Nature Taking Its Course

February, the shortest month of the year and also one of the busiest for those of us who celebrate the Chinese New Year.

For 3 weeks, we left our vegetables to grow on their own and they did very well, and so did the weeds, we must add.. Thankful, that the weather was kind, as the plants had enough water to survive and they were also mature enough to withstand unfavourable conditions. In fact after 3 weeks, we came back to see the plants fruiting well and we were able to harvest the four-angled beans, one brinjal (we were extremely proud of this fella!), the roselles and the pandanus leaves.

Our mint started to expand their territory to places forbidden, like the path and we had to start trimming and also re-planting them. We decided to tackle the pineapple patch as well. The patch, overgrown with weeds that when the people came to trim the weeds before the Chinese New Year, they could not see the pineapple plants and therefore, their leaves were trimmed along with the weeds.

So we started work on 2 rows of pineapple last Saturday, further trimming the weeds which have since grown taller, searching for the pineapple plants and needless to say, we had scratches all over our arms due to our surroundings. Finally we were able to place the black plastic sheets over these 2 rows, making openings in the sheets for our pineapple plants and the rest of the ground covered to suffocate the weeds. May they never see daylight ever again!

Waiting to harvest this bunch. The flower or bell was removed to allow the plant to put more energy into producing bigger bananas. :)

It's amazing how a  plant that is about 45cm in height can produce a fruit that is about 18cm long.

The growth of a Luffa .

From flowers to beans. One of us greenies, thought the baby beans were caterpillars from afar!

Our lone-ranger sugar cane. 5 were planted but only one survived...

Should you want to pre-order any fruits or vegetables from our garden, you can do so by leaving a comment on this blog. We only use organic fertilizers and sprays on our plants. We cannot say that no animal died in the process of our gardening though...

Going Bananas...

What do we see when we step into our garden? A sea of weeds... For the past few weeks, we had to battle with them and then had to miss weeding on some Saturdays because of the rain. There's going to be a change this 2013. We are going to re-work the land. We will overcome the weeds!

So what's been happening so far, since we last posted? Spirits have been low, seeing our hardwork of digging is now back to square one due to the weeds. Some of our young plants either died from the flooding or attacked by snails, but like in our life, with the bad things that are happening, there's also the good.

Pretty four-angled bean flowers

These four-angled bean plants have been saved by Uncle Fah Shin. They were growing in a plot of bed that was frequently flooded during the monsoon season and some of the plants growing along side them have already perished. These were transplanted to a better bed when they were about 6-8 weeks old. A few weeks later, they started to flower. Now we are waiting for the beans to emerge.

New brinjal plants protected by bicycle tyres.

We had some brinjals planted 2 months ago, but the snails came and ate around the stems. Even though the plants grew, they were not healthy, and we had to discard them. The picture above shows a new brinjal plant, one of the 5 that we recently planted into the ground 3 weeks ago. They have begun to flower.

Interesting looking luffa flower.

This pretty flower is from the Luffa/Loofah plant. Planted about 3 months ago, survived the monsoon and the snails! We hope to see many loofahs hanging around soon.

The ripen Bhut Jolokias

The Bhut Jolokias! Now the 2nd hottest chili in the world. Out to heat your body to the highest degree! As we don't use conventional pesticides in our garden, many of these have been attacked by pests. We even saw snails hanging on to them while they were feasting on these flesh, leaving gaping holes on the fruit. Lesson learnt - snails probably can't detect spiciness.

Wonder how many more combs it will produce..

9 months since we planted this banana tree, and oh, the joy to see it fruiting! Hopefully there are no monkeys around to plunder this bunch! Thanks to this lovely bunch of green bananas that will yellow eventually, our spirits are up again! 2013 - This will be a year we will overcome the obstacles in this garden.

Overcoming Obstacles

The weather has been so unpredictable lately. For the past few months, it was raining very heavily daily and it's only recently, that it rains intermittently.

During those days when it did not rain, we had our trustworthy friends who would daily go and water the vegetables as scheduled. It's been a good break for them now as the land is being watered by the heavens.

Each time after a downpour, puddles start to form, like vast seas for the millipedes, which would cling on for their dear lives on our vegetables. Some of our young seedlings did not survive the pelting of the rain and those which started to grow could not withstand too much water and their stems started to give way. Too much of anything, is not good for growth...

However, not all is doom and gloom. We managed to prepare a corn plot. In the pictures below, you can see Hock Keat deep in mud digging the plot. The soil is so soggy that each time the 'changkul' hits the ground, mud would splatter all over his body.

This is Hock Keat, our corn planter! He's not afraid
to get dirty as you can see.

Good friends working together. Thit Meng
passing the corn seedlings to Hock Keat.

The pumpkins that were growing had to be harvested very early because  the main vines were accidentally cut when the grass-cutters came to cut the grass.

The beautiful pumpkins and some had
to be harvested young.

Finally, our ingenious Uncle Fah Shin started digging ditches that helped drain the excess water from the land. There's hope!

