Hello, Surprise!

I actually kinda of gave up on the Magnolia liliifera aka egg magnolia just as I did on tuberose as they don't bloom at all but lo and behold, guess what I saw today!

Harvested my first Japanese cucumber today. It also has a insect bite just like the first zucchini.

I just can't get over of Jee Petch!

Edibility

The blueberry didn't survive. I'm sad.

The cotton plants should be ready for transplant.

This particular zucchini plant has 3 fruits but 2 of them seem to be rotting from the butt.

The very neglected radish.

Multi-headed cabbage.

Perfection.

First Japanese cucumber is fattening up.

French beans ready to be harvested

Longan!

The mulberries growing buds so quickly after hard prune. I hope they will fruit in time for the visiting future in-laws.

How I Wish...

...mosquitoes don't exist.

Anyway, the freesias are sprouting! 

An unidentified plumeria finally bloomed and she's Jee Petch. What a cutie pie, just look at her.

My roses suffered when I was away so I sprayed them with some organic pesticide and gave them some fertilizers. They are growing shoots and the white spray roses are budding again.

I'm also growing marigolds to fight the bloody mosquitoes. 

Curious?

This is how red okras look like after a blanch. They lost their burgundy hue.

First Zucchini Harvest

 I intended to wait for a couple of more days before harvest and today I saw a brown speck on it so I plucked it for lunch before the insect takes over. Absolutely yum.

Also harvested some red okras to give to my parents.

Progress

French beans are finally forming pods. Yay.

Our first zucchini which I hand-pollinated because I was anxious. I accidentally stabbed it with my nail when I moved it to lay on the stalk to avoid rot. Gah! 

Harvested most of the kailan a couple of days ago to make space for lettuce. Will be saving seeds from the bolted ones.

The harvest. Made some chips from the leaves but we don't like them so I froze most of the leaves. I really don't know what to do with overgrown kailans.

The stems I peeled and stir-fried with garlic made my super yummy lunch. Even Odyssey loved it.

Fruit start to take form for my longan.

The mulberries had second major prune. I hope I'm not too late so they can fruit again in late Dec for my future in-laws who will be here visiting.

Inedibles

Ms Ridleyi lost one of her fronds.

But she's growing two more!

Elephantotis growing new shields.

A random baby on the Elkhorn.

I thought I lose the maidenhair fern but no! Lucky I didn't pull it out and chuck away!

One plumeria finally blooming! Can't wait see what variety this is!

Wild orchid, they said. I need to find out the name.
** 6/12/2017 - ID identified: Arundina Orchid aka Bamboo Orchid

Cute balsams. Will be collecting seeds and sell soon.

Random thing growing among the rainlily. I accidentally pulled out some of the tuberose bulbs during weeding so I planted them in here too.

All the mulberry bush had major pruning again.

I uprooted the remaining of dahlia seedlings that I transplanted to ground near entrance. Odyssey trampled most of them. The reason I uprooted and clear the area is to plant some more durable (and cheap) for an upcoming event in January. Marigold maybe? I purchased 6 pots of marigold at RM24 today. Quite a steal as someone told me she bought a pot at RM6.

I also cleared on another side where I transplanted the lavender-colored balsams.

The area where I intend to grow the Botanical Interests Perennial Mix. I should start sowing the seeds. 

Upclose of a Mexican Giant Sunflower bloom.

New Acquirement & Mess

 So I was away for almost 2 weeks and I came back to a huge mess of a patch, dying seedlings and bald rose plants. Some of strawflower, most of the 2 parsleys and all my sage seedlings died. Am pretty sad about this. Let's talk about something else, my plot to happiness.

Look how much they have grown! Oh, the grass and weeds were overtaking the plot though.

The lettuce have grown quite a bit too! Those are cotton plants in single pots. Should be transplanting to ground soon.

My blueberry is drowning. It's been raining very heavily lately. Quite a bad idea to plant it in this Ikea hole-less pot so I've transferred it to a regular pot. 

I've cut down the sweet potato which was overtaking the plot. I think I should be able to harvest the potatoes soon too.

The greens that I chopped off.

This poor cabbage seedling etiolated after being covered by the sweet potato.

Many of my bean plants died including all of the berlotti beans before I left due to the hot weather. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that 2 french beans survived and are flowering. It has to be the sweet potato greens that spread all the way and covered the ground.

The red okras decided to grow pods when I was not around so I came back to many overgrown pods. I will save seeds.

Didn't expect the Japanese cucumbers to flower so soon. It looked like I'm gonna have a lot of cucumbers.

 Carrots are doing pretty well too. 

Magda Zucchini are growing pretty wild, one of them grew very big but her flowers are dropping so I cut her smaller. I noticed the smaller plant does better with the flowers.

The chinese kale ave overgrown and some have bolted. I will try to save their seeds.

Broccoli is growing steadily and in different pace as if I did successive planting which I didn't. 

The cabbages are also growing as if it was a succession planting (no it's not) but one of the cabbages multiplied on the head after the bud was attacked by some slug.

This is the textbook bud - hopefully it will start to form the head.

 Transplanted some of heirloom tomato seedlings before I left but only one survived. I reassigned the berlotti bean plot to tomato and I used the weed mat. Maybe the weed mat absorbed too much heat.

I'm letting an Edamame plant to seed.

  

Harvest! Plucked most of the red okras and some edamame for snack. Only a couple of the red okras are edible, the rest will be seeds meanwhile edamame was extremely yummy after a quick boil and tossed with salt! The best!

The big daddy.

Sigh. My seedling trays.

 My sole radish plant. Sowed and transplanted some seedlings before I left but that time was just too hot. I should sow more.

The plot after cleanup.

Mexican Giant sunflower didn't turn out to be giant!? Look how tiny they are! They are no more than 3 feet.

Anyway! My loot from the trip

These packets are pretty as heck!

Perennial Bloom Mixture:
1. Basket of Gold (Sp) 2%
2. Black-Eyed Susan (S/F) 2%
3. Blanketflower (S/F) 7%
4. Candytuft (Sp) 6%
5. Carnation, Double (S) 6% %
6. Columbine, McKana (Sp) 2%
7. Coneflower, Pink (S/F) 5%
8. Coneflower, White (S/F) 1%
9. Coreopsis, Lance-leaved (S) 4%
10. Dianthus, Spring Beauty (Sp) 4%
11. Daisy, Shasta, Alaska (S) 4%
12. Forget-Me-Not, Woodland (Sp/S) 2%
13. Gayfeather (S/F) 6%
14. Lupine, Bigleaf (Sp/S) 28%
15. Mexican Hat (S/F) 1%
16. Moss Verbena (S) 4%
17. Oxeye Sunflower (S) 8%
18. Penstemon, Rocky Mt. (S/F) 3%
19. Wallflower, Siberian (Sp) 5%
(from Botanical Interests)