What I did and do with my ' over-blessed ' Thai Basil.

I am a total loser when it comes to battling with the fast-increasing number of self-seeded and volunteer Thai Basil ( Ocimum basilicum ) plants in my small garden. Not that it requires a lot of physical strength to win the battle ( merely weeding them out will do actually ). But that it requires a firm and strong heart to do so ( I have a known weakness in weeding out plants and even weeds at times! ), which I, evidently, do not have.

Consequently, I am ' over-blessed ' with three mini jungles of Thai Basil plants - two at the backyard and one at the front.

So ' over-blessed ' that it felt much like a heavy burden to me recently, that I had to ' beg ' a neighbour to come over ( which I am most grateful, she did this morning ), help me uproot ( harvest ) and bring them home with her to consume. Or simply have them given away to whoever she can think of who may want them, so they need not be composted. 

Here it is, the two bucketfuls of Thai Basil harvest which she had brought home with her this morning. 

The ' over-blessed ' burden I felt suddenly became much lighter.

There may be more than half left still ( those that have started to flower especially ), but it is okay for now. I am keeping them for the occasional bee and other insects to enjoy for the time being.

All for now! THANK YOU for reading this! Till next month! Or the month after next! BYE!

Some Garden Chores And News

Since the retreat was over back in April, I have been staying over at Big Bro and Second Bro's home ( also my childhood's home ) until today. There had been much to do and when things were finally done or more settled on Sunday, I decided to make a short trip to the nearby Malay Kampong again, to collect some ' pastries ' ( dried up manures ) for my plants.

Like always, it was a pleasure seeing the abandoned mining pool filled with pink lotuses among other water weeds upon reaching the Kampong. Though unfortunately, very few were in full bloom this time, while others had gone past their blooming time.

There, it did not take me very long before I had a paint bucket full of ' pastries ' collected. Normally, I would have two bucketfuls collected. But as my other bucket had earlier been used to keep soil that a neighbour had recently dumped when he had his garden renovated, I only had one to use for this purpose this time.

I had the bucketful of ' pastries ' transported to my small backyard garden in Ipoh on the same day because I did not want them to stay too long inside the plastic-made paint bucket. I had the bucket placed inside a wider plastic container which I had earlier filled with a little water to avoid ants and other crawling insects from crawling out from the bucket into my car.

On reaching my small backyard garden, I immediately had the bucket of ' pastries ' unloaded from my car. I had them all crumbled with my pair of glove-on hands and top-dressed onto my ground and pot planters.

After that I had everything ( the paint bucket and gloves ) cleaned and put back in place. Then, I had a brief look around and had some pictures taken so I could have them shared here.



It had only been a few days since I last went there .....



The little, lush ' jungle ' of mixed edibles on the back, ground level planter had noticeably grown lusher.

The Thai Basil ( Ocimum basilicum ) plants on the long, ground level planter had already started to flower. Someone had once shared on Facebook that it would be best to have them all pinched off. Else, they would age very fast. But I just could not bring my hands to do so.

A pretty visitor, not sure if a friend or a foe, was found resting in a carefree manner, on one of the Thai Basil leaves, as though the whole world belonged to it alone. It was not in the least bothered when I had my finger put on the very leaf it was resting on. What a calm creature it was! Probably it just knew I would not bring any harm to it no matter what.

The two Japanese Melon ( Cucumis melo ) plants that were barely a foot tall had miraculously flowered. I wondered if the flowers would ever turn into fruits. If they did, that would be something worth announcing to the world!

The many self-seeded Red Stem Malabar Ceylon Spinach ( Basella alba ) seedlings had suddenly grown a lot bigger and could be harvested anytime now.

So had the two White Bitter Gourd ( Momordica charantia ) seedlings! Hope they would continue to progress so until fruition.

The Radish ( Raphanus sativus ) seedlings had shown exceptional growth too. I was so very proud of them!

A little patch of weeds on the cracked concrete spot near the drain hole had suddenly become very noticeable. It did look like an amazing creation of nature to me!

Finally, before I had it called a day at my small backyard garden, I had all the dried leaves that were caught in between pots, swept to the open space of my backyard, after when I had them all scooped up and put into the compost bin.

Now, would you have already guessed what I had used to easily sweep them all, from those narrow spaces in between pots? 

Well, yes! I had used one of those stick bundles, which could be seen in the bottom right picture below ( the middle one in that picture to be exact ). I called them the coconut stick brooms. Remember the post which I had mentioned about our front neighbour's gardener having trimmed and discarded a lot of coconut fronds sometime back? Those broom sticks were made from those fronds!

