Bananas and more bananas!

Finally we harvested a big bunch of bananas! There were so many bananas! I shared them with family, relatives, friends and neighbours!

These are balance bananas after sharing with the neighbours!

It's layered in 3 layers!

The banana stocks are ripening naturally! I can smell bananas once enter the kitchen area!

Fully riped bananas! 

The inner part of bananas! Taste so sweet with mild sour taste! What a good combination taste!  

 The trunk was chopped down on weekend and the tender part are cooked! I share the stem with family!

what a useful plant is banana!


Now I have dozens of bananas in fridge. Waiting to be cooked or baked or even eaten raw!

bananas - still in green!

The banana tree is very high. I wonder why it became like coconut tree! The bunch is hanging down. It's very heavy and I wonder how the tree is coping with the weight! 

This is the bottom view! The fruits looked like fully filled but the ripening process haven't completed! No indication of yellow.

If all goes well I will have many fruits to be harvested and given to family and friends!

Banana getting fatter

It's a long wait for banana to ripen. I'm waiting without patient actually!

I have been thinking what kind of dessert I can make with the bananas! It's a long list actually!

Gardening do really teach us a lot of lessons in life! The plants teach us to slow down, value of patient, disappointment at time and happy moment at other time!

what you do with your abundance bananas?

Kangkung

Water spinach or Kangkung in Malay language is very famous vegetable in Malaysia.

Once I had abundance of Kangkung in my little garden. Family members can predict the vegetable dish for weekend cooking! Sometimes i cut them down as it became invassive. Now the bed can hardly produce any Kangkung plant. Not sure why. My attempt do not succeed anymore like those days.

Nevertheless I keep trying. This is my kangkung bed. Grown on new bed. It's not so productive at this stage but I hope it will in near future!

Do anyone have tips in growing successful Kangkung?

Jackfruit

 I thought i have one jackfruit and one "cempedak" tree. At least that's what I requested for in nursery 5 years ago. However, the nursery man had made mistake. He has given me 2 jackfruit trees!

One have grow big and i have plucked 2 fruits which are edible. Now there are 3 fruits hanging but i'm not sure if it will ripe. 2 fruits aborted half way.

This mistaken identity jackfruit tree grow very slowly. it's not so huge tree compare to the other one. Previously it produce many fruits but it dropped down half way. The plant aborted the fruits as part of survival i guess!

However the tree was so determined this time around! The fruit keep growing !

Finally I harvested a big fruit which weight 12kg! Such a huge fruit and the fleshes are so sweet! 

This is the half aborted fruit from the first tree. The fleshes are not ripe. I have to throw them away! This are part of gardening....so happy news and some unhappy ending.....

Banana tree

Banana planting need a lot of cleaning section! This is the area where I grow my banana. It all started with single plantlet. Now I have few of them. On and off we need to tidy this place. Chop the leaves, collect the dry bark, etc

Can you see the banana on top of the tree? The plant grow very tall. I need to use ladder to chop the banana flower and later the fruits! If all goes well, I shall harvest bananas at the end of next month!  

That's my calculation. Maybe it will take longer or shorter. I don't really keep track of the timing. So I only has a rough estimation with me!

I chop some of the leaves for Ponggal - Hindu harvest festival last month. So they look tidy now. We ate our lunch on banana leaves! The rice have very authentic taste on banana leaves!

GBBD - February 2017

It's hot now in Malaysia. I can't see or feel a raindrop! The monsoon has ended! 

That indicates - watering has to be done daily without fail! It's a warning indication for me. Past 2 months I have passed all my watering work to mother nature! Now I have to take this task back! 

Hot weather indicate more pest in the garden! Ants are considered as pest too in my garden. They help to carry white powdery mildew eggs! I can see ants everywhere!  

Costus flowers are favorite of the ants! 

Their red flower really bring cheery mood to my front door!

Mussaenda in yellow! They keep flowering non-stop!

Insect have chewed the petals! The bite do look like a heart shape ! May be the insect knows Valentine's Day is around the corner? So she or he expressing to their partner? ;) I think it's a beetle! I found the culprit on the above photo!

Duranta in purple contrasting with the red Costus!

The cape honeysuckle is having a show now!

My favorite yellow hibiscus is blooming again!

They attract a lot of ants!

I took these photos in the evening. By then the red hibiscus have drop down!

Marigold at the backyard always bring colour to the green area!

The flowering plants are back into action! I guess they know February is a month to show love!

This is my post for GBBD February and for 2017 Valentine's Day! Have fun!

For more flowers flowering around the world, feel free to visit http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/