Thursday, December 23, 2010

Updates on my veggies

My backyard has been a new home to my vegetables, Japanese cucumber, ladiesfinger (okra), capsicums, chillies, regular tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and eggplants. They seemed to thrive well there maybe because of the full sunlight they received and the fresh breeze from the Ampang River and of course my tender and loving care! I noticed that they also seemed to fare much better in pots than on the ground! I intend to improve the soil on the beds with new raised beds and new compost for my next gardening project next year. Next year...seem so far away..but actually about a week more! I have been putting off the work, just thinking about it make me sooo tired since Im doing it alone...sigh*
my veggies in a row along the chain fence

lone Japanese cucumber when it started

how it has grown with many male flowers than female ones


The only survivor of my Japanese cucumber has grown so well in its new home showing me lots of new blooms since the first one Here. I have noticed that the plant has 2 types of blooms, so I presume this is another plant that has male and female flowers on the same plant. I see that the ants like my cucumber plant and guess they act as polinators. They are more male flowers than female ones on the plant, so all they need is a good polinator to get connected. Besides the ants, I have seen butterflies hovering around but never get the chance to photograph one yet.


female flower blooming




baby female flower...notice the black dots there, I think maybe they are baby aphids, not sure though...but I have brushed them off

more female flowers..the one on the background has dropped off completely one week after this photo was taken, maybe it didn't get polinated from the male flower




lovely baby cucumbers!



another one...hope I can sink my teeth on them before some pest get them first!


I think this is capsicum, not sure, might be chilli though...I just threw some capsicum seeds (green, yellow, red) with some chilli seeds in a planter box




it is flowering now


my lone survivor cherry tomatoes with lots of fruits! Remember I got 2 plants Here
then the other one withered and died!

Now the tomatoes are bigger than my thumb..waiting for them to ripen. Should I wrap them or just leave them be? Im worried about the musang (fox) that came at night to eat my papaya, it might be tempted to taste the tomatoes too! Even if I wrap those tomatoes, nothing to stop the fox from peeking under the wrap right?


baby ladiesfinger (okra)


see how it has grown...I have 2 plants here


my first harvest of ladiesfingers within 3 days...not bad!




....end up in my pot of asam pedas! besides asam pedas (kind of tangy spicy soup) I love to stir-fry with a bit of tumeric powder and prawns and also as ulam (blanche it first) to eat with sambal belacan!


So these are my first attempt at growing vegetables and I really like what I have done so far, the thrills of seeing the first fruits of my labour is the climax of it all! I hope the coming new year will see me trying my hand at more greens with the new seeds I have bought from MAHA 2010 and Diana (Kebun Malay-Kadazan girls) sent me all the way from Australia!
So here wishing you all bloggers who celebrate Christmas, have a Merry Christmas and good tidings and a Happy New Year for all!


23 comments:

Bangchik and Kakdah said...

It must be fun eating asam pedas with Bendi from the garden.... Cucumber is always an interesting plant to grow, but a little bit delicate and 'manja" compared to bitter gourd or peria. I am looking forward to see your new raised bed....! ~bangchik and kakdah

rainfield61 said...

I love the last one!

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

For your first veggies grown in containers, I think you are doing great. You are inspiring me to give it a try.

Happy Gardening and I hope you get more than the critters do.

FlowerLady

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

It looks like you will be busy harvesting your veggies in the near future. Everything looks great. I was wondering wether your cucumber will be straight like in the market. Some of us look like a half loop which can be cause of fluctuating temperature or the fruit touch something.

Autumn Belle said...

Your veggie plants look very healthy and the harvest is good. Cheers to you and wishing you happy holidays!

lifeshighway said...

I'm not a big fan of okra but your plants look great!

Anonymous said...

I too am not fond of okra, but you are doing quite well growing them.

takaeko said...

Merry Christmas, p3chandan!!
All of your vegetables are so prospective that you can expect great harvest!

islandgal246 said...

Merry Christmas and a happy and Healthy New Year. I love Okras too and thank you for stopping by my blog.

miruku said...

All your veggies are doing great, but the last pic is my favourite of all! Haha.
Happy Gardening.

p3chandan said...

Salam Bangchik, remember how excited you were tasting your first homgrown veggies? Well..so was I! It encouraged me to grow more veggies next time hopefully better with my new raised beds.

p3chandan said...

Rainfield, Milka..thanks, I love it too!:)

p3chandan said...

Thank you Flowerlady for your kind word, it encourages me to grow more veggies next year!

p3chandan said...

Diana, thank you I hope I can grow lots of varieties of veggies like your garden, though cant really achieve what you did in your productive garden! I dont mind what shapes the cucumbers going to be I just want them to grow well so that I can eat them..haha!

Autumn Belle, Lifeshighway, Donna, thank you for the support and encouragement. Happy holidays and Merry Xmas to you all!

p3chandan said...

Takaeko, thank you and Merry Xmas and happy holidays to you too!

p3chandan said...

Hi Helen, thank you for dropping by my small garden. I love okra too and I intend to plant more soon.Merry Xmas and happy holidays!

A. said...

happy new year! i love your okras.

Muhammad khabbab said...

Well your plants are looking great. Happy new year !!!!!

p3chandan said...

Arati..thank you. Happy New Year to you too!

p3chandan said...

Thank your Muhammad Khabbab, Happy New Year to you too! Thanks for dropping by small garden!

Malar said...

All your vegetables are growing healthly! Fox at your place? That's a bit scary though..... From what i know tomatoes have to ripen or they will taste bad for even animals! May be you can pick the grown tomatoes and ripe it indoors. I did that with my tomatoes last time!

p3chandan said...

Malar its just a small one a bit bigger than a cat I think, cos it can be heard on my rooftop sometimes. Thank you for your advice about the tomatoes since its my first time, I will do that Malar.

Sunray Gardens said...

Wonderful how well they did in containers.

Cher
Goldenray Yorkies