Lemon grass - Cymbopogon citratus

I have a total of 5 tufts of lemongrass growing in my garden. So far they are doing very well. They grow to become this big tuft of grass-looking bush. They are certainly better than grass because they can be eaten. I have not harvested any yet as the stems are still thin. I surely cannot imagine how they will look like when their stems become as thick as those in the markets. This is the first tuft (at Patch C) and their stems are getting thicker : And this is the second tuft in Patch E :

And three tufts side by side on the front garden :

I hope they can survive the winter as this is my first time having them since spring. Yesterday morning I had to pluck all four of my last bitter melons and throw them out as they were frost-bitten. I did not expect the frost in autumn. Will have to protect delicate tropical fruits the next season.

Snapshots of my Garden Babies.

It's been quite a while since I spent some good time doing gardening. Our family had spent some time grieving the loss of our second baby because we had a miscarriage. We were thankful that it happened early pregnancy but still we were sad. And thankfully it is autumn and most work had been done. I spent little bits of time doing harvesting instead. The garden does need some tidying up and today I did just that as the weather was warmer. The chilli padi plants are doing well and the chillies are steadily ripening. My mum, who is here for holiday, has been the sole customer of my chillies. :) The three cyclamens which I have planted last year are coming back well. I cannot wait for them to flower and bloom :

And amazingly, they have sent out bulbs somewhere else and new cyclamen plants are sprouting up 1 metre away :

My calamondin comquat tree in its pot is doing great too, producing many bunches of fruits. Hoping to make belacan chilli out of them :

I have propagated some cuttings of sweet potato, hoping they can last through winter and be replanted next spring. Here is one successful one :

These few oriental radishes are doing fine under neglect at Patch A:

Recently I picked one brown turkey fig off this tree and it was a bit fleshy and pink. It was quite large. Here is another one waiting to be picked. This tree has produced a dozen of figs but so far only two are a little edible, the rest were dry and yucky :

My Flemings' brown turkey has several small figs. Hoping that they will be better in quality. So interesting to have figs in pots! :

Here's a tuft of chives which I bought and planted where the passionfruit panama is :

And here's the beautiful passionfruit panama gold. It has sent out so many new growth despite me pruning it again and again, cos I really dont know where to encourage it to head. I did not want it to climb up the shed's roof or in summer, it will be cooked :

Strawberry delight...dangling strawberries... :

I have this plant growing in the calamondin comquat pot. It looks like a marigold :

Today, I finally did some work to protect my chilli fire with plastic in preparation for winter. I hope it can survive the winter. This plant has given me loads of green chillies for pickling :

I transplanted the five snow pea seedlings out on the front where the sunflowers used to be. They are doing well :

A friend, Li, passed me some mustard and I planted them in the frontyard. I have not found out much about this vegetable but will soon :

Another friend, Eliada, gave me two pots of chives. They are looking the same after two weeks in the ground.

Today, I pulled up all the lucerne growing in this patch F. I am intending to use it for vegetables? Still thinking. Added some black gold compost to it. Notice one leading branch of my carolina black rose is missing? It was up the pongola ceiling but when I returned from Lakes Entrance, it was found broken. Not sure if the wind or Marco was the culprit. Anyway, I had to cut it down completely and now there is only one leading branch left.

Bitter Melon, Chilli Fire Harvests.

Another pride and joy this season, besides my cucumbers, eggplant, lemongrass, strawberries, chillies, sweet potatoes, is my bittermelon. Several of them harvested and several to come. What a sense of satisfaction! One bittermelon for dinner at my friend's house. Her mum commented that it was very pretty.

Loads of green chillies harvested for pickled chillies. And two melons.

These are my mum's hand harvesting the green chillies.

Yet another bowl of harvest.

I have made four jars of pickled green chillies which we take out for dinners at restaurants.

Another bittermelon and a bunch of purple king beans.

More to come.

More more more....

:)

Strawberry Delight

My pride and joy....my strawberry plants!!! Even the tradesman who came the other day commented that my strawberry plants were gorgeous and wondered how I grew them so well. His are dying.

These few are the fruit of one baby plant which I have propagated successfully. I did not even notice the huge strawberries dangling from the pot until they were this big and red.

Many smaller ones which I had picked.

Such dainty little flowers.

Strawberries dangling out of the planter where my two baby strawberry plants were growing.

I think growing strawberries have bought my heart over. They do not take lots of space, are easy to grow, produce yummy strawberries and truly are an extremely pretty sight. I was never a strawberry lover but now I am really in love. :)

Eggplant Supreme Harvest

I harvested at least 10 good sized eggplants so far. Eggplants #9 & 10

Eggplants #7 & 8

Eggplants #5 & 6

Eggplants #3 & 4

Eggplant #2