corn flower and root

 The corn sprouted its first flower...

Now to pray lots of pollinating insects pay a visit. 

The roots are weird looking... fat and layered...

   

Malabar Spinach #3

The Malabar spinach seeds I bought quite a while back are still germinating when planted. The 1st attempt did really well, with 3 plants supplying leaves for us, our neighbours, and extended family. The 2nd attempt failed; it's probably coz I planted the them in the same spot as the first.

The soil must have been void of the nutrients needed by that species. Now the 3rd go will be at a new spot. Near the banana tree. Here are the seedlings.

I will plant all of them and as they mature, pick the strongest 2 or 3 to carry on.

All planted.

The dog often digs in this area so I have to build some kind of barrier to the base of the plant. 

Done!

biggest corn plant down

The tallest corn plant of the 4 that I growing fell down overnight. 

I secured it upright but it looks bent a few inches from the base of the stem. 

transplanting kale shoot

Where each leaf was on the kale plant, a shoot will grow. After a shoot has a few leaves, I pluck it off and plant it into a pot.

Red arrow points to the part where the shoot was, the one that I plucked.

Keep it wet and shaded. 

dying ginger

 One of my plants is dying off at one end. You can see the right-most shoots all brown.

I carefully dug and moved the earth around the affected root.

I snapped off the dying parts plus the healthy shoot closest to it.

TO BE CONTINUED

Dog food bag compost bin prototype

Our current compost bins are about 2 feet tall max. Once they are full I leave them alone for about 2 months and then harvest. The garden and kitchen waste matter has not fully broken down, but I still use it.

So I'm thinking... these dog food bags are plastic lined, about 3 feet tall.

Two of them attached together would make a nice long bin almost 6ft tall. Cut the top bag's base completely, so it will just be one open ended cylinder. We used thick string made from some plant. Loosely sewed it to the bottom bag.

Tied the sided of the bags to our bamboo tree. I will find some taller potted plants to hide it a bit more. 

I wont put food in this, only garden cuttings. The plan is that once I have filled all 6 feet of it, the bottom stuff will be more broken down compared to by smaller 2ft tall compost bins. I have just poked some holes at the bottom to drain out the rain water, but hardly any will get in coz the bamboo leaves make a decent umbrella.

Neem chili garlic brew pellicle

This bucket has been going for months. A mixture of neem leaves and twigs, chili and garlic waste, all sitting in water with the lid loosely covered, is exposed to the most extreme conditions. I use the water to spray on my plants, mostly on the indian lettuce and kangung... both of which are mostly affected by pests. Today there was a thicker pellicle than I have seen in a long time.

The catalyst must have been the chili. There were a lot of scrapes in there from my last batch of chili sauce.