An Idea to Reuse & Recycle

Previously, I introduced the use of herbs & tisanes as natural car air freshener. After doing a bit of thinking, I've come out with a reuse & recycle idea for herbs & tisanes. If you drink tea/tisane or use any herbs, you can actually reuse the same materials before recycling them!

Tea bags & herbs can be reused and then recycled!

First Use
This is when you use your tea bags or herbs in making tisanes.

Reuse
After you've enjoyed your glass of tisane, you can open up the tea bag and collect your herbs. Spread them on the floor of your car as of my previous post to use as car air freshener.

Note that tea leaves are very useful for absorbing odours. So, by leaving tea leaves in your car, you can ensure that your car doesn't smell funny.

Other herbs like roses, jasmines, rosemary and so on, on the other hand, will provide pleasant fragrances for your car.

Recycle
After the fragrance has faded from your herbs, you can collect the herbs from your car and throw them into your compost bin. They will then disintegrate into fertiliser for your plants and you can grow more herbs to enjoy!

Hope you enjoy my simple idea. Remember, recycle, reuse & reduce. We can make the world greener.

Fragrant Flowers & Herbs as Car Air Freshener

I've never loved commercial car air freshener as they give a sharp sting on my nose. So, in order to keep my car smelling fresh and pleasant, I've come out with a very simple solution!

All you need to do is just pick some flowers or herbs, fresh or dried, that you love and then scatter them on the floor of your car. As you drive, stepping back and forth between gas and brake, as well as clutch if you are driving manual, you will be stirring the herbs to release their aroma into the car.

They will provide fragrance for about 1-2 weeks and you can either change the herbs or add in more. It might make your car look a bit messy but the natural & pleasant fragrance will be well worth it.

These are some of the flowers & herbs that you can consider.

• Chempaka (Michelia alba [pic] & Michelia champaca)
• Gardenia
• Murraya paniculata

• Patchouli (said to be a great deodorant)

• Roses
• Jasmine
• Lavender
• Mints
• Basil
• Sage
• Thyme
• And many more!

If you are a gardener like myself, then you can get your plants fresh or dried from your own garden! Else, you can easily buy them from the market.

Have a fragrant car & drive safe!

Basil Flower

Just a few months, my basil plant is now flowering. I read that we shouldn't let basil flower so that the taste will be better. However, I only pinched off the flower for one of my two bigger basil plants. I would like to let one flower and make some comparison. In addition to that, propagating basil proves to be very easy. Now, I am assured of constant supply of basil for myself.
Basil Flower
In addition to that, my butterfly peas in pot are finally flowering after many failures in flowering. It seems like I have given them too small a pot that whenever the weather heats up a bit, they will begin to dry up and wilt. So, they will drop off all the flowers in favour of survival. This flowering resulted after I moved the pot further into the house, reducing amount of direct sunlight. However, they are still occasionally suffering from dryness. Hopefully, I can care for them well enough to bear me some seeds to propagate more of the plant.
Butterfly Pea Flower

Who Can Identify This Plant?

I wonder if anyone could identify this plant for me? Both the flower and leaves are from the same plant. Thank you.

Blooms & Growths

It is very satisfying to see the little plants germinate, grow and flower. Here are some of the beautiful blooms I got thus far.

The first one is the bitter gourd bud and blossom. However, sadly, today one of the bloom dropped off. I hope some of them will survive to give me some bitter gourd as I do love the taste of bitter gourd.
Bitter Gourd Flower Bud
Bitter Gourd Flower Bloom
In addition to the bitter gourd flower, I saw that my butterfly pea is blooming pretty well. The flower is commonly used as dye in food. It gives a beautiful blue to tang yuan (rice balls).
Butterfly Pea Bloom

Blue Tang Yuan
Impatiens balsamina or rose balsam is said to be used as dye for finger nail colouring. There are a wide variety of colours for this species, including purple, white, yellow, red.
Rose Balsam Flower
Other than the above blooms, I've also have a few plants growing very healthily. I am very glad to see my peppermint growing so healthily. I am waiting to see if it will flower too.
Peppermint
This parsley came from the bunch of parsley I bought from the market. It grows quite well and sprouts of younger parsley are coming out from time to time.
Parsley

More Plants Again!

