Surprises In My Garden II

Back in 2006, I planted my first leaf vegetables in the soil next to the wet kitchen. The results were extreme: While sawi grew so well until I got sick of it in my meals, the whole batch of kailan seeds did not even develop to germs.

I had brought back some gourd seeds given by VC's mother from Sarawak which grew as vines. They climbed everywhere, started to invade the kitchen and attracted ladybugs. When Mum saw the horrible scene during her visit in Melaka, she commanded that the vines be cleared. So I had no idea what kind of gourds they would have produced, if any.

The later experiment was lady's fingers. A thin plant was pushing from the ground but it died soon after producing a few miserable lady's fingers which were not enough to fill a plate. During the same period, VC introduced round brinjal from his home state to me. Unfortunately, the plants were also attacked by the same white tiny pests which had caused the death of the lady's fingers. Thus, my dream to have this Sarawakian speciality in my garden was shattered.

After numerous unsuccessful attempts, I knew I did not have green fingers and I no longer imagined I could proudly show my friends a variety of vegetables in my garden. In the reality, only kangkung (water spinach) and pucuk manis (sweet leaf) which I had bought from the night market at RM1 a bundle were surviving very well with minimal care after I inserted their stems into the ground.

The only effort I made was to throw whatever seeds, stems, peeled skins and other waste into a reserved space in the garden, instead of the dustbin, to make the soil organic. At the same time, I still kept the tiny hope that some days I could prepare a dish with a capsicum or a cucumber freshly plucked from the garden.

Recently, some vines were growing in the space full of kangkung and weeds. They were smaller than the first I had in the wet kitchen. Since they were not disturbing, I just leave them to grow. Slowly, yellow flowers brought cheerful colours to the ground.

Three days ago, when I was taking kangkung in the garden early in the morning, I discovered a new blessing from God which made me smile from mouth to mouth.

Very soon, I will have my first bitter gourd from the garden. And the yellow flowers might be future bitter gourds!