Monthly Archives: November 2008

I am Thankful…

Posted on November 30, 2008 | 2 Comments

An interview done by Mr Andrew Tan was published on Straits Times Life! section yesterday. As I flipped the papers yesterday and arrived at the page where the article was published, I was quite taken aback to see the article being spread over two facing pages, with my blown up personal picture staring at me right into my face! Before I go on, I would like to send my heartfelt thanks to those of my friends who have sent me their congratulations as well as Mr Andrew Tan for the interview.

The article essentially reported about the Community in Bloom (CIB) Ambassador Award which I was conferred in early November and my involvement and benefits that I have derived with the community gardening project which I started in Serangoon North. Besides that, there are also some small bits about me, my Gardening With Wilson garden blog and the Green Culture Singapore gardening website.

I am very honoured to be featured on Straits Times Life! section and I hope that the article will inspire more flat-dwelling individuals who are keen in gardening to take up community gardening like I did. Like what was being mentioned in the article, a high-rise flat dweller like me would not have any access near our homes to do outdoor gardening if the community gardening initiative was non-existent. Currently, gardening along common corridors and stair-wells is actually not encouraged because of obstructions that are created that will hinder fire escape.

Many of our modern high-rise flats do not have areas inside the home that are conducive for gardening. Direct sunshine lasting up to 6 hours which is essential for growing many flowering and edible plants that Singaporeans love to grow is very scarce nowadays because our windows are designed to face away from the sun so as to keep our homes cool.

Hence, I am also very thankful to the National Parks Board (NParks) for encouraging Singaporeans to take up community gardening. Now, with a community garden, we have access to proper garden plots near our homes where we can adopt to plant our favourite plants. In the past, we are not allowed even to dig the ground surrounding our high-rise flats to grow our plants! I still remember how lucky I was when my Science teacher gave me some plots in my primary school’s Science Garden to do some gardening.

Today, it is not unusual to see many community gardens scattered around the Singapore island that are teeming with mostly edible plants such as vegetables and medicinal herbs. Many of the participants in such gardens are the elderly and home-makers who prefer to have a functional garden. I can sort of understand why they do this because by growing vegetables they can take the opportunity to revive the good old days back in the rural villages. Some others want to grow their own vegetables because they know what goes into the growing of these plants and they get a chance to harvest their own organic produce. They grow various medicinal herbs which they use to treat various ailments as many of them are not available commercially.

A reason why many community gardeners do not really want to grow ornamental plants is probably due to the fact that these plants cannot be harvested and eaten. Perhaps some of them also think that why should they bother to grow non-edible, ornamental stuff when one can actually see them being grown in a big way in our Garden City? Being able to grow something edible may be perceived as the excellent way to make the best use of the small land area in the community garden. In addition, the growing edible plants is a great way to show and educate our younger generation how food is produced and proximity of most community gardens to our homes offers much convenience and saves one the trouble of having to go to far-fetched farming areas in Singapore and Malaysia.

Like fellow aunties and uncles in other community gardens, I also started community gardening with the growing of edible plants. Many of my friends know this quite well that Wilson Wong is one person who was initially keen only in vegetables and herbs and nothing else. But my interest started to change as I got introduced to ornamental plants by fellow members and friends from the Green Culture Singapore discussion forum. I realised my community garden can look even better with some perennial flowering plants around it as a pure vegetable and herb garden tend to look like a farm and is not aesthetically appealling. This has helped to set the stage that started the ornamental strip outside the main community garden and my ginger garden located nearby.

If community gardening was not allowed, I would not have the chance to grow various large ornamental plants like heliconias and various other gingers like I have done so now around my community garden. I chose to grow these plants because I wanted to bring these beautiful and often exotic tropical plants that can only be seen in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, HortPark, Jurong Bird Park and many private homes to the door-step of the Serangoon North neighbourhood. In the process of doing this, I get to learn more about the growing habits and requirements of these plants, as well as, picked up some skills in landscaping.

Besides NParks, I must thank Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, the Member of Parliament of Serangoon constituency, my Town Council and my Residents’ Committee (RC) for being so supportive with the community garden project since it started two years ago. A successful community garden actually needs a tremendous amount of support and understanding from the Town Council and RC.

My Town Council, the Serangoon North branch of the Aljunied Town Council, has been very helpful all this while in providing us with the dried leaves for use as mulch, an ingredient which we use for compost-making and soil texture improver and various forms of support for the physical infrastructure of the community garden. They are always there for the community garden when we needed help. Many thanks to Mr Joseph Wee and his team!

