Butterfly Pea [Clitoria Ternatea]

Butterfly pea flower, commonly grown for the flower which produces blue colouring or dye for food not so much for the pea pod and the all famous scientific name which is also used for the female private part due to the similarity of the design of the flower. This beautiful and useful flower can be grown anywhere and sometimes it takes over a huge area in the wild, creeping over fences and other man made objects. In order to grow this plant, dry the pod and get the seeds, it takes less than 3 months for it to mature and flower. They grow healthy and best grown with something for it to climb and creep on. This flower attracts a lot of tiny birds and bees, pick the flower once it starts to close and dry them in the hot sun if you want to produce some nice blue dye.

Old cucumber

Old cucumber, thats what we call it here and some think its simply ordinary cucumber we have and left to aged thus called old cucumber. This is best or most famous used locally to boil soup and the plants looks like cucumber plant. This was grown from my compost bin and I sort of let it be for a few weeks and it managed to produce a few cucumber.

Winter melon [Grown in pot]

This little experiment simply prove, most plants are very hardy and resilient, they simply survive and thrive given the right conditions even inside a small pot. 2018 first big harvest and this little potted winter melon plant started roughly 6 months ago from a tiny seed and I simply recycled some abandoned wood to make a little cage for it to creep on. Only one fruit made it while the rest simply dried up and dropped off the vine. Only fed with home made compost and no artificial fertilizer or pesticides. The leaves is being attacked but the fruit seem to have none insect bite mark compared to other fruits or vegetables I have.

Roselle [Hibiscus Sabdariffa]

Most of us who tried this bright red drink which taste like berry would not believe it came from this dried hibiscus flower called roselle. Its very easy to grow, just get one of the fruit and dry it to harvest the seed. It takes a few months to grow up to 1 meter or more which the entire plant will be filled with flowers. The fruit will form and you can harvest it and dry it. The dried flower can be kept for years and you can make drinks by boiling it in water which re-hydrate it and edible too.

Bountiful of Jackfruit

After 3 years of growing a few jackfruit trees while some destroyed by termites, most trees has matured and started to fruit with close to 20 fruit per tree. I was late to wrap up the young fruits and most got damaged by bugs and started rotting from inside out. The not ripe fruit is totally eaten internally by worms like maggots and most fall to the ground and being removed. Hopefully the rest survive the journey and ripen soon.

 

Fence Farming v2.0

This is the end result of converting unused fences around the neighbourhood into a simple farm. Passion fruit has been one of the most successful of all, with little to not much care once planted around the fence. This luscious growth from a few passion fruit plant scattered along a 3 meter stretch started creeping up the fence and fruit within 4 to 5 months time. The fruit it ready harvest now, last count, around 50 to 60 fruits so far.

Taro Root / Yam

In Malaysia, taro plants are commonly known as keladi or yam. There are many types, I don’t really know what is the exact name for each, some are small while other can be more than a foot long. This is probably my worst farming experiment, I could easily sprout the root and into healthy plants but never really gotten any good harvest. Usually eaten up by termites or some white aphids like insects digging into the roots.

Passion fruit [Passiflora edulis]

Passion fruit, definitely not my favourite sort of fruit, usually sour and mainly used for desserts and garnishing. My only interest for growing this plant is mainly for the unique and beautiful flower. This climbing vine plant is perfect for creating natural sun shading vertically or horizontally. This is one hardy plant, very easy to care and grow fast.

This little plant crept all over my fence and find its way up to anything that is near to it. Lush and beautifully green all the time, constantly flowering and fruiting non stop.

The flower usually bloom around noon when its sunny and hot, it simply attracts lots of bees and insects to pollinate them.

My very first passion fruit harvest, cant wait to try them.

Sugar Apple / Custard Apple [Annona squamosa]

This is my favourite fruit since I was a child, I really love it and its always sweet and creamy. Sugar apple or custard apple or locally its called ‘buah nona’ used to be a commonly found fruit at the market but not anymore. Now mostly imported from Thailand, Taiwan or Bangladesh only some grown locally which makes me wonder, how hard can it be to grow sugar apple ? I see a few of these tree around my neighbourhood and I am going to cultivate some and grow them. Simply by buying some to eat and throw the seeds into a pot and let the germination begin.

It took almost 1 week for the seeds to grow and transferred individually to a separate pot before I move them onto the ground. 3 months old plant look very little and I was told it takes years before they fruit. Lets wait and see.

This plant started to flower and fruit within 1 year, I was told it takes up to 3 years to fruit but those could be different types or mine is some sort of hybrid ?

Finally, my very first sugar apple grown at my little garden.

This is what inside looks like.

Sugar Cane [Saccharum]

There many types of sugar cane but around my area, we could either get the green or the red ones. The green ones are very juicy and usually they use a juicer and extract its sweet sugary content and drink it fresh while the red ones are tough and not juicy all. Well, why choose to grow the red ones then? The red ones are usually grown to make drinks too but its mixed with other herbs and chopped into tiny pieces, boiled for a few hours to extra its nutrient. So, if you wish to grow some, just get a stick of sugar cane and grow them in the ground.

I transfer the successfully cultivated pot to the ground 2 feet apart from each other. Add some compost and water them daily for a few months.

The sugar cane plant will grow and young plants will start to grow around the main stalk and slowly turn into a big bush. It is time to harvest when some of the cane are thick and tall, keep the young ones only take what you need and you have years of sugar cane supply.

Easy to care for and trim the leaves once a while to keep them neat and tidy.