Garden stakes, where do we get them?

I had used coconut husk as vegetable garden borders while gardening at Presint 14 years ago.  Now I am using wooden sticks to mark or put border where the seedlings are, to avoid trampling on them, and to discourage cats from pooing over the tiny plants. Living in urban place like Putrajaya, wooden sticks are not easy to find.  

Perennials like senduduk can offer reasonably good sticks, and in fact senduduk can live through a couple of prunings. I had used senduduk sticks while staying in Presint 14, from year 2008 to 2010. This time around, I make full use of pokok petai belalang ( leucaena ).  These leucaena trees which grow so fast, reaching a height of 12 feet within a year,  require regular pruning  to keep them at manageable height. The leaves will become mulching materials, and the branches suitable as stakes. There are five leucaena trees in my backyard garden right now.

leucaena branches as stakes

ulam raja seedlings visible among weeds.

Its good to have perennials and trees in the garden that can provide garden stakes.

bangchik and kakdah

Putrajaya Backyard Garden

Ulam Raja, tracing the roots.

All of us fall within a particular family tree and if every birth is recorded since the beginning of time we can really understand more how each family interact with another family tree through marriage. I can only trace to  our great grandfather by the name Mat Saman. The elders used to relate stories that Mat Saman was a man of importance in Kedah sultanate. One of his son Mat Isa  moved out of  Kedah  after a feud,  as a teenager with his younger brother and settled in Pantai Remis Perak. We have stopped trying to trace the family roots beyond Mat Saman as we had figured out the reasons of Mat Isa departure southwards. There is no reason to scrutinize old wounds and the best is to come to term with ancestral history and live with it.

On Kakdah side, her family can be traced back to Yemen , and she retains the sharp middle-east features. That's how life goes....

Ulam Raja in our garden, Pasir Gudang Johor. (dated 14.1.2012)

It's about our ulam raja. I remembered taking seeds while visiting Kakdah's elder sister who lived in Tanjong Rambutan, Perak. Those were the seeds later germinated to fill up a section of our Putrajaya garden in the year 2008. Then we moved northwards to Tanah Merah in 2010 and a year later traveled southwards and settled in Pasir Gudang, Johor. It's almost nomadic, each time bringing along the whole family, belongings and seeds. Ulam raja traveled too........

Ulam Raja at different location, our Pasir Gudang garden
(dated 1. 6. 2012)

Over here in Pasir Gudang Johor they are almost to the third generation already. First planted late last year, then the seedlings around the mother plants were moved to different corner and they are flowering now. Three generations in Putrajaya, two generations in Tanah Merah, and already two generations in Pasir Gudang Johor. After seven generations, they still are ulam raja, same look, same smell, same taste, same flower. The genetic code is intact, secretly locked in seeds to the end of time.... at least to the end of our time....

_____ bangchik and kakdah _____
my little vegetable garden

BUTTERFLY AND FLOWERS in the garden

Papilio demoleus malayanus ((Lime Butterfly) is the name for butterfly in the first set of pictures. There is a lime tree nearby, for the moment without flowers. The butterfly is happy with periwinkle nectar, shifting from one flower to the next.

Papilio demoleus malayanus ((Lime Butterfly)

on periwinkle flowers

Papilio demoleus malayanus ((Lime Butterfly)

Papilio demoleus malayanus ((Lime Butterfly)

Papilio demoleus malayanus ((Lime Butterfly)

Papilio demoleus malayanus ((Lime Butterfly)

Papilio demoleus malayanus ((Lime Butterfly)

Papilio demoleus malayanus ((Lime Butterfly)

Papilio demoleus malayanus ((Lime Butterfly)

Striped Albatross (Appias libythea olferna)

on ulam raja flower

Striped Albatross (Appias libythea olferna)

Striped Albatross (Appias libythea olferna)

Lesser Dart (Potanthus omaha omaha)

on zinnia single layer flower

Lesser Dart (Potanthus omaha omaha)

Lesser Dart (Potanthus omaha omaha)

There was also a yellow butterfly that day,

 but it moved so fast and kept changing directions

 that it was almost impossible to snap.

bangchik and kakdah

johor

Ulam Raja, second generation in Pasir Gudang Johor.

The old Ulam Raja had gone. The second generation is ready to offer us healthy and fresh ulam raja as salad.  Ulam Raja also known as Cosmos caudatus  is said to have beneficial properties;

• improve blood circulation
• lower uric acid
• reduce body "heat"
• and a good source of fibre 

self seeding

I didn't count, but there could be thousands of young seedlings. Not all will survive to maturity in such tight space, so we can imagine the healthiest will survive.  However we can also view  in a different perspective, some simply surrender and die allowing the better ones to prolong their legacy.