My Residents’ Committee has also shown much support and has helped on many occasions to explain to fellow Serangoon North residents about the projects that we are undertaking in the community garden. Many of our small projects take much longer to complete than usual and may have created some inconvenience to the residents. Our manpower is limited due to the small number of community gardneners present and we do not hire contractors to help us out. My RC has also helped financially whenever it can to fund some our supplies such as plants, fertilisers and compost. My heartfelt thanks go to my immediate past Chairman, Mr Lee Song Heng and the current Chairperson, Mdm Claire Ng.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Flowering plants, Media Appearances, My Thoughts..., Newspaper features, Tropical ornamentals, Vegetables

Tagged ,

Two Very Different Plant-related Talks

Posted on November 29, 2008 | 1 Comment

On Friday afternoon, I attended the talk by Mr Eric Simon at the Function Hall at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The talk was entitled “Growing Bougainvillea” and is part of this year’s Garden Talk Series. Despite the fact that the talk was held on a weekday afternoon, it attracted quite a lot of members of the public, as well as, numerous staff members from the National Parks Board (NParks).

The e-flyer for Mr Eric Simon’s Bougainvillea talk.

I am still quite surprised by the turnout because I have always thought the Bougainvillea is one flowering shrub that has largely been taken for granted by most Singaporeans. The talk was delivered in a rather casual manner using a mix of English, Malay and even Hokkien too (a Chinese dialect)! Mr Simon was a very humourous and conversant speaker and he was able to keep his audience engaged throughout the talk.

 

Cover of Mr Eric Simon’s Bougainvillea book.

Mr Simon was quick to make his talk useful, interactive and relevant to his audience. Instead of the usual way of presentation via a series of slides flashed in a logical manner, he went right onto the Q&A segment, after a brief introduction about the plant. Most of the numerous questions that were asked during the Q&A segment revolve around the fundamentals of plant care that require the understanding of a plant’s growth requirements.

Most of the time, Mr Simon’s talk revolve around the general horticultural issues of growing Bougainvillea. He did not go too deep into the specifics or technicalities as the answers to such questions can actually be found in the book he authored, “Brighten Up Your Life With Bougainvillea“, which is, to date, the only gardening book that has been written on  Bougainvillea. 

As for today, on Saturday afternoon, I made my way to Woodlands Regional Library to attend another plant-related talk. The title of the talk was “Amazing Trees” and the speaker was Mr Lua Hock Keong, one of the Senior Biodiversity Officers working in the National Biodiversity Center of the National Parks Board (NParks). This talk is our first that focussed on trees and it was aimed to let the public have a great awareness of the different types of trees that have been planted in Singapore.

Speaker of the talk, ”Amazing Trees”, Mr Lua Hock Keong.

Hock Keong’stalk was made simple and delivered without botanical jargon, so that it is one that the layman public can appreciate easily. A brief introduction on some of the common trees that are planted in Singapore, some of the interesting features and facts about trees and how trees are important for everyone were given. Some dried fruit and seed capsules produced by some of the interesting trees were also brought to be shown to the audience.

Hock Keong engaging a young audience.

Interestingly, quite a large number of children were present in the room, probably due to the fact that the year-end school holidays have just commenced. Hock Keong’s talk was most suitable for this young audience as he had dispensed mostly bite-sized bits of interesting information which children can easily understand. He also cleverly used cartoon animation to grab the attention of young minds. Chocolates instead of using the usual Community-in-Bloom souvenirs were given out as small rewards for correct answers given for quizzes. The effect is easily envisaged when one brings children and chocolates together - it would be like bees to honey.  

I have much to learn from Hock Keong on how to be able to engage the young in my future talks and workshops. We do need to tailor our sessions to make more attractive to the young so that they can become interested with plants and gardening from a young age before the frenzy of achieving good examination grades and addiction to gaming consoles such as the Playstation catches up with them as they grow older.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Events, My Thoughts..., Trees

Honey… I shrunk the Cucumbers!

Posted on November 28, 2008 | 7 Comments

Last Saturday, when I was making my way home from World Farm to Khatib MRT station, my friend who was with me chanced upon an interesting vine that was growing on the chain-linked fence surrounding the compound of Peiying Primary School. I reckoned this vine had been growing there for some time and I had not been paying attention to it all this while, partly because it looked somewhat weedy.

Little green fruits hanging from every leaf axil along the vine.

The vine had angular, heart-shaped leaves and borne numerous, small, green fruits that hung from every leaf axil along the length of the vine. At the first glance from afar and via the look of its leaves, I thought it was the noxious vine, Mikania micrantha. But I provened wrong because the leaves of Mikania micrantha are much longer in length and the flowers produced by the vine was not white but yellow.

The leaves of the vine are cordate in shape.

After a close-look at its flowers, my friend told me that he was quite sure that the vine is a cucurbit, a member of the melon family. The flowers produced by the plant are very small, five-petalled and yellow in colour. Typical of a monoceious cucurbit, this vine produces male and female flowers on the same plant. The male flowers were borne on a spray while those of the female appeared singly and each had an obvious ovary behind their petals.