ALL for NOW! Thank you for READING this! BYE!

Garden Update ( Potted Ornamentals ) - May 2019

Here, at my small backyard garden in Ipoh ....



The Pink and White Periwinkle ( Vinca rosea ) are very happily flowering now. More buds are seen going to burst open anytime soon. How I love them for their easy growing and easy flowering nature!

Mum's best-loved plant, the Yellow Allamanda ( Allamanda cathartica ) continues to flower non-stop after it first started to flower back in March, this year. Its vibrant yellow blooms never fail to cheer me up every time I look at them.

The Frangipani ( Plumeria rubra ) is still taking its sweet time, enjoying its leafing retreat. It continues to happily send out new, beautiful and healthy, large leaves every now and then. There is no indication at all that it will end its retreat anytime soon. Oh, how I miss its previous sweet-scented, yellow-white blooms!

Having all its life being over-shadowed by its pot mate ( the Frangipani ), the Wild, Multi-coloured Lantana ( Lantana camara ) has recently, finally decided to make its boldest move ever. That is to poke its head through the leaves of its mate, in order to see the world above, where it could now, effortlessly soak in the essence of the powerful sun as and when it wish.

The White Butterfly Pea Vine ( Clitoria ternatea ) is growing rather happily but it has yet to send out its first ever, long-awaited white bloom.

The Jasmine ( Jasminum sambac ) Plant's growth seems to have established well. It keeps sending out new, beautiful and shiny leaves every day. Hope it will give me lots of white, sweet-scented blooms soon.

The pink Air Mata Pengantin or Bride's Tears or Chain of Love or Coral Vine or Mexican Creeper ( Antigonon leptopus ) seems to have suddenly gone to ' sleep ', after its first ever cluster of flowers was over recently. So far, no new flower buds nor new leaves are seen being formed any where on the vine. The strange part is nothing seems to work to make it wake up now. Not even the delicious manure I fed it with a while ago!

The two Areca or Betel-nut Palm or Pinang or Betel Palm or Areca-nut or Pinang Siri ( Areca catechu ) seeds which I had picked up from the roadside outside our Condominium compound back in Kuala Lumpur and sown in a pot some two months back, have now germinated and are looking healthy. I love palm trees a lot. So, I think I will keep them instead of having them sent away elsewhere.

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

Garden Update ( Edibles ) - May 2019

Life has been really, very busy for me after my recent, usual, No Internet, No Phone Retreat at a nearby Buddhist Society in Ipoh. I had let my online shop open for the nine days I was away, thinking there would not be any orders coming in as usual. How very wrong I was! When I finally turned my phone on, checked my inbox after the retreat was over, I was taken by surprise to see that I had a total of ten new orders from two shops, all of which required quite some time to complete. Thank goodness though they were all finally completed and had been shipped out yesterday, except for one which I should be able to complete by Tuesday.

For the past few weeks I was away, it seems that nature has been kind to me. It has taken quite good care of my small garden in Ipoh.

At My Front Yard ....

The Sweet Potato ( Ipomoea batatas ) vines which I am growing for their sweet potatoes have not only covered the whole of my approximate five feet by five feet, front, ground level planter, but spread out to the concreted area next to it. They look healthy and strong. Hope there would be some nice sweet potatoes for harvest again ( like the last few times ) in a month or two time.

The volunteer Thai Basil ( Ocimum basilicum ) plant still looks strong and healthy, like the last time I saw them. It continues to flower non-stop. I think I can expect to collect lots of seeds soon.

I am not a believer of the Feng Shui thing. But when I was told that growing blue flowers in the southeast direction gives good Feng Shui to the house sometime back, I was tempted to try. Without much thought, I had my potted Blue Multi-layer Butterfly Pea Vine ( Clitoria ternatea ) moved to my southeast facing car porch from my backyard then. I let it trail up the car porch's awning pole. So far, it is doing fine and has grown a lot bigger at its new home location. Meanwhile, inside the same pot as this vine, the Red Stem Malabar Ceylon Spinach ( Basella alba ) seems rather unhappy. Its growth is somewhat stunted. Not sure though if it is because I had given it too much of a shock when I had a lot of its leaves harvested sometime back or because of the new location or because of other reasons.

At My Backyard ....

