Here’s the Root Awakening column for the second week of Jun 2011 and answers to two gardening questions were given.
The first question was about the ability to grow plants in a lift landing in a HDB apartment block. Unfortunately, there are not many plants that will thrive under the dimly lit conditions commonly encountered. Note that the ceiling fluorescent lights that are turned on at night in HDB corridors are usually not intense enough to support plant growth.
Many plants will deteriorate after some time after being located in such a condition. If it is possible, do a rotation between groups of plants to be displayed in your lift landing. After being displayed for a week or two in the dim lift landing, you can shift them to a brighter place to recuperate. Note that many sun-loving plants will quickly deteriorate when they are placed in the shade, even for short durations.
To grow a plant successfully in a given location would depend on its light requirements. Its leaves need to be exposed to the light rays of either filtered sunlight or direct sunlight for at least for 4 hours daily, as a general rule of thumb. For most apartment dwellers this would involve putting the plants just next to the parapet and raised from the floor so that they can be exposed to sunlight that streams through into the growing area.
The second question was about the existence of anti-mosquito plants. My answer is no. There is no plant that will repel mosquitoes on its own. The range of plants that are reported to possess mosquito-repelling properties do so only after the leaves have been picked and crushed to release the essential oils.
