Dear Rose...

I bought these rose plants two weeks ago from Carrefour. They were planted in a very small pot. Days after that, I transplanted then into two different pots. Their root has occupied the whole pot. With bigger and individual pots, I hope this will help them develop more root for better growth.

After transplanting, I put them at a quite shaded area at my porch. When I brought them home, there were a lot of rose buds starting to develop. I pruned all of them to ensure all the energy focus to develop new rooting system. I watered them lightly.

From what I read, I learned that rose plant need at least six hours of sun bath. Afraid that immediate exposure to sunlight will stress the plant, I let them stay under shade for at least a week. Plus, since it is raining heavily every single day, I am afraid the roots will be over watered and this might cause rotten root. However, I noticed that the plants starting to lose their leaves day after day.

So, three days ago I had to convince myself to move them away from the shade. I put them right where the sun hit every morning until noon. I think that there will be all right since morning sun rays are not that hot. Even though, every day we had heavy downpour, still the sun shines for at least from 7 am to 3 pm.

This is what I noticed this morning. The red shoots are coming out. This is the sign that my roses are doing very well now. I can wait to see these plants producing light purple roses.

posted from Bloggeroid

Growing Kangkung in Putrajaya - Day 5

Today is another happy day for me. Last Saturday, a sowed a bunch of kangkung seeds in a very small patch in front of my house. Since it rained everyday for the past few weeks, I thought this will cut my watering time and the cool weather will help the growth of the seeds. Nothing appear on the patch on the third day after sowing day. I thought that the seed were gone already due to heavy rain a night before.

This morning I checked the patch again and saw a few seedlings appeared. If you noticed, there is one big seedling with a few true leaves among the little seedlings. This one came out from the first sowing batch. The seed from the first sowing batch came out from a year old packet. This is the only survivor and I guess the other seed had gone bad. Therefore, I bought a new pack of kangkung seed at MAHA 2012.

I hope in a month, I will be able to make kangkung dishes fresh from my small vegetable patch. I only get to savor my kangkung fresh from garden only once but the yield was small. Hopefully this time around the yield will be abundant and continuous.

posted from Bloggeroid

Growing Tomato in Putrajaya - My favorite videos on transplanting tomato seedlings

Here are a few of my favorite videos on transplanting tomato seedlings. I am going to transplant my seedlings into a bigger pot this weekend. They are approximately 21 days old since sowing day. This is very exciting and  I want it to be done the right way.

Growing Tomato in Putrajaya - Day 15

A few days ago, I noticed my tomato seedlings has developed their first pair of true leaves. Yet there are too small relatively. Today, at day 15 since sowing day, their true leaves looks more promising. Though I think the progress of my seedling is quite slow in comparison with what I saw in other blog on their postings on growing tomatoes.

This weekend, I am going to transplant these seedlings into their individual pot. I guess one of the reasons of their slow progress most prabably because the competition between seedlings is high. Putting them in their individual pots might help them growing a bit faster.

posted from Bloggeroid

How do you keep your sugar?

I used to have problem keeping away ants from my sugar. Even when the sugar were placed in airtight container, the ants keep coming.

My father sugested to put in some cloves in the container. It works for quite sometimes but then the ants came again. Later, I put a few cinnamon sticks and it works! (for almost a year now).

The cloves and the cinnamon does not only keeps away the ants fron my sugar, but also make my sugar smells good without changing the taste of it.

How do you keep your sugar?

posted from Bloggeroid

MAHA 2012

Yesterday, we went straight to Malaysia Agricultural Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS). I am not planning to visit the entire exposition. I planned to get myself a few seeds and some organic fertilizers and pesticide.

There are a few stall selling fresh fruit. We bought some rambutan, mangosteen and honey water apple.



I also bought some easy to grow seeds. I bought sweetcorn, kailan, water spinach a.k.a kangkung, red spinach, okra and also flowering mustard.

Being too lazy to mix my own organic pesticide, I bought a bottle of organic pesticide and a liquid fertilizer. The seller couldn't give any discount but he gave me a pack of organic fertilizer for free.

Before we left at 8 pm, we took a brief tour around the park by tram. I didn't take any photos since it was dark and my phone was out of battery. We are planning to go again next week but it will depend entirely to the weather and my health. I tend to be tired quite fast even after a few minutes of walking nowadays. Perhaps it is due to the pregnancy.

posted from Bloggeroid

Growing Tomato in Putrajaya - My favorite videos on tomato growing

Here are some of my favorite videos on tomato growing. I am still waiting for my tomato seedlings to produce first true leaves.

More videos and tips on growing tomato here.

On Books - Step by Step Veg Patch

Hello people. I'm in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah since yesterday for an official meeting today at 2pm. I have nothing to do this morning. Since my hotel where I am staying is an annexe to a shopping mall here, I went out for a window shopping. My supposedly brief window shopping end up with me buying this book.

It is not common for us here in Malaysia to find at least one informative gardening or horticultural book. I prefer books full with illustrations and photos.

This book written by Lucy Halsall caught my attention. It has lots of pictures and illustration giving you step by step information on how to grow food. It is a publication from DK.

What made me buy this book is not solely because of the appearance but it also featuring crops that are possible to be grown in tropical climate. It does not says it literally but principally it could happen. There are tomatoes, chilies, pumpkin, cabbage and also carrots among all. These crops can be grown here but pf course in different varieties.

Here are some of the snapshots of the book. The book cost me RM127.55.

posted from Bloggeroid

Growing Tomato in Putrajaya - Day 5

These are my 5 days old tomato seedlings and they are more than a dozen. I started planting using fresh seed which scooped out from fresh tomato last Tuesday. I made sambal belacan that day which I think I made the best sambal belacan in the whole wide world. Hehehe. I learned to make this sambal from my mother when I was eight. That year, my late great grandfather would come to our house once a week for lunch. He sold traditional herbs at a nearby town and will come over to our house on his way his home. I'll post the recipe later.

By the way, the seedlings started coming out from the seed shell 2 days later. I lightly watered them to make sure they are not drowning and put the pot under a shade but still receive morning sun. It rained heavily lately especially in the late afternoon.

I hope this time I will be able to harvest my first batch of fresh tomatoes.

posted from Bloggeroid

Unexpectedly, I am expecting.

This is my first entry after 4 months. It is not because I've lost interest in writing but there are too many things to do in such a little time. There are lots of things I wanted to share. However, those are history now. So, let’s move on to more current happenings.

First of all, my plan to fully breastfeed Zharif until he reaches his second birthday is no longer possible. He is in 13th month now. I could no longer cope with his demand for breast milk since my body has other demand to fulfill. Unexpectedly, I am expecting.

Yes, I am pregnant with my third child. I didn't know I was pregnant until I had a terrible stomach pain. The doctor asked me to do pregnancy test. It was positive. It turned out that I was having gastric due to the pregnancy.

Obviously, I don’t think the symptom is there other than that stomach pain. However, looking back for the past few weeks, I realized that I did experienced headache that lasted for few days. I vomited a couple of times especially a good cup of chocolate drinks. I also eat more than before. However, my energy level was at its best and still. I sleep like a lot during my both previous pregnancy.

I had my period only once which is ten month after Zharif was born. And that was it. That is one of the reason I didn't thought I was pregnant. I guess I was just lucky while others struggling to conceive. According to my last menstrual period, I am supposed to be in my 15 weeks of pregnancy. But, the ultrasound result showed that I’m twelve weeks pregnant. The next ultrasound will be in a month. By then we’ll know for sure the due date.

This is truly unexpected. I hope it’s a girl this time.