marigolds: a brief moment.

 marigolds, an interesting plant with lot of yellow flowers.

marigold: bud

marigold: bud opening

marigold: bud opening

marigold: bud opening

marigold: double bud opening

marigold: buds closed and opened

marigold: young flower

marigold: flowering maturing

marigold: flower maturing

marigold: maturity

marigold: dry offering seeds

marigold: the plant

marigold: another plant.

Marigolds will always be in our little garden, a chance we will never miss for it's benefit. Somehow the plants help to repel pests away. But one thing I am so sure about, while driving some pests away, snails love to come and eat shoots and leaves of marigolds.

bangchik and kakdah

pasir gudang, johor.

Tomato not doing well

I wonder if it's alright to keep using my little vegetable garden because the area being cultivated is big. It is not too big to be called a farm, but definitely it's way beyond what's normally referred to as backyard vegetable garden  here in Malaysia. I was tempted with the luxurious space the moment we set foot here last year. The garden design is ambitious. However time available to do gardening is limited. So some plants, some corners are not receiving adequate attention.

It's our tomato now, second generations because seeds used were taken from ripe tomato of the first planting early this year. The leaves don't look too good. I am not going to pull out yet. Lets see how far the current tomato will go.

tomato

tomato, leaves a bit brownish - not good

I would be lucky   if the plants survive.

bangchik and kakdah

johor

Tumeric / Kunyit in polybags, multipurpose.

Being passionate about growing plants  bring me into having 10 large polybags of tumeric or kunyit. It's the portability, being able to shift as we like. At first the polibags of tumeric act as buffer zone to markisa or passion fruit base. I don't want weeds or grass to advance to the base. They are doing fine. Markisa is getting stronger, mature and fruiting, so the role of polibags is reduced.  The ground becomes cooler a little bit. Polybags thus become edgings to the vines.


Two bags are shifted to the other side, making full use of spare drip outlet.

tumeric in polybags as edging to passionfruit vines.
Old leaves just cut .
16th july 2012

TUMERIC IN POLYBAGS, leaves getting older
 6th of July 2012

two polibags of tumeric placed else where. with waterings system

bangchik and kakdah

pasir gudang johor

Orchids delight, kakdah's collection.

We changed the location of orchids to the porch, so that it would be easier for kakdah to look after them.  She still shouted out loud calling me, exclaiming that certain orchids had bloomed.  I am quite used to her happy mood when an orchid she had been waiting finally opened up....  There were quite a number bloomings, but I choose those with shade of purple.....

orchid 1

orchid2

orchid3

orchid4

ORCHID5

kakdah's orchid collection

pasir gudang johor

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

CHILI - an attempt at big scale

The project is going on well, plants are developing well under Tengku Nadzion and his team. The chili should be ready for harvest soon, in 3 weeks time. The plot is at the back of our house in Pasir Gudang Johor.

different names for chili

rissie - africaans, malagueta - portugese, cili paprika - czech, 

LOW VIEW

cili centil

cili centil

cili centil

cili centil

cili centil

cili centil

VIEW FROM THE BALCONY

2000 cili centil: extreme left

2000 cili centil: left

2000 cili centil: middle

2000 cili centil: right

2000 cili centil: extreme right

good luck to the team and their 2000 chili project.

bangchik and kakdah

johor

germination for little backyard garden.

It's alright to act small for small backyard garden. I am referring to germinating seeds. It's kale or kailan, chinese celery or daun sup, red okra or bendi merah and pak choy.  I placed a pinch of seeds in each, in an attempt to see at least one seedling appear in each pot.

I am trying something different for a change. A portion of rectangular raised bed is reserved for all these, mixing them up with no particular pattern. It would be fun to see the wild side of vegetables as they try to grow, elbowing each other in a tight space...

red ladys fingers /okra/ bendi merah seedlings

zinnia seedlings

zehneria / timun tikus seedlings

clitoria ternatea seedlings / anak pokok bunga telang

seedlings

seedlings

seedlings

Out of the many, zehneria from cambodia, pak choi, zinnia, marigolds, okra had germinated earliest. Chinese cellery, tricolour amarant had been very quiet without any sign of germination.  I am going to mix them up in one vegetable bed. Call it intensive gardening, square foot gardening, or companion planting, all refer to plants grown closely together. That's the intention for the next project. Okra will give height, the rest will grow below. With zinnias planted together, I am imagining how the vegetable will look like, extremely colourful!

bangchik and kakdah

johor