My passion

I cant explain why, but I love gardening since small. If memory serves me well, the plant I can claim to be mine was kacang panjang. I was still in secondary school then, form 2 may be. I used the seeds from kacang panjang leftover which would had been thrown to rubbish dump by mum.

The stakes were made from old pelepah kelapa after the brown leaves had been stripped clean. The frame was tied up with tali pisang. I never had the pleasure of harvesting them because mum would pluck one or two while I was in school. But mum would mention about it during lunch together with the rest. Fertiliser in those days was chicken droppings, raked underneath the chicken hut. In those days every mum had chicken hut where they can place last dinner leftovers as chicken's breakfast.

Dad had a project for petola when I was much smaller and he had the climbing frame of kayu bakau. A massive structure by modern standard. Of course we had to water the plant every evening. That was my first introduction to vegetable gardening in my hometown, Pantai Remis, Perak. Malaysia is lucky to be blessed with all year round sun and rain. That will be the pre-requisite to a good vegetable gardening adventure.