Rare Plant Expo and Some Others

On Saturday, our family attended the Rare Plant Expo. Samuel was very excited about the lily pad. It's huge!

Hubby and I almost bought one of these plants. The pitcher plant is the most attractive. But when he told me he would like to put it in the bathroom, I said 'No thanks.' Imagine a meat-eating plant in our bathroom...I am not in for it.

My brave boy went forward to say 'Hello' to Mr Stephen Ryan, the host of Gardening Australia. Mr Ryan even gave him a card with his autograph on it. Samuel was so happy.

My new aquisition - Water Chestnut! I have been wanting to buy this a long time but did due to various reasons. Since it was in front of me at the Expo, I could not resist and bought a pot.

We bought two pots of Clemetis "The President" to replace the juvenile ivy growing on the fence fledging my small gate. I decided that I would pull the ivy out because it is very invasive, despite loving its gorgeous green and white leaves. The Clementis is a perenial but most time of the year, it would be green and flowering. I love the large deep purple flowers.

I also bought two pots of Hellebore Double Red. I have planted them under the Plum tree out of my son's window. Next winter, it will produce pretty red flowers. Hellebores are also called Winter Roses.

Some more yummy strawberries, not many to go.

Harvested a large bowl of red skin potatoes I believe called Desiree potatoes. They came from a single potato. Cooked a pot chicken curry with them.

My 3 Cyclamens decided to green up and flower at this time, just right after they died. I thought they are spring flowering???

This patch of kang kong or water spinach is ready to be cut.

Those in the bed are almost ready too.

Look at my aloe vera. They are growing so well. Better check up recipes on how to boil them for a drink.

A few brown turkey figs are ripening. Can't wait to eat them.

My tomato Silvery Fir plants are having new leaves and flowers. I could not bear to pull them up even though the new fruits probably wont ripen now in autumn.

Lady's Fingers, Eggplant Florianda, Yardlong Beans

I captured a picture of my ocra (lady's fingers) flowers. This plant belongs to the hibiscus family.

Wow...I thought I was having a small eggplant but when I checked today, it was a truckload! At least 10 and I am not kidding. The thing is this plant is really quite dwarf and I wonder where the fruits going to go being so low to the ground already. Perhaps harvest when still young. I am going to do my best to preserve this beautiful eggplant before winter comes. If I can keep my capsicum for 3 years and over-winter my chillies successfully, I am sure I can do so for my eggplant. ;)

My yardlong bean or long bean...I did not expect it to be so so dwarf! It is flowering. Only this plant is so far doing better than the rest. Kind of giving up hope of eating long beans.

Pretty lilac bean flowers.

My poor lilies. They are so fragrant and so pretty but their petals are all smeared with pollens due to the rain.

I captured a few pictures of bees visiting my pumpkin flowers. So cute seeing them covered with pollen when they fly out of the flower.

Tomatoes silvery fir are ripening unevenly. A bunch can have both ripe and unripe tomatoes. How on earth can I have vine ripened tomatoes? It seems impossible as I have to harvest any ripe ones before they become rotten in the rain or burnt by the sun.

Yippee! Another basket of kang kong (water spinach). I am truly excited! This is the second batch from the same plants!!!

Our First Pixzee Peach for 2011 Plus Other Garden Updates.

Today's temperature is predicted to reach 35 deg celsius. Not a big deal as I believe this year's summer will be cooler and I doubt we are going to experience 46 again. Also, the garden is all mostly mulched up so the water retention will be good. Having said that, I spent one hour giving the whole garden water this morning. I have also put up some white cloths on three areas : over the burdock, over the hydrangeas and the ocra (ladies' fingers). I was trying to show my son my dwarf peach (pixzee) tree with its five large fruits. We could smell the fragrance without putting our noses near. One of them felt soft and when my boy reached out to touch it, it fell. We realised that this one was ready and shared it. Yummy, sweet and juicy!!!

