Nona up close!

I googled and found out that Custard Apples are of the Annonaceae family ~ Annona reticulata. Its flower has 3 thick petals that are light green on the outside, probably fused with the sepals, and light yellow on the inside.

This flower is in early stage as can be seen by the smaller centre and the stamens still look fresh.





This stamens of this one in later stage of bloom have dried up and fallen off.

Nona a plenty!

After an absence of 17 days, I returned to a happy garden. I left it in the care of a friend who came and pick caterpillars off the pomelo and water some potted plants once a week. And all's well!

The custard apple (or what my friends in Penang call "nona") flowers are unusual - forgotten what it looked like the last time as there was only one. Now there are a few in various stages of blooming and I really don't know how to describe them - so see it for yourself :)







The 5 new okra plants have grown but their leaves are different from the previous batch in that it is rather completely round rather than sharply tri-lobed! I wonder why - it was from my previous plant - so, what happened? Recently, in Penang, I saw an okra plant that had distinct tri-lobed leaves.

Another pest in cammies!

Spotted this insect or aphid in camouflage - crawling around on the Kumquat plant, planning damage like a guerilla!



Wonder if the "wings" are functional, if it can fly?? I supposed it could, else how did it get on the kumquat or maybe it help the aphid to "ride" the wind because the wings don't look like they could flap!

P.S. Here is one more I found today 11 Jan 2012 - a Puli of the insect world ~ I think it is a camouflaged aphid. See its size - 3 mm(?) relative to the lime leaf!

Such a feeling ...!

Thinking of my garden gives me such a nice lovey feeling! And great satisfaction too! Because I just finished planting my precious custard apple in the ground before breakfast this morning.

Yesterday I uprooted and harvested all the sweet potatoes and ginger. I had replanted some of ginger closer to the fence but have decided not to renew the tenure of the sweet potato. Rather, I am making way for new species - some seedlings of the purple cauliflower have sprouted and I am waiting for the tomato and snap beans seedlings to show up too. By next weekend I hope to plant the cauliflower into the bed that I had prepared.

Another major task up ahead is to redo the auto-watering system. The weather has been so dry and hot this last week that some of my plants are suffering. (Will add pictures later)

Did my garden tame me?

..... Or did I tame my garden? Did Chuan-tse dream that he was the butterfly or did the butterfly dream it was Chuan-tse? (for the butterfly story: http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~lxl/personal/butterfly.html)? ~ "transformation of things proved that differences between things are not absolute"!

Or is it as in "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, that in the process of taming between the rose and the little prince; and the little prince and the fox ~ relationships were transformed from being non-vested to being loved and being unique? And then there were the rituals of love that were necessary to create a sense of expectation and anticipation - as described by the fox!

I like the "taming" thingy in The Little Prince! I transformed the garden, and in the process it transformed me! I "tamed" the plants but I think ultimately "I was the one being tamed"! The garden rewards me now and then with produce that I can eat provided I do what it wants, like watering, fertilizing, weeding, and so on. Oh, what a thought!

But then, on the other hand, I tamed it, because by caring for it (like in The Little Prince's rose) my garden became unique and it is mine :)

Anyway, tomorrow my Happy Garden will be 1 year old! I will mark today - the last day of Year 1 with these pictures of the lime plant because this plant had almost died and now it is sprouting new flowers, has a lime that is growing bigger by the day, and it is sending out many new shoots.

Absence makes the garden grow faster!

I was away for 11 days and when I came home the garden was almost unrecognizable!


The Okra plant were bent over from the weight of overgrown okras, the Thai Basil and Sweet Potato plants have ran amok, the bountiful turmeric has dried out because the batteries in the auto-watering system have died (I think) and the Dill looks set on growing into a tree - it is now about 5 feet tall.


And someone has pinched the bigger of my 2 prized Milk Fruit seedlings. I have moved the remaining plant into the secure fenced area.





On the brighter side, the sole custard apple has ripened on the plant and I harvested it and will savour it later today (hopefully it tastes good). For the record and future reference, the custard apple took 3+ months flower to fruit.


Two Bell Lilies have bloomed in tandem.


The Lime has flourished without signs of caterpillar attacks (because I sprayed some diluted Neem oil onto its stem before I left).


The rescued Kumquat plant has plenty of leaves and a few "Bird-shit" caterpillars but no flowers although it should bloom now and fruit in time for Chinese New Year 2012. Well, maybe next CNY in 2013.


The yam has also multiplied - I think there should be at least 3 yams growing underground now.


And the beet root has sprouted lots of leaves. Understand that the leaves are very nutritious.


Last but not least, one of my longest surviving pet plants (it reminds me of my dog-in-heaven, Humphrey) - the "Batubulan" plant is flourishing.

Not one but two .... !

This morning, I had planned to harvest that sweet potato I spotted two days ago but ended up with two instead. It was a surprise find - I noticed a bulge in the soil next to the ginger and I thought "wow, my ginger has really grown - maybe I can dig out some for cooking." But surprise, surprise, it turned out to be a sweet potato tuber and I am puzzled as to how it got there. It was pat against the ginger some distance from the first tuber I was going to dig out.





