Gardening with Wilson

Valentine’s Day which fell on last Saturday was a memorable day. Although I did a gardening talk at HortPark that afternoon, it was not like the past ones I delivered previously. Thanks to Richmond, both my friend and moderator from my Green Culture Singapore discussion forum, who had helped me to snap the following photos that appeared in this blog, showed me donning on the National Parks Board (NParks) polo t-shirt. The talk that was entitled “Grow your own sweet heart” was one that was given by me in the capacity as an NParks staff member. 

The response of the talk observed last Saturday was an overwhelming one. I was told that over 70 people signed up for the talk and although there was a massive traffic jam that occurred during the afternoon, over 50 people managed to turn up in the end. Many of them were my gardening friends who came all the way to HortPark to support me. I must thank Kamisah for sharing with me her delicious homemade desserts. I was and still feel very touched now.

I am indebted to my forum members who have helped me in various ways to make this talk on the sweet heart hoya (Hoya kerrii) and other hoyas possible and interesting. Maggie lent me her sweet heart hoya plant which she grew from leaf cuttings she bought. Gan allowed me to use the pictures he took when his sweet heart hoya flowered. Lily  granted me her kind permission for me to use some of her pictures of hoya plants.

My fellow NParks colleagues also extended their helping hands as well. Cheow Kheng kindly provided new and nicely made Community in Bloom bookmarks which were distributed to the talk’s participants. Shirley helped by bringing them to my talk. My colleague from my team, Jin Hong, thought of new ways of painting sweet heart hoya leaves where she also shared them with my audience who attended the talk. My own colleagues from my section and the HortPark events branch had also put in a lot of effort to ensure the talk was carried out smoothly. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw my boss, Kartini, turned up at the Fruit Room to listen to my talk despite having just returned from a long working trip. Many, many thanks! 

After my talk, I went on to conduct my first guided tour of the Lifestyle Corner in HortPark which I have recently taken over its charge. My colleagues and I rushed over the course of the week to do up the place to ensure that its decor was realistic and one that the layman can easily replicate at home. This was my first attempt to decorate the Lifestyle Corner and I have to admit that it was a daunting task! I encountered quite a large number of difficulties during the process. Now I know what my predecessor had experienced. I can still recall how critical I was with the work he did earlier for the Lifestyle Corner. I feel so bad now.

If one had been observant, at the entrance of the Lifestyle Corner, we showcased a heart that was made from cutting out and bending wire meshes by one of my very creative colleagues, Lin Htet. In the showflat, a dozen of pots of Parade miniature roses formed part of the Valentine’s Day display. Parade roses, available in a handful of colours, are relatively heat-tolerant series from Holland that Singaporeans can try to grow in their homes if they have good light at home.

I hope those of you who took part in the tour find it useful and enriching. I welcome any feedback to help us improve.

The first day of the Lunar New Year, to most Chinese, is the day that is reserved for visiting one’s close relatives. For my family, we gathered at our eldest Aunt’s place for a Lunar New Year lunch at Geylang Bahru. My paternal extended family all once lived there and it was the place where I grew up. I attended the kindergarten nearby and had my primary school education there. Now, it is only my Eldest Aunt who is still living there and being able to visit the place where I grew up brought back a lot of fond memories.

I moved out of Geylang Bahru in 1995 and 14 years have elapsed and the place has changed so much. It underwent upgrading and an extensive face-lift that rendered the entire environment that is almost foreign to me now. The playground with a sandpit where I used to play in has disappeared and the area that used to house it has been turned into a miniature park that was lush with greenery. I saw a lot of golden penda (Xanthostemon chrysanthus) and black olive (Terminalia molineti) trees being planted in this park, which were popular landscape trees a few years ago.

I was quite happy to note that during the entire upgrading project, the Kolam Ayer Town Council did not remove some of the trees that were planted in the area. I was happy to see the two yellow flame trees (Peltophorum pterocarpum) that saw me grow up are still growing so healthily between Blocks 55 and 56!

The Yellow Flame trees have grown so tall that their canopies have now overshadowed the windows of the 5th floor unit where I used to live in Block 56! The full length windows that my old apartment used to have allowed much direct sunshine into the grow area where I used to grow edible plants that love the sun so much. I guess that is no longer possible right now since the trees have grown so tall that they block off the much needed sunshine!

The Kallang River located just next to the point apartment blocks had also been transformed into an idyllic riverside park. Both sides of the river have been intensely planted which are totally different from the boring concrete riverbanks seen in the past.

The project that transformed the Kallang River banks is an ABC (Active, Beautiful and Clean) waters programme spearheaded by the Public Utilities Board (PUB). The name given to this new riverside park is the Kolam Ayer ABC Waterfront. The transformation took place in April 2008, which was just barely a year ago!

The Kolam Ayer ABC Waterfront is part of the Park Connectors Network which is under the care of the National Parks Board (NParks). I really enjoyed my time walking along the length of the Kallang River whilst enjoying the trees and lush greenery that was planted along the path. At various intervals, there were extended platforms that allow one to get near the water that was flowing in the river.

