gardening
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Yassin vs. Rambutan Tree
The rambutan tree that Yassin planted back in 2008 has grown taller than he is!
Yassin is 120cm tall and the tree beats him by 57cm.
Here’s the progress from 2008:
22 July 2008
30 July 2008
05 August 2008
05 February 2009
Chronoligally, you can read the progess here: Planting Seeds, Sprout!, Sprouts, The Greens.
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Roselle & 1000th post!
I am keeping this post moderated for a special surprise. But to know what it is, keep on reading.
My mom planted this Roselle end of last year. It has been producing fruits after 6 weeks and been continuing doing so until now. Yesterday we harvested the fruits for the second time and made two bottles of juice!
Have you ever heard about Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) fruits before? Roselle is a common home garden crop and is native from India to Malaysia. Roselle has high contents of vitamin C and anthocyanins. You can eat the raw young leaves as salad and made juice out of its calyces; you can make food coloring as well if you want. The seeds are great to feed the chicken but for me I planted the seeds all around my house! Wait for a month or so and I have a house full of Roselle plants! Will try to make fruit jam next time!
Roselle has often been mistaken with Ribena as they taste similar. Ribena came from blackcurrant juice; of which the name Ribena came from the scientific name Ribes Negrum.
Ok here is how to make the juice:
Separate the calyces from the seeds. Wash and put the calyces in a pot of water. I’m not to sure what to do with the young seeds but I had to throw it away. I’m still researching on how to harvest this fruit and I have the feeling that I should wait till the seeds are good to be planted again.
Ok, I’m not too sure about the measurement as I forgot to count the fruits! Lol! But give and take I say, we picked around 70-80 fruits so I’m giving you a measurement for this amount, ok. Add 2 liters of water in a pot and boil for 10 minutes or until the water turns red. Add 500gm of sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved (this way we don’t need to mix with sugar again. Just pour and add ice!) Filter out the dross and set aside until the juice is cold. If you have old juice bottles, don’t throw it away, you can recycle and keep your own Roselle juice in the bottles instead.
I will try to be more specific and give proper exact measurement next time but until then, let’s quench our thirst!
With this post, I marked my 100oth POST!! For that, I am giving away a pack of Roselle for the commenter of the 10th comment!
I’ll keep the comment box moderated until I get the lucky one!
UPDATE: I have the winner already: RARA!!! Rara please e-mail me your home address to emila@emilayusof.com.
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Peekaboo!
It happened few weeks ago. My mom cut down the grape leaves two months ago (about the same time that Bain and Jia visited me). The leaves started growing back and guess what? There were flowers too. I was all excited but forgot to call and tell my mom who went back to hometown. When she got back to KL, she was so surprised to the flowers. I told her I saw them but were quite pessimist about them surviving the weather. There were a bunch; maybe like more than 10 little flowers. To date, only two survived and they look like this:
Only two tiny grapes in two years. Haha but this is okay, we’re planting just for fun.
1st commenter
Nessa
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Rose
Fresh from my mom’s garden. Roses are blooming like crazy! Was it because of the banana peels that my husband buried under the bushes?? He got the idea from Will Smith in ‘Seven Pounds’. I guess the potassium helped with the flowering.
You can try this at your garden. Or you can google ‘Banana peel rose bush‘ first before you try.
1st commenter
Genie Princess
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The greens
My mother is trying her hands at planting grapes and it has grown beautifully for the past two years. I read that it will take about three years to produce fruits and we can’t wait for the moment. My mom built her own mini wooden trellis for the plant to crawl. Here are pictures of the plant:
My mother is away for a year (she’s back in hometown) and I am left to take care of her plants. I have been indulging myself with reading materials about how to care for grape plants; as well as other plants. Also came across articles about blackberry plants, rather interesting. I’m not much of a green-hand person but I am trying my best.
Previously, when we moved here 29 years ago, we had pomegranate, mangoes, belimbing (bilimbi), murungai kaai (drumstick beans) and others but now no more except for flowering and non-flowering plants (lots of them!), this grape plant, the rambutan plant that Yassin planted, chilli plants, bean plant, eggplant (on and off) and few species of herbs. I remember that my mom chopped down most of the trees because their leaves kept falling on the neighbour’s compound and that they complained about it. I also remember that I used to pick young pomegranates to give to my school mates because they believe they can lost few pounds by eating them. I’ve tried but can’t stand the bitterness!
Anyway, here’s a picture of the rambutan plant that Yassin planted last year. It is already more than I feet tall!
You can read my post about him planting rambutan tree here: Planting seeds, Sprout! and Sprouts.
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Sprouts
One of the sprouts that Yassin planted has grown 5 inches taller since the last update. An inch a day! Wow, that was quick!
Yassin watering his rambutan sprouts
Closer look at the sprouts -
Sprout!
Remember the seeds that Yassin planted? Well, they have sprouted! Yassin felt so proud and happy yesterday.
