My Baby...and Vegetables Update.

Hello! It's been a long long time since I last posted. Life has been very busy with my new baby, and lots of changes along the way. We went for a holiday, moved house and then had our baby. Baby S (yes, another S) is already 15 weeks. He's such a joy and I am savouring every moment being a new mother once again.  Here is a picture of him :

I havent been doing a lot of gardening compared to before.  We moved house, so there is less to maintain but still, my garden of potted plants/veges/trees demand attention every now and then. I have been harvesting a good amount of green veges esp garlic chives. I am very excited to share that the gorgeous black seeds I have collected from my very first planting back in our old property, have grown into beautiful garlic chives successfully. I recalled busy bees working on the chive flowers back then and was wondering if I would get seeds. And yes I did! And yes, the seeds are of fantastic quality too! Here's the first new crop :

Another exciting thing to share. Thai basil! The last few plants I had (which I rooted from market cuttings) died down last winter and their seeds survived the cold winter and starting growing in the pot. So I am getting thai basil leaves now! I really love thai basil. Though I have been too busy to do any cooking (been catering food nowadays) and usethe leaves now, I am still excited. I plan to store these basil leaves in olive oil so if I need them, I can always have a stock of them! Here's some of them drying :

I also have some tomato silvery fir to harvest. They have all sprung from seeds blown into pots. A few grew in the pot of the Kaffir lime tree. I pulled up some and left two to grow. Had to net the plants as caterpillars attack them, those which burrow and make holes in unripe tomatoes, I cannot recall the names now.

 A while earlier, I also harvested green buk choy. Amazing they sprang up from seeds scattered by wind on my previous property. Smile....It's just wonderful to be able to harvest edibles without having to even plant them!!!

Flowers Update

Spring has come and so did spring showers and strong winds. It still feels cold most days with a few warm days in between. Last year, I planted three lily bulbs (Lilium LA Hybrid) in the patch next to the garage. The flowers were 'so so'. I am so surprised but very pleased to see them come back this spring. At first there were two rosetting green heads appearing when I was doing work at the patch. Then there is the third one. I hope the flower quality will be better this spring/summer.

This pretty yellow daffodil under the plum tree was part of what I bought from the reject shop. Two which had opened was white and yellow which I was not a fan of. I did not realise that the pack was mixed daffodil bulbs. So far only three daffodils and lots of green leaves. Hope the daffodils under the plum tree next year will be more numerous, showy and impressive.

My 20+ tulips are growing...but slow...I am almost certain the flower quality will not be too fantastic this first season.

The numerous tiny pink flowers of the jade plants are withering, not a pretty sight now.

Annabel dwarf maguerite daisies have swarmed the whole bush.

My purple pak choy (left) and green pak choys (right) have towered more than a metre. The flowers of the purple pak choy has an amazing perfume. I am waiting for seed harvesting.

The seed pods...I did not know that pak choy seeds are packaged this way.

Look at my pretty pinkish white cyclamen flowers! What a sight out of my kitchen window. I just cant get sick of looking at them while at the kitchen sink.

Pretty butterfly-like flowers.

And the red ones too.

I took a picture of my trailing kalanchoe. This picture does not do the look favor. The bell-like red flowers with jade-green caps are very pretty. I beam with pride seeing them flower successfully through winter to spring.

How about earring designs like these? So dainty and sweet.

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!

Garden Update

Finally...one growing bitter melon / bittergourd on the vine! This market seed that I germinated had a good number of flowers and baby melons but just one managed to develop larger...I am still feeling satisfied :)...and this growing melon was a surprise because I only saw it a few days ago...under the net and cloth-shade : My chilli padi plants finally are having loads of chilli padis...the plants are having milder spots which was a concern to me at first :

The calamondin comquot has put on loads of flowers since addition of potash. It has been the centre of attraction in my backyard as lots of bees are visiting it...the smell of the flowers is awesome :

Just harvested the longest ever cucumber...1 cm short of 40...:

Silverbeet growing well :

Buk choy ready for harvesting :

Buk choy cum silverbeet for lunch :

Sweet Potato leaves for dinner :

Chillies, Herbs & Vege.

My original pot of rosemary recently was in a poor state. The leaves were looking really skinny compared to its daughter rosemary shrub at the patch next to the garage. Compare them at http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/11/patch-next-to-garage-fresh-faces.html . I was not sure if it was too dry or the pot has gotten too small. I had actually gave it a root trim (See http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/11/catching.html) somtime back before putting it back into the same pot, so I believed it had got too dry in the hot weather. I began watering it more often which is quite strange as rosemary prefers it dry. Deciding to dunk n drench the whole pot in charlie carp helped. It looked better since : I gave my second season thyme a good hair cut and it came back beautifully again :

Finally the three skyscraper-tall chilli padis are begining to fruit after some trouble with sickly spotted leaves :

And the sickly-looking chilli fire (see http://organic-is-better.blogspot.com/2009/12/garden-bird-rescue-heronswood-garden.html )which I bought from bunnings is also producing chillies :

And my Nellie Kelly hot chilli are fruiting its heads off :

Thai basil has also grown and is smelling glorious. Maybe this is the first success I am having. However they are seasonal as they produce flower heads very easily and I have to keep up with the deflowering :

A recent hair cut for my vietnamese mint also see them coming back beautifully. The logic 'kill the top and leave the roots' does work :

Nice bunch of crisp buk choy for lunch :

Loving these buk choys :