A Visit to D-Paradise (Part 4)

Nepenthes or better known as the Pitcher Plant is quite widely available in Malaysia. Apparently, monkeys were spotted to drink water from these pitcher plants, hence it is also called the Monkey Cup. Below are several varieties of Pitcher Plants found in D-Paradise.

Carnivorous Plants have always been fascinating. Even my dogs think so. I used to have this genus called sarracenia. It was beautiful and probably tasted good too. Well, my dogs are occasionally herbivorous.

A Visit To D-Paradise (Part 3)

I went to D-Paradise with the hope to learn something from their success in fruit farming. It turned out that my heart was captured by the animals instead.

An adorable baby bunny in the rabbit enclosure.

The deers posed for me but how come they don't smile like my dogs do?

Posing back to back but still no smiles.

"Deers, put your face together, closer, closer, ...click! Good boys!"

2 male ostriches above with the exact same pose.

Oh, see! They are smiling!!!
The female ostrich in the centre was about to hug me. 
Or was she trying to peck off my camera?

An ostrich has only 2 toes.

This is an extremely friendly goat.

While others shied away, this one followed us around.

A Visit to D-Paradise (Part 2)

We were served refreshing, iced Passion Fruit drink upon arrival at D-Paradise.

Then we started our journey.

Loads of Passion Fruits hung above us beautifully along the walkway.

While others plucked passion fruits to eat, I picked the wrinkled, rotten, moldy ones from the ground.

I am more interested to grow the passion fruit than to eat it.

Many people flocked towards this Surinam Cherry tree, attracted by the bright red fruits.

Unfortunately, it didn't taste as good as it looked.

Since the Surinam Cherry was too sourish to eat, one child fixed a fruit on a cactus plant. Other tourists thought it was a flowering cactus and started snapping photos. I felt obliged to explain, of course.

Below are photos of a cactus garden.

Hey! This is a real red cactus flower. Not a surinam cherry!!! I looked around but there were no one in sight to inform. All the tourists have left without noticing this stunning cactus.

Stay tuned. More photos coming up...

A Visit to D-Paradise (Part 1)

Today we visited this place by the name of D-Paradise. It is a tropical fruit world and Aboriginal Native Village. They have about 800 varieties of fruit trees. I have many interesting photos to share. For today, I want to show this unique house that I took at the aboriginal village.

Children looking for a balcony.

Children sitting on the roof!!!

Why is the house upside down?

Beauty Next Door

An excited 9 year old neighbour came over to tell me that he has a male papaya tree. I have many papaya trees myself but have never planted a male one. I was thinking what made him so sure it is a male tree.

One glance at the flowers and one cannot dismiss its machoness.

It's got to be male, all right. Its kind of showy, isn't it?

Then, some other flowers caught my attention. I cannot resist stealing a few shots.

A bright red zinnia calling out to me...

A lovely pink rose radiating love...

Isn't it nice to have neighbours who plant beautiful flowers? I get to admire them eventhough I personally focus more on fruit trees and edibles.

For the moment, the most beautiful flower I have is this black and white blot. It is blooming between wooden furnitures. That's my silly yet lovable and adorable Clifford.

Used Coffee Ground & Tea Powder

So much has been said about the advantages of using coffee ground as a fertilizer. Is it all true? There seem to be a fair bit of contradictory information floating around? I decided to use them anyway. 

Below are used coffee ground, tea powder and eggshells.
I spread these 3 ingredients around the base of plants and cover them with soil and mulch.
Let me just call this mixture the Coffee Ground Mixture.

I also throw some into the compost pile which seems to become very hot with it.

I have been spreading them in the garden for over a month now. Altogether, I must have saved about 40kg of unwanted stuff that normally would end up in the garbage dump and producing methane gas...

My Experience with Coffee Ground Mixture

1. Bird Nest's Fern leaves seem greener.

2. Red Japanese Rose flower abundantly.

3. Thai Jasmine too.

3. Pink Japanese Rose looks prettier.

(Of course this is just my imagination)

4. Sugar Apple begins to flower.

5. Lawn a little greener
&

6. Creeper growing from the side of the compost healthily.
(This creeper was actually one of the compost material which must have dropped to the side and then took advantage of the rich compost.)

Serious Notes to Ponder:

Is used coffee ground a miracle to the garden or a myth?

Would I say life has become a bed of (Japanese) roses after using it?

The Truth

1. Coffee ground and egg shells did not deter any snails nor slugs as claimed by many. 

I had thought perhaps the big ones are strong.

But the tiny ones are still around too.

2. My darling earthworms are becoming obese which is a good thing.

(Why should we expect earthworms to love coffee ground and snails to hate it?)

3. Coffee ground didn't poison my dogs.

(They didn't even poison the slugs!!!)

4. It does perk up the plants and probably the dog too.

(Please do not intentionally feed coffee grounds to your dogs)

4. A word of Caution here. Do not allow coffee ground to touch the soft stem of plants as it will kill the plant indirectly.

The Verdict

I will continue to use this Coffee Ground Mixture as I believe it is one of the ways to Feed The Earth and reduce wastage. If the earthworms are happy, I must be doing something right.

Garden Statues

Quite sometime back, we bought a glassmade dragonfly and a butterfly that lighted up at night in the garden automatically.

They used solar energy and looked very pretty at night.

Both didn't last long as they fell to the ground and broke.

We looked for bigger and sturdier statues to liven up the garden.

Then we bumped into a very versatile one.

It doesn't use batteries nor solar.

Yet, it's capable of changing poses.

The setback is that it needs to be recharged by soaking itself in the soil frequently.

Could it be related to the earthworm family?

Thankfully there is always an endless stream of back-up live statues to continuously liven up the garden.