My herbs garden

When I first started this blog at the tender age of 20, never would I thought that I will have 'gardening' as one of my labels. The sudden interest in gardening was sparked when I started to learn to cook. I always search for new recipes to try and found some really interesting one but I don't have the ingredients that are needed. Mostly are herbs like basil, rosemary, thyme etc

Living in Sibu makes everything limited for me. No grocery stores or supermarket stock fresh herbs. Those that I could find are the overpriced dried herbs. I refused to give in and started to find other alternative to get my hands on fresh herbs.

What is the better way to get fresh herbs without breaking the bank other than growing it myself. Next challenge to find the seeds supplier because my local nursery doesn't carry herbs seedling until a recent one stop center for gardening opened in my town. But then again, there is nothing that Mr Google cannot solve.

After spending hours of Googling, I finally settled on 2 online shops that sell seeds that I wanted. Feel free to order your seeds from Iris Seeds and My Lestary Seeds. They have tons of varieties and the seeds are pretty cheap too.

I got carried away while buying my seeds. As you can see, I bought asparagus seed  as well as strawberry and cranberry. Oh yeah, I'm an ambitious first time gardener. 

My gardening tools.

That packet of soil that you see above is the soil that I bought from a nursery which I regret afterward because 1) it is not organic 2) I left the soil in the plastic bag for a few days and it grew weeds ='= I opted for plastic pots because it is cheap and easy to handle. I used to buy the pots from supermarket but The Green House sells some really cheap plastic pot for as low as RM1.30. 

This is the very first plant that I planted. It is potatoes and I planted it from the potatoes that I bought from supermarket. Sadly the plant died not long after and I have yet to taste my own potatoes. As this post is written, the potato plants that you see above is from back in August. Right now I have new potatoes that I planted back in October. So far so good. But the monsoon season during the year end worries me. I hope my potatoes can survive the rainfall. If so, I can harvest my own potato by the end of January. 

My basil leaves just sprouted.

The basil photo above was taken back in late August or early September. Among all the herb, basil is the easiest to grow. It need not extra attention as long as it get enough sunlight and water, it grow beautifully on its own. As I'm writing this right now, the basil above has grown to big bush and really need trimming.

                                                 

Basil on the left after 2 or 3 weeks meanwhile the right side is supposed to be oregano

But it is not. It is weeds and I didn't even realize it until after my dad pointed it out to me. So yeah, he's right, it is weeds and I removed it afterward. Till to day, no oregano sprouting. I tried growing oregano again in seedling pot and still failed. Well, I'll try again another time.

My chia

Another herb that I did not expect to grow easily is chia. I mean, I never heard anyone growing chia before so I was just trying my luck. Turned out, it grows really well. no extra care needed except for a pole for its to grow on. 

More basil because I love seeing it sprouts.

Trying to grow lavender but sadly the weeds took over and my lavender seedlings died.

On the left is mint and the empty dirt on the right is supposed to be stevia.

But as you can see, the stevia failed to sprout. I already transferred the mint seedlings to small pot and now it is growing healthily. The only extra care step that I took for mints is to not put in under direct sunlight.

It is been 2 months and this chive seeds are not sprouting. ='=

I started this new seeds in a store bought potting mix but after more than 5 weeks it is still no development except for the mix getting drier and drier after each day

I also started to grow tomato, sunflower, kale, lettuce and mints in these seedlings pots.

It's been 2 months and only the tomatoes survived when I re-potted these into small pots. I'm so sad that all of my sunflowers are dead but oh well, I'll try again another time. I can't wait for my tomatoes to bear fruit.  

Anyway I bought some herbs from The Green House Sibu to add to my herbs collection. But extremely hot weather in November definitely took its toll on my herbs.

My basil leaves turn wrinkly like this. It was probably because I sprayed the leave with water. 

Mints! I made mint tea from this. Like my own mints plant, this is the easiest to take care of. 

Thyme

My thyme is dead after 3 weeks. It slowly turns woody and brown until the whole plant is dead. I haven't even harvest it for cooking. I admit that after a month or two, I slowly paid less and less attention to my plants because I was busy with work and travel. For the rest of the plants that still survived till today, I will continue to take good care of it. My only concern right now is the monsoon season in December. It rains almost everyday. For my potted plants, it is easy because I can move it anywhere but for my potatoes, I planted it direct to the soil. I noticed that one of the potatoes plant turning yellowish and brown. It's been two months so I hope it managed to grow some potatoes underneath. Will dig it up properly once the plant completely wilted soon.

I can't wait to have my own house with a backyard because I for sure will start growing my own vegetables and herbs as well as fruits too. I guess I can finally making good use of my degree. Heheheh