Day 43 - SEEDS!

— 4 minute read

Wednesday.

We are now in the fourth phase of MCO. There are minor tweaks - apparently now we're allowed to go out with one more person in the same household (previously there was a one person one car rule), and more than 10km is ok. Some economic sectors are now open (even though news reports have been vague about which sectors). It appears that flying is one of them, since AirAsia opens for domestic flights as of tomorrow.

Reading the article on AirAsia something caught my eye. "Other Covid-19 safety measures include a baggage allowance of only one piece (instead of the usual two), not exceeding 7kg". Uh. How is that extra piece of luggage connected to Covid? narrows eyes

This morning there was major drama in the household when Leo's computer died on us. I think Leo was in shock, given that his work (and hence his computer) is his second life. Fortunately most of the work was backed up, but because of the lockdown he's probably not going to be able to fix it anytime soon. My dad ended up driving his computer to us to tide Leo over. Right now he's having to install everything, to recreate his work environment.

Yesterday I impulse-bought a bunch of seeds. One packet is of particular interest - it's a edible herb/flower mix of thirty different types of edibles, and they don't tell you what seed is what.

Hehehehe. rubs hands together in glee

Just the thought of it makes me very excited. The plan is to remove all of the existing weeds in my garden and then cast the bought seeds into the pots - if I am going to neglect my garden and have weeds grow they might as well be sanctioned weeds. Then after a few weeks I can embark on a plant ID exercise, assuming that enough of the seeds grow. Or, if nothing grows, I will have to do a row-by-row sort of sowing but where's the fun in that?

The full list of seeds that I'm getting are:

  • Summer Thyme (0.05 gm containing approx 250 seeds)
  • Catnip (0.1 gm, approx 150 seeds)
  • Green Shiso (0.1gm, approx 50 seeds)
  • Edamame Organic (10gm, approx 60 seeds)
  • Tomato Oblong Determinate F1 (50 sds)
  • Tomato Tumbling Tom Red (6sds)
  • Tomato Rainbow Blend (25 seeds)
  • Edible Garden (Mixed Edible Flower & Herb Seeds) 0.5 gm
  • German Chamomile 0.05gm approx 800sds
  • Basil Aristotle (15 seeds)
  • Basil Gecofure (0.1gm, approx 70 seeds)
  • Sage (0.5gm approx 65 seeds)
  • Rosemary 0.05gm, approx 40 seeds
  • Caixin Cut Flower(1 0gm)

Of particular note, or what I'm particularly excited about besides the sanctioned weeds programme, are catnip, green shiso, heirloom tomatoes (rainbow blend) and edamame. My cats have never had access to catnip and so I'm intrigued about the possibilities of getting them high. On shiso, when I was wwoofing on a Japanese farm once they were my favourite plant to harvest since they smell and taste so beautiful. On the heirloom tomatoes, there are eight (again random) varieties in a pack, another game! And on edamame, it's also related to the time on the Japanese farm when I realised that freshly harvested edamame is really good.

I guess I'm never going to know if the seeds will work or not in this tropical climate until I try. The hope is that since I'm buying from a Malaysian supplier they would try to supply seeds that would grow in Malaysia (but then there is the climatic exception of Cameron Highlands). The thing is that there are not that much resources out there on tropical container planting.

In any case, I am bursting with anticipation. Not a bad feeling after weeks of ennui. Right now I'm applying my researcher skills in collecting all I need to know about the different seeds that I'm getting and how best to plant them.