Success and Failures in our garden

Dear Family & Friends

Every gardening year is different from the last. Most of it has something to do with the weather pattern, the timing of sowing and planting, plus soil condition. There's always the successes and failures - but that is not important...I just take in the joy of all surprises that comes our way, then dream and hope for a better one - next time!

My first time success with luffa - I'm happy:)

I have my share of garden failures, but today I am sharing you my garden joy. As you can see, this year I pat myself for I managed to grow luffa that bear us some fruits to eat and use - for the first time after my 3 attempts!! It took me 3 years!!

This one will be left to become sponge and for seed saving

Look...just loook!! The fruit looks good, heavy and big, although the leaves and the whole plant seems pathetically small. I have about 10 fruits out of the whole packet of seeds I've sown in early summer, which came to about 5 plants! I am already happy with that. I will leave 3 big fruits to dry, get its seeds (my very own this time) and turn it into luffa sponge. The rest of the fruits will be cooked. It's delicious eaten as stir fry with garlic and tomatoes - using the young fruits.

my rows of 5 buckets of the exotic kang kong plant:)

Another exotic plant that I never give up with is the Kang Kong. (also known as water spinach or cong xin cai). It's not a local plant, so it gives me a lot of challenges...but it's my comfort food. As a child I never like eating veggies but somehow I like eating this, stir fried with just garlic and salt.

leafy kangkong greens which is a cut and come again plant

This plant doesn't grow robustly here as it is more of a tropical plant. I plant them in buckets and water them as much as I should. Every now and again, I snip the leaves for cooking...you need a lot of it because they just shrink once cooked. Oh...it's so precious here -that I have to divide a small bowl of this stir fry into 4 to share...LOL! I'm thinking of ways to overwinter them so that next year I can replant a lot more - for the moment, I'm not too sure if I will succeed on this plan.

Aloe vera,  boxwood cuttings, apples from seeds, citrus plant - growing in pots for the time being

There are many other plants I like to grow which need extra care that I'm not prepared to do. This year, I grew aloe vera. From last winter's mandarin oranges we ate, two citrus plants sprouted from seeds! A few boxwood cuttings I potted because I'm hoping to trim them for indoor decor. There's few apples that sprouted from seeds that came along the pot of tomato seedlings that a neighbor gave us this year. These are bits and pieces of plants that I'm experimenting with:)

our boxwood that was attacked by moth :( really sad looking.

When you learn as you go, everything seems exciting. Although not everything will go well as I dream it to be. The above photo of a big boxwood in our garden was attacked by moth this year. I didn't know and understand what was happening that time - until the aftermath. Now...I'm wiser...just hoping it will recover.

drying onion seed head blown by the wind and landed into this tub

It's time to sow veggie seeds that would grow in cooler days. I should be more meticulous with this chore, but sometimes it doesn't turn out as I planned it to be. In a tub of soil fell my onion seed head, blown by the wind, so they sprout in bunches. It's still a keeper...I will dig and separate them individually to replant on garden beds later on. For the moment they are all growing haphazardly:) They're happy - I'm happy:) 

Sometimes it's good to just chill out. I wish you a happy week too:)

Yours