Spring Gardening Season

Spring's here and I like it!! Nice weather, blue skies, flowers blooming and everything feels more lively with colors! =) Clockwise: View from the parent's, our house, and my work place.

Spring also marks the beginning of gardening season! Learning from our experience last year, instead of planting a lil' bit of everything, we're gonna focus on 7 crops this spring...broccolis (for stir-fry), tomatoes (for tomato soup), zucchini (for zoodles), corn, carrots, cucumber (for pickling) and watermelon.

Apr 4 (Mon): Had a break from traveling all of April but no break on the weekends. Weekend job = gardener. Transplanted the broccolis to the garden. P.S. I wasn't just taking photos, I was also working hard, just that nobody took photos of me working...haha! :P

Apr 10 (Sun): 2nd batch of planting.

Call me nerdy but I had fun making the DIY labels from recyclables and mapping out the garden 'floor plan'...lol!! If you think this is nerdy, wait till you see my Google doc...lol!

Below are chronological updates on the progress for each of our plants...

BROCCOLI

Feb 7 (Day 1): Started the broccolis from seeds.

Mar 12 - Apr 4 (Day 34-57): Growth progress for our broccolis.

Apr 10 (Day 63): 6 days after transplanting, broccoli looking kinda weak with not much growth.

Apr 19 (Day 72): Looking better 2 weeks after transplanting to the garden. :)

Top: Apr 23 (Day 76) ; Bottom: Apr 29 (Day 82): Week 3 and 4 after transplant, 40/50 surviving, not bad! :)

TOMATO

Feb 28 (Day 1): Started the tomato seeds 2 weeks after the broccolis coz they are not as sensitive to warm weather.

Mar 20 - Apr 10 (Day 21-42): Growth progress for our tomato plants. Tomatoes definitely grow easier and faster than broccolis.

Apr 10 (Day 42): Transplanted 50+ tomato plants (someone counted but didn't jot down the totals...hmph!). Thanks to MinMin for being the 'model' there...hehe! 

Apr 19 (Day 51): 9 days after transplant...survivor vs gone.

Left: Apr 23 (Day 55) ; Right: Apr 29 (Day 61): 44 surviving at week 2 & 3 after transplant.

CORN, ZUCCHINI, CARROT

Apr 10 (Sun): Direct sow the seeds for corn, carrots, and zucchini.

Apr 23 (Day 14) vs Apr 29 (Day 20): Corns and zucchinis coming up but no signs of growth yet for the carrots.

Busy Season Continues...

How did March and April fly by so quickly?? People say time flies when you're having fun but it's definitely not true for me coz the past 2 months had been nothing but work and study. =.= Work-life balance is definitely not in my dictionary for the first half of 2016, hopefully I'll get some 'life' soon. As uneventful as life had been, I still want to keep my blog updated so here are some photos of what I've been up to. 

Traveled back and forth btwn Huntsville and Dallas for 5 consecutive weeks in March for work. Spent at least 6 hrs every Sunday and Friday evenings in airports and airplanes. The time onboard was actually a good time to study coz I didn't have internet to distract me. =P 


'Home' for 5 weeks in Dallas. Nice room and comfortable bed but getting back from work at 9pm and continuing 2nd shift of studying ain't no fun.


Little things to be thankful for every morning...nice sunrise view from the room, healthy breakfast, room service one day when I was feeling under the weather.


The boring and COLD workplace, but look at those Costco-sized snacks! =P

One perk for working out-of-town...free dinners! =)

Looks good right? But notice the work-through-dinner table. :P


Well...I shouldn't be complaining. =P

Fixed my cravings for Asian food...Thai, Korean, Cantonese...nom nom nom!

And of course...Malaysian food! =D

Working on this job was like a 2012/2013 Penang D-team reunion. From Penang to 3 different states in the US, who would have thought we would end up working together in the same team again, you just never know where life will take you. :)

Quote to share: Work hard and always do your best. You may not notice it but people do remember and recognize your good work. 

世界这么大，有人对你好, 是你的骄傲；人心如此小，有心装着你，是你的自豪。能被人赏识固然很好，但更重要的，是取悦你自己。哪怕从头到尾没人给你鼓掌，你也要自己走下去。因为，你是为了自己走下去，不是为了别人鼓掌或不鼓掌。 这一点，你要时刻警醒自己。即使没得到别人认可的掌声，也要听见内心自我肯定的喝彩声。- 叶剑锋