Garden Update

Lots of harvesting to be done. The olive tree is one but I am not doing so as I am not keen to do any pickling : Been harvesting these ripening hot chillies. They are really hot stuff.

My beautiful protea pink ice in bloom in its pot.

Gorgeous aloe vera. Harvested for some steamed dessert with sugar.

Woo Hoo! Sweet Potatoes!

I have not written any entry for a long while. This is because my internet has been slow as a snail. There is so much to update. My sweet potatoe vines are doing so well. Besides harvesting its young shoots several times for stir fry, I have started to harvest the tubers too.

A look at the beautiful yummy leaves.

The tubers have exploded out of the ground.

I am feeling very excited though I was not really planting sweet potatoes for their tubers but more for their leaves.

My first harvest! I gave some away and used some for pork porridge.

My second harvest! I have used it for an Asian dessert called bo bo cha cha.

Harvesting...harvesting...

Finally. My eggplant is a late bloomer. It is already autumn and it has put on a good number of eggplants after flowering heavily. There are a total of at least 7 eggplants growing though two of the largest had been plucked by my dog. How frustrating! Well, it's not like I am going to eat all the eggplants but the sight of having a plant loaded with growing eggplants is so wonderful. The worst thing is he did not even eat the eggplant, just simply plucked and chewed it all over the ground! I have been harvesting purple king beans, hot chilli and some chilli padis.

And this purple pak choy is looking irresistible. I took a picture of it before any caterpillars come and make holes in the leaves.

Harvested two bittermelons and loads of green chilli fire. These are the 3rd and 4th melons and there are two baby ones growing. Yay!!!!!!!!

The mother strawberry plant continually produces strawberries for me to pick...here's big two yummy ones.

Autumn....

Eggplant #2.

Eggplant #3.

The purple king bean plants are doing well under netting..away from pesky moths. Harvested a few beans.

Another surprise! A fourth bittermelon found hanging by the fence!

One more round of rosemary sprigs for my friend Pascale and some beans.

One more round of buk choy and silver beet.

One more round of sweet potato leaves.

The new cucumbers are getting bottom-heavy...having fat ends...not sure why. It could be the weather, it could be that the vines coming to the end of their lifespan.

Three cucumbers for our dinner and soup.

Two bunches of ripening strawberry delight from my propagated plants.

These are the two largest strawberries I have ever grown in my garden. I waited and waited until they were fully ripened before changing their location - into my mouth! Goodness! Super super sweet and juicy!

Bitter Melon, Pioneer Stringless & Strawberry Delight

A bunch of parsley for baking dog biscuits to freshen up Marco's breath, and a bunch of buk choy for lunch.

My aloe vera plant is really huge now with lots of growing pups.

I sliced off one piece for soothing a bit of itchy skin.

Hooray! Another eggplant is growing!

Two bunches of sweet strawberries growing from the two plants I have successfully propagated from the parent strawberry delight plant. As the two plants are under nets, they are growing very well without much pest disturbance.

Beans Pioneer Stringless are ready for harvesting. Going to simply blanch them in boiling water. They are named as such because there is no strings to be removed from their sides, unlike some beans.

My harvest of my first bitter melon/bittergourd and a bunch of beans Pioneer Stringless.

My pot of Kalanchoe has been attacked by caterpillars again though it was netted.

It's a new caterpillar which I have not seen before. It's colour is very similar to the kalanchoe branches but still not difficult to spot. I found more than a dozen!