Cucumber (burpless) Harvest #1

Three months after sowing my cucumber (burpless), it was time to pick four off the vines. It was a very satisfying moment for me. I have pickled the fourth one before snapping a picture. Here's the other three, all about 30cm long :

Eggplant Supreme

My eggplant supreme has put on more flowers. The previous few purple flowers withered and died without producing any eggplants. I suspected it was due to pollination problems. Closer examination of the plant today revealed caterpillar presence. And I even found a cocoon under one of the leaves. After a few days in a jar, it turned out to be the same moth which I caught some time back :

From the look of the flowers, it seem that when the petals are bent backwards, they are ready for pollination. I read somewhere that this happens for tomato flowers. Eggplants and tomatoes belong to the same family. I have noticed that the eggplant produces two types of flowers. One with a centre thingy which I believe is the female part (stigma). The yellow parts are the male parts or anthers where the pollen are stored. I remove one anther at a time and peel it gently (it is very delicate) to reveal the white pollen which flies off fast in the breeze. I would dap this onto the female part. Hope that this works to produce eggplant since I read that bees are not attracted to eggplant flowers :

Flower with yellow anthers and a centre (which I think is the female stigma)

The other flower is similar except that the centre part is either non-existent or very deep inside and tiny. This flower cant seem to be pollinated and I am not sure what it is for :

Flower with yellow anthers but no centre or stigma.

35 Degree Celsius.

The temperature will be 35 degree celsius these two days. Early in the morning within water restriction time, I watered the whole garden and covered up the vegetables in my backyard. Here is a picture of the backyard from my kitchen. The white cloths helped to reflect the glaring sun and keep my plants cool : The second sun king sunflower has opened...much prettier one :

My life group mate Li gave me two of this squash...taste yummy and looks like varigated zuchini :Another life group mate Chloe gave me a bunch of homegrown peaches...they are really nice even though they are not fully ripe yet. Homegrown always beats supermarket stuff. That green silvery fir tomato was picked off the plant by Marco...a bit sad cos we cannot eat it at all and it is quite big :

Coriander, Yellow Capsicum, Cucumber (burpless)

I have forgotten about the coriander seeds which I had sown around my turkey fig tree...When they emerged, I realised it was them : My yellow capsicum plants is bearing more fruits. Never bored of snapping a picture of them...always so pretty :

How fast are the cucumbers growing! Here's #1 :

Here's #2 :

Here's #3 :

Here's #4 hanging upside down :

Merry Christmas! First Gladioli Opens!

Yippee! My Christma present from the garden...the first gladioli has opened! Very pretty flower! Here's a picture of the patch taken from the road. This patch next to the garage was tough work but amazingly the plants are doing fantastic after a hard time establishing themselves.

The gladioli close-up with the matching orangy-yellow calendulas behind.

Here's the Annabel dwarf marguerite daisy shrub and two blue marguerites, oregano and rosemary.

I hope gladioli flowers will last long for admiring.