A bouquet fit for cute little flower girl

My brother in-law has just got engaged last weekend in Terengganu. Unfortunately we could not come to his engagement party. Back in Malaysia it is school holiday, many people will usually have wedding during this time of year. My husband and I also took advantage of school holiday like this time of year to get married 4 years ago. I was looking at flowers that is blooming in our small garden and notice several cute flower which will fit perfectly for cute little flower girl tiny hands. No need for special flower arrangement let nature design it for you and it is free.

Calendula (Pot marigold)~I find this one unique. It is from one bud but it looks like lots of tiny flowers on it. Usually it has multiple petal layer on it forming a flower on one bud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cineraria 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Polyanthus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most loving couple in our garden.

To differentiate sprouted Asian leaf vegetable (brassica)

Asian leaf vegetable seeds sowed outside in end of August has sprouted nicely with germination rate almost 100%. Before the first true leaves develop, the leaves shapes look similar between the Asian leaf vegetable (brassica) family. I would have trouble identifying which is which without labels. 

Mustard Spinach @ Komatsuna (小松菜):

Wong Bok (白菜):

Choy sum :

Cabbage ‘Red Choi’ F1 hybrid ~ The red hue will help to identify this veggie apart from the same close family:

  Hon tsai tai @ Purple flower choy sum ~ The purple stem will help to differentiate it from other close relatives:

Seed propagation:

• Evening sun sunflower (home save seed)
• Sunflower Mammoth (Eden seed)
• Pumpkin Golden Nugget (Eden seed)
• Sweetcorn Early Gem (Eden seed)
• Snake bean (home save seed)
• Okra ‘ Clemson Spineless’ (home save seed)

Hari Raya Aidilfitri di perantauan

We have been busy these few days with cooking and celebrating Raya Aildilfitri with family and friends after a month of fasting in Ramadhan. We invited many friends this year to our house for a small traditional feast on the first and second day of Syawal. I don’t have much culinary skill but Mik and I managed to prepare home made traditional foods, cakes and biscuits such as Peanut sauce, Chicken Rendang, Beef Rendang, Chicken rice, roti jala,ect.

Ilhan with his traditional costume from his grandparents from Terengganu.

Children enjoying food at backyard.

  Ladies and babies with traditional costumes.

Celebrate Raya Aidilfitri together with friends.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!

Something amiss in Laksa or Assam Pedas without you.

 

In Malaysia or Singapore it is commonly known as daun kesom. Vietnamese called it rau ram. In Australia you find it in asian grocery shop labelled as Laksa leaf, named after the popular dish Laksa. The one I grown last year from stems died during winter. So now as it gets warmer here , we propagated new ones from Laksa leaf bought from Asian grocery shop that has been kept in the fridge shelves! Choose the one which are young stems and pick the leaves (use them for cooking) leaving the young ones only. Stick the young stem in soil. Then watch them grow with no need of pampering at all. 

After 10 days…more leaves develop.

After 10 days…more leaves develop.Easy to grow. No need to buy a whole plant in nursery. Propagating own Laksa leaf from separate stems will have many plants to grow and still leaving lots of leaves for cooking. 

Choy sum ~ Life Cycle

End of August we sowed many kind of vegetable seeds to prepare for middle spring planting. After a week the first group of vegetable seeds that has already germinated were daikon, choy sum and hon tsai tai. Below picture are a day or two day or even hours old baby choy sum seedlings in recycled orange juice carton box. End of August in Adelaide is already a good time to start sow choy sum seeds outside. Moreover, looking at it make me think the germination rate is almost 100%.

  Inter-planting fast crop choy sum seedling with slow to mature vegetable in late autumn: in the background new garlic shoots and new emerged carrot seedlings. 

Choy sum producing buds. 

Choy sum buds has bloomed. Look at the picture closely and you can see an insect growing fond of choy sum flower. The same choy sum plant producing more flowers. The insect is still there. It has become attached with choy sum flowers. I wonder if the choy sum and the insect has form a special relationship to benefit from each other.

More flowers means more seed pods. Some of the flower petals has already gone leaving the seed pod behind. Do you think that is still the same insect on the same plant?

Gone all the flowers. Only the seed pod remain and becoming fatter as the seed mature.

Leaving the seed pod to dry now to collect seeds.

I think they complete their life cycle from seed to seed in less than 4 months.