Mint & Holiday wishes

Once I had a space full of mint. They were over flowing that i started to think of them as weeds. Somehow some kind of caterpillars started to infest them. It's strange for me since the mint taste is liked by caterpillars! Their leaves reduced and grass started to grow.  

Last weekend all the weeds was uprooted. Fertilizer was applied. Hope this will rejuvenate the mint!





close up of Mint



   

BTW, To all the Muslim "SELAMAT HARI RAYA" AND "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" to the rest. Hope all of you will have a lot of fun and safe journey back home!

Roselle juice and Jam

Yesterday i came back home quiet early. It seems the traffic have reduce a little compare to first week of Ramadan. May be many already started to go back hometown for the joyous Raya celebration. Many of my friends are starting leave from today!

As i walk through my garden, I found many Roselle fruits around.

I had time to do Roselle Juice and Jam.

So refreshing juice on hot day!

First time i did Roselle jam. tasted so good ! A good amount of sugar and real taste of Roselle. Now i realise that the commercial jam only have the sugary taste! 

I'm linking this to GTTC by greenishthumb

Sunflower

Bunga Matahari or Sunflower or i call it "suria gaandhi poo" in Tamil is one of my favorite flower! These are some of the seedlings.

I clean a flower bed with the thinking to transplant the new seedlings later on. The same day i sow the seeds in small pots and throw some seeds which i thought not healthy. To my surprise some of the seeds which i assume unhealthy have germinated!

This weekend i need to add soil and mulch to make the soil more rich. The original soil as you can see below is clay and full of stones.

Croton

Does Croton produce flowers? All i know is that Croton produce beautiful and colourful leaves! I'm a bit surprise to see some flower bud spikes on my Croton. What are they?

They do look good. Will it bloom to become flowers?

Balsam

On my mind today

I read some of the benefits from internet:

Different parts of the plant are used to treat disease and skin afflctions; the leaves, seeds, and stems are also edible if cooked. Juice from balsam leaves treats warts and also snakebite, while the flower can be applied to burns to cool the skin.Impatiens balsamina L. has been used as indigenous medicine in Asia for the treatment of rheumatism, fractures, and fingernail inflammation. In Korean folk medicine Impatiens ('Bong Seon Wha Dae') has been used to cure constipation and acute gastritis by meat. One in vitro study found Impatiens, especially the seed pod to have antibacterial activity against Multiple Antibiotic-Resistant Helicobacter pylori. It inhibits 5alpha-reductase, so may have potential medicinal use in male BPH/LUTs. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant, and has become naturalised and invasive on several Pacific Ocean islands

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Mulberries

This is my first time to taste the fresh mulberries right from the garden. It's so juicy!

 The plant is so young but have started to produce berries!

Mangoes!

I can see few mangoes as of now. But usually the fruits will drop down and only 2-3 will grow to mature.