Here in Cambodia the monsoon or rainy season has started. Though we are still getting moderate rainfall, soon the heavy rains with flooded parts of the garden will be a harsh reality, making growing fruits and vegs a real challenge.
Though rice farmers need the water to start growing their crops, my garden would prefer it not to come all at once. Many of the veggies we like to grow during the dry season don’t like to get their feet wet.
Heavy tropical rains can saturate the soil, causing plants to stand in water for days or weeks. Root rot is a big problem in this challenging gardening season. But still, we got a few things going on.
Monsoon gardening is a real challenge but to be fair I like the rainy season. No more sweaty days, once in a while I will get to wear a sweater and socks lol…. Also, nature so loves the rain. Everything looks so fresh, green, and lush these days!
Apart from rice - which we are not growing because we actually don’t like rice - what else is growing during the rainy season?
Ever since the beginning of the year, we have been enjoying the fruits of the many mango trees we have. But with the rains, the end of the mango season is here too. At the moment we are harvesting the last mangoes to freeze for later. Since I can only share 10 pictures of the garden for the Garden Journal Challenge Early June hosted by the wonderful and inspiring @riverflows, no mango pics this time. I have shared plenty of my mango pics before lol
Luffa/loofah
One of the plants that really love the rainy season are our luffa plants. Luffa is a genus of tropical and subtropical vines of the cucumber family. Though we also grow them in the dry season to get an endless supply of sponges, they go all wild and grow serval centimeters a day in the rainy season! They just love the water! during the dry season, we have to water them every day. They love getting their feet very wet! Now, nature is taking over this task!
This is going to be the biggest sponge we have ever grown! I think we will turn this particular one into a back-scrubbing sponge! More about luffa sponges and what to do with them in another post!
Pandan and Lemongrass
Yesterday I shared my latest tea addiction… Pandan and lemongrass tea. However yesterday we had a not-so-friendly pit viper intruder under one of the plants so I didn’t want to take pictures as this snake is highly poisonous. She has been safely relocated by a friend that knows how to handle these intruders.
Now with a heightened sense of alertness, we can go back to the garden. We never had a dangerous snake that close to our house and in our vegetable and herb growing area. Scary! But it keeps you on your toes and it’s a kind reminder that we should be a little more careful when working or harvesting fruits or veggies in our garden.
Italian Basil
We are not sure if these love the rainy season, it’s the first time we started basil seeds in the rainy season. So it’s kind of an experiment to see what will happen. For now, they seem to be fine.
We put them in a protected area of the garden, though. One part of our veggie and herb growing garden is covered with shade cloth which protects plants from the harsh dry season sun and in the rainy season it does a great job in protecting plants from the big tropical raindrops.
Papaya
Though we have always had some papaya in the garden, these plants are the first ones we plated ourselves from seed and are now fruiting. For the first time in Cambodia, we live in the same house for over 2 years. Before we always planted papaya seeds - among other fruits and vegetables- but we never got the reap the fruits as we kept moving around!
So for us, these papayas-to-be are extra special!
Tomatoes
After having so many tomatoes earlier this year in the dry season we are now trying to grow some in the rainy season too. Just like the basil splants they are growing in a protected area of the garden.
Rosemary
For long we thought this little rosemary bush was not going to start growing, but finally it did. Though we are not living in the right climate for rosemary, it seems to be happy here!
Lemon Tree
I am not sure how long it will take before we get to harvest our own lemons but the bush is looking great!
I just love lemons and it is one of the things I miss living in Cambodia. Limes are cheap and abundant, but lemons are harder to come by. And if you find them, they are about $0.75 to $1 for one lemon.
Curry Leaf Tree
Our little tree is still very small, but sometimes we get to harvest a few of its leaves to use in our kitchen. Nothing beats the flavor of fresh curry leaves to make Asian-inspired dishes.
So that's what's currently happening in our early June garden. I hope you enjoyed reading and let's see what else we can start growing during the rainy season.... tips and tricks from amateur/experienced tropical rainy season growers are more than welcome!
We are still amateurs when it comes to growing in the tropics as we have been moving around so much the past 7 years.... and soon we will move again to the other side of the world. Though this might still take a while as S-America is badly hit by the pandemic. But we hope that we can start a new adventure in the Andes somewhere next year!
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Here in the Philippines it's the summer season but the weather hasn't been that good due to the typhoon (that had passed recently).
I know.... Though still ok in Cambodia, they say a typhoon is coming here too. Stay safe.
This is a heavenly garden. You're living the dream. There is nothing better than home grown goodness!
I look forward to your next post!💚
Thanks beautiful ❤️ looking for some free time to write about the loofah sponges. We love them.
I absolutely love the loofahs. You captured the image so well and it's almost like you can see them growing right there in front of you in the pic.
You are so blessed to be living in a tropical climate and the things you are growing are testament to that. I used to love the rainy season in Singapore and I remember the days of getting excited to wear socks and a sweater too. Now it's the other way around. I can't wait to not wear them, which isn't very often here in the chilly UK.
Lovely post @amy-goodrich your garden is fabulous. 💚🤗
Thank you so much! I wish I could take you on a tour through the garden. And I hear you... when we lived in Belgium I was so happy when sandals and bikinis could come out of the closet. Now I don't even think about going for a swin at 25 degrees celsius.... socks and sweater weather haha. Take care I hope you are getting so nice weather too!
Wow that's a monster loofah! So cool to see those growing. One of my farmers grows them here now, so I know they can actually grow in our climate, as well. That papaya looks fantastic, too. I would be really excited to see it grow from seed. I agree that those we've nurtured from start to finish are just that much more special. I can't seem to get my rosemary going from seed here, but one of our neighbors has a huge bush in front of their house so I know it can grow here just fine. Maybe I need ask them for a clipping to have a better starter!
I am so excited about this loofah.... the first time we have such a big one. I hope you try to grow them too it is super easy and they grow super fast so I am sure you can get a few sponges out of the plants before winter starts.
I started this rosemary plant from a clipping. Nurtured it in cocos husks for a while and then planted it in the garden were it didn't do much for a few months... at least it didn't die and now recently it started growing.... I hope it survives the rainy season.
Happy growing.... can't wait to see some berry pics again lol!
When you live somewhere dry, it's hard to imagine a problem consisting of too much rain! 😆 God to know about luffa liking a lot of water. It's something I've been considering growing, but it might need more prep than I realised.
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Thank you so much for all the love and support! If you have water shortages loofah might not be for your garden. I started my plants in the dry season but we have a well with an unlimited supply of water.
Oh my, look that those plants they looks so healthy. In here plants are dead because to much rain and they have some but it is expensive.
I think we might have a lot of rain very soon too.... I just started raining while typing lol! Take care. Can't wait to see you both again.... you both look so good and have grown a lot I see!
This fertile plant can be used as food and medicine. what I like the most is lemongrass and papaya
I love plants that can both heal and nourish our bodies. Have a beautiful day!
Thanks
Sorry I took so long to get back to this, had a lot going on! I didn't know that lemons were a premium there - funny, as they'd surely grow as well as limes? I wonder why that is? Saying that, I adore limes a lot more than lemons! I've never had luck with loofah, but I try every year. And I planted a curry plant in my greenhouse. Sri Lankan food isn't the same without it - love the stuff. Gorgeous post and gorgeous photos, Amy!
Thanks 💚 We really are enjoying the abundance of edible plants here.
For me, it's the other way around. Love lemons, though some recipes work better with limes that's for sure! I hope you keep trying on the loofah, just writing a post about it!