Male flowers are borne in a cluster.

I was quite surprised by this discovery as it was something new to me. I have never seen it growing anywhere else before. The other cucurbit vine that I know grows like a weed in Singapore is the ivy gourd, Coccinia grandis. The ivy gourd’s flowers look like stars and are white in colour. Fruits are oval in shape and they turn red when ripe. They are larger in size when compared to the ones produced on this cucurbit vine.

 The female flower is produced singly and had a baby fruit located behind the yellow petals.

I wanted to learn more about this plant and before I could really do that, I need to find out what is its botanical name. My initial search for information inside printed publications that I had did not yield anything useful and I went on to dig for some more in the World Wide Web. After much effort and leads, I managed to find some pictures via Google that revealed plants that look very similar to the one I saw. Luckily and thankfully, I chanced upon the web version of a publication entitled ”Guide to Tendrillate Climbers of Costa Rican Mountains” that was written by Alexander Krings and Richard R. Braham. It had a comprehensive description of morphological characteristics of some plants that I found tremendously useful.

After much reading, I reasoned the likely identity of this cucurbit vine to be Melothria pendula. It is commonly known as the creeping cucumber or Guadeloupe cucumber. It has a close relative, M. scabra but the two can be told apart via the smaller fruits produced by M. pedula that measure up to 1.5 cm long and 1 cm in diameter and are uniformly green. Melothria scabra fruits are larger up to 4 cm long and 2.5 cm wide and are frequently striped which look like mini-watermelons.

A closer look at the fruits.

When ripe, the fruits are said to turn black externally and small, white seeds similar to those seen in cucumbers can be seen being lodged within an insipid, cooling pulp. The fruits are edible when they are ripe and pickled when they are still green. There is unverified information on the World Wide Web stating the fruits are strong laxatives!

This cucurbit is native to the West Indies, Southern United States to Argentina and seeds can be bought from some online seed sources. I am now wondering whether this vine was deliberately planted by someone who had the seeds or is it a plant that has long naturalised in Singapore.

→ 7 Comments

Posted in Vegetables

Tagged ,

Root Awakening (22 November 2008)

Posted on November 26, 2008 | Leave a comment

The second and last instalment of the Root Awakening column for the month of November was published in Straits Times Life! on 22 Nov 2008. Some insights were provided for the three gardening questions sent to me by Straits Times Life! readers.

The first question was about pest infestation, probably one brought about by scale insects, which was found on basil. Because basil is grown for good, I usually opt to use organic methods to deal with such pest problems. One can try using strong water jets to wash pests off the plant (for mealy bugs and and aphids). Alternatively, one can also apply a dilute soap solution or summer oil emulsion on the plant. The latter two methods work by suffocating the pests and can be use on mealy bugs, aphids and scales.

When infestation is heavy, it may be easier and makes more economical sense to discard a plant when the pest problem becomes too severe. Leaving an infested plant can provide an avenue for pests to spread to neighbouring plants.

The next question touched on the cultivation of roses. Roses are a popular favourite among Singaporeans. However, it is a mistake to grow them in a place that is too shady. Most flowering shrubs which include roses, require direct sunshine to grow. In the highrise apartment, they should be situation just before the window or balcony ledge where it can receive 4 to 6 hours of direct sunshine. Outdoors, roses can be grown in a well-drained location with filtered sunshine. The tropical sunshine outdoors can be too harsh on newly imported roses.

The last question was about common temperate and subtropical flowering plants that have a big fan base locally due to their ornamental value. Most importantly, Singaporeans must know that they cannot be grown in the long term under our lowland tropical climate. We can see alot of temperate/subtropical plants that are produced in large numbers to cater to the mass consumer market being sold in our local nurseries. They are best treated as display plants where one can appreciate the blooms/foliage/plant during its useful life. Once a plant starts to decline, they should be dispose off accordingly.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Root Awakening in ST Life!

Tagged

Neighbourhood Park with Mangosteen Relatives

Posted on November 25, 2008 | 2 Comments

A total of six Garcinia species of trees were planted in Taman Jurong Greens Neighbourhood Park on 23 November 2008, which was a Sunday. Garcinia is a large genus mainly occurring in the Old World tropics and species belong to the Clusiaceae family which used to be called Guttiferae. Many Garcinia species have been found to possess medicinal properties.

This genus has not yet been studied well and the total number of species given in the literature can range between 100 and 400. Garcinia species are mostly second-storey forest trees that are adapted to shade, growing mostly in the humid tropics of Southeast Asia.

