Tuesday 12 June 2012

Glorious Gutter Garden Update, among others

(I drafted this entry on another device, but it wouldn't post to Blogger. So I emailed to myself, copied-pasted here and inserted the photos again. Sigh)


Growth seems to have slowed down a bit, with not much height difference but with more new shoots. I had been away for 6 days and pretty much left the garden to the whims of nature. I hoped that the previous weather pattern of hot sunny days followed by heavy rains at night would sustain growth. Above left are some Paris Market carrot shoots, an unidentified small shoot, and towards the middle an unidentified big shoot. Can anyone help identify it for me at this early stage? Potential candidates are bitter gourd (peria katak) or pot marigold (calendula). I wonder if I can make tea out of these calendula? :-)



Above are yellow pear cherry tomato shoots, with 2 holy basil plants as companions. I might move these into my cat enclosure once they are big enough to need support. Quite excited about these babies.

Remember my sowing plot in a previous entry? Here is a pic of the layout:

The empty pot now has sunflower shoots! Woohoo!


And below are the plants today:



Chinese forget-me-nots, roselle and Siamese hot chilis have yet to grace us with their appearance. But yellow pear cherry tomatos, sweet red cherry tomatos, pak choy, cherrytime capsicum (in polybag), mixed colours sunflower and lemon basil have broken the soil surface. I suspect that the 'chrysanthemum shoots' are actually some ivy-like weed that has made a home in my garden. But I'll let them grow a bit more to be really sure. In the brown plastic pot on the right is my precious loofa gourd (petola sarang). Precious because its' predecessor became a hungry slug's dinner. Which is a pity because I only got that seedling after a wait of almost 2 months. But today it seems a bit wilted. Maybe it is sad because it has no place to climb? So I placed it next to my cat enclosure, and hung some of the tendrils on the wires.



Surprise, surprise, above are another 2 loofah gourd seedlings that popped out of the blue :-) Alhamdulillah.


Above are my 2 surviving purple chili plants after the virus epidemic a few months ago. I have only eaten 1 fruit from these, the rest I am keeping for seed. The brown pot in the middle has the tuber of a daffodil.

Beautiful while it lasted.

 The picture above shows the daffodils in full bloom, when I first obtained the plant with 5 tubers. I gave away 3 tubers to a gardening enthusiast I know for safekeeping (so in case I kill my daffodils I may be able to get some from him). The daffodils survived 3 weeks indoors. But unfortunately about a month after moving them outside, they started to show signs of unhappiness, and the leaves finally died away. I was a bit upset, but kept the tubers anyway just in case they might 'wake up'. This tuber seems a bit happy, doesn't it? A bit fresh-looking, not all dried-up like its poor friend (not pictured, poor thing!)



My kangkong (water convolvulus) that is threatening to take over the plot :-) I must eat these more. I don't really mind the neighbourhood insect-pests getting some snacks from these, because really I have plenty to share.



These are kacang panjang renek or snake bush beans (I am making my own translation at the moment, LOL). This is after about a week. I plan to move them to a permanent sunny spot, and give away one of the plants to an old lady I know.. I have repotted 2 of them now.

8 comments:

mat jon said...

berapa lama tunggu purple cili tu berbuah, nampak macam tak tinggi sangat pokok tu kan..

Mama Pongkey said...

Cepat berbuah, insha Allah tingginya sejengkal dia dah berputik. Cuma menyemainya agak lama, berminggu juga.

GO GREEN said...

br sekarang tau ada purple chilli.. menarik sungguh

Mama Pongkey said...

Lynnhelite, ada macam-macam lagi warna cili, warna coklat pun ada. Best kan? Yang ni pokok asal saya beli di pasar tani, kemudian pokok tu dan dalam 6 anak pokok yang disemai daripada benihnya semua mati diserang penyakit. Macam Armageddon. Alhamdulillah ada survivor juga.

TukangKebun said...

First photo unidentified plant is bitter gourd. The tomato seedlings look very healthy very promising. You might want to check the loofah soil a bit if there is any grubs that like to eat plant roots lives there. Syok tengok kangkung you. My kangkung dah jadi kuning sekarang sejuk....

Mama Pongkey said...

Yeay bitter gourd it is :-) It is a lot bigger now, seems that I need to find a stake for it pronto.

I had a quick look at the loofah this evening, it seemed a little happier in it's new spot near the cat enclosure. I haven't noticed any grubs but will look again tomorrow morning. Hee I really should eat more kangkung.

I just realised I forgot to post the pic of my daffodils when I first got them, so I have updated the post.

Anonymous said...

are you who i think u are? Yes !! I've started blogging to. ah i have so much to learn on gardening from u :)

Mama Pongkey said...

Hehehe. I can say the same about you. Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging :-)