I visited my dad today to take pictures of his garden, it has been raining on and off, and luckily it stopped whilst I was taking these pictures. I don’t think I ever posted a picture of Mimi, he is my second sister’s parakeet. Mimi previous owner was a Chinese boy by the name of Jeffrey, so Mimi can speak Chinese some. Jeffrey’s mom gave Mimi to my sister over 15 years ago, so I’m thinking that Mimi might be around 18 years old. I learned some of the Chinese’s phrases from Mimi, such as ‘Nee Haw Ma’ means how are you?, ‘Haw’ means fine, ‘Jow Sarn’ means good morning, so I often talk to him when I visit my dad and sister.
The conversation doesn’t get very far, but he can talk for hours, and if we were around and not talking to him, he would get very upset and yell at us. But today, Mimi is in a good mood, he even pose for me.
My dad’s garden is more of a traditional garden, and he is doing something different this year. I think I might have some influenced, the last months or so, I bought over my library books about gardening and they’ve some neat ideas about boxed or raised bed garden that we both liked.
The plants in rows closest are corns, they’re the Asian kind that I got from my Hmong neighbor last year.
Last year, he didn’t plant them in rows, but this year, the Thai eggplants, chili peppers, lemon grass, onions, and cherry tomatoes are in rows, plus they’re planted in raised beds as well.
His string beans are planted at the same spot as last year, and he has a metal trellis for them to climb.
My dad likes something that would last a long, long time, so instead of a wooden A Frame, he has a short metal trellis for his pickling cucumber plants.
The white flowers that you’re seeing are parsley, they survived the winter months and come up every year.
My dad’s kefir lime, he kept it in the garage during the winter months, and luckily this year the leaves didn’t fall off like the previous years.
His pomegranate tree is doing well, hopefully it’ll bear some fruit this year.
Sugar canes
Banana trees that he kept in his garage during the winter months.
The inspiration of the swing set in my garden came from my dad’s garden, when my mom was still alive, that was a nice spot to sit and watch her work in her garden.
My sister’s water hyacinth survived the winter months, she kept hers in the crawlspace of the house, and she gave some to me today. When I visited the nursery last weekend, I saw that they were selling it for $4.99 each.
Climbing flowers near my dad’s front porch.
Lots of photos, this is mainly for my sisters that live in NYC, they wanted to know what my dad is up to this day.
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May 5, 2009 at 1:50 am
Vietnamese Buddhist Community Celebrate Buddha’s Birthday « Nye Noona
[...] was on my way back from visiting with my dad, and saw cars parked in front, I made a U turn and came back to the temple, not sure at [...]
May 5, 2009 at 2:51 pm
lady0fdarkness
I haven’t had the chance to read your blog lately… it’s been a very hectic week for me. I’m going have to sit down and go over your blog when I have time…
very nice garden by the way.. it’s coming along well!
May 5, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Ginger
lady0fdarkness, thanks and don’t worry, take your time, my blog is not going anywhere.
May 8, 2009 at 2:29 am
Cambree
That is a nice garden. So this is where you inherit your green thumb?
The white “Chinese parsley” flowers are also known as cilantro or coriander. It’s really popular in Mexican food such as salsas and tacos. Some people just can’t stand the stuff. But others like myself, prefer this over the Italian parsley.
May 9, 2009 at 3:11 am
Ginger
Cambree, my dad and second sister don’t care much for the parsley, but they grew so much and I think mainly for us as well. I personally like it, I like to cook with herbs.
As for green thumb, my dad has but I’m not sure about myself, so far everything is growing and looking real green, except for my A Frames, the rain has washed the milk paint out some, but they don’t look too bad.
May 11, 2009 at 1:53 am
Cambree
I think you are off on a good “green” start here.
As for the milk paint, I wonder if that project is better for hot summer days. This way it gets to bake in the sun and not worry about rain wash-out.
May 12, 2009 at 12:56 am
Ginger
Cambree, well, I’m not complaining much about the rain, it’s great for the garden and everything is growing and looking real green right now.
Even though the A Frames are not as green as they once were, but they’ll soon be covered with green leaves and vines. I wondered if there is another step to fasten the color that I’m missing.
May 25, 2009 at 6:04 am
My Dad’s Garden in Late May « Nye Noona
[...] Dad's Garden | Tags: Asian Garden, Fish Pond, Trellises Garden, Water Lily A little update on my dad’s garden for my sisters. First, let’s start with my second sister’s Water Lilly, it was in [...]