Bitter success!!

The bitter gourd plant didn't do too well but it gave us this beauty.

 Fried it up with eggs.

Looks like $#!+  I need to learn how to take IKEA brochure pictures. They make toilets look nice.

Sowing seeds

No idea if this is the right way. Used an old paper egg carton. Put some soil in each of the holes. Placed one seed in each. Watered the whole thing.

Not much shade around so had to move this tallish potted plant to provide some cover.

Stage 4 - The Plants

The 4th and final stage is plants. Since our purpose is to make our garden into an edible one, plants will equate to herbs,vegetables, etc. Our neighbour, Aunty Kan, has green fingers and we will be looking to her for lots of help and advice.

What we already have are...

1. aloe vera - growing well in a pot with lots of little one sprouting.
2. curry leaves - the tree is truly amazing how it propagates. Our tree is not doing well, infested with white stuff, and sick leaves. The curry smell is hardly noticeable.
3. indian borage - mum gave us this coz she knew we couldnt grow anything. This truly is an indestructible plant. Supposed to be good for coughs. 
4. thulasi (Holy Basil) - we have the purplish variety which is supposed to be really good for you. My late Aunty Jessie told me to eat 3 leaves a day, do it for a couple of weeks, then stop for a few weeks. Basically don't eat it continuously.
5.  blue flower creeper - not sure of the name. it's doing really well. we have to cut it back every other week as it takes smothers everything in its path. the blue flowers are used to make blue rice.
6. bamboo - we cant really eat it, but its great for building natural support and structures. I use it in my aquarium as hiding places for the fish and shrimp.

We want this list to grow... fingers crossed. Hopefully I can occasionally update the status of these plants.

Stage 3 - Plant food

I'm guessing the plants/veges will get their nutrients from...

1. good soil
   our garden soil is both good and bad. The bad is that you just have to dig less than 6 inches and you will hit clay and rocks. The good is that the top 4 inches or so is really healthy looking. Grass and whatever existing plants grow well. It is full of earthworms and other little creatures.
2. compost
   we will try to start compost bins to add to the soil health.
3. fish waste water
   I have 2 aquariums inside the house. Ever since we started using the waste water to water the garden, we noticed that many plants responded well. Hope it will help with the veges to come.
4. Epsom salts
   I just found out about this. It is not like the salt we use for food. It's magnesium sulphate which plants need for healthy growth.

Stage 2 - Fish

The 2nd stage would be the fish. My thoughts in random order...

I would like to rear native Malaysian freshwater fish or shrimp. That's the goal.

I don't know how I will feel about eating fish from my own pond, which I will have to butcher. I remember as a kid going to visit my cousins in a rubber estate. They had chickens running around everywhere...and I saw one being butchered for that days lunch. I couldn't eat it. I did resume eating chicken the next day though.

Many aquaponic articles advice you to start with tilapia coz they are hardy and breed well under just about any conditions. But I have seen our rivers and lakes overrun by them and dont want to contribute to that.

Ikan Puyu or Climbing Perch maybe a species I could handle. It's relatively small, hardy, and is used in some Malay recipes. Plus an added bonus is that some believe this fish to have mystical powers. Maybe I will post later my experience with that fish.

Another possibility are the giant freshwater prawns. But I haven't had much success with crustaceans in my aquariums.

In the meantime I will start with my ornamental aquarium fish which I already have some experience and knowledge about. Probably guppies or mollies since they are livebearers and should be able to populate the pond pretty fast. Yes they can't be eaten but I have to work my way up towards edible fish.

Stage 1 - Fish Food

The first stage in this farm project is food for the fish. If we can produce food for all stages of the fish life, then we won't have to rely on outside sources.

Currently I feed my aquarium fish the cheap pellets from the local aquarium shops. I am quite sure there would be preservatives and fillers, just like cheap processed fast food we buy for ourselves.

The newly hatched or born fish fry need infusoria. As they get a little bigger, we can feed them daphnia. Then progress to tiny worms. And finally earthworms. The omnivores will also probably go for duckweed.

As we decide on what fish to put into the system, that will dictate what fish food we need to produce.

Zombie grasshopper!!

This thing was on the road. At first we thought it was just a carcass of a grasshopper. Touched it, prodded it, nothing moved.

After a few minutes, it must have realised that it's trick of looking dead was backfiring and it flew off. Never seen that species in my life!

The green ones visit our garden often. At the risk of sounding racist/bugist, I hope I don't see too much of them.

how do I organise this blog

I'm thinking to break it down to each stage...

fish food > fish > plant food > plants

A complete system - aquaponics

Aquaponics is amazing! I'll leave it to the experts to give you the details... here is the wiki on it.

My basic understanding is that it is a complete cycle like this...
Fish eat food and then poop > Fish waste eventually turns into ntrates in the water which is toxic for the fish but plants love it > Plants absorb nitrates > The water that is left is clean enough to be put back into the fish tank starting the cycle all over again.
We harvest and eat the veges and fish. The vege scrapes are put into the compost bin which eventually becomes another source of plant food.

I would like to add one thing to this and that is fish food. If we could produce our own natural fish food then there would be hardly anything processed added to the system.