Entrance of the Taman Jurong Greens Neighbourhood Park

As stated in the Plant Resources of South East Asia (PROSEA), about 30 species in South-East Asia produce edible fruit, most of them rather sour because they contain citric acid. The true mangosteen, Garcinia mangostana is the most well known while the mostly acidic fruits of minor species, such as the asam gelugor are used as substitutes for tamarind and to fix dyes. The wood of several Garcinia species make hard and valuable timber.

After the introduction by Mr Ganesan from the National Parks Board (NParks), I got interested and wanted to know more about the six Garcinia species of trees planted at Taman Jurong Greens Neighbourhood Park. I did some reading on the reference I have, which is the PROSEA publication and performed a web search as well. Information on the minor Garcinia species is actually quite scarce. In this blog post, I share some of the interesting facts I have come across in my readings. 

1. Mangosteen Tree (Garcinia mangostana) 

Mangosteen Tree (Garcinia mangostana)

The mangosteen is only known as a cultivated species, although there have been occasional reports of wild specimens in Malaysia. The height of a tree can range from 6 to 25 m tall with a straight trunk and symmetrically branched to form a regular pyramidal crown. The symmetry in the architecture of the young tree is striking. The oblong-shaped, thick, leathery leaves are opposite, with short petioles clasping the shoot blades. 

Its sweet fruits are eaten fresh and often referred to as “Queen of Tropical Fruits”. I have always been warned when I was young not to allow the sap from the fruit rind to get onto my clothes as it stains fabric permanently. The dye from the rind is in fact used to tan leather and to dye black. Both the rind and the bark have several applications in traditional medicine. The mangosteen tree yields a dark red wood that is heavy and very strong that is used in carpentry and make rice pounders.

Leaves of the Mangosteen Tree (Garcinia mangostana) 

The mangosteen tree requires shade and shelter for growth as its leaves and fruit are susceptible to sunburn. Abiotic stress during growth should be avoided as a damaged tree seldom recovers. It is an extremely slow-growing plant and it can take 10 to 15 years for trees to start to bear fruit.

Interestingly, it was published on PROSEA that no functionally male flowers have since been found on mangosteen trees. Flowering of mangosteen is seasonal, usually after pronounced dry weather, often twice a year and about the same time as the durian and rambutan trees flower. The flowers are borne at the tip of mature shoots.  

2. Asam Gelugor Tree (Garcinia atroviridis)

The asam gelugor tree (Garcinia atroviridis) is another tree that produces fruit that is used in food. The tree is cultivated and native to Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, Burma and India.

Asam Gelugor Tree (Garcinia atroviridis)

The asam gelugur tree grows to a height of 20 m and has long trunk with characteristic drooping branches arranged in a tiered fashion around the central trunk. The leaves are dark green, shiny, long narrow with a pointed tand upturneded. Its flowers are dark red and the round yellow to orange and interestingly, Garcinia atroviridis usually bears female flowers only. Fruits are borne singly on twig ends.

Leaves of Asam Gelugor Tree (Garcinia atroviridis)

Unlike the fruits of the mangosteen, the fruits of assam gelugor are flattened at the apex which are longitudinally grooved into 12 to 16 segments. Ripe fruits are orange in colour and look somewhat like miniature pumpkins. Full-grown but green fruits are dried, whole or sliced, and used as seasoning or sour relish. Stewed with much sugar the fruit is excellent to eat. Medicinally, the fruit and leaves are applied to women after childbirth and a decoction of leaves and roots is used against earache. Dried fruits are used as a fixative for dyes. The fruit has purported weight-reducing properties. 

3. Garcinia eugeniaefolia 

Information about Garcinia eugeniaefolia is very scarce. It is a tree that is native to Malaysia and occurs in lowland and submontane forest. According to the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, Garcinia eugeniaefolia may be synonymous with Garcinia rostrata. Populations are conserved in production and protected forests throughout Malaysia. 

Garcinia eugeniaefolia 

From afar, Garcinia eugeniaefolia can be mistakened not to be a Garcinia species. Most Garcinia trees produce leaves that are oblong to elliptical in shape and are thick. The leaves of Garcinia eugeniaefolia are much smaller and they closely resemble those of plants belong to another unrelated genus Eugenia or Syzygium.

 Leaves of Garcinia eugeniaefolia 

 

4. Garcinia griffithii


Garcinia griffithii

Like all other Garcinia trees mentioned so far, Garcinia griffithii can also native to this region. It originates from Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore and is common in the lowland forest. It has no common English common name. Instead, it is called apple kandis or kandis gajah, in Peninsula Malaysia. 

Leaves of Garcinia griffithii 

The fruits the mature tree produces are edible and are consumed usually when they are cooked. They are sour to taste due to the organic acids they contain. It is a large-growing tree that can attain a height of 12 to 18 m. Leaves are leathery and broadly elliptical in shape. They are rather large (length 22—40 cm and width 10—20 cm). Garcinia griffithii produces unisexual flowers and fruits resemble round apples with a diameter of about 5 to 8 cm diameter that turn brown-yellow when ripe.

