Growing Oyster Plants In My Garden

My next door neighbour planted some Oyster Plants at the front, outside of her house. I guessed the plants must have some medicinal benefits but I didn't ask or show any interest in the plants.

One evening while I was weeding the front garden outside my house, I saw one of this plant growing on my side. I didn't know how it came to be growing in my garden. I actually pulled out the plant and intended to throw it away. The son of my neighbour saw the plant by the side of the garbage bag beside where I was weeding and informed me that this plant cured his mom's chronic cough. After that, they planted some for its medicinal benefits.

So, what happened next?

After hearing about the plant's usefulness, I decided to plant it back from where it was pulled out.

The spots on the leaves are actually water droplets.

The succulent leaves are dark green on top surface and purplish-red on the underside. The plants are grown as ornamental plants and can grow to about a foot or more in height.

From the above picture, you will see how the names came about.

Oyster Plants aka Moses-in-the-cradle, Moses-in-a-basket, Moses-in-the-bulrushes, boat lily. The botanical name for this plant is Tradescantia spathacea.

The plants have tiny pretty white flowers enclosed by the boat shaped bracts.

The fresh flowers can be seen in the morning.

I was curious and I googled for information on Oyster Plants. From the search, I obtained the following information:

The decoction of the flowers and leaves can be consumed for treating colds, sore throat, whooping cough, nasal bleeding and bleeding stools. The crushing or grounding of the leaves can be applied externally to reduce inflammations or swellings.

Would I dare to consume the decoction? Maybe yes, maybe no. I don't know.

If anyone has tried the decoction and it worked, please share your experience in the comment. Thank you.

We know how happy they are now

because they stayed true to him then,

even though they suffered greatly for it.

Job is an example of a man

who continued to trust the Lord in sorrow;

from his experiences we can see

how the Lord's plan finally ended in good,

for he is full of tenderness and mercy.

(James 5:11, The Living Bible-TLB)

My Garden Basil Grown From Seeds

The first batch of Basil plants in my garden were all grown from cuttings. I used to grow a few types of Basil including the Sweet Basil. My son only uses the Sweet Basil for his cooking but not the Thai Basil or other Basil that has very strong smell. I don't use Basil leaves for cooking because hubby doesn't like any kind of Basil. I also gave up growing Basil but somehow, I kept one pot growing in my garden to bless my friends.

The above is the only remaining pot of Basil from the earlier batch. Usually I will cut off the flowers to encourage more leaves and this round I discarded the flowers onto 2 pots, hoping to get rid of the tiny snails that were eating my leafy green vegetables.

And these are the Basil plants that sprouted from the discarded flower seeds that I scattered onto these 2 flower pots.

Last week, before meeting my friend for breakfast, I cut some Basil leaves for her.

All cut and nicely wrapped and packed to give my friend but then I forgot all about it. I left it on my dining table. I finally get to pass a fresh bunch of basil to her when she dropped by one day.

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The following photos are for joining Floral Bliss.
 I took these photos on our previous visit to Fraser's Hill.

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Linking to Floral Bliss

And why worry about your clothes? Look at the field lilies!

They don't worry about theirs.

Yet King Solomon in all his glory are not clothed as

beautifully as they.

(Matthew 6:28-29, The Living Bible-TLB)

Healing Herb In The Garden

On Tuesday morning, we got into our friend's car and drove to Taiping for a day's trip to visit her parents and at the same time to revisit Taiping town after a long, long time. After about an hour's drive, we arrived at my friend's hometown. We drove straight to her parent's home to invite her mom out for breakfast with us. I will call her mom, Auntie Ooi.

While waiting for Auntie Ooi to get ready, we spent time looking at the plants in her garden. A plant caught my attention and I went to take a closer look. It turned out to be a very short cili padi plant. Isn't it cute and pretty? Some more so fruitful. I must remind my friend to get some seeds from Auntie Ooi.

The plant in the next picture is a thorny plant with bright beautiful flowers and one of Euphorbia Milii's family, also called Crown of Thorns. Auntie Ooi very generously dug up two baby plants for me to take home. Thank you so much Auntie Ooi and God bless you!

These little green plants (below) were growing all over the garden especially under the shades. I was told that these are planted for medicinal values and they are know as "Rodent Yam". These plants have high medicinal values, claimed able to heal cancer and many other health problems as well. Of course, they have to be processed and mixed with other herbs to be effective. So sorry, I do not know the "wonder cure" concoction.

While I was busy looking at the herbs and asking questions about their uses, I sensed that I was being watched from behind. I turned around and I noticed this white, grayish cat looking intently at us from afar under this big satellite dish. Seemed like it was just waiting for the right moment to attack its prey (me)! Oh no..... I think it does not like me eyeing the plants in the garden. So off we went looking for our overdue breakfast .... our tummies were growling away!

We droved to Jalan Kota, parked the car and came to this corner coffee shop (right pic.)

This is the side view (left pic.) and the front view (right pic.)

We ordered four pieces of fresh spring rolls (popiah) - very tasty popiahs. What about the plate of fried koay teow? Thumbs up! It looked good, it smelled good and it tasted good! Everyone was nodding their head with approval.

Pie Tee is one of my favourite snack. I just love them especially topped with "sambal". I really missed these Pie Tees. I ordered this black coffee with ice or Kopi-O ice. It tasted just like the coffee of the good old days, the taste of original coffee. With our tummies taken care of, we took a leisure drive around Taiping town and to take some snap shots.

Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant

than pretend to be somebody and have no food.

(Proverbs 12:9, New International Version-NIV)