The vastness of paddy field.

On this business trip, I have to meander through paddy fields to get to the place in Jitra from Farah's house at the far end of Taman Wira Mas, Kampung Naga. Paddy fields offer varying degree of beauty depending on the stage of paddy in the field.

The field will be yellow, when the grains are maturing and ready to be harvested. I took a few pictures somewhere around Lubuk Kawah, not far from Farah's place along the way towards Jitra.

the field is really yellow.

a few coconut trees put the rural setting really in place.

another view of the yellowing field.

drain on the right is for irrigation. 

primarily used to carry water into the fields from the canal.

a field just harvested

a field just harvested

The hill at far end which is rather obscure, is Bukit Tunjang

Early in the morning around 8am, 

the shadow is long.

bangchik

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Garden to table, kakdah's way

a bittergourd which is the last, winged beans and okra. 

The two big and long okra are hard and seedy, and I dont think kakdah will include them in her cooking. I guess they are matured enough to be saved and dried for seeds. Winged beans are in abundance now.

a close-up

kerabu kelisa



This salad has its own charm, colourful and tasty. Winged beans, young mango, tomato, carrots, red chili, and onions are thinly sliced and mixed. Then add salt and lemon juice. There is no specific amount of each, just add things and check for look and taste to your liking. It will take any lunch and dinner to a different height!

bangchik and kakdah's menu

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By The Sea :: Edhat.com July 18, 2010

I don’t know about you, but whenever I see Rhynchelytrum nerviglume ‘Pink Crystals’ nodding in the breeze, I wonder if there’s a simple and sensitive procedure for enzymatic assays in single cells that can be applied to the measurement of beta-glucuronidase in single parenchymal cells of liver.

That’s because Linda Wudl hung up her career in biotechnology and, along with Fred, her organic chemist husband (I don’t mean her husband is organic, though I’m sure he is—I mean he is a chemist who works with optical and electro optical properties of processable conjugated polymers [but you probably would have figured that out for yourself], so I’ll finish off this sentence that’s already gone on WAAAY too long and has probably tempted you to click over to Ed’s story about that pinstriped, double breasted albino puffin that was spotted in a palo verde tree near El Pollo Loco last night…But I digress), founded Seaside Gardens, a one-of-a-kind nursery in Carpinteria, CA.

Read the rest...

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Masses of Grasses :: Edhat August 1, 2010

Gimme grasses. Gimme blades of green, gold, silver, striped, speckled, ghostly gray, purple. Grasses that fury in the wind and nod in the rain. Enchanted grasses that capture first and last light of day. Grasses of every size: ground cover types to walk on, giants to get lost in.

Grasses fit into every style of garden from Tarzan-meets-Gilligan's-Island-tropical to Muffin-Mouse-cottage.

And the flowers! No, not like your great granny's geraniums, all lipstick red and showy. I'm talking about delicate, smoky puffs of soft purple, or stiff, quaking stalks that sound like a prairie rattler.

Use them in big drifts or pop just one into a perennial bed for an explosion of contrast. Group different types of grasses together to create tapestries of subtle color shifts, or mash them up for high-contrast impact.

Get the idea? You need some ornamental grasses in your garden. If you find that when you're done reading this article, your pulse has quickened (or you've overflowed your drool cup) get these books (preferably at a local independently owned book store): Grasses-Versatile Partners for Uncommon Garden Design by Nancy J Ondra (Storey Books), and The Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses, by John Greenlee (Rodale Press).

There's more to read...

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I'm Sick of These Plants! :: Edhat, August 14, 2010

Landscape designers can get a little full of themselves, me included. We know so many more plants than you do and can recite polysyllabic botanical names like Parthenocissus tricuspidata without coming up for air.

Discovering a cool, new Heuchera with crinkled, copper-colored leaves and chartreuse polka dots is like a crack head's deep toke smacking the brain with a dopamine two-by-four. Then comes the roller coaster ride - cosmic sensations of euphoria and empowerment, then the inevitable crushing crash. The story endlessly repeats as we find ourselves down some sketchy alley, peering over the nursery wall, scouting our next fix.

The trouble is, some of the shiny new plants designers get all throbby about haven't been around long enough to reliably know what happens ten years down the line.

