Various Growing Things

The commotion in Thailand airport messed my plans up a bit and allowed me to stay a few more days back home. So before I left town last week, I set out some rice to "bait" microorganisms, but more on that in a next post. Yesterday saw me dumping a whole lot of matter for decomposition while I am in Cambodia, a more intensive absentee garden routine than I described here. More on that in the next post, as well.

It rained some while I was gone, and some trees have gone to fruit again. I was walking around and seeing evidence of chickens having a good meal, and mainly me missing a pickling and bottling opportunity. Here is a kamias that I wanted to make into spicy pickles. It was flowering when I left, but now the fruit is probably all gone.



I've been telling myself I am going to grow some okra again, but never have the chance to spot some seeds around in the villages. Usually I nick some dried okras from residential areas and grow them, but recently people have been extra adamant about being tidy with their dried okra. But now, hey hey, a surprise one is growing by the atis tree. A couple of years ago, when we just moved in, we had lots of okra in that spot. Can't say if one seed lasted that long, but in any case, yes!



This papyrus sedge is finally having flowers again. We made an Egypt-inspired soap using its flowers from the whole expanse of the garden, and then we realized (after everyone started loved it) that the blooms only come once a year. So we had to put poppy seeds in instead.



I took this pandanus spiny plant from the beach before. I was convinced it would not grow, as it was growing on sand and rock, but here it is making its presence felt among other plants in the shade:



It is the broad kind (not the small fragrant culinary sort) that they use to weave handicrafts. Its leaves have edges that are quite a hassle to handle, but I think it is beautiful and might be planted along areas for security.