Papaya, Pinto, Potato

I just noticed that these plants all start with P! :D






The first of the NINE pinto beans has sprouted - its seedling looks like grande size compared to papaya seedlings. Speaking of which, the papaya seedlings have really grown and they are really "racing" each other to grow taller as you can see in the group above. The lone seedling looks stunted although it had sprouted earlier than the group because there is no competition - hmmm.... a lesson here, I think!




And the potato is growing, albeit rather slowly - it has some new leaves but so tiny.




Two ginger shoots growing tall - I hope they are growing as well underground because it is the tubers I want :)




What I can't figure is how come the other pot of winter melon seedlings sprouted as a group whereas in this pot only one grew. I divided the seeds into two groups for the two pots but yet the difference in the germination of the seeds. Infertile seeds - maybe!



A triumvirate! Ooh ... I love my chilli plant. The new chillies are bigger and there are loads more coming up. How I wish I am a chilli padi fan because then I can really enjoy the fruits of my labour!

P.S. I was digging around a patch and uprooted 2 of the 3 sweet potatoes I planted some time ago. One of them seem to be rooting but no shoots yet and both potatoes looked all right, not rotted. Marked their spots so that I don't go digging them up again, disturbing their growths.

Growing, Growing, Growing

Planted more seeds of - a bean of some sort (the vegetable seller gave me 9 beans, I should have taken a picture of the pea pod - it is speckled white and dark pink legume; just googled and found out that they are pinto beans:)) and the red capsicum that is about to rot in my fridge. There are many strange seedlings growing all over the garden - many I recognize as weeds but some of them I have never seen. Should I just weed them out?

The plants are flourishing despite the very hot weather because I water them twice if they look wilted.





New chillies are spotted and there are lots more new flowers too. Strange that the flowers are of such innocent white - they bear fruits with such potent chemicals as to make one weep.




Transfered some of them into the ground - the winter melon, potato and chilli.



The papaya seedlings are growing like they are racing to reach the sky ahead of others (must remember to fertilize them tomorrow)



The Thai Basil has grown somewhat - must find a recipe that uses its leaves so that I can harvest some to eat. Oh, oh, when did I last fertilize it - can I take some to add to my pork fried with red capsicum for lunch today?


Beautiful underside of cucumber leaves!

Mistaken Identity

Gosh! I was watering and weeding the garden this morning when I took a closer look at some seedlings that I thought were papaya as they were growing too slowly for papaya and found to my surprise that they are actually chilli! Must be local chilli because I ever threw some chilli seeds into the ground. I compared it to the chilli plant I bought - the leaves look similar. What a laugh - so much for me being a gardener, don't even know what I am growing, hahaha!



Harvested (I like this word, it sounds so grand :)) some chillies and ONE cherry tomato because I was going to fertilize the plants. Always harvest the ripe fruits or leaves before fertilizing because you don't want to eat the sh*#. Wouldn't you agree that the chillies are really of different species - rounded fat orange vs pointed slim red?

Grass? So Cute!

When I walked past my little garden this morning on the way back from market with an okra pod, I saw the little so absolutely cute patch of papaya seedlings that looked almost like grass.


The little cherry tomato was just harvested and laid on the papaya grass.


Planted the okra seeds today on a raised bed. Read that they need full sun and good drainage. Hopefully my shortcut of planting fresh seeds works. Here are the winter melon seedlings planted a week ago. They sprouted really fast - now I really believe that newspaper article which said that 2 ladies got a winter melon 18 inches long from seeds they plant more than a month before.


I think the chilli plant are 2 different plants in the same pot. One always have slim red chillies while the other, fatter and round orange coloured chillies.


The old cucumber is growing well and I think I put it in the correct corner - its creepers should be able to climb the fence - I just spotted the tendril which is usually used to coil round fences when it grows upwards. Looking forward to harvest my own pesticide free old cucumber. I wonder how do they become old cucumber - do I just let them grow and grow until they turn yellow? Are they normal cucumbers before they turn old and yellow? Or are they totally different species?


Are these jasmine flowers? I bought it from a nearby NTUC - it said jasmine on the sticker. Wonder if it is!

Underground

Planted some more papaya seeds in the garden this morning O_O . I think I got at least 100 papaya seedlings poking their shoots out of the soil.

While digging up one aloe to raise its bed, discovered that the tumeric ginger plant is rooting all over the garden. Very aggressive! But I think that will mean that I will soon get lots of tumeric ginger. Supposedly ginger drink made from it has very beneficial properties like anti-aging etc.

Cleared up some tiles and I think the garden is ready for new residents tomorrow when I will most like go and get some of the plants on the wanted list.

Yesterday snipped off most of the ripe chillies to give away to a neighbour. Not much but rather potent - they can be added to other chillies to make sambal belacan!

Stock Take

It seems to me like I have been reporting on the progress of my gardening adventure factually only. I am bored reading my own gardening annals!

It is slow going, trying to get the plants I want as food to grow. I am wondering if the sweet potatoes I planted into the ground 1 week ago is going to grow any shoots soon. I feel like digging them up to see if they are still there or they have rotted away. Should I?

Also, I think I have to raise the beds for the aloes. They are so not looking great and I think it is because their roots are too wet most of the time since I had planted them too deep. Maybe I should go and get some more burnt earth next week and start revamping my garden by raising the beds for certain plants.

I think I may end up with a papaya plantation if all the seeds I sowed start to grow. I don't know which ones I want to keep as I can't remember which ones are from the sweetest papayas.

Maybe it is time to get a persimmon plant, a custard apple plant, thyme, pomelo, local chilli plant, a bigger tomato plant, okra, radish and chye sim seeds. I think this list is more than enough to cover all the ground I have.

One by One

Click on this group photo above to see who is who :))



These papaya seedlings decided to run riot and sprouted all at the same time. Last night didn't see them now so many shoots are poking out of the soil!




The onions grew in my absence and today I planted them in the ground. I always have this tendency to plant them deep but I remember reading somewhere that I should plant them in raised bed. Must remember that next time.



New flowers spotted on the chilli plant with many chillies ripening from green to yellow to orange to red!



The cherry tomato is still growing its fruits and some have ripened to bright orange. Maybe I can eat these to see if they are sweet.


BTW my radish died. Well, I guess I must really plant them from seeds. I will get some okra and radish seeds soon.

Seedlings

The seeds from the old cucumber plant have "ling-ed" :) They almost wilted on Monday cos the sun was so strong and they were totally exposed on the Batu Giling. Took them to a corner and shaded it with that black basket. Rigid stems again after rehydration. Going to plant them in the ground soon.



A view of my very sparse garden from my window on level 2. Soooon ...... I hope the ground cover will be greened!

Dried-out!

The vagaries of weather! From waterlogged to dried-out in a matter of 1 week. My 10-year old bamboo plant in a pot has browned out. I hope it does not die. Left my garden in the care of a friend who claims to "be a farmer in his younger days" and came back to brown bamboo plant after my CNY trip. Maybe some one poisoned it by pouring stuff into the soil. The other plants are all right!