I looked for seeds for the chayote and cannot find any in the catalogs or in the store. Then I found out that you start this plant from the whole fruit that you buy from the produce section or from farmer's market. The Chinese name for chayote is "Buddha's hand squash" because it looks like a pair of closed hands. The chayote you get from Chinese grocery is small and smooth skinned. To grow the plant, it is best to find a fruit that grew too long on the vine and start to split open at the fat end. Where it splits, a sprout will come out, followed by roots in the opposite direction. Plant the fruit sideways half buried in the soil. The crack between the two halves (hands) should be vertical, point the sprout up. Do not water too much in the beginning because the fruit can rot. I guess a lot of people like to eat the seed inside the fruit, which has a nutty taste. There is also an edible tuber root that forms after several years of growing. I have not tried the seed or the root. The young sprouts (shoots) can be used like the sprouts of peas. The Chinese cooking use the fruit for stir-fry. Around here, the plant will grow several years. I guess in cold climates, the root can be saved by a thick mulch cover for the winter. In spring the root will germinate again.

Ginger and Cilantro

The ginger and the cilantro are favorite herbs in Asian cooking. I enjoyed a good season with both plants. But they are completely opposite. The cilantro is also called corianda. It grows very fast in 1 or 2 gallon pots. Give it a little Miracle-Gro and it fills up the whole pot in about 2 weeks. The useable part of the plant is the tender spicy leaves which come and go just before the flower and the seed. A beautiful green plant will become thin and shaggy as soon as all the energy is moved from the leaves into the seeds. This plant has a fast cycle and only 1 or 2 weeks edible time frame. The edible ginger has no flower. It grows slowly and the whole plant is edible, although the roots are the best. The young roots are crunchy, tender and used for cooking like water chestnut. The sweet pickeled ginger used for sushi is made from young roots. The old roots keeps well and are easily available in supermarkets. In Japanese cooking the young shoots are used for its mild flavor. This plant needs a warm temperature to spout. But then it just keep growing into a dense clump in a 5 gallon pots. I slows down when the weather turns cold and the leaves turn yellow even without frost. I love it when it fills up the 5 gallon pot in about 8 months. This plant needs a long season.

Growing vegetables in containers.

Lemon grass, cilantro, chive and garlic chive grow well in pots. I exchanged some plants with Mr. Hung from Vietnam. He gave me sugar cane and "bac ha" in 5 gallon pots. "Bac ha" looks like taro, with heart shaped leaves. But it does not grow a tuber. The part of "bac ha" used for cooking is the leave stem (like rhubarb) in fish soup. I talked to Ngoc, she said this is a necessary ingredient for "sweet and sour" dishes. I found that you can grow bush cucumber well in 5 gallon pots. I have jalapeno peppers growing in 5 gallon pots, but the yield is less.
The essence of container gardening is to find the right size of pot, which is the smallest pot that can:
1. Allow normal development of the plant, flower and fruit. This is a balance between the top and the root. And this also depend on the temperature.
2. Avoid a pot so small that the frequency of watering is intolerable. As an example, changing from a 5 gallon pot to a 15 gallon pot can length the period between watering to double or triple. Watering once or twice a day is too much, if we can change to watering every 3 days, that is much easier to manage.
3. Good container plants should work with 5 gallon or less of soil. The ideal water period is every 7 to 14 days.
I like to hear from people ideas about container gardening and best plants to grow in pots 5 gallons or smaller.

Growing Melons in Tree Holes

I have a watering ring around each tree. I can plant melons under the tree. Because the plant will spread outside of the shade, they grow very well sharing the same water source. I have one cantaloupe with 6 melons on the plant.

Exotic Plants from Produce

I am having fun growing three nice plants from produce: ginger, taro and pineapple. All three are frost sensitive so that it must be taken indoor for the winter. Over here in San Diego, I can keep them in 5 gallon pots outdoor. For the ginger and taro, I start with a piece about the size of a golf ball or a kiwi fruit. The ginger needs heat and moisture, it looks a bit like bamboo and it is slow growing. The pineapple I started with the top of a fruit. They are beautiful as a container plant. I don't know how long it takes to bear fruit.

