Okra

Our okra plants are our pride and joy currently.

We watched them grow from seeds and they just grew and grew bigger everyday. Then one day we discovered buds forming, after which a beautiful flower appeared one day. The flower, which has 5 yellow petals and a purplish heart does not last more than a day.

The excitement continues when we see the baby okra, and boy, do they grow fast. We have been harvesting the okra and the longest we had so far is the 1st one and it's a whopping 12" in length! Yay!

The Okra flower in bloom in the morning

Before the day is over, it will curl up in this manner

The Okra itself at about 4" in length.
Above it is a flower bud.

 

Our first-fruit cutting ceremony

Ps. Hong Seng, the first to harvest
the first-fruit

Wondering what we are to do with just one Okra!

Ist week harvest!

Okra dish in Nyonya style!

Spring Onions

Harvest time!

We harvested a big bunch of spring onions last Saturday, 14th July 2012. Ling Beng planted, watered, harvested, bought and cooked them.

Harvesting the Spring Onions

Close-up view of the spring onions

Now, to feast our eyes on the dishes she made with the spring onions... yummy!

Stir-fried with taugeh

Cooked with chicken and cashew nuts

Used as garnishing on steamed fish

Truly very mouth-watering dishes...

We had a good weekend and watch out for more postings this week!

Planting Pineapples

You don't really know Uncle Fah Shin until you know how skilled he is in food cultivation.

Hello! This is Phui Yee.

Last week Uncle Fah Shin brought seven pineapple plants from his home to be added to the garden. These were originally "suckers" (shoots that grow from leaf axils of the pineapple stem) which were later grown in polybags.

The experienced gardener also brought dried palm leaves to create mulch and trap moisture for these babies. He said this palm is also the same one that makes the Chinese traditional hand fan... the ones your Ah Ma or Ah Kong used to have. (the fan that gave me a good night's sleep whenever electricity went off when I was young.)

Michael was clearly a big help around the garden that day. Over refreshments afterwards we were teasing him about something but Uncle Fah Shin quickly came to his aide. Allies form quickly at the garden, aye.

With all the pineapples in place, and our arms bearing zig-zagged scratches from the spiky leaves, we were super happy just looking at them.

Meanwhile, just a quick updates on a few other plants:

The okra plants are flourishing despite a few earlier ones were chomped off by hungry crickets. These plants are unbelievably huge (okay la I admit this is only my second time seeing an adult okra plant this close). A certain visitor came and asked us where did we transplant the okra plants from... Ahem, we grew them  from seeds right here in this garden! (Hehe, as you see, visitors make us tremendously happy so all you people who have not been to our farm of late please come!) 

 

Ling Beng said the spring onion are ready for harvesting. She planted these from three shallots a few weeks ago. I said we should sell them but she replied, "Spring onion are given free when people buy vegetables la." No way the Penangite in me's gonna allow that. NO. We SELL spring onion, yes. :)

The sweet potato leaves are also calling us to eat them... soon.

We'll soon have some pumpkin soup to go along with it too. Hello, babies!!

We are soon reaching the edge of the strip of land we initially plan to confine the garden to. I suppose we will be growing on a bigger patch in the coming weeks. We welcome everyone in FGT to join us! Bring your friends and family along lah. There's a children's patch that you can teach your kids how to care for plants and watch them grow too. :)

If you're not yet on our mailing list please leave us a comment below and we'll let you know our next gardening date and time.

See ya at the garden!

Growth Spurts

A week is just made of seven days and yet so much can happen in within this short period of time.

To our amazement the okra plants are getting fuller and sturdier and so are the roselle ones. Our citronella plants are muliplying as are our sweet potato leaves. However, the most apparent change goes to the baby banana shoot. It's amazing how it has grown and we have the photos to prove it.

Besides crickets, we have grasshoppers as well. Managed to kill one and there were teenier ones about, just about 6-8mm in length and extremely difficult to catch. We need to eradicate them!

