Updates From My Rooftop Container Garden, June 2015

I'm planning to be more focused on planting vegetables next seasons in the effort to harvest more for daily needs. I've been too focused on planting fruit trees like citrus, pineapple, soursop and grapes, and some ornamental plants, thus, have quite neglected vegetable plants. It's good to plant shrubs and ornamental plants in your garden as they give some aesthetic touch to it but you need to once in a while retreated back to your goals and do some evaluation. You need to trace how you have been doing and what needs to be done in order to achieve your goals. Like in my case, my main goal is to have a kitchen garden and a container orchard.

 So far, I have 2 varieties of mango trees, 1 longan, 3 lemons, 5 limes, 4 kumquats, 1 kaffir lime, 3 soursops, 2 papayas and about 18 new pineapple trees I planted from the crowns, ratoons and suckers of my 3 previous trees. As for herbs and medicinal plants, I have lemongrass, white and red ginger, galangal, sweet and red basil, oregano, parsley, pandan leaves, curry leaves trees, red and yellow betel, and I also plant onion and garlic seasonally. Except for that I have some roses, jasmine, false lavender, ice plant, cactus, moringa, and some other ornamental plants like aglaonema, coleous, mother in law tongue, aloe vera, palm trees and a few more. These ornamental plants have grown so much that I keep re-potting and all these have taken away my attention for a while. 

The bean plant I planted last season have gone through their prime.  From 4 plants, only 1 remained. It still bears fruit but very little since the weather has grown hotter in the summer and rainfall is low. I'll soon discard it and rotate it with another plant. 

Oregano

Kaempferia Galanga

For 2-3 planting seasons I haven't planted any tomato plants. This spring, I germinated Marizold and Tobolks tomatoes but they failed to grow, and a couple of new seedlings of Marizold Tomatoes that remained were eaten by either birds or insects. So, no tomatoes for this season. 

After harvesting some swiss chard leaves, the plant died. At the moment I have 6 Kale plants producing and 3 plants of swiss chard. I decided to try planting okras this season. 3 from 4 seedlings I re-potted have died, 1 that remains are blooming and fruiting. I have harvested a batch and it's now still growing new bulbs.

       

Watermelon is one of my favorite fruit. I eat a lot of them in Summer. Last year I planted sugar baby from the seeds I bought from America, but this season I planted yellow-flesh watermelon from the seeds I saved myself from the market-bought watermelon, and it grows well and bears fruits. Only, recently the leaves are heavily infested by aphids and many leaves dried up. I am a little worried since there are some watermelons growing and not fully ripe yet. Hope the new leaves will come out again to uphold these fruits.

What about you? What are you planting last and this season?

Fried Noodle for Breakfast

These are from my absence several months ago, when I was still planting water spinach. 

Just like other normal morning, I was preparing breakfast for my mother and I. And just like what I usually do, cooking from what I have in the fridge!

And the menu that morning was spicy fried noodle with home grown water spinach and herbs. What could be better than that? 

What's growing now

These are some of the vegetables growing in my gardern right now.

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.

New updates from my rooftop garden

My rooftop garden has gotten bigger in size as the 50 something tomato seedlings survived after being repotted and I've added a mango tree, several flowers and a citrus tree, as well as 3 pineapple crowns which I replanted from the scraps and some ginger, turmeric, galanggal, garlic, onion, and bell pepper. 

Btw, I am so happy to see my tomato seedlings are not only surviving but also growing and branching, though they are not growing into the same size. Some are growing quite fast, but some are slow. I also have given 3 seedlings to my brother's employee for adoption and have also promised to give several others to my tuition student. I am happy if they can thrive and bear fruit in the hands of their new owners. 

These 3 seedlings are bell-peppers from the seed I dried myself. Btw, I'm a little perpelexed to see these orange bell-peppers turned out to be different in forms. Maybe it has accidentally mixed with other seeds. 

Garlic started to sprout

The Citrus Tree which I bought from the market

This is the watermelon radish I replanted from the scraps.

The Cilantro I replanted from the scraps started to grow but then were deterorating and several plants eventually died of rotting roots. Probably the cause was soggy soil because it's been raining a lot lately. I should have planted them indoor though...

I planted some ginger heads from the scraps and the young shoot of this one has grown.

Can anyone of you recognize this seedling? Is it really an orange bell pepper?