 

5. Button Mangosteen Tree (Garcinia prainiana)


Button Mangosteen Tree (Garcinia prainiana)

Garcinia prainiana, is known as the button mangosteen or the cherapu. The fruits it produces are flattened at the apex, with a diameter of about 5 cm, which turn into an attractive orange colour when ripe. They are edible and possess a sweet-tart flavour. Its skin is tissue-thin instead of a hard rind and is said that the fruit can be eaten as a whole.

 Leaves of Button Mangosteen Tree (Garcinia prainiana)

Like its relatives, the button mangosteen tree is very slow-growing. It can grow into a large tree with a height of about 10m, with a narrow and dense crown. It fruits when it is young when it is about 2 to 3 feet tall and hence makes a container plant.  

6. Seashore Mangosteen (Garcinia hombroniana)

Common on sandy and rocky coasts in its native habitat, the seashore mangosteen is perhaps the most intriguing member among the Garcinia species because it prefers a life near the sea which extreme and fluctuating environmental conditions. It is a native to Peninsular Malaysia and Nicobar Islands.  

Seashore Mangosteen Tree (Garcinia hombroniana)

The densely-branched tree can grow from 9 to 18 m in height, with a stately tiered architecture of contrasting light and dark green leaves. Its leaves oblong to elliptic and produces unisexual flowers that are rose-red on the outside and cream-yellow on the inside.

The edible fruits the seashore mangosteen produces are round but small, with a diameter of about 5 cm, with a distinctive pointed end. They turn bright rose red when ripe and emit the scent reminiscent of apples. The rind of the fruit is leathery and contains a white or transluscent flesh with a crisp, tart flavour.

Leaves of Seashore Mangosteen Tree (Garcinia hombroniana)

The plant has medicinal uses – a decoction of its root may be administered after childbirth as a preventive medicine. The roots and leaves are used to relieve itching. The tree possesses a potential rootstock for grafting to extend adaptability of the true mangosteen.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Events, Trees, Tropical ornamentals

Tagged ,

Launch of 1 million Native Plants @ South West in Taman Jurong Greens Neighbourhood Park

Posted on November 23, 2008 | Leave a comment

I was at Taman Jurong Greens Neighbourhood Park early this morning to attend the award presentation ceremony for the winners for ShowGarden @ South West Competition. During the ceremony, the three judges for the competition, Ms Rosalind Tan, Mr Mohd Azmi Shahbudin and me received a pot of miniature rose each as a token of appreciation.

From left, Rosalind, Azmi, Mr Tharman (Guest of Honour), Dr Amy Khor (Mayor Southwest CDC) and myself.

Besides presenting awards and tokens of appreciation to representatives from winning community gardens and judges respectively, the event which was graced by Singapore’s Finance Minister and Member of Parliament for Jurong GRC, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, also marked the launch of the 1 million Native Plants @ South West project, as well as, a tree-planting exercise.

Launch of the 1 million Native Plants @ South West project on stage.

The month of November is Singapore’s Clean and Green Singapore campaign, which aims to inspire Singaporeans to care for and protect our living environment by adopting an environmentally-friendly lifestyle. One of the main activities that is always organised at this time of the year is the planting of trees. The island-wide planting of trees was started in 1963 by the Singapore government with the objective of making Singapore a green city.

Before the entire event started, I was walking around the park and I was quite surprised to see quite a handful of Garcinia tree species were being prepared to planted by various community groups and the guest-of-honour. Garcinia is the genus of plants that the mangosteen belongs to. During my walk, I got to meet up with Mr S. K. Ganesan who is the Assitant Director from the Landscaping and Arboriculture Branch in the Streetscape Division of the National Parks Board (NParks) who was there early in the morning to oversee the preparation and planting of the trees.

Staff from Alexandra Hospital, together with Rosalind (standing, fourth from left), posing for a photograph after planting a mangosteen tree.

I am grateful to Mr Ganesan who spent some time with me to introduce to me the six species of Garcinia trees, namely, true mangosteen (G. mangostana), button mangosteen (G. prainiana), asam gelugor (G. artoviridis), seashore mangosteen (G. hombroniana), G. griffithii and G. eugeniaefolia that he has helped to source for the park. I have learnt alot from him.

The trees that I saw were relatively healthy and this was the first time that I saw with my own eyes the button mangosteen, seashore mangosteen, G. griffithii and G. eugeniaefolia. It was an eye-opener for me. Healthy individuals of these rather slow-growing mangosteen relatives are generally quite hard to come by and I hope the residents living nearby the Taman Jurong Greens Neighbourhood Park will be able to appreciate the presence of these trees in their living environment.

