Mom's Herb Garden

At the back of our Taiping house lies mom's secret garden where her third son would not think to venture for fear that it would incite mom to cook up some herbal drink for him. Step into that forbidden place and automatically it will remind mom that her sons seem...a bit pale in the face and those red lips means one thing...yeet hei! That mean panas badan, hot in the body and not hot bod.

She has accumulated her knowledge of herbs from her mother our ah por and her many tai chi kakis and of course some si fu. One of her favorites though is her Mulberry Bush where i got the main picture of the hairy-ball-like-flower...looks like some testicles no? Good for heatiness. All you gotta do is get some leaves of the bush and boil it with brown sugar and drink the bloomin thing down...helps to cool down the system. I know. I have tried it.

Leaves of the Mulberry Bush and it's fruits...shrivelly lookin testicles.

Mom's herb patch where we three brothers used to have one drain each to take a crap with a view...of the boys home. The purple flowered bush is a basil plant which also brings down heatiness and also acts as a mosquito repellant. So don't be surprised if you happen to have the chance to drop in and you see some of us rubbing ourselves with basil leaves. We would then recycle the leaves and use it for spaghetti.

Another mozzy plant which was quite a craze at one time. Slim leaved plant is a seh chou, snake grass which is bloody bitter. Sore throat? Chew on one and swallow it and you will have a bitter taste in the mouth for awhile. Quite awhile actually.

And mint...for mint sauce if you having lamb chops or garnishings for curry mee. Whatever turns you on. Apart from herbs my mom also has orchids, bromelliads, ferns and some other plants which i don't know about.

My love for gardening stemmed from seeing my mom toil with her garden wearing her straw hat when i was younger and it became a thing i 'had' to do when i moved to KL when i was 10. I had to have a garden no matter where i lived. Perhaps subconciously...it was my link to my mom.