Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Scorching Temperatures and Then Lots of Rain - End February

We experienced very hot scorching weather from Friday till Monday morning. It has been a lot of sun without rain this summer in my area.  And there is one casualty out of my garden. My beautiful creeping watermelon vines have succumbed to the heat and withered completely and I expect the unripe watermelons to die as well. There is a large fruit and two smaller ones. :( This year I did not put up any protection against the heat. I have not been feeling very well so have to ignore my gardening and do only the minimal for a little while.
Watermelon and dead vines around it.

My yummy grapes. A lot of them are splitting and I found out it was due to over-watering.

Sweet potato vines.

Back garden view 1

Back garden view 2

Water chestnut tub
Our recent harvest
Lady's fingers...this year's harvest has been better.

Lady's finger's flower.

Success at growing Lebanese eggplants using seeds.
More harvest.


Saturday, February 11, 2012

Summer Update - Mid February

Harvesting veges :

Water spinach/kang kong, pak choy green, choko shoots, eggplants, carrots, cucumbers, chillies, spring onions, beans, lady's fingers/okra.

Harvesting fruits : figs, grapes.

The thirty figs on Figgy are not developing well. I am totally puzzled as the fruits were small, hollow and turned yellow before they got bigger. There goes hope of eating more figs this year. The tree is very tall and leafy for its pot, so I am unsure if it was not able to draw up enough nutrients or water from its potting mix.I placed a saucer under the pot and watered daily but nothing seemed to work.

On the other hand, Big Fig which did not put on any figs early this year, has finally grown some. The figs look like they are going to be fine for eating.

Big Fig (brown turkey) with its fruits protected by organza bags which I bought from Ebay. My son says Big Fig 's a boy.

We harvested some carrots. Our first try at growing them. Fantastic result!


Pesky black birds have been trying to go for my Carolina Black Rose grapes even though I have netted my vine. So I resorted to organza bags which is very effective.
These flowers have bloomed. They are called pigface.  Definitely dont look like pig's faces.

The pathetic-looking passionfruit vine outside my garage is finally growing. I think if it survives, it will be really slow-growing, I dont mind as long as it greens up this brick wall.

The other passionfruit vine next to my patio is also growing, but better.
Eggplant Bonita's 2nd fruit and several more to come.

More sweet corns at the patch in front of our garage have all been harvested. I grew lots of corns this season and am sick of eating them already.

"All that mankind needs for good health and healing is provided by God in nature...the challenge of Science is to find it." - Paracelcus, the father of Pharmcology, 1493 - 1541