Many thanks to Mr Tan Wee Lee for giving me the permission to use his photograhs on this blog post.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Events, Gardening People in Singapore, Trees, Tropical ornamentals

Tagged ,

Some Thoughts & Interesting Sights at the ShowGarden@South West Competition

Posted on November 21, 2008 | 2 Comments

Since community gardening in the open public spaces was encouraged a few years ago, community gardens in public and private housing estates, schools and various organisations sprouted up like mushrooms. Interestingly, many of such gardens only have senior citizen participants and middle-aged homemakers and there is hardly any youngsters. Many gardens only focussed on the growing of vegetables and are fenced up to prevent vandalism and theft.

During my recent judging session for the shortlisted entries for the ShowGarden @ South West Competition, although I did not see any fenceless gardens, I witnessed things are already changing. The Community in Bloom from the National Parks Board has been advocating in recent years the growing and inclusion of ornamental plants in community gardens.

The butterfly garden at the Taman Jurong Zone D Community Garden is about 6 months old!

For example, Taman Jurong Zone D Community Garden created a butterfly garden in front of the existing vegetable garden. On a fine day, one can see beautiful butterflies dancing among the flowers and the flowering plants that serve as nectar and food plants add much colour to the largely green and monotonous vegetable garden located next to it. The nearby school and child-care centre use the garden as a teaching ground for students. The Taman Jurong Zone D Community Garden has a dual purpose – it educates children how food is produced and children get to learn more about wildlife in the garden. They get to know how caterpillars turn into butterflies.

The Jurong Central Zone G Community Garden is not your typical “Ah Ma and Ah Gong” community garden – it features a fine example of an ornamental and functional kitchen and flower garden.

Jurong Central Zone G Community Garden is another fine example. It is one of the community gardens led by Mdm Kamisah bte Atan who is a Community in Bloom Ambassador. Mdm Kamisah has succeeded in encouraging her elderly community gardeners to grow flowering ornamental plants in their garden. From my experience, it has been an uphill task to get senior citizen gardeners to grow these plants. Many preferred to grow vegetables. Mdm Kamisah also brought her community gardeners to HortPark, the gardening hub by NParks at Hyderabad Road to get inspired and learn more about the beautiful landscaping examples.

The very impressive and colourful planter bed created by elderly community gardeners.

I admire the excellent colour combination featured in one of the planting beds. Kamisah’s community garden creatively combined a varigated version of Devil’s Backbone (Pedilanthus tithymaloides) which is a medicinal herb, together with another medicinal plant, the Bichetii Grass (Chlorophytum bichetii) and other colourful ornamentals such as the False Heather (Cuphea hyssopifolia) and Coleus spp.

A colourful border that welcomes the visitor to the Jurong Central Zone G Community Garden.

Outside the community garden, Kamisah’s fellow gardeners also planted a colourful hedge using the variegated Chinese Croton (Excoecaria cochinchinensis), Kaempferia pulchra and Loropetalum chinese var. rubrum.

The Herb and Spice Garden in Jurong Primary School. They have my favourite fragrant Butterfly Ginger (Hedychium coronarium) grown in there.

Community gardening is also an activity that is undertaken by schools. Jurong Primary School does it in a big way. It has a herb and spice garden that was done in collaboration with NParks, Jurong Central Zone G Resident’s Committee and Ciba Specialty Chemicals. Parent volunteers from the school, members from the Jurong Central Zone G Resident’s Committee and school students come together regularly to maintain the gardens and they also donate some of their herbs to the Chong Hua Free Clinic.

A tall and magnificent specimen of Bixa orellana in the Herb and Spice Garden whose seeds are harvested for annatto.

Recycling is also prominently featured in the gardens of  Jurong Primary School. They used plastic bottles as recycled plant containers where they are all hung up in series to make their trademark hanging gardens.  Jurong Primary School also recently started a butterfly garden.

The Hanging Gardens of Jurong Primary School.

As mentioned earlier, many community gardens in public housing estates tend to focus their efforts and interests into the growing of edible plants that are largely about the same from one garden to another. But there can be exceptions.

Cauliflowers in tropical Singapore grown by  the gardeners of Lay Carnation Community  Garden.

Although it was not the first time for me, I was pleasantly surprised to see cauliflowers being grown in Boon Lay Carnation Community  Garden. Probably due to our hot tropical climate, the size of the cauliflower heads was a little on the smaller side. Afterall, cauliflowers, in general, prefer a cooler climate to grow. The plants are grown under a shelter made out of a fine-meshed net to prevent rain damage.

An umbrella over a pot of rice plants in Boon Lay Carnation Community  Garden.

