Pandan as known in Malaysia, while every nation around south east asia has a different name for it, is a fragrant leafy plant wonderful for cooking and making drinks besides many other usages. This is a very easy to grow plants and need plenty of water, plant them near river or drain, they grow into monster size. You can keep harvesting it leaves and it keep sprouting new shoots or you can take the bottom part of it and grow it again.
There are always bird nest to be found all over my garden and thanks to my father in law, he build a series of simple bird house which i placed all over he garden hoping to be able to observe some birds start their new family. First guest were the magpies and 3 little chicks stayed for about a month inside the red birdhouse while the rest still awaiting more guests.
Check out the video of them calling for food.
Tapioca is one hardy plant and easy to grow, just by cutting the plant and stick it in the ground and within days, new shoots will grow. It needs very little care and plenty of sunlight. It takes only 1 month to grow up to 4 to 5 feet and eventually it continue to grow up 10 to 15 feet, which either it gets too heavy and break or it simply starts growing sideways after tilting. It takes up to 6 to 8 months for a good harvest and depending on soil condition and care.
I pulled one of these out to see what has grown over 5 months.
Latest harvest 5/6/14
I was told to experiment growing tapioca in a pot, basically a confined space and this hardy crop will survive in any condition and grow healthily. The tapioca will grow to the edge of the pot and it will then thicken since it cant grow in length anymore. I kept cutting its top off and new shoot keep growing over a period of 6 months. Finally uprooted and i got 3 pretty big tapioca, plucked them and put the entire plant back to grow more.
Hot climate and most of my tomato plants barely survive or even produce much, I had a go with cherry tomato planted under my mango tree. Only a few survived and finally got a few cherry tomatoes for my salad. Cherry tomato plant will grow healthy for a while, once it starts flowering and fruiting, aphids will attack and most likely kill the entire plant, yet to find the best formula to grow them.
Easy to grow but hard to get them to fruit in such hot weather like Malaysia.
I was told this cekor is another form of ginger or galanggal used by local Malaysian for cooking fragrant rice and medicinal uses. Once gain, curiosity made me planted half the bag i bought from the market only to expect a typical green leafy plant but i was so wrong. It took a few days for the little rhizome to grow and within a month to grow into a healthy leafy plant which eventually flowers everyday. I had mistaken the pretty white flower was blown from nearby trees but actually it shoot out in between those thick leaves.
Started this experiment in recycled plastic containers and every rhizome grow healthy under the hot sun and watered daily. Aesthetically beautiful and easy to care plant.
Curiosity and childlike excitement thinking i could grow artichoke, that beautiful big purple flower made me took these little root home and planted them, not knowing artichoke jerusalem is actually a different plant which bears beautiful yellow flower. It took a week to grow and months to flower, uprooted one plant and this artichoke plant is similar to other ginger plants in my garden.
It keep growing and look like some sort of weed till it starts to bloom daisy like yellow flowers.
Lets see what going on underground, i pulled out one to see how these artichoke jerusalem is formed. They are very similar to peanuts and it looks like they are not ready even i had been growing them for more than 3 months.
This is an experiment i read on another blog, carrot top can be regrown and turns out its true. However, took me a few try and managed to grow it till it flowered. No carrots were found though, confused.
It been a month and i sort of waited for the flower to grow, first time seeing it.
Within a week, a long stalk with many flowers rose to the top with tiny little flowers in it.
Found this unknown plant growing from my compost heap and left it in a pot not knowing if its just weed or something interesting. This plant been growing for months and it kept getting taller, almost 3 feet tall and just green leaves. Then, it started to form beautiful flowers and guess this will lead to something. Only till the little pea like berry is formed, i know this is pea eggplant but it got attacked by aphids, only a few pea eggplant managed to formed.
Got some french bean from my kitchen and they look pretty too ripe for consumption. Dried the bean and got the seeds to grow and experiment on this plant.
Beans begin sprouting withing days and i placed them near some shady area, water daily and grown in compost based soil.
I transferred each plant into separate pot and i provided a recycled metal stand with wires around it for the vines to climb.
It took 2 months for the plant to creep all over the metal frame and started to produce little white flowers all over. Then, tiny little pods starts to form from these flowers and its pretty amazing to watch these french bean grow daily and quickly.
Within 2 weeks you get to harvest more than 20 to 30 bean from each plant.
The first few harvest is slow but within weeks from the first harvest, the amount of bean will increase steadily and eventually dried up over a month or two.
Holy basil can be grown by seeds or by cutting, cutting is much easier and faster. Make sure to water daily and grown in full sun. Great for cooking thai food and it has a sweet smelling flavour but a little pungent.
Close up of the flower from this basil plant.
You can simply regrow these basil by cutting them and sticking them into the ground or you can harvest the dried flower which house these little seed pod with tiny black seeds in it.
mybigSfarm 