Curry leaves

On my mind today!

There are many benefits of curry leaves. Some are below:

•Mix lime juice, honey or sugar crystals to the juice of curry leaf and drink it. This prevents nausea and dry vomiting.

•For Hair: Heat oil and add some curry leaves. When the curry leaves turns dark black remove the oil from heat and let it cool down. Store in a glass container. Apply this oil on your head and leave it overnight. This helps prevent premature aging of grey hair and also nourishes the hair roots. This oil also acts as a very good stimulant and helps in hair growth.

•Mix curry leaf with finely chopped ginger. Mix it with rice and take it early in the morning instead of water which will reduce dizziness, stomach disorders and constipation.

Besides curry leaves also reduce the colesterol and used in reducing sugar level in diabetic patients. Just take 8-10 fresh leaves daily first thing in the morning

 

Bayam

Bayam or spinach is very nutritious vegetables to have in the backyard! They self seeds easily too. I have find hard time with red spinach but green seems to be popping up everywhere in my garden. Once you planted them and let them to bolt, you will have them everywhere later on.

My spinach have started to bolt including the red variety which is still small. Let see if i can see baby seedling of red spinach anywhere in the vegetables patch after this!

As usual, grasshoppers seems to like the leaves very much. At this moment i let them have a feast with my bayam as the leaves are not so tender to eat anymore.

cabbage planting

This is my second time with cabbage. first time harvest was small but it tasted so good that i decided to plant it again. I never sow so many seeds as at that time i was busy. grasshoppers and caterpillars love to eat my cabbage so i have to somehow put all my eyes on them. So i decided for only 3 seeds. It was 100% germination.

One cabbage i transplanted in to the pot and 2 more on the ground. The one on the ground were planted so close with each other that they are now fighting for space now. When i first planted them on the ground, one of the seedling look not so healthy so i thought it might die half way. However, it strive well and space become a constraint. Let's see how this both cabbages grows.



grasshopper already tasted the leaves!



The one it the pot look better without pest attack.

blooming day!

Seedlings

I have started to fully put my hands in the garden again! Last week i sow few lady's finger seeds, tomato seeds and bean seeds. Beans haven't emerge yet. Lady's finger are the winner! They emerge so fast! 

I have yet to transplant them since weather now is so unpredictable. It rains heavily or the hot is unbearable. I let it grow in the pot until the true leaves appears. 

Strength - plant do have....

I believe plant do have special strength to survive! Some strive well and some die half way. They do teach us that life have many obstacle and we have to strive well to succeed!

My chili plant is the Best example. Mealy bugs constantly attack them. I have tried garlic spray, water jet, cleaning by hand and even pesticide but they do come back for more! I always assume this will be my last harvest. I did post about it before but somehow the plant survive and give me more and more chilies!

Now most of the leaves have yellowed and the plant look so bald but look at the chillies? Wow! Somehow it teach me life lesson!

“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.”

Kacang Botol @ Winged Beans

Winged beans also known as Goa beans or Asparagus beans. In Malay we call it Kacang Botol. "Botol" is Bottle in English. Direct translation will be Bottle beans. I do not know why we call it in such a name in Malay. May be because of the shape....

This plant love hot and humid environment and it's really suitable to be planted in here!

When i first planted winged beans, the bed was empty but now Balsam have taken over most of the place. Invasive but i like Balsam too! My winged beans don't have a proper trellis so i just let it climb on the recycle laundry stack and the corn stalk. Once it's long enough i will let it climb on the gate near by.  

Ant attack!

I use to think that ants are friends to gardener to some extend but in reality they are pest on other side!  Usually ants use to carry aphid eggs to the plants and make a lot of problem. However here, they make another work as a pest.

I do not really know what they are trying to do with my Ixora plants but their arrival make my plant seldom flowers and looks so unhealthy! The leaves are browning and the stem are turning black.

Look at the branch of Ixora!

The flowers have reduce so much now!

