Balcony Gardening in Penang

I know I haven’t posted anything for the longest time but it’s alright cos I guess this blogspot is more like my virtual playground to pen my stuff (from various sources).

Latest craze to hit my stubborn head is balcony gardening. Why do gardening at the balcony?
Well, cos I want to and I’m stubborn to prove that it’s indeed possible to plant plants at the condo balcony :-P
Call me crazy but I am in this mode to grow edible plants which I pursue with vigour unseen since my dwarf shrimp rearing days.. but that is another story altogether (I shall pen it one of these days).

To me, gardening is really rewarding as it gives you the “zen-like feeling” after you’ve toiled the soil and watch them grow. I’m not joking.
The satisfaction compounded many-fold when you’re able to reap the produce after staring at it day-in day-out (yes, that’s what I do).
It is also due to the fact that I can’t get sufficient info from the www on balcony gardening, herbs in tropical climates, insecticidal soap, edible plants in tropics and etc that prompted me to delve deeper into this hobby and present them from Malaysian (tropical weather) point of view.

My agenda will be as follow:
1. List out plants – DONE
2. Homebrewed miticide/insecticide concoction (I don’t exactly brewed the concoction, I just mixed them up like a certified club mixer :-P)
3. Bugs and how I kill them (or rather they defeated me)
4. Support/stakes, soil, fertiliser
5. Others

If you’ve read this far, thank you for your patience.
Perhaps I should start by listing out plants which I’ve grown (and discarded :-P) and plants which survived my evil experiments… nyek nyek nyek…

Growing (and still growing)
1. Spanish moss
2. Strawberries (I still have 4 healthy plants which I kept for experimental purpose)
3. Pencil pine
4. Sage – grown from seed
5. Rosemary
6. Sweet majoram – grown from seed
7. Baby carrot – grown from seed
8. Kaempferia galangal
9. Fernleaf dill
10. Coriander – grown from seed
11. Italian parsley
12. Chives
13. Indian borage
14. Peppermint
15. Spearmint
16. Aloe vera
17. Sweet basil
18. Oregano
19. Thyme
20. Cape gooseberries – grown from seed
21. Thai chili
22. Kaffir lime
23. Wild betel leaves
24. Cherry tomatoes – grown from seed
25. Tangerine lime hybrid
26. Staurogyne repens – it is actually an aquatic plant
27. Calamansi lime
28. Pandan (screwpine leaves) – from a reputable stock J
29. Nepenthes (monkey cup)
30. Gypsophila (Garden Bride) flower – grown from seed

Trying to grow
1. Broccoli – from seed
2. Cosmos bipinnatus flower – from seed

Grown (and discarded)
1. Buddhist yew – discarded due to mealybug infestation
2. Pandan (also known as screwpine leaves) – discarded due to mealybug infestation
3. Strawberries – discarded due to red spidermite infestation
4. Roselle plant – discarded due to mealybug and soil nematodes infestation
5. Grape plant – discarded due to spidermite infestation

Died (it simply died; most likely due to heat shock)
1. Chervil
2. Applemint