All in a day's work.... ;)

Ratih hard at work

Yea)))) Ratih planted green spinach and onions :)

Green [mung] & adzuki beans + black eyed peas

Garlic, red spinach, onions

Carrots

Experimenting: self-watering. Papaya seeds. Kangkung looks like it will die soon!

 

Watercress in water by the kitchen sink

Growing roots on kangkung

 

Sunflowers and onions: an experiment :)

Another experiment: Germinating mango seeds and fresh okra seeds

oh those little shoots!

          I'm just showing off. Maybe also a little smug because I've N.E.V.E.R managed to grow anything before in my life - I think. Except for a couple of papaya trees when I threw some seeds into mum's flower pot by the kitchen door a long time ago. They grew by the grace of Allah - no effort whatsoever on my part. Mum transferred the seedlings to a couple of spots on our property and we got to sample homegrown papayas for quite a while. Until it bent double after a heavy thunderstorm.
           Anyway, here are pics of the shoots. I'm hoping/praying fervently that they'll grow into vegetable/fruit bearing handsome specimens ;)

My bean plants - which was actually a fortunate accident. I threw the beans in there thinking that it would act as mulch. It grew instead. You probably can't see it but there's one spinach shoot leftover from the family feud I mentioned in an earlier posting.

All the tomato seeds germinated well. I also have a solitary chilli seedling and a couple of hybrid cabbages.

I replanted chillis and cabbages in the rectangular packet [which formerly housed biscuits]. The round cups have soursop and custard apple [buah nona] seeds in its unscathed form.

More soursop and custard apple seeds which have been scarified. Saw it on youtube and thought I'd give it a shot ;)

Carrots shoots. Have to transfer this to a bigger pot later - unless I give in to Auni's wish for baby carrots.

This is dirt from my backyard. I'm letting dry out for a bit before adding soil that I bought from a nursery to it. Wanna see if anything will grow well enough in the mixture.





            I'm actually thinking of easy ways to garden so I've been visiting many gardening blogs and youtube of course. And I've learnt a lot. Well, enough to do some experimenting at least. Will keep you posted on the outcome. Being a lazy gardener and pretty good researcher should yield satisfactory results methinks ;)

http://www.animalcorner.co.uk/insects/worms/worm_trivia.html gives worm trivia. Stuff like

~~ An earthworm can only grow so long. The length of an adult will depend on what kind of worm it is, how many segments it has, how old it is and how well fed it is. An earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) can measure from 90 - 300 millimetres long.

~~ The largest earthworm ever found was in South Africa and measured 22 feet from its nose to the tip of its tail.

Alright...imagine this: 

times 3 perhaps?? ewwwwww I'd think it's a snake! I can't even heck the 2-inch ones, what more one that's 22 feet!! Makkk)))))))))) tolonggggg!!

eeeek.....worms!

          Eeeeeek! Urgggggghhhhh! Geli! Teramat! Am I the ONLY gardener in the whole wide world who can't stand earthworms???? Howwwww????

alas...the bugs got them!

           My lovely lettuce shoots are no more! :"( :"(  Eaten by some cockroach looking bug. Saya sangat sedih!
           So I've loosened and transferred the soil to another pot. Added some more soil from a small pot which had beans growing - of which only one healthy bean plant emerged. I transferred the healthy one to another pot so it could be in the company of other healthy beanstalks :) Who knows...it may grow and reach the sky and I would find a giant with a goose which lays golden eggs....
            On a happier note, I now have 4 tomato plants, 1 chilli plant, and 2 hybrid cabbage plants. Plus several carrot plants and a solitary spinach. I don't know if the soursop and buah nona [what's that in English?] seeds I sowed will germinate. I don't even know how long I should wait. Hmmm I don't know a lot of stuff.....
            Hani gifted me 2 planters of medium size. I think I'll plant spinach again. I promised Danish he could have another go after he was sabotaged by Iris and Aisya who pulled out several spinach shoots during a family feud. Poor Danish! Poor spinach!
            Maybe plant hybrid cabbage in the other planter? And I still have a couple of pots left. Maybe buy brinjal and ladiesfinger seeds to go there. Maybe sunflowers.
            Whatever it is, I need to get more planting soil. Nursery....here I come!

My inaugural planting stint.......sort of ;)

These kids [sans Auni, who was in school] planted red and green spinach, chilli, cherry tomatoes, and a hybrid greenish cabbage. All I did was look and supervise ;)

I had no planter boxes. Was too lazy to carry flower pots all the way up those steep stairs to my flat. I found some styrofoam bowls - which was just the right size for the seedlings. Got the kids to punch a few holes in the bottom...and voila! we've got our seedling pots. The spinach is planted in a discarded steamer cover which I once used as a parabola [which actually managed to "catch" 2 bars of internet reception. I now have a repeater so it was officially retired].

Showed the kids what to do with the compost [organic...mind you!], handed them the seeds, and let them have a swell time playing with dirt. Oh, we said our prayers before planting and smiled at the seeds.

Here's the result:

Red and green spinach in steamer cover, complete with chopsticks as stakes. The net I found in a container whilst looking for something else  :D










                                                                                                                                                                           

Chilli, cherry tomatoes and hybrid cabbage seedlings-to-be nicely lined in rows in a kitchen cabinet drawer destined for the rubbish dump.

Ta-da! Another view of our handiwork...sitting on what was formerly the shoe cabinet.

       The resident gardener extraordinaire, my brother Zenal, inspected our work later. He seemed happy with it. The kids came back in a few hours and were disappointed that leaves hadn't sprouted yet. Told them to sleep 7 times before checking on the seeds. But they keep coming around several times each day. If the seeds germinate, it'll be because of all that love and attention being sent their way ;)

       Lets pray the seeds WILL germinate.....pretty please.......