Third round in this year...

This is the third round of my "Harum Manis" fruit production this year. We've been enjoying the fruit this couple of months and new shoots are now ready to grow.

By this time my "Nam Dok Mai" is flowering for the third round also, and some fruits have been formed. Maybe they can be harvested around late December or early next January. I can't be more grateful! 

Aglaonema Bloom

Fans of Aglaonema are familiar with this beautiful egg-shaped flower of Aglaonema.

Isn't it lovely? 

The Aglaonema can be a very prolific bloomer, the "flower" is really an inflorescence (a group of flowers on a stem), which is often mistaken for a distorted leaf.

The flowers looks very similar to Spathiphyllum but they usually carry a hood and a calcified looking spath coming out of it. 

One thing you should know about Aglaonema's flower is the fact that this flower production requires a lot of energy. Heavy blooming will pull nutrients or energy from the plant. 

And as the result the plant will produce smaller and sometimes distorted and pale leaves. And in some cases, leaving the flowers on the plant will exhaust the plant and cause it to wither. I think it's a bit similar with Coleus, in which producing flowers and seeds means its' tasks are finished and the plant will eventually wither. 

So, to prevent that to happen to your Aglaonema(and Coleus) plant you must remove the flowers as soon as they emerge.

This way, your Aglaonema plant will continue to grow healthily with stunning colors and even glossy leaves!

Happy Gardening!

What's Bloomin' in My Garden

Rascal

After four days of pain and mostly spent snuggling in his blanket, sometimes in my arms, Elmo decided that he's too bored. So, he sneaked into his neighbor's cage and planned on an ambush. LOL

  

It's my  day to day entertainment and chaos... LOL 

Sometimes, I need to intervene in breaking up their fights. Many times it's between Goldie and Elmo since Elmo is very curious and loves to have a peek over Goldie's nest. 

Goldie has been quite territorial lately, since she is sitting on her eggs for over 3 weeks now.

Harvesting Turmeric and Ginger Part 1

Turmeric Rhizomes often used as traditional medicine/herbal drinks

Turmeric and ginger are two common spices in Indonesian cuisine & kitchen and are among the easy-to-plant spices.Just bury them in the ground and oo la la... it's ready to be harvested in several months!

And yes, with only several turmeric and ginger root cuttings with nodes on them, you can harvest a bunch of them! I only planted 2 pieces of turmeric rhizomes and harvested 1,25 kg and with 1-2 cuttings of ginger root I harvested about 350 grams(under 5 months).

Since I used only a little of turmeric in my cooking (mostly curry), my helper made Indonesian herbal drinks made from turmeric, ginger, some tamarind, palm sugar and water.

It's good for boosting health. The Javanese have been having this for centuries. It's among many other herbal drinks passed down for many, many generations.

In two weeks time we have made about 3 batches of these drinks. Each batch is about 3-4 glasses.

And I still have some more turmeric for another batch I guess.

So, happy weekend y'all!