Container Gardening: Those Plants At The Patio
The weather is getting warmer, and the plants at our patio just loves it. They are all starting to "wake up" from the cold weather of winter.
And so when I went to the patio, I thought I should take some photos of our container plants.
The hyacinth bean from last year was now doing well. It already has 3 or 4 beans. Last year it bore more than we can handle and it occupied the whole trellis. It wasn't the Summer season yet but already starting with some flowers, so hopefully we can still have lots of the beans to enjoy this year.
This white snapdragon I had planted last year from seeds was the only snapdragon I have. About more than 4 had sprouted but had been eaten or damaged by bugs. I didn't even expected this one plant to survived as it wasn't been very healthy last year, and there was Winter season. But with this photo, the number of stems it has was surprising. I just went to the patio one day and noticed it had branched out! So I guessed it had imitated its neighboring plants, the royal carpet and the parsely.
And the flowers lasts for about a week or so, giving me more time to enjoy looking at them. And so this year I had planted more, hoping I could get other colors like red, yellow and purple.
The bougainvillea that has been here since we got the house was doing well. It flowers every year and just did some trimming to it before Spring. And now, I intend to keep an eye on it so it can stay in a nice shape.
These bitter melons are starting to look for something to grab on. They would always be present on our patio every year. Both leaves and fruits are eaten and they are one of remedies when I am feeling sick or is about to have coughs specially in the winter.
They just love the sun and I know by Summer their trellis would be so occupied. We also used to freeze the fruits whenever the bitter melons bear more than we can eat, we can then later have some for Winter.
This also had helped me keeping not only cough but also my asthma at bay by steaming the few leaves and drinking the extract. There are times I used the microwave too, it takes less time.
This fuschia I got for the hummingbirds had bloomed twice already. This was the second, while the first bloom was the month of March (if I remember it right.)
This salvia I set close on the sliding door was attractive for the hummers, or maybe just for one hummer as we have this hummingbird which is always curious about the plants in the patio. The bird would hover around plants and flowers, and I had caught it visiting the salvia and fuschia many times while I was sitting in the kitchen.
If only I know when it will visit the flowers then I could get ready with a camera in hand to snap a photo.
These are fenugreeks. We hadn't planted fenugreek before so this would be the first ones we have. And what surprised us was that this fenugreek still sprouted even though they had been soaked in hot water for days. I've been ordering the fenugreek seeds on Ebay for almost a year now for tea. We would soak the seeds in hot water and drink the tea until the extract were all gone. Then throw the seeds away.
Later on I learned my mom tried to set the seeds on one of the vacant pots because she said she had read on the packet to "return the seeds into the Earth." And to our surprised the seeds sprouted, and these are those.
And this chayote are just taking over the whole trellis and they need more. They hadn't started flowering yet and we are all waiting to see some buds.
My mom was also tempted to pick some of the shoots as the shoots or young leaves are also eaten. They can be seldom seen sold on Asian stores.
Another photo of the chayote on its trellis. The trellis were made of bamboo. I can hardly remember where we got this but that would be from Home Depot if I wasn't mistaken, and that was a couple of years ago. Look at that! This trellis has been there for about 3 years now or so.
The dama de noche is also doing so well this year. There's also some buds showing up. I love the smell of this flowers.
And for those who wanted to get it bamboos to make this trellis, you can try visiting the 99 Cents Only store in your area as they might have some way more cheaper. I just learned early Summer this year that our 99 Cents store has this bundles of bamboos for 99 cents each.
And for the dama de noche. Look at these developing buds! Soon this buds would turn into flowers that would perfume the air at night.
These dama de noche had bloomed last year, and the white flowers sure smells heavenly. I used to sniff them early at night when we are still outside sitting on the patio.
These chilli plants has been here for about 2 years now, or maybe more than that. I had just trimmed them before Spring and they look much better this year. My parents used the chilli, I don't like hot or spicy foods which makes me glad that the leaves aren't hot as I love the chilli leaves with the tinola, a Philippine favorite dish.
These plant called kalunay has been sprouting every Spring in our patio. The sprouts would be deep red in color and are nutritious and one of my favorite. Even the young roots can be eaten too and would go along with sardines or Philippine dish as such sinigang, tinola, or the mixed vegetables known as denengdeng.
And with alternative remedies, kalunay is used on kidney problems and provides vitamins, fibers, minerals and carbohydrates.
