EXPLORING 'MERDADA' LAKESIDE : PART 6

Again... beautiful flowers emerged from the dense bushes along the lakeside...

Growing wildly with a very beautiful flower.

What a shame... I've not known about the ID.
Reader would you like to tell me what's it popular name and also scientific name?
Sorry about the quality of the pictures, I couldn't get the close up shoot, cause this was a very dense bush and there were some 'hidden' holes 
Thank you for sharing...

EXPLORING 'MERDADA' LAKESIDE : PART 5

Harvesting potatoes...
Yay... potatoes...
The edge of this lake was full of organic material.

The sediment comes from the hill 'above'.
This lake is surrounded by high hills.

Heavy rainfalls that evenly happen there makes the top soil flown by the rain water.

The wide sediment area is a great place for growing vegetables.

And this time we could see wide potato 'farmland' on the edge of the lake.

We were so lucky... we met some local farmers were harvesting potato at this area.

They were traditional farmers from this highland.

The potato plants look so lush...

They use plastic for mulching.

That's really help them to control the weed problem.

Me and my friends bought some potatoes to be brought home for our families.

Fresh potatoes from the 'farmland'....

EXPLORING 'MERDADA' LAKESIDE : PART 4

Something that special here was there's a row of local hot pepper plants along the lakeside.

Some volunteers growing this variety of pepper to make this lake more special.
The visitor could pick the peppers for free if the plants get fruiting.

This pepper become an identity of this area.
Here, local citizens call it as 'cabe gondol', 'lombok Dieng' or 'lombok Bandung'.
Some people call it as 'cabe gendot'.

It's very very hot local pepper that I have ever eaten.
But so tasty.

A tubby and juicy pepper.
Purplish green pepper when it young and turn red when the pepper gets ripen.

I really love to enjoy its beautiful flowers.
What a shame, there's no fruiting plants that I found at that time.
So I couldn't take some. 

Whatever... I was so happy went home with a pepper plant to be grown on our home garden.

Please enjoy the beautiful purple flowers.

EXPLORING 'MERDADA' LAKESIDE : PART 3

Finding beautiful Hydrangeas among the wild bushes along the lakeside....

EXPLORING 'MERDADA' LAKESIDE : PART 2

They accompanied our green activity...
Love to see the beautiful wild morning glories were blooming and climbing on the dense bush.
Although this was a cloudy morning, but full of glory...

EXPLORING 'MERDADA' LAKESIDE : PART 1

March 21 is Forest Day...
For us this is a special moment.
But we held the the peak of the ceremonial activity on March 23.
On this day, we planted little trees together.
And this event was focused at one place, a lakeside on the Dieng plateau.
Actually there are so many lakes on this area.
This is a special place, a volcanic lake as a tourism destination in our little town, Banjarnegara.

We call this lake as 'Telaga Merdada', and this one is the biggest.
A very wide lake, totally this area is about 15 hectare.
Sedimentation from makes this lake become narrower.
This area must be conserved soon.

Planting so various trees is one of the solution to keep the area safe.

So many communities worked together, planting along the lakeside.
Hundreds peoples gathered here.

The were several varieties of plants that we planted.
Bamboos, Eucalyptus, Coffee, Solanum, pine, mountain papaya and rare trees. 

What a shame... rain came too early, and our activity were stopped when there were lots of little trees haven't planted yet.

MARIGOLD :

Growing marigold is one of the most done on our list.
Marigold (Tagetes erecta) is well known as natural nematicide and also trap plant on organic gardening.
The flower is so beautiful too.
On October last year, my husband took some old flowers from a public area, then I sowed on the raised beds.

This was the little marigold on January, grew so lush and jostle.

And this week lots of flowers that emerged, but heavy rainfall almost everyday made some plants collapsed.

Pulled up, and safe the flowers as mosquito repellent.
A simple beauty...

CHAYOTE : TOO DENSE... TOO HEAVY... THEN COLLAPSED

This was our green chayote vine on January...
So fresh... so green... so lush...
Our tiny garden looked so messy. 
Climbing on the brick wall...
Growing higher and longer...
Emerging the flower and little young fruits.
It grew so fast during this rainy season.

The heavy rainfall almost every day made this vine collapsed.
Then we cut down this vine before we get any harvest yet.
Only harvested some young-tender leaves and shoots, and we cooked as soup and stir fried.
I hope I will be lucky next season.

FRUITY FRIDAY : HARVESTING HOMEGROWN FRUITS

All from our tiny garden today...
 Star fruits, passion fruits, citrus, vermillion cherry and Srikaya jumbo (Annona squamosa)
And all are grown on the pots.
Thanks God...

NO FENCE, NO HEDGE, JUST COLEUS...

All growing so lush, so fast during this rainy season.
Our 'planting trench' was empty during the dry season last year, our 'green fence' got drought and died.

So, when the rain have fallen and the soil was wet, I put some cuttings of coleus on this part on January.

They grow so fast....
We have seven varieties of coleus this season. 

And look... the colorful leaves are cheering our home garden.

But I think they need to be pruned soon, so long...
Just pruned and grow more dense and compact.

It must be so lovely...

NEW STRAWBERRY PATCH

This was our strawberry patch on the washing area on January. 
I put the strawberry plants on the edge 
Only six pots that we had at that time.
Then I moved these pots into the eastern balcony on February.

And now we are having lots of strawberry plants on the eastern balcony.
This plant multiply so fast.
First flower have emerged, but failed on forming fruit.
Love to see this patch and hope they will produce lots of fruit.

ANOTHER IXORA IN OUR HOME GARDEN

Finding a striking color on 'green patch' is so eye catching.

Look I found an orange spot on the front yard.

Yeah... my little Soka or Ixora javanica is ready for blooming.

Waiting for the blossom...

Waiting for the beauty emerged...