Wednesday 3 August 2011

Jambu Air

Flowers

Flowers...

Beginning of the fruit

Later...

Should have been yum... but pretty on the outside, spoilt inside

All ended on the ground, even the squirrels and birds couldn't finish them

Thursday 21 July 2011

Cactus: flower by night

Flowers bloom at night, be prepared to stay up until 3am to see them in their full glory

Lovely. Unfortunately there is no smell


Training roses on a trellis

Scraggly roses grew upwards high above the trellis that it is difficult to enjoy the flowers
Secure the stems as horizontally as possible across the trellis, this will encourage new shoots to grow out of the stems

Almost all done

After a few weeks

Will be officially successful once these shoots flowers and the gardener is tall enough to enjoy the fragrance

Sunday 5 June 2011

Creatures in the garden: the rabid cat

 
One of the uninvited creatures in the garden. This one thought to have rabies due to very temperamental personality, hissing and teeth baring on sight of humans. Nicknamed 'rabies'. Initially lived mostly in the covered drain with its 3 kittens, now decides to live in our garden. Suns itself on the garden bench, sleeps right outside the front door and poos everywhere. Theory for wild, aggressive behaviour: trauma due to being constantly chased by neighborhood kids. Very difficult to photograph, these are all with max zoom. Vicious eyes.

Saturday 4 June 2011

Fruit trees

The ciku tree, no fruits yet

Jambu air fighting for space with papaya. The survivor papaya was not planted, it just grew

Mango tree, came with the house. All of the first fruits split and dropped. Waiting for more fruits

Mangosteen tree died probably due to overzealous fertilizing. Replacement not found yet



Monday 30 May 2011

The Kitchen Garden

Tumeric, lime, lemongrass and curry
Curry leaves, hidden behind the lime in picture above

Pandan outside the home perimeter. My ex-neighbor received a warning letter from PJC for planting tapioca outside hers. My pandan has so far dodged the authorities, or more likey they just let it be...
Chilies, one in a broken pot and another on the vegetable patch. Where is the rest of the vegetable patch? Well...there is a patch but no vegetables yet. Watch this space

Pandan has been used for nasi lemak and to flavour the gula melaka for sagu gula melaka and made someone very happy, yum, yum. Curry leaves - what else? to make various types of curries ie chicken, beef, brinjals.  Lime, lemongrass and tumeric leaves for rendang, masak lemak cili padi. The repertoire of receipes is limited but I also cook!

Planning the garden

 
Read this book when I was starting the garden, a lot of useful information - marked the pages with the yellow stickers
See...very useful
So I made a plan for my garden...like so
First, decide which type of garden that you want to have. I love the English Cottage Garden best ( hate Rock Garden and Japanese Garden), but this is the tropics! Besides, I don't do well with flowering plants especially the Cottage Garden must have ie roses. And I have no idea how the plants are arranged to give that rambling look. Its called 'layering' - taller plants at the back, shorter ones at the front but still I have no clue how to do it. So...I decided I will have a Tropical English Garden instead (the only one ever existed I'm sure), with a kitchen garden at the back and my favourite fruit trees as well.

Thursday 26 May 2011

Snail

How did this one got up there? This is about 1 m high


Saturday 21 May 2011

Currently blooming...

I think this is a type of rhododendron. The leaves are very much like our common senduduk but the flower is not quite the same. Very good at flowering all the time
One of the most elegant flowers, orchids

Another one...just as elegant
Cheerful yellow hibiscus
Yesterday-today-tomorrow but only two colours for today
Is this a type of lavender?
Rain lilies

White bougainvillea
Begonia with tiny pink flowers
Japanese rose? The Japanese surely have a different name for it
Pink periwinkle

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Simply Gardenology

Almost everything is both art and science. How much art and how much science depend on how you look at it. Here…are the adventures in the art and science of gardening from someone who does it just simply…