Mints

April 2014.

Managed to find a number of new different types of mint this month to add to my peppermint.

Not sure but think this is Chocolate Mint!

Spearmint

Cuban Oregano - not cuban and not oregano but a type of mint which is supposed to be good for coughs!

Nasi Ulam Herbs

February 2014.

Decided to try making Nasi Ulam using herbs from my garden.  This is what I collected...

Clockwise from left - Laksa leaves, Lime leaves, Thai lemon basil, lemongrass, turmeric leaves (under), mint (below)

Beginnings in herb gardening

August 2013.  Some one just asked recently when I started my interest in Herb Gardening and coincidentally I was just going through all my pictures of my plants sorting them out by type of plant.  Looking at the dates on the pictures, I deduced (as memory fails!) that I first started growing herbs around May/June 2011.

Thrips

July 2013. Having come back after several weeks away, I have discovered that the thrips have had a field day with a number of my plants!  At first look, I just thought that many of the plants were suffering from neglect and the effects of either too much rain or swelteringly hot temperatures - typical summer weather here in Hong Kong.

"Winter"

January 2013.  Going to Sydney and Brisbane in our summer, their winter, made me realize that my concept of our cold season in Hong Kong in terms of the herbs was all wrong! This is the problem with having grown up in the tropics! So I realized that with our relatively mild winters, I should be thinking of this time of year as the growing season not the dormant season. I realize too that looking back on my blogs from a year ago that this was the time when the eggplants and tomatoes were all fruiting, much to my surprise then. Sadly I have given up with those veggies as the amount of space they took up on my balcony in proportion to the amount of fruit they produced was not justifiable. They also looked rather unsightly most of the time. So I decided to major on herbs....

Pests! and other visitors

Late August 2014.  Found this very interesting blog post on the most common type of caterpillars in the balcony.  Apparently they like curry leaf and citrus plants - exactly the 2 plants that I keep finding them on!

Here is one which I didn't find early enough...

Unfortunately I think it didn't survive as it hasn't moved in several hours... yuck!

Harvesting the Galangal and Ginger

October 2012.  I have been looking at my galangal plant for a while now thinking that it needed to be harvested before it split the bag it is in or before it reached the roof!