WEEKLY HARVEST : LATE AUGUST 2016

This late August we get more various harvest from our tiny garden.
The kacang panjang or long yard bean have already in the end of the harvesting period.
But in the other part pare or bitter gourd have already started the productive period.
Yes, they come and go...
Thanks GOD for everything...

Kacang panjang, green okra, purple eggplants and bitter gourd

Green okra, red okra, tomatoes and strawberries

Kacang panjang (long yard bean) and green okra

Bitter gourd, chayote and strawberries

Green okra, strawberry and kembang telang (butterfly pea)

Daun talas (Collocasia) and green mustard

Pare (bitter gourd), lemon, tomatoes, chayote, green okra, strawberry, kacang panjang and ciplukan (Physalis)

TIDYING UP THE SPICES GARDEN

Last weekend we had time to tidy up the messy raised bed in the backyard.
Actually, this is a simple spices garden for daily use on cooking.
But the unpredictable weather makes this part looks so messy.
The sweet potatoes grew so wildly during this 'wet' dry season, I think it's caused by 'la nina effect'.
They grew here and there, then covered the path way.
There're lot of holes on the sweet potato leaves, lots of caterpillars too. 
So, tidied up this patch is a must.

Then, I pulled out all of them and only leave the collocasia on the edge of the raised bed.

And I got a bunch of collocasia leaves to be stir fried.

Nero accompanied me on digging the very heavy soil.

It looked like a concrete, so hard...

A sweaty day...
Spreading compost and other organic material to keep the soil porous.
But if the rain fall down intensively, so the soil become like a concrete faster.
Look the raised bed right now... ready for the new spice patch.

Happy gardening...

RED CABBAGE : BEAUTIFUL ROW...

Finding beautiful spot in our terrace garden...

A simple edible garden on our roof top.

Three rows of Brassicas look so awesome.

I'm so happy that the red cabbages are growing so happy and also healthy 'under' the pakcoy row.

Last night we had rain, so all vegetable looks so fresh this morning.

The red cabbage 'Scarlet' looks so beautiful here with rain drops on the leaves.

This is for the first time we have a beautiful red cabbage patch.

We have tried for so many time on growing red cabbage, but the trial mostly stopped on the seedling stage.

But now...a very nice row on our terrace makes me so glad.

We had the second batch on sowing red cabbage seeds.

Such a huge rose...

So lovely...

Thanks GOD...

NEW ROWS ON THE OKRA'S PATCH

A week after I cut the okra's stem, there's no growth progress here.

So to fill the 'empty' space I planted selada/sawi Jepang and hot chillies there.

Two rows of hot chilli plants.... 

And a row of selada Jepang... 

I hope, it will make this part looks better.

KIDNEY BEAN

This is a bed that so difficult to be handled.
We often failed on growing so many varieties of plant here.
I don't know why...

Right now, we are growing kacang merah or kidney bean here, this is a second plan. 

The first plan was growing tomatoes here, but all plants have rotten and died.
I planted the seedling on the late of July.

Now... the beans are flowering and producing the little beans.

But on the some part we found any damaged leaves, there are some holes there.

I hope nothing serious there.

LEAFY PATCH ON AUGUST

This  month we're having green patch in our back yard.
We plot a raised bed and we planted so many leafy vegetables here, mostly from brassica family.

We haven't finish planting yet, there's some empty space here.
There're Sawi Jepang, Caisim, Mustard green, Sawi keriting, Cauliflower, Katu (Saorophus androgenus) and papaya.

I put the Katu and papaya next to the wall, on the edge of the bed.
Then three sawi jepang which grow so healthy.
The next row, a bit poor of Caisim, and mustard green.

Grasshopers and crickets chewed the leaves.
Look... lots of holes there...

I think there's little caterpillar too...
The row of sawi keriting is the worst one.

I have no idea to minimize the damage, I think I should pull out the plants then move it into the compost bin or spraying the plants.

STRAWBERRY : MOVING HERE AND THERE

As we live in tropical area, and especially  in a crowded neighborhood, so our garden  always have problem with the sun shine needs.
Lots of shady and part shady area where not so productive for gardening.
So... when the sun 'move' I means do its rotation, so we have to follow the movement to get a favorable sunshine for our crops.
The implementation is we have to make a good plan and garden lay out.
Where is the best place for each variety, although it sometimes does not do well, caused by too much plants to be grown on a very limited land...
Oh please...
We have to move some pots here and there 'chasing the sun'.

Now, we have to move lots of the strawberry pots to get more sunshine.
They looks so productive in a sunny area.

I moved the pots from terrace garden into backyard.
Rather I put them on the edge of washing area.

Hoping they will be more productive.

Hmmm... such a busy gardener...

CAHYOTE : GROWING LUSH...

It's so lovely...
Yes, finally we can find a very lush 'labu siam' or chayote vine (Sechium edule) in our tiny garden!
This is for the first time we are success on growing creamy version of chayote.
We used to grow the green version.
You can check our effort on growing this version here and here, although we were not lucky with the vine, the squash bugs was so annoying.

Look... the vine is growing high reaching the roof.
I have no idea how the tendril 'hold' the wall with 'over loaded vine'.

We can find some male flowers at the vine.

Hey... there's a female flower too...

The female flower, closer...

Wow... I'm finding a little fruit here, among the butterfly pea vine.

The fruit is still so small...

The heat hot day makes the leaves get withered, but they will fresh again in the afternoon, when the weather becomes cooler.

Thanks GOD...

GREEN OKRA : CUT AND GROW

Our green okra patch looks so poor, I think the productive period has over.

We're having two green okra patches in the backyard.

The first patch the looks so poor, but the other one is still in productive period, and of course it looks so healthy.

On the first patch, only seven plants there.

The foliage was only on the end of the stem, and the fruit too.

But when we check the lower stem, we can find some new shoots.

Then I cut the stems and leave about 25-30 cm from the ground.

I did the same way on our okra patch in our terrace garden.

The new shoots look so productive.

I hope this patch will be better as good as in the terrace garden.

A SUNNY MORNING ON OUR GATE