Envy…

It always fills me with envy when I see in other people’s blogs how they can plant this and that, be it flowers or vegetables, and they all flourish so well. Unfortunately, I am not one of those with green fingers and most of what I plant would not even emerge while others would grow a bit and eventually die. That is why if you drop by my house, you would not get to be able to enjoy looking at a lot of plants in my garden, not at all.

Yes, we do have a few flowering ones that my missus planted, surviving though I would not say they are all thriving as well as they should. There are these lilies…

…and these white flowers that will appear once in a while from a pot of leaves that we have…

…as well as these light purplish ones that would bloom out of the pot of dark purple leaves shaped like butterflies…

 …and these balsam blooms…

My missus tells me they are called cheng kak hua (fingernail flower) in Hokkien and you can use the petals as a natural remedy if you have fungal growth in your (toe)nails. I don’t know if it really works as I have never tried it out myself.

Other than those, we do plant stuff for use in our cooking like spring onions, serai (lemon grass), kunyit (tumeric), lengkuas (galangal), Thai basil and pandan (screwpine) and mint leaves…

…and of course, there is that pain the neck, my curry leaf plant, that would go out of control all the time and I would have to go through the chore of trimming it time and time again.

My jasmine is doing well, growing very big now and as it is right beside the car porch, it would provide a bit of shade for one of my cars from the afternoon sun…and yes, it does flower quite often…

– little white flowers that are so very fragrant, making the air in the whole surrounding area so very nice and refreshing.

In the meantime, my rambutan tree at the back is also doing fine and will bear fruit regularly…like right now, for instance…

…but the fruits are still small and green. I don’t think they will be ready for the plucking very soon. My missus’ mulberry plants are doing all right and they may bear fruit…

…sometimes too.

I don’t do much gardening myself. Every three or four weeks, I would get someone to come over and cut the grass – I like it neatly-trimmed, nice and short and I love the smell of freshly-cut grass. In between those visits though, some plants would appear here and there by themselves like through some cracks in the cement in a corner for instance…or in one of the pots. I guess those are unwanted weeds but some of them do produce very nice flowers like this one, for instance…

…or this one…

…and this would probably fly off when there is wind…

…and the seeds would germinate and grow some place else. Despite their being weeds and unwanted, the flowers are indeed quite pretty and pleasant to the eye – these Nature’s gifts from God…and reflecting on this makes me think of people in general. Some may not appear all that appealling but one may discover the beauty within if one takes the time to look a little more closely…unlike those who may smile, and smile, and be a villain, great-looking on the outside but rotten to the core.

Perhaps I should get some people to come over and do some landscaping works to beautify my garden but then again, if I do not pay some people to come and maintain the place (and as it is, it is quite difficult to get someone to come and cut the grass even…ever since my old. very good and reliable one fell ill), I don’t think it will look all that nice for long…so I guess I would just leave it as it is right now.