Kale

 This is called Kale, if I'm not mistaken this one is Blue Russian. There are many kinds of Kale but the common one we have in Indonesia is the Chinese Kale called "Kailan". This variety is more tender than the others and are best for salad and light cooking. Kale is an excellent producer in cooler seasons since high temperature will cause the leaves to wilt and sunscorched.

It is relatively easy to plant, and will keep growing leaves after each time of harvest.

Kaffir Lime

I bought this small Kaffir Lime plant from a nursery. It was grafted but a very tiny plant. I guess, I should have been focusing on strengthening the roots and plant for a couple of years before letting it to bloom and set fruit, but the cuteness of the blooms and small bumps of the fruit melted my heart and I gave in to it.  And here's the first fruit! :-)

Baby Cuke

Last spring, I planted this variety of cuke, it says baby cuke, but the size is smaller than my expectation. It's really cute though. I bet you'd agree with it.

Green Beans

If you pay attention, you will see two types of bean plants in the above picture. On the left I have borlotti beans and on the right green beans. Yet only the green beans producing. I've never succeeded with either Borlotti or Tongue of Fire beans so far.... I've been experimenting but it never has worked. I blamed it to soggy soil and the tropical heat.

Last planting season, I tried to plant green beans from the seeds I bought from a local seed seller. It grew lusciously green and produced a lot of blooms, but failed to fruit due to lack of pollen as the result of the heat. I was quite discouraged, thinking that I would never have luck in planting beans,

 but once the temperature gets colder and rainfall is high, it starts to fruit ‒ in abundance!  And it keeps blooming, fruiting, blooming, fruiting.... on and on.... I keep harvesting along the way. And believe it or not it's all but through 2 healthy plants in a 3 gallon pot. Bravo!

Loofah

Beautiful isn't it? This is my first loofah plant. I got the seeds from a friend who ran an organic gardening training center. At first I thought it was the common ridge gourd we have here. Honestly, I thought I got wrong seeds, when it set fruit, I once doubt if it was edible at all like the common gourd, but to my surprise it's delicious!

This I believe is self-fertile too though it also has male blooms. And though I also helped with hand pollination, but I believe it is not required since in some occasion it set fruit with less help from me.

I simply stir-fried it with some garlic and onion and on top of it I put some sliced scramble eggs. It' very tender and yummy!

Finally my FIRST Mangoes!!

 I bought my first mango tree from a local nursery last September 2013, it was less than 50 cm tall. It was a grafted tree of a local species called Harum Manis (literally translated into Sweet & Fragrant). I asked the guy at the nursery, how long would it take to start fruiting. And he answered about a year! I could hardly believe him, a dwarfie tree like this would fruit in a year? I just smiled and thanked him.

Later at home, I searched the internet, and to my surprised, the source said that at least it takes 3 years for a grafted mango tree to start setting flowers and fruit. To be honest, I was a little disappointed. Though I didn't buy what he said, but I somehow really wanted it to be true... :-D

My mango tree continued to grow and got taller. So one day in spring, when my mango tree started to grow unsual shoots, I was very intrigued. I wait and voila! It set flowers!! Just in about 7or 8 months! My jaw dropped! The guy was RIGHT!! Yippie!!

Since mango doesn't need a hand pollination, I let the nature do it's job. The wind, the insects, everyone was busy doing the task for me! It sets hundreds of small flowers and many I believe got pollinated, but in the end the nature will also screen those which are not well-pollinated. They will eventually dropped from the trunk.

The monsoon period in the Summer brought a lot of rain and high speed wind. That caused many of my baby mangoes to drop since the pot sat in the way of the wind. That's a very hard lesson to learn. Any fruit trees shouldn't be exposed to a lot of wind (especially strong one). It will cause a lot of stress for them and will cause the fruit to be aborted by accident. So, I move it instantly to a spot where it is more protected from strong wind.

Only 5 mangoes survived this season, but it was already amazing given the size of the pot which is only size 5.

Herbs and Veggies

My goal for gardening is mostly to produce edibles, though along with it some roses, marigolds, and indoor plants are added into the list as companion plants or just to add more colors and varieties to attract beneficial insects.

I've always wanted a kitchen garden, where I can have fresh herbs and veggies available. Curry leaves and kaffir lime so far have been on the top of my list along with leeks, scallion, basil and oregano because I love to use them in my cooking.

Can anyone of you identify this plant? I bought the seeds from a local seed seller. It's supposed to be oregano, but I'm sceptical since the shape and fragrance are different from that of Italian oregano.