Garden Update - June, 2018

How super busy life had been recently! I was back to my small garden in Ipoh on the sixteen of this month. But only now I manage to really sit down and write an update about my garden there. I had been busy with work while I was in Ipoh. I had also spent a few days on reading the Infinite Life Sutra at a nearby Buddhist Society there. After that, I had joined Fourth Sis and her daughter for a few days at a beach resort on Tenggol Island, off Dungun, Terengganu ( some four to five hour drive from Kuala Lumpur ). There, we got to go out all day long every day - swimming by the beach, snorkeling out in the sea, strolling along the beautiful beach and lazying on swings under trees - until we had had enough. Thanks to the kind weather! It was only yesterday that we finally came back to our homes in Kuala Lumpur.

The weather had been rather dry and hot with no rain for quite some time before I went back to Ipoh. I was rather sad at the sight of my plants - at both my front and back yards. They were all in dire need of water - hot and thirsty. So, immediately after I got out from my car, I reached for the hose and gave them all a good, thorough bath and drink.

As I watered....

At My Front Yard Planter....

I saw a long, quite plump sweet potato ( Ipomoea batatas ) tuber being half-exposed on the surface of the soil. After I was done with the watering, I carefully dug up the tuber. It looked pretty good except for its pest-affected half. I saw a suspected culprit - an insect, which I had failed to identify or had its picture captured, crawling out from it. There was nothing else I could do except to happily accept the fact that there would always be some ' uninvited creatures ' ( PESTS ) who would come and share my ' TREASURES '.

I removed the pest-affected half and threw it away onto some nearby bushes in the neighbourhood. After that, I washed the unaffected tuber clean with a gentle scrubber and left it on the kitchen floor to dry. Before I left Ipoh, I steamed the tuber and let Second Bro had it for breakfast as I knew he has always loved sweet potatoes. He said it was not sweet enough but the texture was great ( Perhaps the less-sweet taste has got to do with the variety - the Taiwan variety ). He loved and treasured it nonetheless - considering the fact that I HAD GROWN IT ORGANICALLY for months, I think?

I calculated three turmeric plants ( Cucurma longa ) that were already at least a foot tall. I had observed that others had remained more or less the same height as the last time I saw them ( about one and a half month back ).

.

At My Backyard Planter....

( Some bad, bad things... ),

I saw no signs of the winter melon plant ( Benincasa hispida ) ( which had already started to flower the last time I went back) ever existed. It must had been either gnawed alive by some pests or lost to other plants during competitions for nutrients or space or water.

I was rather sad to see that most of the Gynura bicolor plants had died because of the drought and hot sun. And, I was disappointed to see that the Madeira Vine ( Anredera cordifolia ) had not made any progress since the last time I saw them.

( Some good, good things... ),

I was happy to see the Butterfly Pea  ( Clitoria ternatea ) plants already trailed up to the top of the fence and were flowering. I gave them some pinching here and there so that they would become more bushy and so more flowers, hopefully.

I was fascinated to see the sweet potato vines ( Ipomoea batatas ) [ a different variety from the front yard ones ] having trailed far out of the planter to the concrete floor. And, like always, it was wonderful seeing the basil plants ( Ocimum basilicum ) growing ever strong despite the drought.

Even though there were some flowers and shoots that I could harvest, I did not do so. As I had got no time to cook. I let them be until the next time I go back. It would be lovely to see how different things are after a long absence - whether good or bad.

and ( Some wildlife sightings... I was lucky enough to be able to capture two of them in picture and video respectively... ).

A frog ' hiding ' in between the pebbles and brick stone...( somewhere in the middle of this picture )

A short video clip of a small, white butterfly dancing around the plants.

Overall ( at Both my Front and Back Yards ) ....

I noticed that most of my plants showed some nutrient deficiencies in their leaves. They did need some urgent feeding but I just did not have any fertilizer to feed them. I was unable to get my usual coffee ground supplies from Eldest Sis's neighbour, whose hot-brewed coffee business was a struggle during the Muslim's fasting month ( from mid May to mid June ).

All for now! Thank you for reading this! Bye!