COVERING THE POT WITH EPISCIA

I love foliage to decorate my home garden. 
The limited land in my home garden make me think hardly to grow my collection.
I have to 'think smart' on gardening.

I grow little guava tree in a big pot on my front porch.
There are space remain on this pot.
So, I grow Episcia to fill the empty space.
This plant is short rooted, so... I'm sure it will not interfere the growth of the main plant.
Look .... no space wasted.
I can pick the fruit and also enjoy the beauty of the foliage.

LEGETAN

Actually, I took these pictures several months ago, when we did evaluation on so many projects.
We walked through the farmland in highland area.
That area was an area for growing vegetables and tea.

I saw an extraordinary plant that grown widely on that farmland.
I have never seen before.
It looked like an edible weed that we used to eat as salad.
Yes, it was almost similar to Legetan (Acmella uliginosa), you can see on my older post here.
But it looked much bigger, and the aroma was stronger.

I asked to a farmer that stand on his farmland about these plant.
He said that those plant was used on pharmacy industry, cause it has so many medicinal benefits.
It was used as antipiretic, to treat toothache, migrain, and many more.
He asked me to bite a yellow flower, and my tongue got a numbness sensation.

A new plant for me.

Although it almost similar to weed on my garden.

an interesting experience...

SANGKETAN : ADD A BEAUTIFUL WEED

Charmed at the first sight...

I think that is the suitable term to express my interest into this plant.

Actually, it's just a wild plant on the road side or farmland.

This plant is well known as weed on the farmland.

Yes, this is Sangketan (Heliotropium indicum L).

We, Javanese call it as Sangketan, Buntut tikus (Mouse tail), Uler-uleran, or Tlale gajah (elephant's trunk).

As long as I know, I also well known as swamp basil, but I'm not sure.

Here, this plant is also well known as medicinal plant to treat pneumonia, rheumatism, oral thrush, and dysentery.

This plant is also used as anti parasitic and anti depressant.

The stalk of the flower up to 10 cm.

The little white flower lined up on the stalk.

I really like it...

I want to add this cutie plant into my little garden.

I think it will grow well.

KACANG PANJANG : NEW SEASON

My long yard bean patch looks ready for its harvesting season.
Some little young beans have formed.

The fresh raw young bean is so sweet and crunchy.
Sometime we eat it raw as 'lalap' with 'sambal' (ground hot chilli sauce).
The older one is great for stir fried or cooked as salad.

Last season, the bugs infested intensively and i really overwhelmed.
So, I unloaded the patch earlier to prevent the infestation spread into other patches.

I find over ripened bean, look so pale and yellowish.

I think I should save it for the next planting season.

Keep the bean on the seed box after dried.

So much hope this patch will have long productive period as normal.

Readers, for all of you, happy gardening... 

CHRYSANTHEMUM : TOOK THE BEAUTY AFTER THE PARTY

I took these flower from a wedding party.

Wasted flowers...

They were still so beautiful to decorate my living room.

Beautiful wasted flowers...

SRIKAYA : CUT AND GROW

This is my srikaya (Annona squamosa L) tree that I grow on my front yard.

It's more than three years old but there's no sign that this tree will get flowering than fruiting.

I have done pruning and give more fertilizer on it.

But I haven't saw the progress yet.

Then I did hard pruning on the beginning of the rainy season.

Three weeks later... we can find lots on shoots have emerged on the branches.

Lots of hope...

I often see the srikaya tree grow so well with lot of fruits hang on the tree, although the trees are still so little.

I have to learn how to maintain this tree.

New shoots, new life, new spirit...

ANGELONIA

Finally I can see the beauty of Angelonia.

When we had house reconstruction, so many plants on my garden had damaged and died.

One of my collection that damaged and died was Angelonia.

I planted three varieties angelonia; blue, pink and blue striped white.

All have damaged.

After the reconstruction, I looked for this lovely flower.
But I only found the blue variety.

I think no problem, the important thing for me is I can see the beauty.

I should 'hunt' the other varieties of this plant.

But when I visited some nurseries, I didn't find the other varieties.

I really love their lovely colors.

So beautiful...

And the aromatic scent is so refreshing, especially after the they get watered or crushed.

I hope I can add the other colors of Angelonia in to my little garden, soon.
So there will be more butterflies come and fly.