seedlings and seedlings

Seeds will be obsolete if stored for far too long especially in the kind of weather we are having in Malaysia.  One eggplant was allowed to grow and grow and finally turned yellow. It was so big. I scooped out seeds, and it could easily be thousands.  I germinated immediately, filling up 104-tray. There is no intention of selling them at all, and the whole process is to satisfy my earlier hypothesis that fresh seeds will germinate better.

So, as expected every single seed germinated...... 104!. The most I am going to use is 20 in the vegetable patch over the left side of the backyard.... The rest is for the neighbours and visitors, - kakdah's green giveaways, in a down to earth reply to modern cry - sustainable living. Kakdah may not have the capacity to champion 500,000 strong march down Kuala Lumpur for green living or stop jungle clearing campaign. And all she has is the green pencil to give some colour to the canvas in form of little seedlings giveaways....

eggplant seedlings

two rows of zinnia on the left,  a tray of spinach on the right

After years of  germination attempts,  we can almost gauge what's the outcome, given the age of seeds and weather conditions.  My way is crude, no lab, no meter readings.... just plain layman approach. Like an old fisherman who can tell storm is coming, not repeating weatherman's report on TV but understanding the tingling feeling at ear lobes..... hmmmm...hmmm... haha.

___________________________

bangchik and kakdah

mylittlevegetablegarden

being away from home.

The right to live, the right for voices to be heard, and finally the right to vote in democratic countries. Plants Kingdom operates on a similar system, every single plant or grass has the right to grow. And grow they did, to a point some will suffocate and overrun  the others. Over time plants make adjustments to live happily, when bigger plant grow taller and stronger giving shade to weeds on the ground. What looks like a decent offer from bigger plants in the form of shade and cooler surroundings, is in fact very detrimental to weeds. Then weeds has less chance to grow in shady area, but make no mistake, they are always ready to surge and grow once the shade is gone. 

Chili plants are not dense, therefore no real shade on the ground. Weeds and chili plants fight for space in their plant kingdom. But a gardener like me, set out to grow vegetables such as chili, but definitely not weeds / grass.   I jumped in to intervene and pulled out weeds. The weather was a little bit hot and dry.

 ............    b e f o r e    t h e    w e e k e n d     ............

2nd and 3rd of June 2012

weeds suffocating rows of chili

 I am guilty for being away too often, 

neglecting our little vegetable garden.

weeding had just started

 I need the whole weekend 

to clear up the weeds

heap of grass and plants.

............       a f t e r        t h e       w e e k e n d      ............

pictures taken on Wednesday 6th June 2012 at noon.
after a  good workout over the weekend.

VEGETABLE GARDEN : low view

GARDEN FROM BALCONY: The left side

GARDEN FROM BALCONY: The right side

GARDEN FROM BALCONY:  The centre

The pathway is for Kakdah to get to the cloth lines,
one on the right and another on the left. The clothlines are more than enough for the two of us, so the left cloth lines are dedicated to markisa / passionfruits vines.

At the far end, there are 2000 polybags of chili also planted over the weekend.
I will write about the project soon.  Pictures are displayed here to show
how much can be done over the weekend
to clear up the weeds,
a good scrub,
a haircut,
a facelift.

We keep pulling out weeds, but weeds keep coming back. 

It's a reminder that we are here to co exist 

and learn to adapt.

........... b a n g c h i k      a n d      k a k d a h ..........

j o h o r

Sowing Timun Tikus seeds (Zehneria)

How many times bank slips, address on a piece of paper, dollar notes, and seeds tucked in pocket ended in washing machine and spoiled. I reminded Fauzi, a friend staying in a gorgeous an acre property in Tanah Merah, as he was about to leave the house with roselle seeds in his pocket. Fauzi is an old friend since the days of late 80's.

I came back from a meeting 3 weeks ago at Swiss Garden Resort some 20 km away from Pantai Remis with seeds in my pocket. Some are taken from Rosiah garden, my younger sister, some from Mother in Law's garden and some are collected from flowering plants as we stopped along the highway.  The seeds were germinated right away. Timun tikus has to be the special one for months to come.

Timun tikus seedling.

I have known about timun tikus, the miniature cucumber but never actually seen one growing. It is a rare opportunity indeed to actually grow them with seeds given by MIL. After googling, I think this will describe timun tikus best:.........

Zehneria, 

 monoecious or dioecious climbing annual or perennial herbs. Tendrils simple. Leaves simple, dentate, usually palmately lobed. Male inflorescence an axillary raceme, sometimes paniculate by leaf reduction, or cluster or rarely flowers solitary. Male flowers: hypanthium campanulate; calyx 5-lobed; corolla 5-lobed; stamens 3, inserted about middle of hypanthium; connective broad, papillose; anthers 2-locular. Female inflorescence an axillary raceme or cluster or flowers solitary. Female flowers: perianth similar to male; staminodes 3; ovary usually globose or ovoid; ovules few to many, horizontal; stigma usually 3-lobed. Fruit fleshy, usually globose or ellipsoidal, indehiscent, few to many-seeded. Seeds obovate, compressed, smooth. 

A genus of c. 35 species of Africa, SE Asia to the SW Pacific including N and E Australia; 2 species in Australia; 1 species on Christmas Is. Included in trib. Melothrieae. ( Refer here : "Zehneria". Flora of Australia Online. Australian Biological Resources Study. 1993. http://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/online-resources/flora/stddisplay.xsql?pnid=6787. Retrieved 2010-11-20.)

Two timun tikus seedlings ready to be moved to the ground

The raised bed for these seedlings had been prepared, and in fact I was terribly lavish, putting in cocopeat, rice husk, organic fertiliser and sand, mixed them well and watered. The two seedlings will set foot or rather roots on the ground in a day or two. I do hope they will grow healthy and produce numerous little cucumbers like these.

timun tikus, from mforum.cari.com 

bangchik and kakdah

Tanah Merah Kelantan
MALAYSIA

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