A Day of ' Bonuses '.

I garden because I love plants. I simply love to watch them grow. I enjoy seeing beautiful wildlife they attract. And if there are something I could harvest from them, those are ' bonuses '.

It was harvest day this past Sunday. A day of ' bonuses ' for me.

There was a bucketful of blue Butterfly Pea ( Clitoria ternatea ) seedpods being harvested. I must extract their seeds as soon as I could. As I am planning to have the seeds sown around our ancestors' tombs on March 27th., which is not too far off, when we go for our yearly tomb-sweeping. I know perhaps, white flowers would be more appropriate but then blue flower seeds are all that I have got right now. 

There were some Hongfeng Cai or Okinawan Spinach or Sambung Nyawa Ungu ( Gynura bicolor ) leaves being harvested for my friend, Yun, who wanted to try them despite me telling her that they taste kind of odd and not very pleasant.

There were finally some Madeira Vine ( Anredera cordifolia ) leaves being harvested for the first time from two recently self-regenerated vines, after my failed first attempt in growing one last year. Until now, I still could not figure out why that first attempted vine only knew how to flower non-stop but never knew how to produce a bit more leaves.

There were some young Pumpkin ( Cucurbita pepo ) leaves being harvested from the many pumpkin seedlings which I had thinned out from two pot planters ( I was leaving only two seedlings in each pot planter to continue growing in the hope of getting some pumpkin fruits ). I had them lightly stir-fried with garlic today. They tasted so good that I was thinking of growing some for this purpose in the near future.

There were the lasts of the Red Stem Malabar Ceylon Spinach ( Basella alba ) leaves being harvested from some very old vines. I had them given to Fourth Sis who loved to enjoy them in salted egg soup.

And finally, there were some Thai Basil ( Ocimum basilicum ) leaves being harvested. These ... , I also had them given to Fourth Sis who loved to enjoy them in stir-fry egg and tomato soup.

All for now! Till next ' BONUSES ' DAY!