cuke to show!

Can It Get More Disappointing?

After a couple of months of waiting, these are what I got.

1 weird looking radish. The others didn't work out at all. Two beetroots, 1 is quite sizable while the other is smaller. The rest failed too.

The disappointment did not end here.

The larger beetroot was rotten. Spotted tiny ants outside and inside. They ate my beetroot and damaged my otherwise fine-looking beet!!! Why are there ants in this world? What good have they brought to mankind? They crawl everywhere - in the sugar jar, on the cookies and even inside the soil. Hate them, hate them, hate them!!!!!!!! Right now, they are like my biggest nemesis!

I was left with the other tiny beetroot, which I juiced with an apple and an orange. Manage to yield 1 cup of juice which I shared with my dearest hubby - 3 gulps each. The taste of the beetroot was slightly bitter and it certainly over-powered the taste of the apple and orange. Weirdly, I would describe the taste of beetroot as the taste you would imagine when you smell some rain-soaked soil. I wouldn't be sure why would you smell the soil but basically, it has very earthy taste, thus not many people like beetroot BUT it is loaded with good nutrients and vitamins.

Also, I just read somewhere that beetroot doesn't like manure. Probably now I know why I got such disappointing results.

So if you plan to grow beetroots, just use the usual fertilizer or compost and avoid using manure.

If the above disappointments were not enough, my winged bean seedling has also died. And my two long bean seeds failed to sprout. Need to start them again. Gardening really teaches you patience!

Growing Ginger In Container

Growing ginger is as easy as not growing it! So, it'll be a waste to not grow it if you have the right growing condition, which is essentially warm weather. The rest is just loamy soil, water and occasional feed of fertilizer. They thrive in partial shade or full sun. Basically, the same concept applies with growing turmeric.

I started out by planting about 5 or 6 small knobs of ginger (about an inch in size) with at least 1 visible 'eye' on it. An 'eye' is the part where a sprout is going to grow. Plant each knob half an inch deep in the soil and about 6 to 8 inches apart. Make sure the 'eye' is upwards so that the sprout can easily grow out of the soil. From my experience, it'll take about 2-3 weeks for the sprout to grow. Or could be slightly shorter or longer. During this stage, keep the soil moist but not water-logged. Ginger plant grows slowly but steadily. The leaves are quite ornamental and very fragrant. As the plant grows, you can lightly feed with chicken manure, but not too often. Once the plant is established, it can even withstand temporary drought in case you forgot to water. As the rhizomes grow and multiply, they will appear slightly on the surface of the soil. And the anticipation in wondering what lies beneath begins!

Below is my container of ginger after about a year of planting. Ginger can be harvested after about 8 months but I delayed and just left them in there.

I dug out half the amount of ginger rhizomes in the container on 9 March and below pictures show the harvest - before and after washing. My container was so compact as it was full of ginger.

Below is the pot with leftover plants on the right.




Today, I harvested the rest of the ginger.

And I replanted a few small rhizomes with the sprouts which I separated from larger rhizomes. But before that, the leftover clumps of roots in the soil need to be removed so that they will not hinder future growth. I just need to add a little bit more soil and the growing starts again.

One might think what did I do with so much ginger? Well, I gave some to my sisters and kept some for my own cooking. Many Asian food uses ginger and I read that leftover ginger can be frozen for longer usage. I'm so happy with my ginger harvest. Hoorah!!