Sometimes it's safer to work with the plants we see every day. There's a reason they're so damn ubiquitous. They're everywhere because they'll grow anywhere, whether you're a Master Gardener or a nursery newbie.

Sure, I would love to design every project as an artistic and botanical adventure, but that's not realistic. For many clients, it is preferable to create a garden filled with common, but thriving plants that require minimal resources, than to create a short-lived masterpiece of exotica that demands constant life-support.

I've got more to say here...

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Garden Design - A Dog's Eye View :: Fine Gardening, June 15, 2010

Guess what? Dogs aren't actually colorblind; they just have a lot less chromatic sensitivity than humans. That's why I don't let Biff the Wonder Spaniel pick my outfits. On the other hand, he might have a leg up on me (dog pun) when it comes to designing gardens.

When I start a new design, I picture the plants the same way Biff probably sees them. I imagine they will never bloom—that I'll have to rely on something other than floral color for interest. I select and combine plants using all their other visual qualities—the silhouette of the plant, its foliage shape, leaf size, density and surface texture, for example. The flowers ice the cake.

So I got to thinking. What if Biff took after his old man and created a garden blog for dogs? How would he describe the two most fundamental design principles that dogs and their bipedal slaves should master?

Cool images, thought-provoking words follow...

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The American Meadow Garden by John Greenlee :: Fine Gardening, July 11, 2010

I couldn't wait to get my hot little hands on The American Meadow Garden: Creating a Natural Alternative to the Traditional Lawn (Timber Press) written by grass and meadow madman John Greenlee, and seductively photographed by Saxon Holt. The book promised tools for my landscape architect's bag of tricks-philosophical reassurance, design inspiration, a new palette of plants, how-to details.

I just read it. It delivered.
Trade In Your Old Lawn...
You know I'm no fan of traditional lawns. They're stultifyingly boring and often serve no useful purpose-anybody seen the neighborhood kids playing in the front yard lately? They consume too much stuff and foul our precious nest. NASA photos put the collective national lawn at upward of 30 million acres. We can get by with a lot less.

John Greenlee is a dynamo of energy and passion when it comes to ornamental grasses. I won't take up space with his bio. It's all in the book, starting with John's childhood memories of "the field", the only wild space in his SoCal cookie-cutter neighborhood.

John doesn't insist that everyone plow up their existing landscapes and blanket the continent with meadows, but he does make a compelling argument for meadow gardens in more landscapes.

More about this book...

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Five Step Program for SMS - Help Is On The Way :: Fine Gardening, July 30, 2010

Do you suffer from SMS? Saturday Morning Syndrome is common among gardeners, but frequently goes undetected. The effects of SMS manifest as a garden filled with plants that appear to have been randomly catapulted from a speeding train, then smashed together into an undifferentiated mass of jumbled foliage and clashing colors.

Take this painless diagnostic test to learn if you are among the many gardeners who suffer from this embarrassing and expensive condition.

Do you find it impossible to resist the mysterious power that overtakes your steering wheel as you drive past a nursery?

Does your blood pressure shoot up like a bottle rocket on the 4th of July as you approach the shiny new plants cleverly arranged by the nursery's sorcerer, er, I mean merchandizing specialist?

Have you found yourself waking from a dreamlike state, driving home with dozens of strange plants lovingly strapped into the back seat of your car?
Do you find yourself stumbling around your yard, arms extended zombie-like, a plant in each hand, mumbling "Where can I put these?" as you search unsuccessfully for three square millimeters of bare space where you can squeeze in just one more plant?

Wait, there's more...

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UC Berkeley Botanical Garden :: Fine Gardening, August 13, 2010

Saturday was the big deal, horticulturally speaking. I've heard for years about the legendary 10,000-plus species collection ensconced at the 34-acre University of California Botanical Garden (UCBG) on the Berkeley campus. The main focus of the collection is on plants from the five Mediterranean climate regions: California, South Africa, Chile, southwest Australia/New Zealand, and the Mediterranean basin. But the UCBG also does a heck of a job with plants from eastern North America, Mexico/Central America, Asia and desert regions of the New World.

Lin took off with her camera and I headed into the wilds of the Garden with mine. These images are just a handful of the hundreds I snapped. There's no theme to the pictures - they're just the ones that jumped off the monitor.

