My Garden - Get to know me week # 2

Some of you might know that I'm fussy about food names. Yam/Taro or Amaranth/Spinach. Or how sometimes when some fellow bloggers finds some weird fruit, and that will make me go on a crazy frenzy trying to identify them.

I graduated with a Minor in Horticulture. What's horticulture? In short, I studied about plants with commercial value like vegetables, fruit and ornamental flowers. Now you know why I'm soooooooo particular about such things. I'm especially passionate for plant taxonomy, and that is plant classification. LOL. Maybe it's due to an early exposure to orchids. My late dad was a self taught orchid horticulturist, who won numerous awards in major competitions and nicknamed Species King within the orchid enthusiasts in Malaysia during his time. Dad passed away when I was 12, so, my trips to orchid exhibitions were cut short..very short. But during the few years that I followed my dad around, I always helped out with placing the orchids where they belong, according to their type. That's was how I got started, since 10.

But weirdly, I don't have green fingers. Not everything I plant lives. I may know all the theory that I could remember from my coursework, but whether the plant lives or not? Up to God to determine. LOL.

Currently I'm using au naturel nitrogen rich fertilizers produced from non other than my dearie Lyanne. LOL.
Reuben's will be next.

Here are some plants in my garden right now...

Dragon fruit seedlings

They just grew when I discarded some pulp and skin intending them to turn into compost

Lemon trees

These grew out of seed. My hubby's aunt brought some homegrown lemons back from Australia. We never expected them to grow, and it was just eat and throw. :p

I do hope they do fruit later

Fennel

I purposely planted from the fennel seeds on my spice rack.

I want to see them flower and determine whether the 'jintan manis' we have here is fennel or aniseed. The colour of the flower is different for each and let's confirm the proper name, shall we?

Update 1/3/12: Name is confirmed. Read here

Bird's Eye Chilli.

A must for lovers of all things spicy. Sometimes you only need a few and it's so wasteful buying RM1 and allowing them to rot in the fridge. My FIL bought this and transplanted it into the pot.

Curry leaf plant.

Don't plant them in the ground. They make everything smell like them.

Galangal.

 Just shooted from some store bought roots. I am planting them for the fragrant flowers.

Aloe Vera.

The huge type. Good for dessert, soups or skin care

Lemongrass.

See some of those lying by the side of the pot? Actually I bought those and they were dried up in the fridge. So I tot, they should be dead and threw them into the pot to rot. But they were revived, and grew roots and shoots. Rootless, leafless, looks dead, but ressurected by contact with soil. BTW, lemongrass is so pricey nowadays. RM1 for 4 stalks only.

Mint.

Food bloggers always need some mint for decoration purposes. :)

My MIL bought some mint from the market, took the leaves off for consumption, and I kept the stems in water (like flowers in a vase) until they rooted. Only then did I plant them in the soil. Now, growing very well.

Pandan

A must in the South East Asian home.

It's growing tooooooo slow for my consumption rate.

Passionfruit seedlings.

You can grow your own passionfruit. Just throw some seeds onto the ground :)

But make sure you give them something to creep about

Purslane / Portulaca Oleracea / 马齿苋

One stalk came together with my bunch of wild amaranth (马屎苋). I just discard like that and it grew.

Never ate this before, but will try it later when it grows more. Read up that it's rich in Omega acids.

Rue / 臭草

It's 'smelly grass'. Used in desserts. My MIL got this plant for me.

Spring onions

Planted from shallots that look shriveled in my pantry.  They may not be good as shallots, but will be good as scallions or spring onions. Don't stick them into the soil. Onto the soil will be good enough.

Turmeric.

I use the leaves to make rendang. Crucial crucial!

If you're hardworking, dig up the roots instead of buying.

I won't tell what is this. You guess!

Hint: It's usually found at colder climates and the part we eat is red.

Swee San, you cannot guess. Reese also cannot. OiLai also cannot.

This plant got me jumping up and down with excitement!

 30/9/2011: Answer is :

Strawberry seedlings,

they came out of thrown out mouldy strawberries.

My "To-Plant" list:

Red Torch Ginger (Bunga Kantan)

Thai Basil

Sweet Basil

Rosemary

Kumquat

Calamansi

Lime

Mutingia Tree (Kaya fruit)

I'll be including some gardening stuff into my blog in the future,

of things that i happen to plant successfully ...

God bless my garden!