A few days into budding, the flowers of my choy sum is fully bloomed. Amazingly, it does have a very sweet fragrance.
Choy Sum Flower
Impatiens balsamina, common name rose balsam or garden balsam, is a very beautiful plant with very showy flowers. It is also known as Touch Me Not, as the matured seed pods will explode when touched, spreading the seeds. This cultivar has a very nice blend of colours.
Touch Me Not
Since I can't eat this potato anymore after it germinated in my kitchen, I decided to plant it so that I can get some potato leaves to fight the invading ants. It seems to be growing quite well. Who knows if one day, war erupts and I have my own supply of food during emergency. :P
Potato
This is no lemon tree but it is lemon grass. Lemongrass is a very popular herb used in cooking in south east Asia. It took me quite some time to learn how to grow one. Hopefully this one will grow up and mature healthily.
Lemongrass
Having a neighbour who gardens as well, I get to snap his plants too. This is the flowers of star fruit.
Star Fruit Flower
Roses have a subtle but sweet fragrance that can make one feels very much in love.
Rose Shoot
Rose Shoot with Flower Bud
Rose Shoot with Flower Bud - Focused

Baby Plants for Sales

My little garden is yielding more plants than I needed. So, here are some of them for sales.

Peppermint is easy to plant and they are quite hard to kill. The fragrance of peppermint is refreshing and it is good as carminative and expectorant.

Peppermint
Mandarin can grow into quite a tree. The fruit is tasty to eat and the leaves are fragrant if crushed. The scent is relaxing and can ease sleep.

Mandarin
Basil is often used in Italian cuisine. Some of the southeast and east countries like Thailand use basil too, in their cooking as well. Basil leaves are fragrant and it is good for the mind, clearing headache and allowing for clear thoughts.

Baby Basil
It is quite a hardy plant, so with little care, it can grow quite beautifully.

Basil
Drop me a message if you are in Klang Valley and would like to buy one of these plants.

More Plants

Today, I bought a small pot of Rosemary for a friend because she wished to start planting some cute herbs around her office. Lucky for me, she allowed me to take two cuttings out of the main plant. Hopefully these cuttings will survive and grow.
Rosemary
On the other hand, my choy sum's flowers are beginning to bloom. I'm keeping this one to see if I can get any seed out of it.
Choy Sum
Finally, a surprise for me today when I discovered that my sweet potato plant growing out with a sweet potato. I wonder if I should harvest the whole pot or just try to take the sweet potato.
Sweet Potato

Assorted Plants

Having found pleasure in gardening, I've planted an assortment of plants. Here are some of the pictures of them.

Peppermint is among the easiest to plant. All you need to do is to buy a bundle of them from the market. Strip all the leaves to cook or brew tea. Finally, simply plant the stems on the soil and water twice daily. I got myself a few potful of peppermint through this method. I am also using this method to keep my peppermint supply constant.
Peppermint
I got myself a bunch of choy sum through the seeds I bought from a local store. It was a lot easier than I thought. Simply sprinkle them and water daily. And now, they are almost ready for harvest. Hopefully, some of the flowers will turn into seeds for me to keep the cycle going.
Choy Sum with budding flower
Chilli was quite easy to plant as well. All you need is to get some fresh chilli from the market and extract the seeds. Sprinkle them on the soil and water daily. This particular tree was with me for a few months already. It may still take some time to flower and fruit.
Chilli Plant
These bitter gourd vines were a surprise to me. The first batch didn't germinate and went spoil. I threw in the second batch deep into the soil with other organic material as compost, then added soil and planted some choy sum on the top. They just took me by surprise when they germinated. I shall be adding some structures for them to climb on soon.
Bitter Gourd
When your sweet potatoes started growing vines, you can simply cut out the small portion of the sweet potato with the vines and plant them. You still get to eat the rest of it! They grow quite easily, however, you need to have a bit of land area for them as they seem to take quite a lot of nutrients from the soil. The land area is also for the sweet potatoes to grow. However, this batch, I am planting only for the vines, so I planted them in a pot. I am considering propagating some of them onto the ground for more growth.
Sweet Potato Vine
Sweet Potato Vine
Planting can be fun and rewarding. I have more plants coming up soon in the future and also some tips on how to take care of them.

Rose Blooms

These are my latest rose blooms.
Red Rose Bloom
Pink Rose Bloom
I don't know if I have a green thumb or what, my roses seem to love to give me beautiful and fragrant blooms. They make my days happier. :D