The Year 2011

All this while, I have been buying books about spices & herbs. Have always been curious about the wonders of culinary spices & herbs. Bought bottled herbs - Mixed herbs, Blackpepper, Oregano, Italian Herbs, Allspice. Experimented with it and it does make wonders to your food.- Grilled, Stew, Soup. And ever since I bought fresh potted herbs from Village Grocer (KL), I've gone crazy. I bought :

Rosemary

Sweet Basil

Red Basil

Sage

Cinnamon Basil

Marjoram

7) Lemon Balm
8) Lemon Basil
9) Dill (seeds I bought from Houz Depot)
10) Marigold (seeds I bought from Houz Depot)

Then, not long after, I found several other herb plants from nurseries here - Oregano, Mint, Peppermint, Chinese/ Common Chives, Parsley, Thyme, Thai Basil.

    

Peppermint

Common Chives

Mint/ Pudina

Thyme



Lime Tree

Pomegranate Tree

At that time, mosquitoes seems to stick to my young son like bees to honey. So, from then on, my collection went bigger scope, from culinary to insect repellent herb groups as well. I started researching about it and started collecting herbs like :

1) Halau Nyamuk (Pelargonium graveolens)

2) Patchouli (Nilam)

3) Serai Wangi/ Citronella Grass (Cymbopogon nardus) - noticed my dog is attacking & munching the leaves?

4) Lavender (2 types)

5) Ekor Kucing (Acalypha hispida) - for medicinal purposes (it looks cute as well, with red pointy bush like cat's tail)

6) Pokok Ajaib (Synsepalum dulcificum) - for collection purpose (coz not long after u eat the red colored berry-looking fruits and you then consume sour food like lemon, you wont feel sour-ish. This feeling will last for maybe 20minutes? Tried that and it does work! :-)  )

The fruit of my Pokok Ajaib (was waiting for it to turn red & ripe, But the birds pecked it before I could pick it :-(  )

7) Stevia/ Sweetleaf - the leaves does taste sweet after you munch it. Great for diabetic patients.

Knowing that there isn't many choices available, I experimented to buy seeds online. The plants I started from seeds :

1) Catnip (Nepeta cataria)

2) Catmint (Nepeta mussinii) - claimed to be the same as catnip by the seller

3) Lime Basil

4) Christmas Basil

5) Thai Siam Queen Basil

6) Red & Green Holy Basil

7) Spearmint

8) Tomato

Besides that, I also tried to root cutting Lemongrass and Vietnamese Mint (Laksa leaf/ Kesom). I bought both from the grocery shop and soak them in water. Not long after, the roots will grow & you can transplant them into soil. However, after transplanting them into pots & soil, my dogs started to attack hmy Lemongrass. They seems to like to eat new shoots (Argh!!) & white mealy bugs attacked my Kesom (Argh!!) And my rabbit attacked my Patchouli (Nilam) plant!

                                                         My rack of Herbs back then


So far, back in year 2011, I surely have had many problems with the abovementioned plants. The plants that have RIP are indeed bad bad sacrifices to make me a more experienced and better gardener.

1) Rosemary (2 plants - 1 due to overwater & 1 due to attacked by unknown black bugs)
2) Red Basil (1 plant - after I transplanted into the pot)

3) Sage (3 plants - after I bought it back from Village Grocer)

4) Dill (2 plants - after I transplanted & 1 after germinated from seeds)

5) Marigold (1 after overpoisoned by over fertilized. LOL)
6) Lime Basil (1 Successfully germinated from seeds. But Died due to over fertilized & attacked by black bugs)
7) Lavender (2 plants - I overwatered them)
8) Patchouli (2 plants - 1 was attacked by my rabbit & 1 wilted)
9) Lemon Balm (2 plants - wilted)
10) Rosemary (2 plants - dried off)
The plants that remained until today, I will post the photos soon :)

Several things I learnt till to date;

1) After you buy the herbs from Village Grocer, soak them in water using a plate or something (for a couple of days). Let them get used to the weather at your place before you transplant it into pots.

2) To get rid of White Mealy Bugs, I bought a bottled chemical from Houz Depot to get rid of it. It's some sort of soapy water. It works but you need to spray a couple of times to fully get rid of them. And it works on some plants and doesnt work on some plants. Experiment on mealy bugs on a small part of your plant first before you spray the whole plant. I've tried spraying on Pokok Ajaib's stems and leaves - it was safe. However, my frangipani leaves turned yellow. Im not sure if it was caused by overfertilized by my rabbits' poos or caused by the spray.

3) A lot does not mean very good - Do not over fertilize your herbs. With several plants died due to that matter, I can say I am experienced in that. LOL. For herbs, it is better to fertilize the organic way, especially those that you are planning to consume. For my herbs, I'm now fertilizing using fish emulsion, dilute with water. It works splendidly on my Basils and now currently experimenting on other herbs as well.

If you cant find it in the stores, you can produce your own fish emulsion the old way, like my Grandmother. She loves eating Basils but cant find it in Kuantan market. Since I have many Thai Basils, I gave her 1 pot. My grandma's Thai Basil seems to grow bushier than mine! Hmmph!

Her secret was her own fish emulsion - the water she used to wash raw fishes). And since then, i started researching for ways to fertilize my herbs. Before that, my herbs were growing on just plain water diet, and that was why they were so skinny! :-P

4) Preferably use pots with holes in the bottom to plant your herbs. This is because most herbs prefer good drainage system. When I firstly planted my herbs in pots without holes that I bought from Ikea (coz pots without holes looks better isnt it? Their designs looks way cuter!), some of it died coz water clogging in the soil, and it caused root rot or attacked by some white colors bugs. Remember, Cute doesn't mean Practical. 

*will update on my 2012 Herbs Adventure :)