Occasional Green Pastures and Quiet Waters

Remember way back in April last year where I was working on a garden project? Well, as you can see from the picture above, it's gone. Closed down, cemented over.

It's been a great eleven months. I've reaped several harvests and learned a few more things about gardening, and also met a few interesting people along the way.

My patrons have gotten a new dog, a Husky, in fact, and it needed housing. To accommodate the new member to the family, they decided to build it's kennel where my garden used to be. Step one involved paving it over.

They have been very kind in letting me play around with the garden, and even financing a large bulk of it. It would be fitting that I should thank them, at least here, for giving me the pleasure of growing stuff in the sterile city. Mr and Mrs Nathaniel, thank you very much.

Now to find me another project to work on.

I couldn't wait a month. A week was all I could wait, and I tore all the carrots out of the ground. Good thing I did too. I was expecting to see orange carrots peeking out of the soil, and so thought that the carrots weren't forming when I saw none. Little did I know that they were actually already formed, or should I say de-formed. Any longer and the tap roots would have developed.

It has been about three months since I've planted my baby carrot crop. They are the reason why there has been pretty much no activity in the garden. Also, my bitter gourd vines are stunted from what I think is the lack of sunlight. Anyway, I hadn't been seeing any development around the carrots crowns, so I decided to pull up a few samples to see what was going on. It turns out my carrots are not developing properly. For now, I think it is probably because the soil is much too hard for the carrots to properly develop. I will give them another month to flesh out before I uproot them all for a watermelon crop.


This here is my Clemson Spineless Okra. It had been plagued by a heavy bout of whitefly, rendering it stunted, but after intensive pest control and the recent rainy season, my okra has had some breathing space to grow and flower. I managed to harvest two today, and there seems to be a few more on the way. Hopefully this proves to be a good harvest.

I guess once this round of crop is done, I'll get ready for next year's dry season. I have watermelons in mind, though I might switch to pumpkins instead. We shall see later on what I decide to go with.

I'm going to cover several topics in today's post, hence the generic title.

First of is the completion of my undergraduate thesis. I think thanks are well deserved for several individuals, namely my mother, who stayed up with me and fed me through out my last leg. Her provision of moral support had been undeniably critical in times when I felt like just burning my computer. Jeremy, I owe you one for saving my ass in stats. Other shout outs go to Daryll, Kevin, and Rowen, who were great help in data collection. Also, to the congregation of SMACC1 and 2 for being such willing participants.

Next up is a preview of harvests to come in the vegetable plot I've been working on at the Nathaniel residence. The sole brinjal plant has begun bearing fruit, after such a long wait, and here is a picture of the first of many to come.

This one's rather small, and honestly, quite disappointing, but what can you expect from local brands. The carrots are coming along pretty well, though slower than I'd hope for it to be growing. I guess the instant life has got to me. The dill has bolted and since gone to seed. I think I'll dig it up once I'm back in KL.

Did I also mention that I may be moving? I've been staying with Mr. and Mrs. Colonel for far too long. Their goodwill (not taking rent, feeding me, and even taking me out for movies) is making me feel rather bad for staying so long. They're really a super nice couple, they are. I've managed to find a small, but cosy house tucked away in PJ. It's quite run down at the moment, but if I should rent the place, the owner has promised to spruce it up. There isn't much of a backyard, but the front is quite promising. I'm wondering if I should have the rambutan tree uprooted and plant vegetables there or leave it for the fruit, and rear rabbits for meat instead. I suspect it may be rabbits, since I'm already running the garden at the Nathaniels. What do you think?

And here's a shot of a little fella who crawled up my arm while I was sprucing up the vegetable plot after the digging. Now off to bed so I can rouse in time for my taiqi.

I've gone around the gardening shops I know, and I have to say, I find the lack of seed selection disturbing. Of the local brands I've only got two to chose from - Trio, and Serbajadi. Come to think of it, it is quite disheartening that given our country's agricultural history, we have only two companies dealing with vegetable seeds, and none of the two have any varieties at all. I mean, one would expect at least three varieties of  brinjals and several hundred strains of amaranthus (bayam)...

To balance things of, Trio has imported seeds from an Australiasian company called Yates. The seed selection from that brand has been reliable so far, sprouting with no complications. I've sown some baby carrots and okra from Yates, they have been behaving wonderfully. Unfortunately, the selection being brought into Malaysia is pathetic. I tried getting it straight from Yates, but they don't ship outside Australia.

About two months back, I had started working on this piece of land the Natheniel's had so kindly loaned to me. Looking back, I can't believe has only been two months. It's felt like it has been a much longer time. All the hard work of digging up the ornamental plants (1), and reworking the soil (2), and the disappointments of finding the garden waterlogged, all seem like a distant nightmare when I look at the garden now (3). Two green amaranthus crops down the road, I have to say, I am quite pleased with the how the garden is progressing (carrots are in the ground and 1 week away from germination!).

Thoughts on the garden? I have to say, as a Christian, this garden has been a theological experience for me. It made quite real the curse God judged Adam with -

Here's a close up of the 'prettyfied' French drain. I bought another bag of sand today, thinking that it could fill the hole, but well, as you can see...
Nevertheless, it looks like it could work, and I sure hope it does.


