Hibiscus standard - stage 3

First flowers...

A pineapple growing...

How gorgeous!

Hibiscus standard - stage 2

3 main branches starting to grow

Hibiscus standard - stage 1

Started with a cutting. It's taken root and grown long enough for me to cut the top off...

First lime

I grew a lime tree from a small stick. After three years this is my first lime. Yay!

That was fast...

Planted mesculin on Friday... By Monday it's sprouted!

My next gardening project...

Particularly interested in the lavender to see if it can handle the humidity...

By the way, the strawberry plant from last year is hanging in there. I think this may not be the original though... maybe one of its runners.  Don't know what I am doing wrong as I can't seem to get fruit. Help anyone!??

Curry night

I've had some success growing Thai basil here, so just had to have a curry night to try it out...

Thai basil 

Thai Beef Curry with Thai Basil

Happy with basil and the curry was delish!

Red Thai Beef Curry

INGREDIENTS

500g chuck steak
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 brown onion, sliced
3 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons lemongrass, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons red curry paste
1/2 teaspoon beef stock powder
1 cup water
1/3 can coconut cream
1 teaspoon fish sauce
lime juice
2/3 can coconut cream
1 teaspoon sugar
ripped Thai basil

 

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat half the oil in a large fry pan and cook beef in batches until browned all over, set to one side and wipe pan clean.
2. Heat the remaining oil in the same pan, cook onion and garlic until onion softens, add ginger, lemon grass and paste cook until fragrant. Return beef to pan with water, stock, sugar and first amount of coconut milk.
3. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 2 hours. Uncover and cook for a further 45 Minutes or until beef is tender and thickened.
4. Finally add the lime juice, fish sauce, remainder of coconut cream and basil, cook stirring until heated through.
5. Serve with Thai fragrant rice such as Jasmine and limes to squeeze over.

The strawberry saga continues...

Evidence of existence...

Down to one plant!

BUT it's really healthy and even getting runners!

I thought all I had to do was plant some seeds and I'd have strawberries

within a few months, but I've started reading about strawberry growing

and you should wait a year for the plant to be strong and then

let it flower (not that there have been any flowers).

So this runner thing is a whole new deal too.

It seems like I could get a "strawberry patch" out of the

runners if all goes well...

But when am I going to get strawberries??

Strawberry Update...

So the seedlings have passed the miniscule stage, but I managed to lose 3 out of 8. 
Two were squashed by the toad and one I tried to transplant, but was either a bit early
or I may have overwatered it because I was trying to be too kind to it.

HERBS and AROMATICS that can handle the heat...


Still mucking around with what I can get to grow here, but these are some
of the successes...


BASIL

CHIVES

CHILLIES

LEMON GRASS

MINT

PARSLEY

ROCKET



Trying to grow strawberries from seed at over 30 degrees...

Customs let me bring in this nifty little strawberry seed kit, so I thought I would have a go at "just adding water."

Yes it does look like a takeaway coffee cup and I think that the heat here made the conditions inside the container a lot like a hot cup of coffee!

So after 6 weeks and no sign of seeds I decided to dump the dirt into one of my outdoor pots and just see if anything happened...

After another couple of weeks 8 tiny plants appeared! 

I spent a lot of time on the internet trying to identify

if these leaves look anything like strawberry seedlings

and not just some random weeds!

Ok, so if the poor things hadn't enough to deal with heat and humidity! 

I started to wonder why there was an indent in the ground each morning,

so I did a night watch one evening...

TO BE CONTINUED...