One Ulam Raja would need at least a foot square to grow to maturity.

seedlings all over the place

close up:  so many little seedlings

self seeding

the stump of old ulam raja, the first generation  here and seedlings

human intervention

The moment I saw seedlings appeared around the old ulam raja, I scooped a few and  transplanted at the far end of our garden.  As ground cover, to protect the young seedlings, I placed palm leaves which had been cut into smaller pieces. That was about one month ago.  The seedlings had grown to about a foot and a half, healthy looking without excessive competition as in the cluster of self seeds.

New batch of Ulam Raja, second generation here.

A simple plant that will grow and self seed at will, therefore we should not worry about germinating them.

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

j o h o r

green leafy vegetables in our little garden.

Leafy vegetables, leafy greens, sayur hijau all refer to the same thing. Plant leaves are eaten as vegetables, either raw as salads or cooked; stir fried, stewed, boiled or steamed.  I love growing leafy vegetables because they do provide exciting view, green, thriving and soothing.  Seeds are cheap and we can grow by hundreds. Most grow so quick that in a matter of weeks they are ready for steady harvest.

bayam

It is always bayam to us here. We can get them cheap at the market, but growing bayam ourselves is something else. It is always nice to have bayam right at the backyard ready to be cut for a lovely lunch or dinner.  Sometimes it is called amaranth tricolour. A friend said, one should buy seeds only once,  then after one should keep saving seeds when the plants flower and produce seeds. The seeds are black in colour, so small that a pinch could contain hundred of seeds.

They are slightly more than two months, and now they are already flowering. That's bayam, at after two months, they are considered old or ancient.

bayam

bayam

ulam raja

We never miss growing ulam raja. It is quite strong against pests and wind. Picking the shoots for fresh salad never kill them, in fact will promote development of side shoots, turning the plant into  bushy ornamental herb.

ulam raja

ulam raja

kangkung

kangkung, or water spinach is known as poor man's veggie. It can propagate by cuttings, but the most usual way is by seeds. And like the above veggies, kangkung will bloom and produce seeds in a short time. This veggie is unique, because once it sets, it will keep growing and crawl where ever it wishes. Heavy pruning will give the plant a fresh start all over again. 

kangkung / water spinach

kangkung / water spinach

water spinach

The three leafy green will always be with us, placed somewhere at the backyard.  I am eyeing at other leafy greens to be included here. The one foot square vegetable bed, will be an adventurous site to trying as many as I can squeeze.

bangchik and kakdah

pasir gudang JOHOR

Saluting them, bidding farewell

Should farewell be all about sadness, hugs and tears? Not necessarily. I went around the garden before sun broke loose it's monsoon anger...... with Nikon D90, to assess how they feel about us leaving. The plants I mean.

~The world of orchids ~

That is Kakdah's world, orchids and orchids. 

They come in all sort of colours, shapes and sizes. 

When they bloom, Kakdah is happiest. I wonder if it should work vice versa.

Pic 1 ~ yellow orchid

Pic 2 ~ yellow orchid

Pic 3 ~ yellow orchid

Pic 4 ~  light purple orchid

Pic 5 ~ another orchid

 

Pic 6 ~ orchid still  in buds, protruding out

Pic 7 ~ colourful orchid, Kakdah's delight.

~ Cardinal Vine ~

An ordinary flowering vine from childhood days, less seen now, but given some prominence in our garden. They are flowering again and again ~ clear bright red little flowers with white filaments in the middle.  When they climb high into the sky, looking so brave and happy, they probably are singing along with Freddie Mercury (Queen) on that heroic number, we are the champions.

Pic 8 ~ cardinal vine flower among pokok daun kesum

 

Pic 9 ~ Cardinal vine, filling up the air.

~ Lantana, the brightest ~

No other flowers can beat lantana on being showy and bright. No scent, just being fashionable . I remember how the late Negeri Sembilan's Tuanku Jaafar went on describing the Malays... "colorful, most flamboyant". Lantana describes that well.

Pic 10 ~ Lantana, bright orange and yellow

Pic 11 ~ Lantana, teaming up.

  

~ Periwinkle; being simple ~

Another simple flowering plants, periwinkle has that soothing healthy looking leaves with non stop flowers . Being so ordinary, not many like to keep periwinkle, that most end up as wild flowers in villages and outskirt of towns. But as I keep reminding Kakdah..., "it is alright to live with the ordinary, because taking off all the dressings of modern life, indeed we really are very ordinary", as humble as a periwinkle.

Pic 12 ~ Periwinkle, light purple

~ Ulam Raja ~

indeed like a forest in the garden. How  many of our lunches had been accompanied with delicious salad of ulam raja. How many times the little boy from the front row of houses came and said "Mak mintak sikit ulam raja" or translated as "Mom ask for ulam raja". And how can I forget the memorable voyage of ulam raja seeds to London (click here: ULAM RAJA against all odds: a story from London).....

