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)

One Step at A Time

I did quite a lot for the past few days. I hired gardeners to prune the rambutan tree which hung too low. The grass around the area would benefit a lot too. The plot's quite bald. 

Finding the lowland hydrangea has been quite a challenge. I finally got of 2 from an online seller in Johor. I thought I needed 4 of them but turned out 2 was just nice for the plot under the Kauka Wilder. 

Impatient as usual, I transplanted them during the hottest of the day, so they withered. 

This is 2 days later - they looked happy. 

Odyssey dug herself a little hole and rested herself in while watching me digging holes for the hydrangeas.

A quick look at my heirloom tomatoes. Heavy rain pelted one of my tomato plants and broke the stem so all of them droop to the ground. I noticed the stems are growing nodes which could be aerial roots. 

The tomatoes love it here I must say. I am going to have quite a harvest (compared to my previous attempt). 

A random jasmine-lookalike plant previous tenant hid among bird of paradise bush(?). I got her out and gave her some fertilizer. She seems to have a flower bud.

My plumerias with lemon/mandarin seedlings.

I've transplanted my tuberose and amaryllis to the ground. They don't look too good and occasionally walked upon by Odyssey. 

Our driveway is flanked by ruellia and ruellia isn't really my favourite. Odyssey loves to walk over them since she was young. And she did the same here so they went all over the place and messy which I really hate. So I pruned them to the ground on one side of the sideway and stuck some cuttings into the sparser area (they need to be dense to support each other). I don't hope to work so I can grow sunflowers here. The bigger plumeria is my Kauka Wilder and the shorter one to the left is a dwarf variety that was water-logged and isn't doing too well now. I can't remember the other one. We have the best sun here so I wouldn't have to wait too long to her bloom.

I brought my epiphyte gang out for a water and tanning session. 

But will you look at my Chinese kale! I harvested some yesterday for dinner.

My backyard that has a pergola made out of PVC pipe by previous tenant is intended to be my herb garden. I've acquired most of the herbs I wanted except dill and Thai basil. Actually, I don't really need to Thai Basil but....

A close-up of the neglected hoya. Fertilizer has been given to her, hope she bounces back.

Clockwise from 12 o'clock - rosemary, coriander, thyme, Italian parsley, bird's eye chilli (cili padi), Vietnamese basil (according to the nursery lady) and 2 pots of lavender.

My own basil, gingers, aloe veras and mint which also go into that plot.

Let' not forget kaffir lime, curry plant and chives!

I also scored these - maidenhair fern and Platycerium Superbum.

I pinched this but it doesn't seem to survive when I looked at it this morning.

Here it is! Now I just need to observe how the sun works on this plot to see if I need to put the black netting up for more shade. I'm growing mint in the existing styrofoam box to control its crazy evasive nature.

 I will add that the rosemary I acquired isn't the common rosemary you'd find at the supermarket. The leaves are tinier and denser with purple flower, instead of white. This particular plant also is growing aerial roots that I cut one stem to propagate. Let's see if it works. 

I plan to kokedama this maidenhair and feature her in the dining area.

  

I'm very surprised to find the nursery selling platyceriums and a variety that isn't that common. A platycerium group member confirmed that it's a Superbum.

My dinner last night.

I really can't remember what this is called. I'm thinking if I should remove birds of paradise and just let this be. **It's called Heliconia, False Birds of Paradise**

When your neighbour's plumeria game is strong. This Penang Peach is so pretty. She also has Rangoon Creeper creeps all over her.

My wall! 

My huperzia beside my lounging chair.

Oakleaf fern outside the maindoor.

And more in our dining area.

This Bifurcatum resides in our bedroom.

After dark orchids at the kitchen windowsill.

This is how my magnolia lily is now. 

What the heck is this!?