Monthly Archives: November 2007

Mum’s Love translated via a pair of gloves

Nowadays, I am known to work in the garden without gloves. I used to wear those cotton-based ones but hate to wear them because I tend to not be able to feel my way due to the thickness of the material. It is somewhat like “feeling in the dark”.

The result – I got numerous wounds on my skin which include blisters caused by excessive abrasion from using the handhoe and cuts and tears on my skin that resulted from injury caused by rocks and pulling weeds.

Last Saturday, Mum passed me a pair of cotton gloves to wear and she forced me to wear them after she saw the numerous plasters I wrapped over the wounds on my hands. She told me to learn to get used to it to protect my hands whenever I work in the garden. She even offered to wash them for me after they are soiled…

They are a pair of white, cotton gloves as you can see, placed on my laptop. They are the same ones that I hate to wear. 

Anyhow, I would like to advocate all gardeners to put on a pair of gloves while working in the garden. It protects your hands from wounds and possible bites from harmful garden critters. Reduces the likelihood to get the possibly deadly soil disease too!

Get cotton-based gloves because they are washable and reusable and hence environmentally friendly. They are definitely more economical to use on the long run. I used to wear disposable latex gloves that I put on for my lab work at NUS but they can be costly to buy on the long term and they tear easily.

Last night, I started putting on gloves to do gardening. I know my Mum cares. :)

GCS Feature Articles for Oct 07

I have just put up the 2 feature articles on the Green Culture Singapore website for Oct 07. One was written by a fellow member of the forum, whose name is Albert, where he covered his own experience of growing moth orchids at his home’s balcony. The other one was written on the Indian Borage, penned by me. It was written to clarify the confusion Singaporeans have for this herb. It is not a mint!

Albert’s Phalaenopsis Growing Experience

URL: http://www.greenculturesg.com/articles/oct07/oct07_albertphal.pdf

Albert, a member of the Green Culture Singapore discussion forum, focusses his efforts on the cultivation of Phalaenopsis orchids. He feels that, Phalaenopsis, with their broad leaves and elegant sprays of colourful blooms, are far more captivating than any other genera of orchids he has grown. Not only does he enjoy the beauty of these orchids, he likes to research, experiment with and learn all about them. In this article, Albert shares with readers how his Phalaenopsis plants are grown in relation to how some factors and constraints posed his home’s balcony where his plants are currently situated.

I am not a Mint!

http://www.greenculturesg.com/articles/oct07/oct07_Plect_amboinicus.pdf

In Singapore, the Indian Borage is often mistakened as a type of mint. To make things worse, a rough search using the Internet search engine will yield has several confusing common names. Botanically, the Indian Borage is known as Plectranthus amboinicus and is a member of Lamiaceae and this herb is famed for its use as a cough remedy. Read on to find out how to grow this plant!

A crazy Sunday, but I got a new rooftop garden plus a meet-up with owners of Borneo Exotics…

Gardening Talk in the morning 

Haven’t recovered from Saturday’s fatigue, I had to prepare for another gardening talk for my constituency’s Clean and Green Singapore function for the community.

Yesterday, I delivered a talk and demo on how to turn disposable food containers into self-watering containers that are safe from mosquito breeding.

 In my talk, I have invited 3 of my audience to come forward to have a hands on to make their own containers. They not only get to bring home what they have made, they also get a token of appreciation for their avid particupation. 

Hence I prepared 3 pots of philodendron, which is a hard-to-kill plant suitable for apartment dwellers to grow. I used gold paper ribbon to wrap around the brown plastic ponds which the plants are grown in. Apparently, the reddish green leaves of this cultivar of philodendron seem to go well with the gold colour of the pots (see below)!

Golden pots of green and red. So Christmas-y eh? Perhaps this makes a good gift idea!

Residents trying their hands on making a self-watering pots.

Mrs Lim, my MP for my constituency, presenting me a plaque for the talk given.

In return, I also presented Mrs Lim a pot of Alocasia grown in a self-watering pot!

One of the units that makes up the modular system for the roof-top garden that will be constructed at the multi-storey carpark nearby my apartment block. I can wake up everyday to enjoy the garden from my bedroom! Yippeeee!

Afternoon Lunch Appointment with Owners of Borneo Exotics

Thanks to Cindy, I was able to meet up with the owners of Borneo Exotics, Rob and Diana at NYDC restaurant at Holland Village. They were here in Singapore to discuss with NParks on various projects.