Come tripping along...

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kale strengthening its stem.

kale growing steadily in pots

a close up of kale



I love the character of these leafy vegetables. They don't really sit upright, the way we expect them to do.  The close up is showing kale forming a less than accurate, of letter S. The bottom part of the stem will harden and become woody. Before that happens, the whole plant will collapse whenever there is gutsy wind. Almost invisible to the eyes, the plant will rise and get back to the upright position hours later. The bottom part is so small compared to the  fatter and greener part of the stem.



They are no more babies as in the earlier post of  kale is here ,  a tale of kale  and Introducing Kale into the garden. Wait a while longer, then some leaves can be cut for a fried menu.

my little vegetable garden, bangchik and kakdah

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visitors

We know about grasshoppers habitual munching of leaves, and bees nectar licking. Engineers are used to having buildings over designed . The design far exceeds usual standards as of sturdiness or safety. Plants would probably do the same. They have far more leaves than necessary. I am not too sure what is enough as far as winged beans leaves are concerned. The whole plant is so heavy and dense with leaves.



Probably some are reserved for insects to bite. It is just a romantic view to look at their ecosystem. And nectar can also be seen as what we understand as reward system to keep productivity and enthusiasm high. The plants need insect to help with pollination and has nectar to offer for such service.

belalang kunyit,

belalang kunyit  or Valanga nigricornis 

is the biggest grasshopper in Malaysia that I know of, resting on winged bean leaves. According to a laboratory studies on the life-history of Valanga nigricornis ...  it requires 6 and a half to 8 and a half months to complete the life cycle. I never knew belalang kunyit lives that long, definitely longer than winged bean itself.

a carpenter bee

a carpenter bee

a carpenter bee

the carpenter bee is undecided; is it okra or bean flower.

the carpenter bee licking nectar of winged bean flower

the carpenter bee

or xylocopa confusa 

licking nectar of winged bean flower.



Carpenter bee or Xylocopa confusa

is a large bee reaching slightly more than 20mm. Female is mainly black. The thorax is with deep yellow hairs, making it almost fully yellow except for small black patch at the centre. The species is quite widely distributed across Southeast Asia, definitely a frequent visitor in my garden, hopping from one flower to another. It seems to love every flower available here; coleus, senduduk, winged beans, roselle and okra.

[reference:  Xylocopa confusa - Asian Hornet Net]

bangchik and kakdah, my little vegetable garden  

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Giving clitoria ternatea a room

 There is a change in plan, clitoria ternatea are not going to be planted directly outside the kitchen window. We shift the site 2 meters away. Kakdah will still enjoy the view,  at a diagonal which is a bit to the left. The two plants are protected by the shade of sunflowers which is blooming right now. Within a month, that bush of sunflowers will go, then clitoria will have the whole bed to themselves with trellis to climb.

a pair of clitoria ternatea near sunflower plants.

close-up of clitoria ternatea

Putting trellis up, 

will not disturb what sunflowers are busy doing right now, 

that is yellowing and flowering, 

before blue become a new colour

for that site.

bangchik

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Tomato, one after another

the tomato,
star of earth, recurrent
and fertile
star,
displays
its convolutions,
its canals,
its remarkable amplitude
and abundance,
no pit,
no husk,
no leaves or thorns,
the tomato offers
its gift
of fiery color
and cool completeness.

 Pablo Neruda - Ode To Tomatoes

4 new tomato plants, 

just transplanted on the raised bed. on the left is the bushy flowering and fruiting winged beans. On the right is a single okra, basil, coleus, halia (ginger) and  kunyit (tumeric). The four stakes are of light weight bamboo brought here from Sitiawan, Kakdah's mom place.

another two tomato in pots, 

already flowering and staked with bamboo.

four matured tomato plants on raised bed. 







They look healthy but rather lanky due to shady environment.

The plants are flowering , with little fruits visible already. Two bigger plants are planted earlier. The other two younger plants awere added later to replace a plant that had wilted.

many more young seedlings 

ready to grow anywhere in the garden.



Because tomato is easy to germinate,

it is handy to have them ready intermittently,

so that tomato plant is always in the garden,

one after another.

bangchik

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