Community gardeners are usually conscious of the need to prevent mosquito breeding. I was amused by an umbrella that was stuck over a pot of rice plants when I was in Boon Lay Carnation Community  Garden. The gardener there told me the umbrella was used to keep rainwater out of the water-tight ceramic container which used to be salted egg jar so that water accumulation by the jar is reduced. She lamented about the dryish state of her beloved rice plants and the need of water inside the container which rice plants require to grow. The shade provided by the umbrella also reduces sunshine to a substantial extent and rice plants tend to need full, direct sunshine to grow. 

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Events, My Thoughts...

Tagged

Judging for ShowGarden @ South West Competition

Posted on November 19, 2008 | Leave a comment

I had been invited as Founder of Green Culture Singapore by the Southwest Community Development Council to be part of a three-member judging panel to assess the quality of community gardens located in the southwestern district of Singapore. The two other judges are Mrs Rosalind Tan (Chief Judge; from Alexandra Hospital) and Mr Mohd Azmi Shahbudin (Section Head from the Community in Bloom, National Parks Board).

This community garden competition was entitled “ShowGarden @ South West”, is part of the 1,000,000 Native Plants @ South West project. Its objectives of this competition are to recognise and pay tribute to those who have worked to create a green and conducive environment for the enjoyment of all and to heighten the awareness of environmental issues in particular to planting through innovative use of eco-friendly practices and methods.

There are a three types of awards that will be presented to winners. The Model ShowGarden Award is judged on the level of community involvement, quality of the garden, educational and recreational aspects as well as the amount of votes given by the community. Next, the Greenest Garden Award is another award given to the community garden that employs the most environmentally-friendly planting methods in gardening. Finally, the Most Active/Participative Garden Award recognises the community garden with the most number of registered members.

The judging took place on Tuesday and I had to apply for a day leave off from work. It was worth it as I could take my mind off hectic work schedule at the lab. We started work at about 10 am in the morning after a briefing at the JTC Summit. It was a long day ahead for all the judges because we have a total of 8 shortlised community gardens to visit and assess. The Mayor of Southwest CDC, Dr Amy Khor, together with Mr Liak Teng Lit, CEO Alexandra Hospital, were with us during our visit to the various community gardens. 

I was quite surprised when my mother told me I was featured on the papers after I returned home that evening. I did not remember being interviewed by any reporter that day. After flipping to the page where the article that was published on the Shin Ming Daily, I found a group photograph that featured Dr Amy Khor; Chief Judge, Mrs Rosalind Tan and fellow community gardeners that was snapped at the Jurong Central Zone G Community Garden.

Incidentally, this community garden was led by one of our Community in Bloom Ambassadors, Mdm Kamisah bte Atan. It was a small reunion of sorts as I also got to meet up with Mr Richard Ashworth who is also another Community in Bloom Ambassador from Ivory Heights Condomium. He comes to Kamisah’s community gardens regularly to share tips and help around. Later that day, I also got to see Mdm Normala bte Alias, also a Community in Bloom Ambassador, at Kranji Secondary School, which is one of the shortlisted community gardens.

The newspaper article first reported the 1,000,000 Native Plants @ South West project which was an extension of the 100,000 Native Plants @ South West programe that was started in May 2006. The aim of the earlier 3-year project is to reinstate the natural heritage of Singapore through the planting of 100,000 native plants in the South West District. The aims of the newer project that increased the number of native plants to be planted are to engage and connect the community for bonding, reinstate natural heritage and create a conducive environment and the eco-system and to enhance the efforts to mitigate climate change.

The article went on to describe that Dr Amy Khor was there for the judging of the shortlisted entries for the ShowGarden @ South West competition. Dr Khor, who is also a plant-lover, believes that community gardening can be a good platform that gathers likeminded people together and to create and maintain a good community garden requires much self-initiative and advice and encourage from various parties.

In the last part of the article which concluded with an interview with an elderly gardener from the Jurong Central Zone G Community Garden, she revealed that community gardening is a meaningful outlet for retirees like her to use their time fruitfully rather than to while their time away doing nothing.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Events

Tagged

Nice Amaranthus along Orchard Road

Posted on November 17, 2008 | 2 Comments

Most of us are familiar with the Chinese Spinach (Amaranthus tricolor) which is a very common leafy vegetable that is eaten in this part of the world. There are also grain Amaranthus species, such as A. caudatus (quinoa) and A. hypochondriacus that are valued for the seeds that they produce.

Just last week, I received an email (written by Keneric Ng, Plant Information Unit, HortPark) from our local National Parks Board (NParks) that another type of Amaranthus, which is the ornamental version of A. tricolor, was spotted growing wild in the most unexpected place in Singapore. A handful of plants can be seen growing in the soil beds along the roadside in Orchard area! They can be viewed between lamp posts 35 and 37, as well as, along the stretch of road at the turn from Orchard Road into Scotts Road.