Exotic Fruit Trees

I have lychee, longan, papaya, mango, avocado, sugar cane, cherimoyer, loquat, pomegrante, fig, Asian pear, kiwi, pineapple and giant timber bamboo. The avocado is pretty easy to grow. I am getting 3 fruits per tree even the first year. The plants get me motivated to go out and exercise in the garden. Sometimes it is too much work or trouble. It is also fun to experiment with things. I get to show David where all the fruits and vegetables come from. I like to give friends and family some of my pot plants.

Garden Living

It is dry out in California and plants need artificial watering. Generally it is considered too much work to grow things, it is hard to beat supermarket prices. Usually, only the retired people have time to tend a garden or grow flowers.
We need gardens to remind us the beauty of nature. We should not be cut off from mother earth and wait till we are 60 years old to start a rose garden. Yes, life is hectic and nobody has time. That is the philosophical question. We always have time for things that are important. Is mother nature just a "cheap source of food" ? I want to see the awe and wonder while I am still young enough to dig a big hole in the ground, strong enough to chop wood and carry water. I am trying to make a difference by one man's effort - not trying to compete with the supermarket on price. I am trying something new in the garden every week just to participate and to see what happens.
I noticed that most people like to grow flowers and herbs. Growing vegetables is not a big business. Growing vegetables in containers is especially rare. I ask myself why I am doing things different from other people ? Perhaps this is a phase we go through. I remember different periods in the past that I focus on different specialties. All plants are wonderful and they are really part of the big picture (eco-system). My good friend Don Moxley in Tucson likes to fight for the plants that everybody ignores (or hates). That is unconventional wisdom. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Two of the easiest vegetables to grow are: garlic chive and calabash squash. The garlic chive is fool proof once it is established. Because it takes a long time for the seeds to get established, I usually buy seedlings from the nursery. That can save 3 months with the garlic chive. The calabash squash is disease free and grows fast. Once it is established, the vine can produce hundreds of fruits. For the beginner or the brown thumb, I think you cannot go wrong with these two.

Eat different and live poetically, eat more flowers and less beans. Here is my eat-a-day list:
(1) Broccoli,
(2) Cauliflower,
(3) Artichoke,
(4) Chive and garlic chive flowers,
(5) Squash flower,
(6) Daylily (the Chinese call this "golden needle").
Have you ingested your fair share today ? Tell me more exotic flowers if you like the taste.

I propagate plants because I like creating value and add trees to our environments. Sometimes it cost more to grow my own plants than to buy it from mass merchants like Home Depot. I do not want to create a chore when I really cannot compete with the efficiency of tree farms. Here is a special situation that make sense. Pick an expensive and slow growing plant. Also make sure the plant is native to the location so that the nursing is minimal. This means for Arizona, start Saguaro in 5 gallon pots. Here in San Diego, I am doing Sego palm and Ponytail palm. These plants need very minimum care if you put them in semi-shade. I just put something out in the back. In 2 years, a $4 plant will turn to $30 value. And I am helping to green the neighborhood.

Garden Song

Pulling weeds, picking stones,
we are made of dreams and bones.
I feel the need to grow my own
because the time is close at hand.
Grain for grain, sun and rain,
I will find my way in nature's chain.
I will tune my body and my brain
to the music of the land.

I'd like to teach the world to sing
The Garden Song

The bronze loquat is normally not a fruiting tree. Everyone grows the regular loquat because of the delicious fruits that comes in spring. The loquat leaf sooths the throat and is used in Chinese cough medicine just like the cherry and the mint is used in western cough medicine. We have lots of bronze loquats in Del Mar. My neighbour has 4 of these. There is one that bear a sizeable fruit. One day I pick one and tried it; it is sweet and juicy. So here is one tree that "gives" to us out of the normal expectation of the bronze loquat. All else being the same, I think it is nice to harvest a mouth watering fruit. I collected some seeds and started to propagate this plant.