This little pot of strawberry delight is producing quite a few strawberries. And the other plants are also having lots flowers.

I germinated some lemon balm recently. It is growing steadily but slowly.

Clockwise from top : bitter melon (bittergourd), evening primrose, watercress and eggplant. I know I am extremely late planting the bitter melon and eggplant. I sowed them with experimentation in mind but all of them germinated.

These are four pyrethrum daisies which I bought from Diggers. They grow so slowly and wilt so easily. I have repotted them into this pretty terracotta pot.

A Vietnamese kinder mum gave me these two Thai Basil plants which I repotted in this large pot. It's been difficult growing this basil probably due to the climate. It flowers too easily which is not good for herbs.

My two burdock plants in this vege patch are easily burnt by the hot sun due to their large leaves. I covered them with white cloth today.

More kang kong (water spinach) growing after the last harvest. This will be one vege I will keep planting every year. The seeds are of very superior quality.

My beloved yellow capsicum plant is in its 3rd year and fruiting!!! What an amazing plant!!!

Our First Harvest of Kang Kong (Water Spinach)

Yes! It is our first attempt and we are successful! Samuel got to sow kang kong seeds early spring and now he gets to harvest them. He was really excited.

Here's the basketful of kang kong. It was quite a lot and surely enough for the three of us!

And amazingly they tasted so tender and delicious! Even better than those from the market. What's better, they cost less than A$2 and are organic!

I sneaked a shot of Marco enjoying his grass after a meal of salmon fish.

The sweet corns are growing taller than Samuel.

And we got our pleasant surprise this evening. They are all having corns!!! It is so wonderful to be able to plant our own veges and I feel very glad that my son has this chance to be out in the garden surrounded and learning about plants and veges and herbs and flowers. It just reminds me of my childhood, exposed to all kinds of fruits and veges that Grandma planted. What great blessings!!!

The two spagetti squash vines are fruiting. About 6 squashes in all. I wonder how they taste like.

Update of All Sorts...

It has been another busy week. There were a few chores I had to finish for the garden - providing support for the climbing carolina black rose grape vine, weeding, netting the remaining unprovided peaches (from feathery looters), preparing ground for a new passion fruit vine, staking bean plants, pruning tomato plants, fertilising, decorating for Christmas....on and on...looks like it is not a few chores after all! Well we are still enjoying the brand new lawn and will continue to do so. Here I snapped Samuel and Marco having fun together. They were so cute!

The dietes. Arent they gorgeous? They are very common natives planted in multiple clumps for mass display. From far, they look like fluttering white butterflies because you can hardly see the green slender stems holding the flowers up.

Rather orchid-like.

I have successfully propagated a few aoeniums (wonder if the spelling is right or not) before pulling up the mother plant which look ugly. I have not decided what to do with the new plants yet.

The brown turkey fig tree right out of my dining window looks very healthy and it is having figs!!!

Here's the two pomegranate flowers. I am not diehard to eat any pomegranate from this tree which was left behind by the previous owner. It is a young handsome pomegranate tree. I just bought 3 large pomegranates for $5 and that's cheap! They are from USA. I realise these fruits are rather troublesome to eat though I heard they are very nutritious.

All my three sweet corns are flowering. Male or female I dont know. Having corns' more important haha...

My two-year-old gladioli are flowering again!!! So pretty while blooming but not so when they start to die down!

Yummy heart-shaped strawberry due to cojoining work!

And I love strawberry flowers! So delicate, so dainty, so sweet, so pretty!!!

Almost all my tomato silvery fir plants (7 in all) are flowering and fruiting. Yum Yum...

The kang kong's growing well in the new vege patch. So are the potato plants. And burdock too (hidden by potato).

Chilli fire plant fruiting crazily. I am going to harvest a big number of green chillies for pickles!

3 more beans yardlong have germinated at the site where the snow peas used to be.

I happen to take a picture of these two calendula seedlings exploding out of their seed hulls. Very nice.