Kitaran Hidup Sengkuang (Seeds Give-Away)

 We did a lot of digging this week and one of the happy digging time was taking out the jicama/mexican turnip or in Malaysia known as sengkuang' tubers out from the soil. Now I need some ideas from other gardeners how to enjoy this sengkuang, Any favourite dishes? Facebook buddy gardeners has introduce me to Nyonya dish 'Ju Hu Char' which is jicama stir-fry with dried cuttlefish which I would like to try as soon as I get some dried cuttlefish.

 Sengkuang grows easily in the tropics as it loves heat and high humidity. Definitely a good plant for novice gardener in tropics to try. For juicy tubers will need lots of water. Not enough water will cause the growing tubers to crack which happened when we tried growing them in Adelaide that have really dry summer because we did not water enough the plants in summer as we should. Infrequent consistent watering during drought season might resulted in crack tubers. It was a tricky attempts at growing sengkuang in Mediterranean climate but so easily grown here in the tropics. Experiencing different climate growing sengkuang was to me a valuable one. Don't judge by the size of the sengkuang tubers, younger tubers are more sweeter than the older ones.

Sprouted sengkuang seeds poking out.

 Sengkuang actually does not require many space to grow. In fact it can also be grown in containers which we did in our previous home with limited space (link). Sengkuang plants is a half-climber. When the plants are small you train them up and later on they find their own way. If you don't have a rich fertile soil, you can grow sengkuang plant first as they are legume, a natural nitrogen-fixer.

 Sengkuang flowers. The sengkuang plants that we grown in Adelaide never produces flowers. The lilac flower shape resembles closely to winged bean and snake bean.

Dried Sengkuang Seed pods. The sengkuang beans are not edible. 

Sengkuang Seeds.

This week we harvested a pamelo, lemons, bananas, bird-eyes chilli, Pandan leaves, Passion fruit, Calamansi fruits, Nam Nam fruit, Tamarind Fruits, Asam Gelugor (Garcinia atroviridis) leaves.

 I am giving away some sengkuang seeds for 3 gardeners randomly picked from the comments. Will announce the recipient at my next post.

Have a lovely weekend.

Bush Bean Redland Pioneer Life Cycle

The first bush bean that we grown was 'Redland Pioneer' in our garden and has been the best performer among the bush beans we have tried (not many though still to compare with). But it has been the most reliable bean to fill in the hungry gap. Bush bean grows really fast and provide some beans in 7~8weeks of growing, sometime earlier if the weather is preferable for their optimum growth. It is really an important veggie in our garden since it fill the hungry gap in spring and again in fall. We sow 'Redland Pioneer' bush bean 3 times a year-spring, summer and autumn. Well, rather than leaving the soil bare after harvesting other veggies, we might as well grow beans so they help fix nitrogen into the soil again. Its a win-win situation. I feel that bush bean seeds does not require much water to germinate, too much water can cause the seeds to rot easily in cool season. A really good veggie for a lazy gardener like me, bush beans not a heavy drinker and not a heavy feeder.

Bush bean 'Redland Pioneer' seedlings'

Because we don't have that much space to grow and very greedy, I tried to maximize the space we have by planting the plants densely together in spring/summer. I can get away growing them densely in a spot with full sun because they don't compete each other with light and it helps keep the soil moist longer as it is covered with the foliage. Less evaporation. Save money from buying mulch. I gave up with mulching this year because the bird will cause serious damage by their scratching habit on seedlings. Last spring when we transplanted tomato at this area, we direct-sowed bush bean seeds around the tomato seedlings. It did very well and the tomatoes grow without any fuss. Humidity is very low in our garden warm season here so our tomato plants can readily accept being close to other plants and I don't have to worry about good air circulation.

Beans grow well in partial shade too. But not as prolific as in full sun which you get more beans to harvest. In partial shade, I probably plant shorter plants together with beans to give the bean plants more light and not to over-shadowed them. We had many violas flower plant volunteers one spring season, and I transplanted them as border plant just to make the garden look more colourful. If in tropics, I can imagine portulaca (moss rose) growing in the viola place instead. At the back row are Bloomsdale spinach young plants.

Bush Bean Redland Pioneer very prolific.

At their pick season, just a few plants will give you enough harvest for an average family number.

I have been growing them for 3 years but this is the first time/year I really collected their seeds. I have been trying to collect them earlier last year but its hard to get the seed pod dried properly in autumn season.  I also found sprouted bean seeds in the seed pods during autumn. So this time I let the summer heat wave do the quick drying process for me.

Shining harvested bean seeds.

After I harvested the seeds, I planted some of our home-grown seeds. I felt very satisfied with the results and the new harvest from plants grown from our home-grown seeds. Contentment.

