Harvesting and Preserving Basil

Before I was allocated my little corner spot, I had two little rows where I grew two kinds of basil (and corn, to maximize the tiny land space). One was Thai Basil, which my mutter brought from her allotment at Bah Soon Pah, and the other was Sweet Basil, which I regrew from the harvest-ready version I got from Jasons supermarket @ Ion.

Since we were all forced to uproot our plants for the reallocation of plots, I had to either harvest my plants or kill them while transplanting them. I had to admit that I didn't really take very good care of my basil plants, therefore the ugly ass stems, them poor things.

So I harvested most of the leaves to dry and took stem cuttings for transplants instead.

I researched online on how to do the preservation. I chose 2 methods, the dry naturally method and the dry by microwave method.

Btw when you do either method, after washing the stems, you have to make sure that the leaves are laid out to dry properly. I am not sure why but the sweet basil always develop really hideous black markings if they are not dried well.

I cut the basil by stems for easy collection, chucking those that were damaged by insects (like I said, I didn't really take good care, and I was into "organic gardening", i.e. no pesticides). I washed them as carefully as I could before tying bunches up for natural drying. Natural drying in my case means hanging them up by bunches on the washing line *lol*.

As for the leaves that came off some of the stems/ the larger leaves, after laying them out on paper towels for drying, I switched on the convection function in my microwave oven to a temp of 100 deg C, and dried them until they looked like this:

Then I tossed them in my good old IKEA mixing bowl and crushed them into little flakes. Note here: later I read somewhere that it was better to not crush them because I'd lose the good oils in the leaves. Ah well.

Final state

Soaking the #waterconvovulus (kangkong) seeds in a recycled plastic cup for planting at the #allotment tomorrow! I'm afraid I am not a very patient person. 😉

A photo posted by Gardening Duckie (@meinkleingarten) on Jul 10, 2015 at 8:43am PDT

Ban Lee Huat Seed has moved!

Today I was in Chinatown area with Mr B to claim the freebies on my loyalty card when I remembered that Ban Lee Huat is nearby.

Ban Lee Huat is a seed wholesaler who sells loads of seeds at S$2 a small bag. (They do sell in bigger volumes of course, but Grumpy uncle always advises me to just buy a little bit and not let the seed spoil.) Very useful for community gardeners who are tired of buying those horribly stingy sachets of seeds from the supermarket.

However I was horribly disappointed to find a hollow shell where the seed cupboard used to be. Mr B was sure that I was mistaken and told me to walk on along the five foot way before he too realized that I was right. That they had closed down or retired (which is believable, because all the uncles inside the shop were pretty old).

"No no, they didn't close down," reassured the Auntie from the medical shop who was kind enough to come out of her shop to assuage our frazzled nerves. "They moved to Ang Mo Kio."

Really?  Running back to the empty shop front,  I looked up to see that a tiny brochure stuck near the ceiling of the shophouse. Thank you Kind Medical Shop Auntie!

But why the %*@- did the uncles move to freaking industrial park. Argh. Mr B said it was within walking distance from Yio chu kang. Walking distance my foot... well at least they didn't retire. All the uncles look like they were going to play chess and drink the chinese tea that they import from China whenever I visit them.

Lady's fingers (okra)

Uncle C gave me two okra seedlings from the ones he raised using the Architect's seeds. We had all coveted seedlings from her okra plants, because they were the desirable "Japanese" variety and has a more pleasant, delicate bite than the tougher, equally mucilaginous local variety.

They have finally gone into fruiting (mine are actually slower than Uncle C's by a few weeks, and a lot shorter and stumpier, since I am not as generous with the chicken poop as the older folks are), and are producing at least 1 edible finger a day, much to my delight.

Bobo was commenting that by the end of this week, we will have enough for a meal (collected 4 fat fingers so far). So I have been generous with my fertilizer in the hopes of encouraging its fertility.

Also, I found out that the okra behaves like an perennial plant in the tropics where I am, and once it reaches 6 feet in height, I should cut it down to the lower leaves so that it will continue to regrow. Lovely news isn't that?

Torenia reseeded

I was trying to propagate roses when I discovered something else growing in the pot. Upon showing Mr Bear, he recognized it immediately and declared it "Torenia!"

I was surprised because (1) it was not 1 of the pots that I used for growing/layering/transplanting Torenia (2) I didn't expect it to reseed (3) my Torenia died like months ago (the layered transplant I 

gave Mutter was drowned by our enthusiastic helper and the one I gave Mr Bär somersaulted itself onto his balcony floor without success on a windy night).

Luckily I didn't tear it out thinking it was a weed. I transplanted it to another pot so that it would not crowd out my precious rose transplant. Ironically it is growing very well in its new pot now (almost died from the heat in the community garden, so I brought it home and resuscitated it with morning sun and loads of water), whereas my rose plant has kicked its bucket.

Updated!
I was going to reuse the pot where the rose has died to transplant another rose where I notice a baby seedling popping up through the pot. It looks suspiciously like torenia!

The Allotment @ CC garden (week 0)

Mutter and I have been allocated a piece of land at the CC garden (henceforth referred to as the "allotment"), just like the other pairs.

I have come up with numerous ideas for how we would split the allotment. For example, I first thought of splitting the land into 4 raised beds, 1 for corn, 1 for tomatoes, 1 for leafy greens, 1 for turnip.

The Architect persisted in growing her silk gourd on the racks so we couldn't till the entire piece of land until Feb. So on the two tiny pieces of land (Plot A and B) we tilled so far, I transplanted my tomatoes from home on the left. Mutter asked me where should the corn from our earlier growing go?

I said, beside (meaning on the other piece of land), but she ended up transplanting the corn plants next to the tomatoes on Plot A. Sacre Bleu! Lesson #1: Corn and tomatoes should not be grown together because of the tomato fruit worm/ corn ear worm (same stupid worm).

Also, I am pretty amazed at the corn plants' survival rate, so far the various batches have survived being transplanted 3-4 times in various phases of growing (though I have my doubts on the quality of fruit). We are regrowing corn again. 

I read up on companion growing, and read that basil (which I have grown pretty well during the previous growing season) is an excellent companion for tomatoes, so I have transplanted some babies onto plot A next to the tomatoes. Also, I have sown marigold seeds as well as transplanted some portulaca at the slope to attract bees and butterflies. Lesson #2: should have sown the marigold earlier, by the time, my tomatoes are harvested, my marigold will still be tiny babies. Guess they will have to catch my next set of tomato plants (probably cherry tomatoes this time).

For the corn, I am growing cucumbers (left over seed from years ago) to climb on the corn. I have been told that it is not a good idea as my corn will likely be harvested long before my cucumbers flower. Well, if that happens, then I will just have to leave the old corn stalks there/ replace them with bamboo poles. 

Fick me hard van achten - Ladybird style

This phrase was taught to me by a Dutch player on CoH (he thought I was a dude anyway) when he was describing how he taught his Filipino girlfriend how to speak Dutch during sex. Lol.

Anyway, stop ****ing ladybirds, and get to munching those horrible aphids on my corn. Thanks very much!