Spinach / Bayam are civilised lots.

We always put too much  spinach seeds. Probably because the seeds are too small and a little pinch already take 20 to 30 seeds.  When they germinate, our hearts warm up to the lovely sight, seeing new lives coming up,  racing up for a little space to breath. We should thin them down to the right amount for a given space. Most of the time, the joy seeing healthy seedlings is so overwhelming, and we let all of them seedlings stay and behave themselves. We can see how they let the healthier ones go up and get bigger but the rest stay low, growing at a slower pace.....  When we harvest the bigger ones, within a week the rest pick up speed and grow higher.

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So in a way, they do manage themselves, wait for their turn and stay as civilised spinach community....

bangchik and kakdah

vegetable garden

Bayam or spinach

It is good to grow bayam or spinach in pots. It's visible, manageable and ornamental too. It does create interesting colour and healthy feel within the landscape of potted plants. I probably have to wait a week  for the first harvest. Yummy......!!

spinach in large pot

spinach in large pots

spinach

spinach

spinach

Spinach in small pot

bangchik and kakdah

vegetable garden

Tanam Bayam - Spinach - a rarity (report 3)

The term succession sowing of spinach every 10 days really makes meaning, since we are witnessing such a fast rate of growth. Succession sowings will ensure continuous harvest of young sweet leafy vegetables.  In our case, three pots of spinach at different stages will do. The eldest son Yop was just offered electrical engineer job with National Electricity Board (TNB) and he would soon spread his wings to far away city. The youngest son Adik had just finished his studies and will soon leave the nest into hotel industry.  We cannot be too over ambitious with vegetable growing .  Only two mouths to eat.......


Spinach planting schedule. - Seri Kembangan 
Sowing: --------------10.01.2014
Report 1 -------------18.01.2014  Vegetable Gardening - a new start
Report 2 -------------12.02.2014  Tanam Sayur Sendiri, bayam or spinach.-report 2
Report 3 -------------20.02.2014

week 1

Spinach - Bayam, just tiny seedlings 17.1.2014

week 5

Spinach, a month after sowing 12.2.2014

week 6

Bayam - Spinach top view 20.2.2014

week 6

Bayam - Spinach  side view 20.2.2014

Spinach planting schedule. - Seri Kembangan 
Sowing: --------------10.01.2014
Report 1 -------------18.01.2014  Vegetable Gardening - a new start
Report 2 -------------12.02.2014  Tanam Sayur Sendiri, bayam or spinach.-report 2
Report 3 -------------20.02.2014  Tanam Bayam - Spinach - a rarity (report 3)


Popeye wasn't wrong in choosing spinach as his energy booster. And he could also have known the other benefits too which include: managing diabetes, preventing asthma and cancer,  lowering blood pressure, strengthening bones, promoting regularity of bowel systems and making hair and skins healthy. At least that's what the experts say..... and I am just a keen vegetable gardener dealing with simple vegetable of such rarity.

bangchik and kakdah

seri kembangan

Tanam Sayur Sendiri, bayam or spinach. - updates (Report 2)

Spinach / Bayam : we had done a bit of thinning to reduce the number of spinach.

Spinach planting schedule.
Sowing: --------------10.01.2014
Report 1 -------------18.01. 2014  Vegetable Gardening - a new start
Report 2 -------------12.02. 2014
Harvest: --------------07.03. 2014 expected
sowing to harvest: ------8 weeks  expected

Spinach originated in ancient Persia, eventually making its way to Italy in 827 and finally gracing European tables in the 1300s. Its appearance in early spring made this a fast favorite when other vegetables were scarce during Lenten diets. For this reason, spinach has the great honor of being mentioned in the first known English cookbook.
When Catherine de'Medici became the queen of France in 1522, she insisted that spinach be served at every meal because she loved it so. Today when you hear of spinach dishes referred to as "Florentine," that is because Catherine was born in Florence.   refer: National spinach day – Eatocracy - CNN.com Blogs

17th January 2014

Spinach, just tiny seedlings. 17.1.2014

12th February 2014

Spinach, a month after sowing....

Kakdah would take a few for meal 

until the batch gets too hardy before the 8th week 

________bangchik and kakdah________

seri kembangan

Vegetable Gardening - a new start

Seri Kembangan, Malaysia.

We dont seem to get tired of gardening. Kakdah clings to her orchids and ornamental plants, and I more into vegetable gardening.  We are coming to a phase of life, much different to what we are used to. The house is typical malaysian double storey. Space is very limited both at the front and back. We have to reduce the number of pots used.

I was flicking through the earlier posts on container gardening.  We had gone through several elaborate attempts on growing vegetables in pots such as  onions  ,   pakchoy,  kale / kailan,    daun sup,  cabbage,  etc.

the old kucai

Of the many vegetables we grew in Johor, we only take kucai along. Kucai never seems to stop growing, they grow quietly, they stay low and happy. Now  onions and spinach start to grow and be part of the ealier pioneers here.

bawang - onions in two small pots

bayam - spinach in large container

Yeap, we have a lot more seeds, but they have  to wait for their turn.

__________bangchik and kakdah__________

seri kembangan

seedlings and seedlings

Seeds will be obsolete if stored for far too long especially in the kind of weather we are having in Malaysia.  One eggplant was allowed to grow and grow and finally turned yellow. It was so big. I scooped out seeds, and it could easily be thousands.  I germinated immediately, filling up 104-tray. There is no intention of selling them at all, and the whole process is to satisfy my earlier hypothesis that fresh seeds will germinate better.

