Adeniums In The Garden

... still standing strong....

Baby Orchid

I am waiting for my bundle of joy to arrive... (The dark pink ones on the background are the blossomed ones that have been around for a while.)

After Lots Of Rains....

The plants in the garden looked so good after so much rain we had in December and earlier on this month. Our Basil (below) and Thai Basil Plants (above and at the very bottom) were taller than ever and the Turmeric plants (third picture from the top) looked beautiful healthy.

Adenium....

There has not much going on in the garden, it's primarily the reason why I had not posted much about it. For weeks and weeks, we have not had much rain in the island. It has been really hot and sunny on daily basis and we have to water the plants so much. Many of the plants are not doing too well under too much sun. I put this one Adenium plant away from the area that has too much sun exposure. This plant is having plenty of flowers, looking really beautiful!

Freshly Cut

Basil leaves, cut from the plants in the garden. We used some of them for Risotto last Friday and the remainders were kept in a jar filled with water to keep them fresh for a while.

Brings Out The Joy...

I have some Adenium plants that survive out of that many more that I planted. I don't mind some ten plants that I have, although sometimes they are a bit much as each rather needs individual care and at times it can be quite tricky as I am not quite sure what to do. The one in the picture above is one of those that are doing very well. The caudex shape is very nice, the leaves are plenty and the flowers are blossoming. Simply a beautiful thing to have in the garden.

Double Hibiscus

We are back with getting these pretty flowers nearly on daily basis. They are pink, big and beautiful!

Basil And Pesto...

Our basil plants are growing quite healthily in the garden despite the constant attacks from some bugs who seem to love eating basil leaves and leaving most others there. What better way to use the leaves than making basil pesto? I have pine nuts, garlic, parmigiano and olive oil. It's a matter of putting them together in a food processor or a blender and let the machine do the job. Season with salt and pepper and it's done. Pour some olive oil on top to prevent color change resulting from oxidation, the wise people say. It has not worked for me, but I still did it anyway.

11-11-11

It's an ordinary Friday, but the date is so special that record number of couples got married today all over the world. May happiness be with them forever, or for 72 days! The day went like any other day, we had sun today, but we also had rain. It may not be as special as 11-11-11 to many people, the yellow Four O'Clock flowers in the garden looked ordinary too, but their presence helped brighten the look of the garden. And that's today's picture!

Sweet Potato ...

Sweet potato plants are really easy to grow and they grow really fast. I replanted them not so much to get the sweet potatoes but mostly to cover certain area in our small garden. If after a few months I am able to harvest some good sweet potatoes, that would be a bonus. If not, that's fine too. The leaves are rather pretty.

31 October 2011

It's the end of October folks, right at the very end and we only two months left before we enter a new year. It's so surreal, it has so fast. Too fast for me to absorb and enjoy. Days in October have been typically, "have them all". There was sun, there was rain, there was clear sky and followed by the rain again. They could be in any orders, but most of the time we had them all in one day, many of days this month.

We had a gorgeous morning, the sun rose behind Marina Bay Sands and gave me a lovely photograph, a different beauty than other mornings. The sun shone strongly throughout the morning and I wanted to have some pictures that are bright and happy on my last post of the month.

The periwinkles looked so enchanting and the basil leaves appeared so healthy. But unexpectedly the strong wind came, blew away all the papers on the table as my doors were opened. The cloud thickened and the sky turned darker and grew darker that I had to turn on the light in my study area. Then came the rain, a very heavy rain. And on for a while.

There were no traces of cheerful morning and sunshine. I looked out there and everything looked so black and white, and grey.  Everything was wet. Til hours later, the sky was clear again, the sun came out and it was hot all over. Like it never rained before.

Tomorrow will be a new day and a new month! Expect the unexpected. Or maybe  just go with the flow .... Hello November!

Trying Again...

I planted potatoes before. They grew but after a while they seemed to falter and I decided to scrap the project. I planted again recently, just one potato that I had left for a while and started producing shoots in its eyes. It was meant to fill one empty small spot in the garden. The plants grew nicely so far and the leaves are looking pretty. I am keeping my finger crossed.

Up Front: Adenium

Here is one of some Adenium flowers that are blossoming in the Garden at present. It has a very lovely strong pink color!

Bigger Adenium ....

My Adenium plants, about 11 of them, if I am not mistaken, have grown bigger. Every now and then, I re-pot them to bigger containers to allow them to grow bigger. After they get bigger, I need bigger containers. This game goes on and on. I am a bit behind at this moment, the plant above is in need for bigger space, I have not gotten time to get go to the nursery and get some bigger pots.

Periwinkle In BW

This is a black and white photograph of the periwinkle flowers that are growing in our garden.

Turmeric Flower

It was a case of serendipity that I encountered this morning. It was a shady morning, it rained on and off over the past two days and while I waited for the something working in the kitchen, I decided to pull some weeds in the garden and did general cleaning there. Just a figure of speech, I must write: " Guess what I found??" Sure, the title of the post gave it all, it was a big turmeric flower by the fence.

Continue Unwrapping...

Here we are, a week after this picture was taken, my new ZZ plant stalk still continues to unwrap itself. It's getting taller and some leaves are open up, but more are coming out in the coming days...

Pandan

Pandan leaves are used a lot in cooking and baking in the region around here. I got my plants from my mother in law and they have grown well and many more since. It is very handy to have them around the house. When I was growing up, I remember my mom used to get the essence of the leaves for making some desserts. I prefer getting the essence or paste from the supermarket, it is so much more convenient although it may not taste as good.

Unwrapping...

We are having a new stalk of ZZ plant in the container. It is slowly coming out, up and unwrapping itself. The young leaves in light green have started showing up. This whole container is originated from two big leaves that I picked up from one nursery that we went to, more than a year ago.

Yellow Alder

Yellow Alder is so self sufficient, the plant is easy to look after as it practically does not require much attention. Everyday, it gives me these lovely yellow flowers. I propagate by cutting and simply water them. They grow. I have many of them in the garden.  This picture was taken using my new lens.