Have a lovely weekend!

Dahlia Cinderella

This is the first dahlia we ever grown. Bought a punnet of Dahlia "Cinderella" seedlings in 2010 at our local nursery. Some were grown in pots and some on the garden ground soil. They are easy to grow. However, have to watch out when they are young seedlings as snail or slugs like to munch on them. Dahlia "Cinderella" is a mini size dahlia it grows less than 30cm.

I was not planning on collecting seeds or dahlia tubers at that time. The plant got completely dried and died in autumn when the weather cools down. The first blooming season  we had with this dahlia in 2010 was late spring. I wanted to use the pots that were growing dahlia cinderella for other plants and found some dahlia tubers inside the pot. 

So I kept those dahlia tubers in a paperbag and brought them inside to see how they grow when spring comes. I tried to see whether there are any tubers from dahlia plants that we grow on the garden ground soil. However, there were none tubers from the plants there. Did it get rotten with all the watering because before I realised we can get tubers from them I planted other cool season plants at that site. The pots that were grown dahlia was not water after all the plants dried. It is interesting that the garden teaches you lots of things and you find so many new things discover unintentionally. Lesson to learn: don't water the plants when you intend to collect tubers or bulbs from it. Let it dried of naturally when the blooming season has past. My excuse is I was not planning to collect any tubers at that time.

Spring came in year 2011 , the weather gets warmer and I check how the tubers are doing. They are some rhizomes (correct me if I use the wrong term) sprouting from the tubers. I gave some dahlia tubers to my mother, but I am usually worried that she over-water them. Only a few were left for my fun experiment in our garden.

Planted the tubers and several weeks later some shoots poke out from the soil.

It is really interesting to see how different the blooming season of dahlia can be when you bought it from nursery or grow your own from seeds or bulbs. I don't used any fertilizer for our plants during any of their growth stages.

When did the dahlia "Cinderella" bloom this time around?

Looks like a tree dahlia young shoot at this stage.

The first bloom was in autumn.

Not like its parent.

But I think this is normal from growing your own from tubers or seeds.

Its the correct dahlia cycle following the season and expose outdoors.

Its not from a greenhouse and boost by fertiliser.

To judge how big is the bloom size, compare with the portulaca flower that bloom near it.

Visit Ewa for more flowers on saturday.

Of course we cannot resist collecting the seeds too.

We collected some seeds in 2011 from the original parents but by the time I remember about them sitting in my seed box its was probably too late to sow them. Growing from seeds will be this 2012 end of the year project. Plants that are grown from tubers will be the exact copy or clone of its parents. Wonder how the dahlia will look from seeds? Will it be only one colour or multi-colours.

We finally have some rain today after very warm weather.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kitaran Hidup Karot Naga (Life-Cycle of Dragon Carrot)

I did not aim to collect dragon carrot seeds last year, just did not made it on time to harvest all of the carrots in spring before it came woody and starts to flower. We planted different variety of carrots last year and one of them is dragon carrot. I found dragon carrot seems to flower much faster than other carrot varieties when we entered spring season. We were lucky that carrot did very well last year. Dragon carrot top leaves stems closer to the root are purplish in colour.

Dragon carrot fern-like foliage is pretty. If you are aiming to enjoy dragon carrot roots, try to harvest it quickly in early spring. I found that purple carrots are more sensitive to the change of day-length compare to orange carrots. Last sowing month for cool season will be May or it might straight away bolt. However, it is fun to harvest different colour of carrots in the garden.

The carrot central stalk has formed a fat looking stalk.

The carrot root core at this stage will become too woody to enjoy.

Dragon carrot buds.

Dragon carrot just starting to bloom.

Dragon carrot in full bloom.

Very tempting to cut the flower and bring inside it look very cute.

More flowers.

The older flower gradually forming seeds.

Blooming together with our volunteer larkspur flower plant in container.

Dragon carrot seeds.

For us the challenge of collecting carrot seeds is when those seeds are left to dry properly on the plants because that is the time aphids came settle on the seeds. There were no aphids during any time of the carrots life cycle except when the seeds are developing. I am not sure why aphids seems attracted to infest the developing seeds. Because of aphids we did not get to collect as many as we thought we could.

Have a nice weekend! 

Stock (astral) Life-Cycle

I was really amazed this year that our astral stock flower seems not to mind the hot summer we had and living right through it. We still had a few plants flowering here and there in the garden at the moment that were planted last fall. A good month for sowing astral stock seeds here in Adelaide.

Astral stock newly germinated seeds.

Astral stock seedlings.

