Thread: What's in your garden?

Originally Posted by Looper

I am not sure what flavour Ube is supposed to be but it is a fairly lurid purple colour

It is the same family as the sweet potato. Lurid, yes.

I hope her tangerine was the only thing that got fertilised.

Originally Posted by Shutree

It is the same family as the sweet potato. Lurid, yes.

That explains a lot. I was expecting something a bit fruity from the lurid lilac lid, but the reality was a tad tame.

The Philippines is surely the only country on earth that could ever have given the world 'potato flavoured' ice cream...

Meanwhile I was left with another tangerine scion since cutting a branch to graft makes a new scion so back to my gaffer it went and onto a different host tree this time since root stock strength is highly variable and is a game of experimentation.

You are a tree surgeon Dr Looper.

Do you also specialize in roots

Finally after so many years of coming up empty, this year I harvest lamyai.

Looks like a bumper crop as well. Bet you wish you still had that big lamyai tree out front now!

Out of all these types of fruits - longon, lychee, rambutan and lamyai - lamyai are my favourite.

No Mendip the lamyai out front was a waste, it was so tall nobody wanted to go that high to harvest. Lamyai is my favorite too. I watched a video a few days ago about the 10 rarest fruits in the world. Mangosteen was #1 lamyai was #3.

Another video about lamyai said if you want bigger lamyai, go out when these are about the size of a pea and cut the clump in half. Only half as many but much bigger. I will try that next time, at least on some.

^ I'm very envious Tunk... we have one lamyai tree but it's never fruited.

However... this year our dragon fruit plant has borne fruit... after many years this is the first time ever and I had in fact forgotten it was even a dragon fruit plant and just thought it was some kind of cactus plant.



We've had 7 dragon fruit so far and there's at least as many to come.



Thankfully the squirrels don't seem to like dragon fruit and are currently concentrating on the wife's limes.



I've never been a big fan of dragon fruit and have always thought them something of nothing... but that changes of course when they grow in your own garden.



Lovely!

^My breakfast every morning over years with yogurt, muesli and few more walnuts, raisins, almonds, dry prunes. Allegedly good for reduction of sugar and high pressure.

My long time dream to grow the "keo mankon" on our fence hasn't come true...

Originally Posted by Klondyke

My breakfast every morning over years with yogurt, muesli and few more walnuts, raisins, almonds, dry prunes. Allegedly good for reduction of sugar and high pressure.

Fruit plus dried fruit reduces sugar?

New one on me.

Isn't that dragon fruit blossom the most beautiful flower? The neighbors used to hang over the wall on my side and I was amazed at that flower. It took me many years to get lamyai, I always trimmed and took care of the tree, but I never fed it. For the last year I've been feeding it. There is a lady in the neighborhood that sells cow shit, 100 baht for 3 bags. It's nice and dry, easy to work with. She is happy to sell it and I am happy to have it.

Originally Posted by Klondyke

^My breakfast every morning over years with yogurt, muesli and few more walnuts, raisins, almonds, dry prunes. Allegedly good for reduction of sugar and high pressure.

My long time dream to grow the "keo mankon" on our fence hasn't come true...

Originally Posted by cyrille

Fruit plus dried fruit reduces sugar?

New one on me.

cyrille
I believe Klondyke was/is referencing the Dragon fruit when he says "Allegedly good for reduction of sugar".

Google it and you might be amazed by its benefits.

Dragon Fruit Health Benefits

• It's rich in antioxidants like flavonoids, phenolic acid, and betacyanin. ...
• It's naturally fat-free and high in fiber. ...
• It may help lower your blood sugar. ...
• It contains prebiotics, which are foods that feed the healthy bacteria called probiotics in your gut. ...
• It can strengthen your immune system.

Originally Posted by Klondyke
My breakfast every morning over years with yogurt, muesli and few more walnuts, raisins, almonds, dry prunes. Allegedly good for reduction of sugar and high pressure.

Originally Posted by cyrille

Fruit plus dried fruit reduces sugar?
New one on me.

Actually, the remark about the benefit was meant to the dragon fruit - and it seems that it works for me, since I no longer need to take some kind of medicine I did years ago for that.

The other ingredients are my ingenious invention, they are good for other purpose as well.

So, new on you? No need to thank...

Originally Posted by Mendip

However... this year our dragon fruit plant has borne fruit... after many years this is the first time ever and I had in fact forgotten it was even a dragon fruit plant and just thought it was some kind of cactus plant.