Picture courtesy of NParks

Many people would have wondered how on earth these plants came to grow in this peculiar location in Singapore. NParks obviously did not plant them there deliberately. It was suspected that those ornamental amaranthus plants probably rose from seeds that were left behind by plants that were used to adorn Orchard Road during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting that was held two years ago. The seeds probably germinated because more light became available after most streetscape plants were removed during a recent major revamp.

The eye-catching, colourful part of the ornamental amaranthus is, in fact, its leaves. When young, the plant is all green and resembles very much like the common, edible Chinese Spinach. As it grows and matures, the new leaves of the ornamental amaranthus take on new exciting colours, most commonly being red and yellow. The two contrasting colours often occur as random splashes on the leaves.

Picture courtesy of NParks

To some people, the coloured leaves may make the plant look as if it is on fire. The pointed ends of the leaves coupled with the very appropriate colour combination, make them look like the wagging tongues of flames. The plant also looks somewhat like a poinsettia and that has earned the ornamental amaranthus a common name ‘summer poinsettia’. Other common names include the Joseph’s coat and fountain plant.

Interestingly, the ornamental amaranthus plant produces very inconspicuous flowers that appear in turfs between the axils of its leaves. Each flower is really tiny and is only about 1 mm across at most. As such, they can easily be missed!

Picture courtesy of NParks

If you are interested in growing this plant in your home garden, the seeds of the ornamental amaranthus can be conveniently bought from local supermarkets like NTUC Fairprice or Cold Storage and plant nurseries, including HortMart at HortPark (33, Hyderabad Road). 

The plant is pretty easy to grow and very fast-growing. The ornamental amaranthus is said to tolerate poor soils which is essential for it to produce vibrant foliage colours. Direct sunshine and adequate moisture at the roots are also important cultivation factors too.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Tropical ornamentals

Tagged ,

Catching up… GCS Articles for September 2008!

Posted on November 14, 2008 | Leave a comment

After putting up the gardening feature articles for the month of August, I managed to put up another two more this week to make up for what supposed to have been published two months ago in September!

I have always wanted to encourage the growing of temperate herb substitutes that can be planted in tropical Singapore. The first feature article is a new one which I wrote about growing of the Mexican Tarragon, a marigold relative that can be used in place of the French Tarragon. Due to our hot and humid climate in the lowlands, the French Tarragon is quite an impossible plant to grow in Singapore. The Mexican Tarragon is the answer for Singaporeans who want to harvest material that is similar to the French Tarragon for culinary uses.

When I wrote this article, I consulted Richard (userID – Herb Lover), one of the members from the Green Culture Singapore (GCS) discussion forum for some tips on how to grow the Mexican Tarragon. He was the one who introduced me to this plant. Richard picks and infuse leaves in hot water to make a tea which he drinks. 

I have always thought this plant cannot be obtained in Singapore! Besides sharing with me on how to grow the plant, Richard also generously told me the two places in Singapore that one can purchase some plants to grow at home. The information on the two local sources where one can buy the Mexican Tarragon, as well as, some tips on how to grow it are all provided in the feature article below:

 

Growing the French Tarragon Alternative

The French Tarragon, also known as the “true” tarragon, is a culinary herb that has a spicy anise flavour. Because it is a cool-growing plant, Singaporeans who wish to grow a pot of the French Tarragon for culinary purposes will often be disappointed. Under our lowland tropical climate, the French Tarragon plant languishes under heat and humidity, making the attempt not rewarding at all. For those who hope to be able to pick fresh material for cooking, the Mexican Tarragon is one heat-tolerant alternative that can be grown in Singapore quite easily. Read this article written by Wilson to know more.

URL - http://www.greenculturesg.com/articles/sep08/sep08_mexicantarragon.pdf

 

The second article entitled “Celebrating the 4th Birthday for Green Culture Singapore” is one that had been posted on my garden blog in mid-September. I reasoned that that blog post should be turned into a GCS feature article so that members of the GCS discussion forum who are not familiar with my garden blog and/or have not attended our forum gatherings before, can also read and be aware of similar events.

 

Celebrating the 4th Birthday for Green Culture Singapore

 

Green Culture Singapore, a website and discussion forum which was started in 2004, celebrated her 4th birthday on 13 September 2008. The celebration was marked by a gathering similar to those organised in previous years which served to be a time for everyone who was present, to mingle around and catch up with fellow members. Read this article to find out what happened during the gathering.

URL – http://www.greenculturesg.com/articles/sep08/sep08_4thgcsgathering.pdf

→ Leave a comment

Posted in GCS Feature Articles

Tagged ,