We are also testing out a Smart Water product. It's some clear beads which will expand and hold water in the soil. Hopefully this will give enough moisture to our pandan plants.

Thanks, Joel for taking the pictures!

Okra Plants

Baby banana shoot , picture taken
23rd June 2012

Baby banana shoot, picture taken
1st July 2012

Brinjal seedlings

Pride of ownership -
Okra planted by Joel,
Picture taken by Joel

The top 2 plants are Roselles,
circled plant on bottom left is the
one planted by Joel

Flowers and New Shoots!

Plants are just like people. They need to be cared for. With attention given, they blossom and grow.

So last weekend (23 & 24th June), we fed our plants with organic fertilizer, made from recycled matter, weeded the plots and watered them. We even sprayed organic pest control made of onions & chillies on them. We have been rewarded with flowers and new shoots. There is indeed growth.

Of course, some of our plants fell victims to crickets and grasshoppers but we will persevere... we will continue to plant more.

Groundnut plant flowers

Thai Basil

Sarawak pineapple plant

Growing Okra plant

Pretty? These are flowers of some weed

Turmeric Plant

New banana shoot growing
from a stem that is dying

Keep healthy, Stay Fit

It has been 6 weeks already, since we first started work on the land. Preparing the land and building the framework is not an easy task. Why, wheeling the wheelbarrow requires strength as well.

So what are the benefits from this work we are doing?
1. Our bodies are being disciplined. We have to forgo our sleep-ins on Saturday mornings and/or our afternoon nap on Sundays.
2. Our bodies are being strengthened. We start to work those muscles that have been laying dormant for so many years.
3. We save on gym membership. Digging the land expends a lot of calories! Lose weight 101.
4. We make new friends. Every week we have different people joining us and we enjoy the chit-chatting as we work.
6. Teamwork is being built. Various people working together for the same cause.
7. The joy of seeing something you plant grow is priceless. (Imagine when harvest time comes!)
8. We are building our character. Gardening involves commitment - imagine if those on watering duties neglect their duties... (Horrors!). We are also more resilient, not giving up even though the soil is hard and rocky.

These are just some of the benefits. So if you have not already joined us, what are you waiting for? :)

Old hands, new ground

Chives

Banana 1

Banana 2

Citronella

Okra seedling

Lemongrass

Groundnut plant

The husband digs..

& the wife plants

Prospecting for gold & diamonds

Planting Okra and more..

Yesterday evening (3rd June 2012) we had much to do. We managed to place the water tank on a level platform, so it looks pristine and in shape when filled with water.

We built another framework and this time we have a bigger shaded area for the growing plants. All the okra seeds sprouted... there must be more than fifty seedlings in total in the pot. In the end we transplanted 9 of them to the ground. Besides the okra, we planted 4 roselle seedlings and a curry leaf plant.

In total, we now have :
a. Banana trees - 2nos
b. Hawaiian coconut - 1no
c. Serai masak (several)
d. Serai Wangi (several)
e. Pandan - 3nos (still alive!)
f. Okra - 9nos
g. Roselle - 4nos
h. Sweet potato leaves - (several)
i. Groundnuts - 3nos

Coming soon - Chillies, eggplants, loofah, cucumber, spring onions and even tomatoes, since we now have a sizeable shaded area.

As we have been watering the land, the weeds are also happily growing, so we must continuously get rid of the weeds. Thankfully, we can tell the weeds apart from what we are planting!

Can't wait for the coming Saturday, to continue with our work...

Preparing a level platform for the water tank

Adding rocks beneath the platform

Sticks and stones will not break my bones,
but will help support a load

Almost ready!

Joel happily tying strings while
the other guys are doing the heavy work...

Breaking the clumpy soil

Watering the okra seedlings

While one digs, the other fills,
so it's an unending job

Secretly, he's building the formwork
for another Eiffel Tower in Subang