Pic 13 ~ Ulam Raja bush with winged beans at the back.

Keeping in tune with Mr Mohamad's wise words, Mr Shab's J factor where every thing has to JIVE in,  in a JIGSAW puzzle, Mr Jalil's worry with golf balls having minds of their own and young Mr Faudzi's grasp on reality of life, I look at the garden and keep wondering if  farewell needs to be teary hugs and kisses........

bangchik and kakdah

Tanah Merah, Kelantan

Sadness.

We missed gardening for a month or so. Now we are back. I look around, and immediately sense sadness. A glimpse of neglect. Emotional abandonment.

walkway, a little bit sad.

Balsam resting on the walkway

Ulam raja peeping out over the fence.

potted plants fending themselves

But papaya is happy.....

bangchik and kakdah

ULAM RAJA against all odds: a story from London

I wrote about Ulam Raja, will it ever get to London on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 as I mailed a packet of ulam raja seeds to a blogging friend in London. It's almost two months now, then an email came.....

  

Dear Bangchik and Kakdah

The ulam rajah has arrived safely, thank you very much.  I have to tell you a story of its survival against all odds....

Firstly it ended up next door (postman's mistake) and they were on holidays, then when it came to the right address but then my partner accidentally picked it up with some empty envelopes and threw it into the bin - alamak!  I had just started a new job and was too busy to check my mail until the weekend.  That's when I was told about mail from Malaysia. We searched high and low and finally decided to go outside and pull out all the black bin bags, opening each one up, wearing gloves and sifting through the rubbish for that precious envelope!  Thank goodness that you had packed the seeds in a plastic bag :)

Secondly I must apologise profusely for not letting you know earlier that I've got it, about 3 weeks ago.  A friend was dying from cancer and my free time was taken up with helping out in his garden, staking up his tomatoes and cucumbers in his greenhouse as he was bed-ridden. He passed away last week and it was very sad to say good-bye to a fellow gardener.  We used to swap seedlings and talk about growing vegetables.  I used to look after his plants when he  and his wife go on holidays.

Anyway, things are calming down at this end and I shall be updating my blog which has been neglected. I did plant out the ulam rajah, placing an upturned plastic box over the tray as a make-shift cloche. Today was the first time I ventured out into the garden and would you believe it, there are 5 ulam rajah seedlings! I'll put them into pots tomorrow when the weather is drier and continue growing them under the cloche.  It has been bucketing down for 2 weeks. I'm very excited about this project and will write about it as one of my blog entries.

Terima kasih.

 
I hope our blogging friend doesn't mind having the whole email posted here. It's not about the letter on its grammatical merits, but its about the trouble ulam raja seeds had to endure, to finally rest in germinating pots in London.  Stories of hardship as prelude to success is always sweet and makes us feel better and stronger, ready to face the whole big stressful life.

bangchik and kakdah

Ulam Raja, will it ever get to London

An email from a Malaysian residing in London, pulled me nearer to the bushy Ulam Raja. She asked for Ulam Raja seeds. I picked  fresh seeds, from the plant itself, packed and posted. I wonder if the marvelous Ulam Raja seeds ever get passed UK custom check. So far no words from her yet, so the seeds might still be on the way. 

This is the cluster of Ulam Raja with balsam and ubi kemili as companions. The rest are all dwarf with the towering Ulam Raja well over 6 feet.  The other day Izmar mentioned about pruning Ulam Raja to give its second lease of life. I haven't tried that with Ulam Raja. All this while, we let ulam raja get old, thin , dry up adn die, once they get to the last bit of blooming fiesta. I may just prune and see what happen, not until I have collected enough seeds.

Ulam Raja seeds

Fresh ulam raja seeds are real winners. I put a few in polybags, and all germinated. I am thinking of having a hedge of ulam raja on the left wing of the fence, squeezing as many as I can...

Ulam Raja seedlings 

ready to be transplanted along the fence

veggie as hedge?

bangchik and kakdah

Tanah Merah

Ten Ulam Raja make it to the ground

Ten Ulam Raja are making the new garden their home. They are transplanted to the ground as the second pair of true leaves get stronger. Friends coming to the house have a good laugh seeing white string from end to end, which looks like a construction work going on. The ten ulam raja deserve to be treated well on neatness, straightness and precise space in between. Using string helps in digging and transplanting, and also as a reminder to everyone not to step on the new babies.

 the right end

 the left end.

ulam raja on the far right.

 a closer look at ulam raja.

I hope they survive through the rainy season.

bangchik