Hoping for volunteers this year and picture as a reminder for not weeding it.

End of winter last year, astral stock growing among our Italian sprouting broccoli plants.

Oh! The white cabbage butterfly seems fond of the flower stock.

Got the pest distracted a bit so it won't bother the brassica that much.

Gone are the broccoli plants.

Astral stock seed pods left to dry.

Astral stock seed pods resembles a mini version of stink bean (petai).

Astral stock flower seeds.

Psstt...my garden clock indicates that it is a good time to sow larkspur seeds now at Adelaide plain. This week we have so many larkspur volunteers popping in the garden.

Have a nice long weekend holiday!

First Quarter 2012 Harvested Seeds (Jual-jual benih)

The first 3 months of year 2012, we did managed to harvest some seeds for future planting. Collecting our own seeds has able us to buy different variety of seeds and each year we have chance to add new varieties in the garden. For example, for peppers the first year we only have one variety and the second year we have 3-4 varieties growing, then the 3rd year maybe 7-8 varieties. The number of pepper varieties in our collection each year keep adding up. Its fun to harvest these different variety of fruit from the same family growing with different shape, colour and flavour.

Like human, seeds need to adapt to a new environment as well. The process of saving seeds with each new generation will make the variety or genetic strain you are growing more and more suitable and easier to grow in your garden. When I bought seeds, some seeds can be a challenge to germinate it. But when I collect the seeds later generation after generation, the seeds germination rate gets better and better while the plants become hardier in our own garden environment. 

We collected some 'Clemson spineless' okra seeds this month. It was main priority in the seed list to stock up because I finished the seeds last year. Lucky we managed to stock up more this year than last year.

From the capsicum family, so far we managed to save sweet cherrytime and banana capsicum seeds. The other varieties has just started to bloom and fruit. Hopefully, I will remember to save some seeds for the other type.

Our new collection of sunflower seed this year ~ Giant Russian Sunflower.

This is the first time we are collecting Rainbow Chard seeds.

At the moment many volunteers are popping out.

We probably don't need to sow the seeds, they did the job for us voluntarily.

All we need to do is transplanting.

For fun I did sow some of them, and germination was fast.

Several tomato seeds varieties has also been safely collected. For example, yellow pear cherry tomato, tigerella tomato and joy's yellow cherry. But I have not achieved my target for them yet. 

We also have new pumpkin/squash seeds variety in our home-grown seeds collection like Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato Pumpkin. 

We grow bush bean 'Redland Pioneer' for two years already, but this is the first time we collected the seeds. This bean suits really well in our garden, a reliable crop. We usually planted them in Spring and Autumn to fill in the gap as they produce really fast.

What seeds have you been collecting recently?

Saya telah menerima banyak perminataan semenjak saya menulis blog ini mengenai benih-benih yang saya kumpul seperti adakah boleh saya menjual benih-benih ini. Saya minta maaf kadang-kadang tidak dapat memenuhi permintaan atas kesibukan atau bilangan benih yang saya kumpul kekadang terhad untuk keperluan sendiri. Tetapi mulai minggu ini sampai hujung bulan ini sahaja saya akan cuba membuat senarai benih-benih apa yang boleh saya jual di ebay tanahairku jika ada luangan masa. Sebagai penjual di laman itu, saya pakai nama penjual tukangkebunkmg (link disertakan) kepada siapa yang sudi melawat laman tersebut. Saya juga ada sertakan barangan keperluan bayi atau ibu mengandung. Setiap pembeli akan menerima percuma 10 biji mammoth hybrid sunflower apabila meninggalkan mesej nama blog kami 'Kebun Malay-Kadazan Girl'.

Have a lovely weekend!

Parsnip Life-Cycle

The white root vegetable parsnip seeds shape are different from other root vegetable such as carrot, radish and turnip. Parsnip seeds looks like a round flat brown disc. I was surprise when I first saw them. Parsnip seeds are much bigger and easier to handle compare to carrot seeds. 

Newly sprouted seeds. From right: a seedling still attached to the seed coat, a seedling free from the seed coat, and seedling with its first true leaves. 

More growth and bigger leaves.

Parsnips growing in rows with carrot and leek as companion.

If parsnips is grown over-winter, it will be better to harvest the root before mid-spring before the root becomes woody and start to flower. It will be good to left a few parsnip to flower as the flower attracts beneficial creatures into your garden. Parsnip roots takes a long time to grow compared with carrot. It will take at least 6 months before it is ready to be harvested depending on the climate.

Parsnip flowering.

Parsnip seeds developing stage.

Parsnip seeds ready to be harvested.

Are you planting any parsnip this year?

How long do you usually wait to harvest your parsnip?