The sweet potatoes were very thin-skinned, different from the ones I get from the market. After washing off the soil, they looked such a raw pink. I will probably make some sweet potato dessert soup and maybe steam some for a salad too.






Actually, from the top view of my garden, I can see how profusely the sweet potato plant has grown (it has taken over the whole fencing along the back lane) and I think I will most likely find more and probably bigger tubers underground :))

Bursting sweetness!

This morning is a very happy morning - I was doing some overdue weeding in the garden and generally tidying up the loose pots and dead roots when I chanced upon a wonderful sight - a sweet potato tuber bursting forth from the ground. Honestly, I had no idea what the profusely conquering sweet potato creepers were doing underground! I was just hoping that they were as productive in the soil and I had pondered how to check for signs of the tubers.



Well, I didn't have to - because the plump tuber just showed itself to me this morning. Wonder when it bursted through the soil - I didn't notice it until this morning because it was camouflaged by the ginger plant and the pomelo. Now I have a question - should I harvest it soon before it gets too fibrous??



The tarragon has also grown profusely, overshadowing the rosemary - maybe that is why the rosemary is infested as there is not enough sun for it.



Here are two pictures of the yam plant for the record - first one is when I planted it, and now, sprouting two plants. I think I should at least get two tubers? No? :)

Papaya GOne!

Well, the papaya was unceremoniously cut down with a curved saw in less than five minutes. It was definitely fruiting prolifically but the papayas were all stunted - why? :(



On the other hand, the sole custard apple fruit "born" more than 2 months ago took its time to grow to the size of a small apple today but I think it is still not ripe for the picking.







Meanwhile, the one twig of dill plant from my neighbour about 2 months back is now about 3 feet high and flourishing as the sun has shifted back to the south, giving it the luxury of full sunshine everyday. It seems to be the only plant doing well in the herbs patch :( - the rosemary keeps getting attacked by some spidery mites and since I don't use pesticide, I can only keep cutting off the infested leaves.



Overall, my happy garden has gone wild - the sweet potato is totally aggressive, traversing every other plant; its territory knows no bounds. The turmeric is also going wild in its pot and that is totally unexpected - the size of the pot is not big and is supposed to be a limiting factor to how big a plant can grow. Well, not so in the case of this happy turmeric.

I can really see nature at work in my garden and how the law of survival applies if there is no interference from man! I got a plant (whose name I know not) from my neighbour - from two sprigs in a pot it has like grown into a bush and is now 5-feet tall and growing, competing with the swarming sweet potato for territory.

The pandan (screw pine) is also suddenly prolific although it has taken its time and the strange thing about it is that sometimes it is not as fragrant as I expect it to be. Could it be the fertilizer? or what?

I also got some yam plants growing - from a tiny yam (the Chinese used this variety for the lantern festival celebrations on the lunar eight month full moon night). I stuck one into the grown and almost killed it, thinking it was a weed (having forgotten that I planted it there). Today it is sprouting with a few shoots - maybe by next year I don't need to buy yams from the market, hahaha!

Papaya has to go ....

Well, the tiny papaya fruits did not grow to term - had half expected it. I had heard but didn't quite believe that papayas grown from the seeds of the fruits that we eat are usually infertile or if there are fruits, they will never grow to term because they have been treated by the producers. So the question is how had the producers rendered the plants infertile and my guess is that the fruits have probably been subjected to low dosages of radiation. That is scary if I am right - just imagine how much of these radiation is ultimately absorbed into our bodies.

You can see in the picture the tiny papayas that remained at that size until they drop. Looks like I will have to cut them. Maybe I am wrong, the papayas do not grow because the female flowers have not been fertilized.



On the other hand, the okra I grew from commercial seeds have yielded many okras for my dining table. I simply steam them for 6 minutes and garnish them with fried shallots and light soysauce. Simply yummy.



Two ripe okra pods whose seeds will be planted when the present 5 plants die out.




The sweet potato flowers look such a sweet lilac. Wonder if they can be eaten?

Pest Galore!

They are pests but still, I am amazed by them! Some of them are so absolutely tiny yet they exhibit the most intricate detailing. In them I behold Mother Nature in all her artistic glory!

These green aliens are awesome - they have tails that look like they have a stabilising function like a car's spoiler (as if they are moving that fast) and a seemingly aerodynamic shell for a body and that frilled fringe - WOW!


Another species of aphids - white ones look like some spun mousse dessert!

Bird Shit ..... NOT!

Leaves disappeared overnight! Whole plants too! And the cause of it is this caterpillar camouflaged as bird droppings. Since my garden is so small and I am not using any pesticide spray I handpick them off the leaves when I see them. And I try to do it first thing in the morning before they devour the whole plant!







The other pests include aphids on the papaya and tomato and the scaly insect farmed by the black ants on the okra! See the black ants hard at work :(