|
Climbers and Trailers
 The special appeal of climbers and trailers is that they can
provide a mass of foliage even when space is limited. Climbers can be
trained up a support while trailers can be left to cascade downwards.
Many plants will grow happily up or down. Bougainvilleas, Scindapsus spp. Philodendron spp. and Piper
spp. if supported can be trained to form a frame or left to trail and
form‘waterfalls’ of green. To fill in an empty corner grow a climber up
a moss pole, attaching the stems to the pole with bent wires. To
highlight a feature such as a window, doorway, arch, picture or mirror,
train a climber along wires fixed to the wall.
|
|
Friendlier Pest Control
 Healthy plants are more resistant to attack by pests, and
regular checks help to find and deal with a pest attack quickly before
neighbouring plants become infected too. Therefore, looking after the
plants properly is the best possible way of avoiding trouble with pests
and diseases. Well cared healthy plants rarely suffer serious attacks
and any mild infestation will be able to be shrugged off easily by the
natural defense systems of the plant.
The
use of strong insecticides is being considered as not a good practice.
Apart from the unwanted pests, beneficial ones are being killed. This
makes matters worst with the development of immunity amongst the common
pests toward these chemicals. Therefore, less drastic treatments are
being sought after by the home gardeners.
After caring for the
plants (plants being given proper amount of light, sensible amount of
water and fertilizers, etc) the appropriate way to control an attack is
quick action. This will mean frequent observations of the plant
to detect early signs of pests or diseases. This is not difficult since
the caring of plants bring pleasure to most serious home gardeners.
Always try to examine the fast growing tips, flower buds and soft
flower stalks. A number of pests usually hide on the undersides of
leaves, so one should frequently turn the foliage to check for aphids,
scale insects and white fly. Look into the leaf axils for mealy
bugs and scale insects.
|
|
|
Plant Grapes
 We accepted the invitation from the grape garden owners to
visit their newly set up garden in Petaling Jaya. The small corner lot
of a terrace house has been a landscaped using grapevine planted to
trail up a wooden arbor or pergola. The vines do make good ornamental
climbers but the added value is, they do yield grapes! Being a
Mediterranean plant, grapes can also survive our weather but the
quality and volume of grape bunches yield probably will not be able to
give you the raisins described by Dr. Mahmud below. However having a
grapevine in your kitchen garden will be able to provide you with fresh
vine leaves to make one of the dishes in our gardenspread.
|
|
|
Fresh Potpourri
 We have been buying potpourri in the market in the dried form
but the Malaysian old community has been making fresh potpourri for all
occasions all those days. The appearance of the dried form has made us
rather lazy to prepare the fresh ones. We at gardenasia would like to
revive the art and as we gardeners have the raw materials in our
garden, we should now start making our own potpourri. In future issues
we will bring to you the art of making the dried potpourri.
|
|
|
Om Ali
 On my numerous trips to the Middle East, there was one
dessert served at the hotels we stayed in that my family would not miss
to take. It is an Egyptian pudding called Om Ali. I poured over recipe
books to get the ingredients though we could guess most of it. Although
it taste suspiciously like bread and butter pudding we know that it was
not bread that was in it.
The
usual nuts and raisins, favourites of the Middle Eastern people were
definitely there but the pastry is not bread but filo pastry. I tested
a few recipes and checked with the chef from the restaurant in the
Islamic Museum and here is our version of Om Ali. It is in Gardenspread
this time because we are featuring a grape product, raisins!
|
|
|
<< Start < Previous 1 2 Next > End >>
|
| Results 7 - 11 of 11 |
