This month Nenek’s garden log displaces the narration of the traditional festivals, because food served at Nenek’s should be grown organically. The motto is from seed to the table. The “greenhorn” gardener got a present from Erich, our former neighbour at our previous home. He ceded 14 sq m of his garden.
Here is a photo of the newly prepared beds in the garden 2 or 3 tram stops away depending on which tram stop was chosen.
2 long beds, one with a meter scale
This short empty bed was ploughed and raked on 12th March
view with short bed in front
The long bed without a 2 meter foldable ruler underwent this treatment on the 13th while that with the yardstick which shows the size of the bed was taken care of on the 16th.
Here you would see a ginger, curcuma or galangal shoot of 5 cm with the first unrolling leaf, the strongest growth of a set of 10 pots started just about 3 days before Chinese New Year in January, still under the protection hood to temperate the temperature on the balcony and against draught.
young shoot under a protection hood
ginger? galangal? curcuma? Shoot itself without the protection hood
5 out of 10 pots, 3 with shoots
When transplantation into the garden takes place, we can determine if these are gingers, galangals or curcuma.
Blue butterfly pea
Blue butterfly peas are also in propagation. 4 out of 6 seeds have taken root. One seedling has cotyledons of about 4 cm above the soil.
Chinese winter melon just starting to germinate
The Chinese winter melon lags behind these although the seeds were sown on 3rd or 4th March.
On the 17th March a germination tray with 3 Chinese fingerroot, kunci cina and 3 ginger was set up under the portable small green house as well as one with 6 more blue butterfly pea.
chilli seedlings, 2 seed each in a pellet
The Malaysian cuisine is not complete without chillies, therefore 8 seeds were put into 4 germination pellets, see how far they have developed on 27th March.
bitter gourd at the corner of tray
Bitter gourd, bitter cucumber or bitter squash has a beautiful Latin name Momordica charantia is part of the Malaysian diet. Children generally do not like bitter gourd!
The development of all these plants will be posted under Garden logbook.
3rd Event in the Year of the Horse
When: Friday
Time: 19.30
Where: Oerlikon, 5 minutes’ walk from Oerlikon Railway Station
Aperitif
Starter – agar agar cocktail, screw pine, rose hip, coconut
Salad – beet root in garlic, chilli, ginger sauce
Main course: chicken wrapped in screw pine leaves, rice and leafy vegetables from Oerlikon market
G’s dessert
Tea or Coffee
CHF 100 per person (incl. 1/2 bottle of wine)
go to make-your-reservation