Thank you, Uncle Fah Shin! You saved
the plants!

Then our long bean plant decided to give us more joy by doing exceedingly well.

Very sweet tasting beans.

On top of that, we discovered our Red Okra produced. It was only 2 weeks ago that it was planted on the ground... Felt like a miracle!

Our miracle!

Even one of the sticks that was used to prop up one of the okra plants began to sprout young leaves.

Budding stem!

Lastly, our Bhut Jolokia has  shown its fruit. This is one of the hottest chilli in the world, bound to bring tears to your eyes!

The chillies which you
must try!

We would also like to make note that we miss our Phui Yee who is now away in training for Teach For Malaysia! Come back soon! There will be a place here for you always!

Pumpkins!

Hello! Welcome to Cinderella's Carriage Service where all our pumpkins are grown with love and sunshine.

This is our first for many of us in the FGT Gardening Club... growing pumpkins that are fruiting healthily. Young Samuel and Samantha helped to plant these seedlings into the ground a few months ago. Just a few weeks back, the pumpkin patch had turned into a sprawling leafy patch with pretty, yellow flowers.

Close up a bit...

We would like to thank Lisa Liang for experimenting and informing us that the pumpkin flowers need to be manually pollinated for best results. (and thanks for buying our male flowers, Lisa! Hehe.) So thanks to her, our pumpkins started to fruit. See the small bulb at the bottom end of the flower? It's called Potential. 

If Potential is not cared for, or we don't put in enough fertiliser (our plants love coffee grounds), it will fall off and die. But nourish it and it will reward you... this way...

Our pumpkins are now open for orders! You can also visit the garden to pick your very own pumpkin. Don't be shy. Contact Chui Fang to book your "carriage" soon! :)

*Bonus section*

I think the leaves of some plants ought to be turned into wallpaper photos. Like the pointy leaves of sweet potatoes...

 Or the blushing Roselle...

Or if you don't like leaves, perhaps this one is lovelier.

New Friends & New Produce

"When the cat's away, the mice will play."

We did not do gardening for just one weekend and behold, the garden was overgrown with weeds. An SOS was sent out and help did arrive. Last Saturday morning, we weeded, dug huge rocks from the ground and tended to our vegetables.

The guys to the rescue...

Much of the land was cleared and apparently the challenge has been appealing as the guys are returning next week to dig out a deeply embedded boulder. We, girls, will be cheering you on!

Even the children came to lend a hand

The children had fun too, helping Uncle Fah Shin with the pumpkin planting... (and building a home for the ants as well).

"Professor" Henry at work

Henry dropped by and helped, giving us tips in growing the vegetables and in using the shovel.

Why is Phui Yee hiding behind the plants?

The beds filled with weeds being cleared by Phui Yee and the rest of the ladies.

This week, we got to harvest the baby long beans. They are different from the regular long beans, as these are narrower and shorter. The flowers are yellow on the outer side of the petals and its inner sides are white. Once the flower drops, a tiny 'strand' of bean emerges. It takes about a week before the beans can be harvested from then.

The baby long beans flowers and the beans
themselves.

The harvest amount was not great as we could only pick about 3 strands of beans from each plant.

The amount harvested.

 We had another visitor to the garden...

The beautiful skipper butterfly that found its way to our garden.

The eggplants are doing well, from the beautiful purple flowers...

Eggplant flower

To these round beauties...

3 beauties in a row

T
o this mouth-watering Eggplant & Fish Curry by Auntie Lilian!

So appetizing!

Coming soon... A Corny Tale!

Look Out for Our New Produce!

 Barely four months into our gardening, the Jericho Land has surprised us with an abundance of produce. Please say hi to Brinjal! We didn't know what kind of brinjal we had in our garden because we planted them from seeds. But ah... what a pleasant surprise when one day, after her watering duties, Ling Beng reported excitedly the birth of this plump and purple baby... "It's a round one!" 

Please welcome our long-haired baby, the Corn! The yellowish strands on the top end of each head of corn is called "silk." So, corns don't need shampoo cuz they naturally have silky hair.

 

Here are our Cherry Tomatoes! We were just trying out tomatoes on this plot of ground because our experience growing tomatoes at home proved to be very challenging. You either fight with the weather, water, aphids, or any kind of pests that try to chomp off these delicate plants. Chui Fang's brave experiment with cherry tomatoes in Jericho Land is bearing fruit, literally. Big thanks to everyone who took care of these plants over the weeks!

These are Roselle flowers. It's a very versatile plant. Depending on which region you visit, the people eat various parts of this plant (the leaf can be used for salad, apparently). But over here I think we mostly eat the calyx -- the fleshy, dark and blood red part that looks like a flower. It's not a flower actually. The flower is the dainty pink one you see below, which falls off within a day or so, leaving the calyx and a hard part with seeds inside. The calyx is very versatile and you can make it into anything from cordial to ice-cream flavouring.