- ( Long Ground Level Planter Area )

The Blue Single-Layer Butterfly Pea Vines ( Clitoria ternatea ) continue to conquer the Telecom's wire pole right outside the backyard fence. They are becoming more and more noticeably bushy each passing week. This morning when I was there to take pictures of them, a cute, little sunbird was hopping from flower to flower. I thought I had managed to capture it in at least one of the pictures but I later found out that it was nowhere to be spotted. So, I guessed it must had flown off before I actually pressed the camera's button. ( Sigh )

Somewhere in the middle of my long planter, there is a little but rather lush jungle of mixed edibles like the Ginger ( Zingiber officinale ), Thai Basil ( Ocimum basilicum ), Turmeric ( Cucurma longa ), Green Amaranth ( Amaranthus sp. ), Sweet Potato Leaves ( Ipomoea batatas ) and Red Stem Malabar Ceylon Spinach ( Basella alba ). Hope I can find some time to cook next week so I can harvest the leafy ones especially, before they become too old and tough to be eaten.

At one end of my long planter, the shade-loving Sambung Nyawa Ungu or Okinawan Spinach ( Gynura bicolor ) plants are still doing alright. But their colour is not as beautiful as before. Probably because the sun gets to them sooner every day at my northwest facing backyard these days.

Meanwhile, adjacent to the Gynura bicolor plants, the two Daun Kadok ( Piper sarmentosum ) plants have sent out a lot of new, big and beautiful leaves. My friend came over this morning. She showed interest in tasting them after I described to her how heavenly they tasted the last time I cooked them with ginger, eggs and tomatoes. So, I had all the nicer leaves harvested for her to bring back when she left.

- ( Potted Ones )

The Chilli ( Capsicum annuum ) plant is looking very sick now after multiple attacks by mealy bugs. All of its flower buds and lots of its leaves have prematurely dropped. Though I am not going to do anything to get rid of the pests, I am praying hard it would pull through again just like the last time. I am not giving up on it unless it itself, decides to. Wish it well!

The poor Rambutan ( Nephelium lappaceum ) seedling has yet to recover from transplant shock after I had it transplanted from another pot sometime back.  I wonder if it ever would.

I love the Kafir Lime ( Citrus hystrix ) best. Though it has yet to give me any fruit, its nice scented, beautiful leaves never fail to make me happy. How wonderful it would be if I can enjoy them in delicious vegetarian Tomyam! Oh, but if only I know how to cook it!

The four Pumpkin ( Cucurbita pepo ) plants in two big earthen pots have climbed up the fence. One of the plants already have a few male flower buds on it now. I am hoping to see some female ones soon so that fruit set could be made possible. Pray, pray and pray!

Thank goodness, the Curry Tree ( Murraya koenigii ) growth has finally ' accelerated ' quite a bit recently, after a really long, somewhat stunted period. It is looking quite happy now. So am I! 

And so is its neighbour, the Aloe vera plant!

The Japanese Melon ( Cucumis melo ) seedlings seem to take forever to grow big. Some of their leaves have been eaten by some unknown pests. I am not optimistic they would give me any fruit but I pray they would somehow!

I had sown some Pumpkin ( Cucurbita pepo ) seeds from kitchen scraps in a few empty pots for their micro greens before I went for my retreat last two weeks. Some of them have now germinated. I think they would be good enough to eat in less than a week time. Hope I would be able to find time to prepare my meal with them then.

Eldest Sis ( Big Sis ) had given me four most precious ( precious, to me at at least ) White Bitter Gourd ( Momordica charantia ) seeds which she had saved from her kitchen scraps the last time I went to her house. I had them sown at one of my empty pots before I went for my retreat the other day. Two of them have now germinated. Hope they would grow up soon and give me some most desired fruits which are quite hard to come by here in Malaysia.

I had also sown some Radish ( Raphanus sativus ) seeds in an empty pot the other day before I went for my retreat. Three of them have now germinated. Wish me luck they would give me at least three radishes!

I had two Madeira Vines ( Anredera cordifolia ) transplanted into an empty pot from my long planter sometime back. Only one has since survived and is looking good now. I will make a simple trellis for it to climb soon. I am growing it in a pot because it easier for me to control where it shall climb on. I do not want it to be like the ones that used to grow on the long planter, climbed up the fence and intermingled with the Butterfly Pea ( Clitoria ternatea ) vines, thus making works difficult during harvest time.

The self-seeded Thai Basil ( Ocimum basilicum ) that grows on the cracked concrete spot next to the pot of Kafir Lime ( Citrus hystrix ) are almost three feet tall now. I never fertilize nor care for it. But it still grows big and strong. How amazing!

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