So, as expected every single seed germinated...... 104!. The most I am going to use is 20 in the vegetable patch over the left side of the backyard.... The rest is for the neighbours and visitors, - kakdah's green giveaways, in a down to earth reply to modern cry - sustainable living. Kakdah may not have the capacity to champion 500,000 strong march down Kuala Lumpur for green living or stop jungle clearing campaign. And all she has is the green pencil to give some colour to the canvas in form of little seedlings giveaways....

eggplant seedlings

two rows of zinnia on the left,  a tray of spinach on the right

After years of  germination attempts,  we can almost gauge what's the outcome, given the age of seeds and weather conditions.  My way is crude, no lab, no meter readings.... just plain layman approach. Like an old fisherman who can tell storm is coming, not repeating weatherman's report on TV but understanding the tingling feeling at ear lobes..... hmmmm...hmmm... haha.

___________________________

bangchik and kakdah

mylittlevegetablegarden

Garden, random pictures

Some plants are designed to keep growing. That's our green spinach. We had to be back in Sitiawan and Pantaai Remis during Hari Raya celebrations, and other appointments over in KL, Putrajaya and Terengganu. Daily rainfalls helped plants very much, and they survived including green spinach or bayam hijau.  Kakdah did her usual sup bayam. Sup bayam is the simplest - bayam boiled in a few cups of water, adding shrimps, onions and red chili.

green spinach (bayam)

purple flower

flower of ornamental palm

I am back online after 2 weeks off.   I need to mention about delivery of 200 stevia seedlings to blogger friend in Ipoh during Raya days and the recent mail of 50 roselle seeds to autumn belle. We only grow roselle from the old world, the type I had seen since small.  I am currently getting quite serious with stevia, having 100 seedlings at the backyard under the shade of  netting, 40 percent light penetration.

bangchik and kakdah

my little vegetable garden

More vegetables to add.

Germinating indoor is useful during rainy season, where one can guarantee seeds let out roots and leaves popping up, and not washed away by rains. Seeds are queuing up, taking turn to see the light of day. Roselle, ulam raja, chili centil, lady's fingers, keladi, basil, kangkung and cekur had gone to the ground, doing well so far. Spinach and brinjal are still in germinating trays. Lettuce and cabbage are in bigger pots now.

SPINACH / BAYAM

CABBAGE / KUBIS

Cabbage

Quite a coincidence, everytime I set out to grow cabbage, only four manage to survive. Once in Putrajaya home, another in Tanah Merah. As if cabbage seedlings understand that I only have four large shallow pots to keep them. Fresh mixed soil is ready for them and by middle of the year,

 they should be ready for harvest.

LETTUCE / 

LETTUCE

LETTUCE

Lettuce

These are from the same variety I grew in Tanah Merah. I wasn't as 

ambitious as Tanah Merah days. 

Only 8 lettuce this time.

BRINJAL

BRINJAL

BRINJAL

The last one to germinate, with yellowish leaves.

BRINJAL seedlings, bowing to the sun.

A friend recently mentioned about not having green fingers, and another friend asked about three sisters concept and how to grow markisa from seeds.  I wish to elaborate what is green fingers all about. About growing markisa, a click on the label, will lead to my previous adventure. In fact I have transplanted 4 markisa    brought from Tanah Merah. The four seem to be doing fine. 

The other day, we were discussing about transformation, through rebranding perspective. I am looking at my big backyard, visualisizing changes that will appear, with quickwins, harvests and giveaways. Transformation or rebranding exercise is about planning and seeing it through. My backyard garden is like a lab.  The way forward should be realistic, and as a gardener I appreciate the two limiting factors; time and stamina, as I keep on visualising the eventual look of my little vegetable garden in Johor and as I keep germinating more seeds, and as I keep adding plants to the vegetable bed....

-bangchik and kakdah-
Johor Malaysia

Germinating, Lettuce, pak choy, marigold, giant sunflower

I am off for another round of vegetable growing. Some seeds were bought in February this year, and left idle for two months. Giveaway seeds from gardeners/bloggers still not tried out yet. So last Saturday, I decided to try them out.

Germination, in trays. Newspaper on top. 

10 april 2011

 

Some seeds emerged first, the rest still taking their own sweet time. After rounds of germination, we appreciate that some seeds are very impatient, to see the light of day, some prefer to continue sleeping and will wake up a lot later.

 

Pak Choy

pak choy seedlings

14th of April 2011

 

pak choy seedlings

 14th of April 2011

pak choy seedlings

14th of April 2011

 

pak choy seedling - close-up

14th of April 2011

 

Lettuce

 

lettuce seedlings

 14th of April 2011

lettuce seedlings

14th of April 2011

lettuce seedlings - close-up

14th of April 2011

 

 Spinach

Spinach seedlings

 14th of April 2011

 I would go along with Kakdah suggestion to put them in pots. We bought 50 medium size white pots a few months back. These veggies will look nice in them. They will be placed at front car porch, to ease watering, fertilising and of course harvesting! It wont take long for these vegetables to mature...

bangchik and kakdah

Tanah Merah, Kelantan