Xuan Hong was also present and I am glad he was able to make it whilst preparing for his ‘A’ level exams.

It was a crazy Saturday!

The Clean and Green Singapore event this year kept me pretty busy over the weekend. My team and I was at Bishan Park on Saturday to support NParks as well as to showcase our work. Sunday was not spared either as I was involved in a similar event at my constituency. The weekend was extremely exhausting but fun and enriching.

Setting Up

 

This Clean and Green Singapore event, Lynnette, Chong Ren, Eng Ong and Elgin, generously gave their entire Saturday up to come support our cause. We reached the venue at about 11 am. Above, we were busy setting up in our rather strategically placed booth in the center of a letter “C”!

The finished product – we featured tropical pitcher plants (Nepenthes) and our well known wick-watering method advocated in our GCS forum.

The showcase of tropical pitcher plants was to spread the awareness to the public that these plants can be bought from commercial nurseries for our own gardens. People are advised to refrain from plucking them out for from the wild as they usually do not survive under the hands of the novice, plus, we should leave them in the wild in situ for conservation reasons, so our future generations can still see them. In addition, we have our role to preserve our biodiversity, be it in Singapore or elsewhere.

We also featured Mona’s method of wick-watering on the growing of gesneriads. This method employs the use of disposable food containers which is in the theme of recycling. So we hope this would give these containers a second lease of life rather than being thrown into the rubbish dump after just a single use.

Food!

 Oh yes. The food and beverages provided were great.

Events I attended

As evening approaches, I rushed to the Lauch Ceremonial Tent to witness the official launch of the Clean and Green Singapore 2007 and was invited to witness a series of cultural performances.

The People I Met

 As expected for any large scale event, we are bound to see a couple of familiar faces. It was time to catch up as well as to take a few pictures!

Part of the GCS gang with Cheow Kheng and Simon (third and fourth from left), the people whom I will always remember for life for their encouragement, support and faith. :)

Also managed to squeeze in a picture with John, who is the always jovial President of the Singapore Gardening Society.

The above picture was perhaps the most important one. It was put as the last one due to chronological reasons.

Finally got the chance to meet Mr Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore.  In the short few minutes of the encounter, I got to tell him what Green Culture Singapore was all about and to thank him for all the efforts to green up Singapore and support for the gardening culture here. I hope all GCS members will feel as proud as me!

THANKS TO OUR GCS SUPPORTERS – LYNNETTE, CHONG REN, ENG ONG and ELGIN – for making this event successful and possible!

ALSO… NParks FOR GIVING US THIS OPPORTUNITY TOO!

Root Awakening (3 Nov 07)

This is the 3rd instalment of Root Awakening that was published in the Life! section in the Straits Times today on 3 Nov 07.

Lynnette’s and Wilson’s Community Garden are featured on the papers today!

Green Team

(Straits Times Life! 2 Nov 07) 

The Straits Times interviewed and featured the community gardens of both Lynnette and mine on the papers today.

I am more than happy to see Lynnette’s garden being shown as the cover page! Congrats Lynnette!

Community gardening is fun and gives an opportunity for highrise apartment dwellers like us to have some land in the great outdoors to do gardening.

Read about how we have benefited and enjoyed community gardening!

PDF File of the Newspaper Article

 

Cardinal Climber in my Community Garden

The cardinal climber in my community garden is blooming, finally. A close-relative of the morning glory, the cardinal climber produces flowers that resemble miniature trumpets.

Although the flowers are small compared to the true morning glory, the flowers scream for one’s attention by having a bright crimson colour. They stand out against the plain green foliage. They have been reported to attract hummingbirds! But Singapore doesn’t have hummingbirds.

What’s likable about this vine are the dainty, fine fern-like leaves it has. A very vigorous climber I must say and one has to grow it on a large trellis situated in a location with full sun in order for it to grow and flower well.  Grow the plant in fertile, well drained soil and do water frequently so as to not let it dry out. The bigger the plant, the more water it needs due to increased leaf area and higher transpiration rates.

It is known via several scientific names: Ipomoea quamoclit and Ipomoea x multifida and originates from Tropical America. The vine in my garden was actually grown from seeds taken by my fellow community gardener from our offshore island, Pulau Ubin. One can buy packeted seeds from online mail-order nurseries or through our local Known You Seeds distributor.

There is actually another variety with white flowers but it is less common than the red. So if you have grown a vine with white flowers, remember to specially save those seeds!