Vegetables Update and a Very Nice Surprise.

I think I have achieved the objective I have set last year about growing more leafy vegetables in our garden. I wanted to do so as these vegetables are more perishable compared to fruit vegetables so if I can have a fresh supply in my garden regularly, it would be great. On my market/supermarket trips, I buy more of the fruit vegetables such as capsicums, eggplants, cucumbers, gourds, pumpkins as they keep fresh for a longer time. And I plant more leafy vegetables so I can harvest them fresh from my own garden.  Of course when the weather is warmer (spring, summer, autumn), I do reserve space to plant my own eggplants, cucumbers, capsicums and beans.  Also, I am hoping my choko vine produce fruits for stir-fry as well.

The kang kong/ water spinach in patch F is ready to be harvested.

Some fresh pak choy green for soup. So far, planting choy sum, Chinese brocoli and buk choy has been a failure.

I bought sweet potato leaves from Springvale market and stir-fried it with my home-made sambal  paste. Hubby loved it.

I reserved some sweet potato cuttings and stand them in water, hoping they will root and I can plant them. This idea came a bit late but if it works, I still can have my own leaves to eat. The hot weather helps the sweet potato plants grow very quickly.

I harvested a few choko shoots to stir-fry with the sweet potato leaves. Amazing! They taste really good. I read on the internet that every part of the choko part can be eaten. Also the possums love these shoots and that made me try them. A good decision! Another vegetable for the dining table!

The Kao Kee plants are growing new shoots. They get mildew easily and I had to resort to spraying the bottom leaves with fungicide as milk or bicarbonate spray did not work.

Our first kang kong harvest. for stir-fry.  Plus a bunch of edible chrysanthemum (Tung O) for soup.

Hmmm...yummy kang kong with fermented bean curd.  I can finish the whole big plate!

We have been doing bird-watching a lot.  Today we had a flight of sparrows feeding on the bird seeds.

I put out two trays so the pigeon (wildlife) will not bully the sparrows.  Each bird variety has a tray. We notice the non-native mynahs bully the pigeons and the pigeons bully the sparrows...how funny!

We were out on our front garden when my son caught sight of a plane doing heart shapes in the sky!!! I rushed for my camera.

My son managed to get into the picture by sitting on the fence, literally!

Here's another heart the plane did. What a pleasant surprise!!!

Garden Gadgets, Possum Problem

12 December
- milk spray on grapevine
- bicarbonate spray on pak choy pods, destroy fungi-infected pak choy pods (hot water treatment)
- weeding around patch at front of house

14 December, cloudy with sunny breaks, 21 deg max
- watering the garden
- harvesting pioneer beans, tung O, strawberries, kao kee

15 December, sunny.
- milk spray grapevine, kao kee, hydrangeas

The naughty bush-tail possum nipped and ate the young shoots of my choko vine.

Here's another shoot eaten. On Monday night, my boy and I camped in our back garden and for the first time, I saw the 'burglar' jumping onto my plum tree and walking on our fence and on our shed.

I have been harvesting pioneer stringless beans for freezing as the quantity was not enough for cooking.

The bean plants, about 5 of them, are growing beans at different speeds.

My wisteria in the pot climbed up the beam in a clock-wise fashion. Not too sure if I would get any flowers.

A yummy bunch of Tung O (edible chrysantemum) for soup.

Beans and a fig (brown turkey).

Made a few cups of lemon balm tea this week. Refreshing!

A bunch of kao kee for soup too.

Steady supply of strawberries every day.

Here's a look at 3 of my wonderful gardening gadgets : Left to right - 1. Handsfree nozzle 2.Green Spray head. 3. Blue fireman nozzle. They are precious to me for watering my garden since I suffer from shoulder and neck problems, as they are handsfree and the sprays are adjustable.  Care to be taken when using them as if they are dropped, they can damage quite easily.

I bought this cheap spray unit from Bunnings for $7, the cheapest displayed. It actually works wonderfully. This morning I used it for the first time for milk-spraying my grape vine, kao kee and hydrangea. It really beats using 500ml spray bottles which really aggravates my shoulder/neck problem. It is also fantastic for large quantity of solutions.

A Night of Downpour to Refresh a Week of Sunshine.

8-9 December - warm and sunny days up to 32 deg celsius.  Thunderstorms in the evening.

9 December -cool change
- collected 3 buckets of worm casts from worm farm.
- checked hydrangeas.  Milk sprays seem to have worked to rid powdery mildew.
- removed powdery mildew-affected grapevine leaves (still manageable).
- removed powdery mildew-affected kao kee leaves (milk spray didnt  work). Applied more milk spray.
- lots of pomegranate flowers dropped.
- collected pak choy pods.

11 December - Rain last night.
- Worm casts to kang kong on Patch F.
- Worm casts to kao kee and strawberry pots.

One of the cucumber vines which I have planted here (Patch B) took off well and is having cucumbers already. Two others died.

I planted 4 more pot-germinated seedlings in Patch B.  These are cucumber (burpless).

Several chilli padi seedlings emerged in Patch B where I placed the pot to over-winter.  The seeds must have survived winter from dropped chilli fruits.

Patch B+C has kang kong (water spinach) and carrots growing.

Patch F has kang kong (water spinach) and Tung O (edible chrysanthemum).  It is also where my Carolina Black Rose grape vine is.  This picture is taken before I applied worm casts.

This raised vegetable patch looks a little run down.  I cannot really plant much as I am still waiting for pak choy green seeds to dry.  The brocoli greens did not do well. I think the seeds are dodgy as this is not the first time I am unsuccessful despite changing planting sites.

I got my boy to casually sow pak choy seeds out on the front vege patch and amazing lots of tiny healthy pak choy are growing.

Yummy, fresh strawberries every day!

This summer, I have 4 cally lily Majestic Red  blooming in our front garden.  How exciting to see them returning year after year!

With an overnight downpour, the duckweeds in the water chestnut tub  multiplied like crazy covering the whole surface.  The colour contrast of green and blue is very nice.

Guess what I found? A ginger shoot! That's from last summer!  Ginger (the common one that I use for cooking) actually survived our winter and has emerged! Wow! I feel so excited and hopeful growing ginger. 

This ginger shoot recently emerged from some stems which I planted in  two 40cm diameter pots.  Hoping for good results.  So far so good.

Here's another shoot in the other pot.

The galangal ginger which I planted here looked withered, not a pleasing sight. However I strongly believe the underground stems are alive.  Time will tell.

While I was preparing dinner, I looked out of my kitchen window very often.  We had a wonderful downpour last night and this really refreshed the whole garden.  The greenery looks greener, the plants look more alive and beautiful as ever.  I love this view so much.