Tuesday, November 30, 2010

squeezing plants within the constraint of time.

I am always guilty of having too many seedlings to handle. But no one can take away the fun and satisfaction in seeing little seedlings put their heads up. Like turtles, out of 1000 babies that manage to hatch and crawl to the sea, just a few survive the test of nature and return to lay eggs. Plants exhibit the same feature, each flower produce a lot of seeds. without human intervention in the form of cultivation, definitely not many will grow and mature. Just imagine a ripe papaya that fall down, break and disperse seeds within a foot square, surely only one strong plant will eventually survive within the limited space. Nature allows the best to survive. Here are some of the seedlings ready roam around our little garden in Tanah Merah.

 pumpkin
or labu

winged beans 
or kacang kelisa / kacang botol

clitoria ternatea
or kacang telang



bangchik
tanah merah, kelantan Malaysia




12 comments:

  1. The plants are also reliant upon birds to eat the seeds so that they can disperse them far and wide. It will be a while yet before I'm sowing pumpkin seeds again.

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  2. Good luck with your seedlings! It is nice to see plants grow from a little seed into a lively plant that bears fruits and flowers. That's the best part of being a gardener.

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  3. Putting a tiny seed in the ground and watching it come up...grow...produce food...a miracle of life...your garden is growing (literally) every day!!!

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  4. Glad to see your vegetable seedlings!
    Me too like to see young seedling! It's a miracle actually!

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  5. We end up with too many plants too and can't just throw any away!!

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  6. Yay, survival of the fittest! also, with tlc.

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  7. jo.... yes birds, water and wind too as dispersal agents. Only one pumpkin seedling is big enough to join roselle on the ground as companions.

    belle.... ulam raja, roselle and pumpkin are doing well. i may have to wait a while longer to start replacing the weak ones.

    aaron... life and death is part of the big cycle.

    theanne and baron.... a miracle indeed, they keep coming and we get better each time.

    Malar.... sometimes i need just a few, but germinate a lot. by the time i had what i want.., it is sad to see the extra or standby growing on its own in small pots until they ease their life out.

    greenlaneallotments... some seedlings for example spinach, can end up as good veggie if they fail to go to the raised bed or centre stage pots...

    keats... yes, we should play along with the rule of nature:- survival of the fittest, in picking the best, leaving the weaker ones aside.

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  9. I love watching our seedlings grow when it is time to start them. To me the miracle that most people take for granted is watching something you planted grow, flourish, and produce food or flowers. Your seedlings look gorgeous; it makes me want to start mine right now. Alas winter is just starting here, so for now I will enjoy reading about your seedlings while I plan and prepare my garden for next year.

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  10. You are really a gardener Bangchik, you haven't arranged all your things inside the house, and yet you are already planting those seeds, haha! Maybe it will already be fruiting even before you put your curtain. That's good, keep it up.

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  11. You are so right no can take away the fun of seeing little seedlings pop up. It is the joy of life and anticipation of good things to come that keeps us growing and always planting too many seeds. What a joy though.

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  12. ~ Mr. J..... It is interesting to observe the rapid growth at early stage of germination, the first pair then the second pair with true leaves. From then on growth is rather standard... so you must be busy planning what to do when winter subsides later.

    ~ Andrea.... inside the house is mainly kakdah's territory; curtains, cabinets, shelves, settees, freezer and so on. I hop in when needed... haha. The compound is mainly mine, but kakdah does hop out to view, give ideas, and help out as needed. A fair distribution of duties, right?.. haha.

    ~ Tina.... seeing seeds germinating is a little fun in life that doesn't cost a penny...

    bangchik
    tanah merah, kelantan.

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