Zinnia - cycle

Zinnia is beautiful flowering plant from the family of Asteraceae. They love the sun very much and love rich soil. It's favoured by butterflies. Anyone who wants to attract butterflies shall plant Zinnia.

They self seeds easily and grow without much fuss! Thanks to German Botanist Johann Gottfried Zinn who

introduce this plant to us!

I have a patch where i planted Zinnia but now it's all mixed with other self seeding plants such as ruellia and Aster.

dried seeds ready for sowing

Pak Choy

Healthy looking pak Choy

Roselle growing up

At the earlier stage when i try to collect the Roselle seeds, i end up with young seeds or flat seeds which i doubt will ever germinate. I try o sow them but none germinated. My single Roselle was aging and demand for the Roselle juice in my house increase. That's went Bangchik had a Roselle seeds giveaway! The seeds were healthy and have germinated successfully!

Anyway by time i learn to save the seeds. I let it dry on the plants and i get a lot of healthy and fat seeds! So now i believe i won't run out of supply for Roselle!

A good hair cut!

                                                                          Before

                                                                               After

Mango flowers

I found something new on the word Mango!

"The English word "mango" originated from Tamil or Malayalam word "Maangai".The word's first recorded attestation in a European language was a text by Ludovico di Varthema in Italian in 1510, as manga; the first recorded occurrences in languages such as French and post-classical Latin appear to be translations from this Italian text. The origin of the "-o" ending in English is unclear"


As for me i start to google about Mango because i saw inflorescence on my Mango tree! After doing some reading this is what i found:

"The flowers are produced in terminal panicles 10–40 cm (3.9–16 in) long; each flower is small and white with five petals 5–10 mm (0.20–0.39 in) long, with a mild sweet odor suggestive of lily of the valley. The fruit takes three to six months to ripen."


3-6 months to ripen? Ghee...that's a long wait.! I do not know the cultiver of mine but i hope it will be so sweet like Alphonso Mango! hahhahaa....

What are you trying to reach?

Plant do entangle themselves! My Aspargus fern have put up long stem. It's going somewhere!

 Passing by Costus....

 Have reach the Heliconia.....

Lime - flowering again

Limau nipis / calamansi lime plant that i have in the garden always stay small. Caterpillar likes to eat the leaves. Lime plant constantly get hair cut and sometimes become bald!

After almost 10months, it's flowering again. Not so many flower bud though....... When i took this pictures, there were about 6-7 caterpillars on it. Can you identify the caterpillars?  it's black with yellow line!

 The fruits can be used as body deodorant, hair conditioner and ink stain remover!

 Calamansi or Calamondin citrus has several medicinal uses. Some of the benefit i found are below:

"The juice, when rubbed on insect bites, will relieve the itching and reduce the irritation. It's also a natural acne medicine. Orally used as cough medicine (often mixed with green tea) and has a natural anti-inflammatory. For problems with constipation the juice is warmed and diluted with water. It bleaches freckles and helps to clear up acne vulgaris and pruritus vulvae. It is taken orally as a cough remedy and antiphlogistic.In Malaysia, used as an antidote for poison.Poultice of pandanus leaves, mixed with salt and juice of citrus microcarpa, for abscesses. In Malaya, combined with pepper to help expel phlegm. Its root are used in the Philippines at childbirth"

Mulberries!

I had a sweet surprise yesterday when i went back home! It's been a while since i check the Mulberry plants. The last went i saw they were still small and mealy bug have their colony on them! Somehow once i chase away the pest, they start to bounce back. I never expect them to produce fruits!

 Out of 4 plants, 3 have started to produce fruits! The another one is still recuperating from the terrible pest attack! I hope it can recover! It's really suprising gift for me as it's very small plant!

Some Harvest

Last weekend was really busy. I tend the garden. Did some weeding and cuttings. Many of my plants need hair cut so i spend a lot of time in the garden. Finally manage to complete my aim!

I did harvest some tomatoes, beans, chilies and radish! The radish was very small. They have big leaves but very small root! May be i over fertilize them. Anyway i kept the leaves too since it's edible. Overall weekend was very productive for me!