Briefly around the garden, here's what the folks and new guests are up to. Uncle Fah Shin brought lots of "drippers" to garden. This innovative device is made from 100Plus bottles with a hole punctured on the cap and fixed to a short PVC pipe. When overturned, the dripper waters the ground around it slowly, which is super duper useful in our hot and hazy weather now. See how proud Aunty Lilian is of her hubby! <3 

And we have a new customer! Thank you, Julie! We hope you'll enjoy the okra and lemon grass. ;)

Irene dropped by too, and got an intriguing demo of the dripper by our resident farmer.

Can you guys see how much more land Lame has to work on? Kesian him ok. Please come and help. All newbies will get free tips from Lame.

We spotted these two ladies bowing down and talking to the tiny plant in front of them. Jane (right) was actually speaking positive words to her wintermelon plant... and she forced Jamie to encourage the four-inch-tall plant also.

Hock Keat is one of our regular members, seen here watering the maize while Lame takes a break from ploughing. Kudos, guys!

See you next week at the garden!

Visitors

Visitors, you are welcome to our vegetable garden!

We have been very blessed to have so many people come to visit and encourage us.

Michelle brought her aunt when she was on watering duty one day. Her aunt who loves gardening wishes that she was staying in one of the nearby cabins so that she could work on the land. Already, she is looking for suitable seeds and plants for us. If only she was really staying in one of the cabins...

Michelle's Aunt posing with our fruiting Okra plant

Mei Lin who visited us 14th July 2012 wrote the following :

Life’s Happening Here!

I must, straight out, confess that I do not have ‘green fingers’ – in fact I am an ‘angel of death’ to plants, I have ‘killed’ even potted cactus plants.  Thus, I have never given a second thought about helping out at FGT’s Vegetable Garden.

However, when I received Chui Fang’s email invitation to come visit the Vegetable Garden, her blog dated 9 July 2012 piqued my interest.  The plants were growing - growing BIG, and the evidence were in the photos.  There was an air of excitement.  Hey, God is on the move there… I needed to go take a look at what God’s doing over there…

So after our 6.00am prayers on Saturday morning, Chui Fang invited us over to the garden.  “Yes, I will come visit the garden, but look see only ya…”, I obliged.  After a quick breakfast with the regular breakfast gang, and as promised, I dropped by at the vege patch.  There were already a number of people there hard at work.

Phui Yee proudly and enthusiastically gave me a grand tour of the patch - she first introduced me to the Thai Basil plants.  I plucked a leaf (with permission, of course) and smelt it – strong licorice-like smell.  Phui Yee tells me that these were different from the basil used for Italian cooking… “oh I see”…

The (current) star of the patch would be the okra plants, which were growing very well indeed.  Big luscious green leaves and lots of fruit buds, promising a bountiful harvest.  There were earlier attacks on the leaves by crickets and the likes, but the attacks have been successfully fended off using  natural insecticide – ground chilies and onions, sprayed over the plants. Interesting information, I learnt something new today... 

The spring onions have all sprung up and were ready to go.  The potato leaves will soon be ready for the dinner table too.  However, the Roselle plants weren’t quite ‘rosy’ yet, and the squat banana tree stood alone.

There was furious work going on at the far end; a growing army of pineapple plants were being assembled over there.     

At the end of the tour, there was, of course, the invitation to come join the jolly farmers in their labour of love on the land.  “Errr…. Sorry, not today folks.  Got to run soon…”.  But as a gesture of support to these earnest people of the land, what could a red-blooded charismatic prayer intercessor do? Pray lah!  So, I called upon our Heavenly Father and released a prayer of blessings, fruitfulness and protection over the land; may it yield 30, 60 and 100-fold in harvest!  Hallelujah! Life’s Happening Here!

We are glad to say that Mei Lin is now committed to FGT Green Fingers and started work on the land last Saturday, 4th August 2012. No more 'look see'. :) Welcome on board!

As this post is being written, we are glad to announce that our Roselle plants are budding.

Phui Yee had to do much to convince
Mei Lin to join us!

One Sunday morning, Lay Kheng decided to drop by and see for herself the plants that we are growing.

So excited was she, that she wanted to have a picture taken in the garden and commented:

"Good job by the Green Fingers! Am impressed with the variety of plants especially the extra huge lady's finger plant as well as the hard work which has been put in to prepare the land for planting. Keep up the good work."

While showing Lay Kheng around, Chin Chin joined us, also thrilled.

"I was green with envy for those of you with green fingers! Can't wait to sell vege at CAREmart..."

Well Chin Chin, we hope that we can meet the market demand. :)

Lay Kheng & Chin Chin with her adorable
girl & our Star Okra plants

Always glad for extra hands, we had the wonderful company of Yichieh and Eumelia.

"I hope I did not pull a vegetable plant instead..."

"Not only am I cute, I can work too!"

To those whom we did not mention, be assured that you are not forgotten. Thank you for coming and giving us your support in your own ways - praising us (we glow in compliments!), buying our produce, giving us seeds and seedlings etc... We appreciate you and please come again!