I've never been a big fan of dragon fruit and have always thought them something of nothing... but that changes of course when they grow in your own garden.

It must be the rain we have been having lately that is making stuff grow so well. The MIL's dragon fruit are growing really well with lots of fruit as well. She normally gets some fruit but this year there is much more than usual.

Mendip I don't know whether you did this before you ate your fruit but I always put the dragon fruit in the fridge for at least a day to get them nice and cold and they then seem to taste so much better than if you eat them straight off the plant.

As I said early we have been getting quite a lot of rain this year and what is different is that it seems to be short duration heavy showers in the afternoon and if not every day every second day.
So the ground is heavily saturated and the trees and grass (weeds) are all growing very well.

We have 2 Pomelo trees near the shed and while they have had some fruit on them previously this year they are loaded.
They are at least 11 years old as they were there before we came along. They have never had any real love and care in their life except about 3 years ago I tried pruning the dead wood out of them and putting water on them twice a week. Obviously they needed more water than I was giving them as they didn't fruit like this year. The Missus told me that people have said its time to put some chicken shit on them so that they don't drop the fruit before they get ripe. So the other day I did just that and will wait and see what happens.

I did cut the weds underneath prior to putting the chicken shit on.

The gf put a few plants in pots along the drive. They look like this:



Until you get a Hawk moth caterpillar. After 1 day with 1 caterpillar the next plant looked like this:



No wonder the caterpillars are so big.

^ I've got a level if you want to borrow it?

Originally Posted by Mendip

^ I've got a level if you want to borrow it?

Is that some kind of Freemasonry thing?

^ I'm no Mason, although it would have done my career the world of good in the past... working out of Stavanger and Aberdeen in the oil industry.

Nah, I just don't like to see a skewiff plant pot!

A couple of days ago I mentioned getting a nasty ant bite on my scrotum from a weaver ant... well, it happened again this morning as I had my morning coffee and I lost my usual composure and did something about it.



I had to saw off the entire branch but I got the bladdy nest. You can see it just to the left of the ladder.

The fish had a feast.



I dragged the branch out of the pond and eventually got it over the wall... while receiving multiple additional bites across the entire body from these bastards... but at least one nest is gone.

This is what I was up against.



Incidentally, WTF was the gardener this morning?

Anyway... the moral of the story is, don't mess with my knackers.

No need to tell the wife, of course.

Originally Posted by ootai

Google it and you might be amazed by its benefits.

First mistake, google is not research.

Originally Posted by ootai

It may help lower your blood sugar. ...

second mistake, overlooking the 'may'...

Originally Posted by Mendip

Incidentally, WTF was the gardener this morning?

Originally Posted by Mendip

I dragged the branch out of the pond and eventually got it over the wall... while receiving multiple additional bites across the entire body from these bastards... but at least one nest is gone.

I would have left the ants in the water for the fish.

Originally Posted by Mendip

Nah, I just don't like to see a skewiff plant pot!

This isn't Versailles. It isn't easy, you know, getting that slightly random cottage garden ambience. Think of it as 'wabi sabi'.

Originally Posted by Schuimpge

Shutree, if you want to get rid of the caterpillars without chemicals...

Mix 2 liters hot water, 2 table spoons Molasses bit of garlic 'juice' and 2 teaspoons of dishwashing liquid.
Shake well to make sure it's all dissolved, let it cool down and use a plant-spray to put it on the plants.
Spray on the soil, the stem and under the leaves.
Any small caterpillars will die because of the soapy solution. Caterpillers won't crawl into the plant because of the stickiness and soap.
Plants don't have any side-effects.

It's a matter of regular checks under the leaves to see if there's any eggs.
Pull out any leaves with eggs and if there's caterpillars, use the above solution to spray.
Keep spraying every day for about a week. Caterpillars should be gone.


Cheers,
Luc

Thanks, I might give it a try. I don't mind usually, it is just that these hawk moth caterpillars seem to come from nowhere. One day the plant is fine, the next it is demolished and just one monster caterpillar has done all that damage. It's like they don't have a teeny tiny baby stage. One day nothing, the next a monster.

Originally Posted by TheRealKW

d have left the ants in the water for the fish.

I had the same thought. Those things are pests. I am tempted to dig a pond only for the purpose of chucking a nest in and letting the fish at it.