As with all gardens, pests are not something alien. Already my cucumbers are preyed upon by beetles, and my corn ravaged by this pesky green thing. Being the good natured, life respecting person I am, I left these poor helpless creatures to carry on their circle of life. THIS IS WARRRRR!!!To say the least, the pests I've seen have already been dealt with justly, but humanely, of course.

To encourage a ecosystem which aims to keep the pest population down, I've placed several up turned pots around the garden to provide shelter for beneficial critters like spiders and ants. Also, it acts as a pretty effective snail trap - they hide in there during the day, so all I have to do is lift the pot, grab them by their shells and encourage their migration over the wall into the neighbour's garden.

Plants to come are:

• watermelon
• pumpkin
• angle beans
• okra
• lettuce
• peanuts
• shallots
• spinach
• bitter gourd

Broken Brick

Gravel

Following the brick layer, I filled in about 3" of gravel before topping it off with coarse sand. After emptying out the bag of sand, I realised that I had insufficient material for the drain - I've got at least a 2" hole which needs filling in. I'll drop by again later in the morning to go buy more sand, as well as more brick since I'd like to raise the bed near the wall.

Clay

I looked up from my work, and I discovered that I had four huge bags of red clay sitting around me. They weren't going anywhere any time soon, so I entertained the stray thought of making pottery from the clay. I emptied out the pegaga pot and mixed some clay with water, vigorously dissolving the clay lumps to release the sand. After the sand particles had mostly settled, I poured out the top layer of silt and left it in the ice cream container you see in the picture to sit overnight.

If I could flip a table, I would. Just as I thought the drainage problem had been solved, it is back to mock my efforts.

It rained on Wednesday, and the cucumber patch flooded. I think it's due to the trickle from the drainage pipe in the retaining wall. I let the water dry till the next day, then started digging, hoping to sink a French Drain down the centre of the pathway. To my horror, water came seeping in from the sides the moment I got to about  1' of soil. Nothing much can be done here except to wait for it to dry and pray hard it doesn't rain until I finish the drain.

Hopefully I can start digging today. I suspect I may have to do something to tease the water flow from the drainage pipes away from the vegetable garden. Perhaps a sloping French drain towards the concrete drain on the other side might work... we'll see.

Le Garden Makeover

It has been what... ten days since I first started digging on the garden at Natheniel's Studio? Finally, the soil is slightly better than it was before. Not awesome, definitely could be better, but still an improvement. I've planted in the cucumbers, the corn and gave the ulam raja another shot. I also bought some Italian lavender and dill which you should be able to see flanking the stone path. The Sarawak snake grass has come back to life.

Next up will be the brinjals, and some shallots and garlic to complete the garden. Hopefully this works out.

Good news and bad news. Here's rhe good: Just as I thought the brinjals were never going to sprout, out pops a couple of tiny brinjal seedlings. Yay. On the other hand, the ulam raja seeds seem to have gone mouldy. I'll give them a few more days before I try again.

Anyways, today is the last leg for the digging. I just have to move the resident herbs out and start digging. As planned, I've also bought some kitchen herbs to complement the cucumbers.

I thought working with wet soil was a pain in the armpits. Sun dried clay isn't any easier. If at all, I think it may be harder. Like literally. Haha.

Yup. That's what the guys at Music Mart now call me. Its been almost a week since I started work on Auntie Jackie's garden plot. I must say, though working the soil has proven to be challenging (only half the garden's been dug), there are its encouraging moments, like the seeding tray here.

So far, the end which I was working on throughout the week, where the water retention problem was the worst, seems to have significantly improved. Now I have to wait for rain to see if I really made any difference. My exams end tomorrow morning, so I look forward to completing the garden by Sunday. I wonder if I can rope the guys in to help out.

Next thing to buy for the garden would be poles for the cucumbers and a friggin' watering can. The watering can would definitely prevent erosion which happens when you use the hose. Also, I plan on cheating a little. Once the garden's done, I'll pop down to the fishing shop and buy some earthworms. These stringy fellas will definitely help in breaking the clay lumps up.

Start Working that Clay!

Day 3 (20th)

Just as the rain started to get really heavy, we managed to finish up the first 1.5' trench and layered it with compost. By the time Kevin decided to leave the comforts of his room to come see what was going on, we had started on the seeding tray. We planted corn, brinjals, and cucumbers before I realised we had run out of space for the other plants. Once the rain got too heavy to work, I called it a day.

Day 2

Day 1

Daryll's mom had a garden, but she didn't want to work it. I was dying to feel good earth in my hands again, so I took up her offer of planting a vegetable garden for her.

Garden Plan

Once the soil conditioning is done, this is what I plan to do with the area. Chuck in some everyday kitchen herbs, and plenty of low maintenance crops. Perhaps I'll try get my hands on some clover seed to grow a ground cover for the garden. Clover is not just helpful in keeping weeds down, but it also aids in returning nitrates into the soil.