Along the path, one can see dense but creative mixed planting which involved numerous specimens of the weeping tea tree (Leptospermum brachyandrum) and black olive (Terminalia molineti) trees together with colonies of lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus), aromatic pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius),  Calathea lutea, purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’) and both the green and variegated forms of the Spanish reed (Arundo donax).

The usage of the purple fountain grass and both the green and variegated forms of the Spanish reed was particularly extensive and are planted on two sides of the walking path. Both plants with their grassy foliage tend to give one the impression of walking in the ‘wilderness’.

Near the middle of the park, one can get to see two interesting gadgets that enable one to interact with water. One is the waterwheel which harness the kinetic energy of flowing water to do work. There is a chair that was placed ahead of the wheel where one can exercise his/her legs to drive the peddles to work against the resistance of moving water.

Near the water wheel are three Archimenes screws which can be used to bring water up onto the river bank for irrigation purposes. There is a steering wheel-like device where one can turn to channel water up from the river. As the name of this device suggests, it is the creation of the famous mathematician, Archimenes. One can use it to enlighten our kids about his immense contribution to mankind.

Further down the path, one will encounter a bridge-like structure that is very much like a boardwalk we encounter at Changi beach, albeit on a smaller scale! From one side of the riverbank, two rigid bridges extend outwards into the river and are connected to a  floating deck that will rise and fall according to the tides. Like what its signboard says, it is really an ideal venue for morning exercises and holding functions on a fair and cool day.

As one reaches near the end of the Kolam Ayer ABC Waterfront, he/she will encounter the Kolam Ayer Bridge which one can walk across to enjoy the greenery that is planted on the opposide river bank.

Besides growing plants for greenery and aesthetic purposes, they also offer shelter for the different types of wildlife that live in the riverside environment. Thoughtfully selected plants are grown in some parts via a series of terraces that extend downards the slope of the river bank. As high tide commences, the water level rises, and as it recedes thenafter, some of the waterborne pollutants get filtered away by the soil beds held by the terraces. Cleaner water is then returned back into the river.

Another interesting point to note about the planting is that riparian plants are chosen for planting along the river banks of Kallang River, which is one of the rivers in a network that channels water into the Marina Reservoir. Riparian plants, as mentioned on a signboard, is a group of plants that are able to tolerate periods of flooding that is brought about by the rise and fall of tides.

They are used to prevent erosion of soil from the riverbank, as well as, for the authorities to access the change from of water conditions from one that is brackish to freshwater with the progress of the formation of the Marina Reservoir. The presence of plants along the riverbank also help with the cleansing and filtration of river water that will feed the reservoir. In addition, the use of riparian plants also confer a more naturalistic look to the riverside landscape. One very common plant that was used along the Kolam Ayer ABC Waterfront was the beach morning glory (Ipomoea pes-carprae).

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.

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.

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. 

Since the community garden at Serangoon North was started two years ago, I have spotted a couple of occasions that people have helped themselves to the leaves of the banana plants that were planted in the garden. The banana plants are planted in a narrow strip of land that is located just next to the seating area of the basketbal court and that provided easy access to people who want to take a leaf or two for their own use.

Banana leaves are not cheaply sold in the local wet market. A short section costs a dollar plus and people use them as receptacles for their nasi lemak and other cooking uses as well as to serve as a base for ironing their clothes. It is generally alright if people harvest a leaf on their own but I would definitely prefer them to ask for permission before taking. My fellow community gardeners and I would glady cut one leaf down for them to take home. 

However, one of the bad habits that these people has is that they only harvest the newly unfurled leaves and what’s more, whenever they snip a leaf, they do so by cutting them into half and leave the other half attached via its petiole to the plant. This is extremely unsightly and has pissed me off many times. Why can’t they just cut the entire leaf???

One of the bananas grown in front of the garden that suffered a bad hair cut. Luckily, it regenerated a new leaf quickly enough.

What horrified me recently was that someone discriminately and greedily harvested quite a lot of leaves from a few of my banana plants that have been planted right in front of the garden. I intended to grow them up as specimen plants to front the entrance of the community garden and this thief simply ruined the look. This happened on Deepavali and the person took a large number leaves from three of the four plants grown at the entrance.

A banana plant that had half of its leaves trimmed off. It looked worse earlier because I have tidied the plant abit before taking this picture.

I thought that would be the last time for now. Just yesterday when I was doing some planting in the garden, a fellow resident pointed to me that the banana plants grown along the long narrow strip were also not spared. The thief did the same thing and what was worse this time was that all the leaves were taken from one side, leaving my plants looking really wierd.

Filled with anger and frustration, I pondered whether I should just exterminate the entire banana plantation in my community garden. My garden is one that is open to the public and there is nothing really I can do to prevent such incidents. Such actions really destroy the look of my community garden’s landscape and the overharvesting of leaves from banana plants can actually weaken them in the long term. 

When would Singaporeans learn to ask for permission before taking something from someone’s garden?

Twenty plus years. The exact length of time is something that I have lost count because I cannot remember when I exactly started to garden avidly. For more than two decades, I have been hoping for a private space that is in the boundary of my adobe to do gardening.

For an apartment dweller like me, I can only think of having a garden in a balcony. Although I have moved house two times in my life, both apartments did not have a conducive balcony. Although the second and current apartment that I lived in at Serangoon North has a balcony, the wierd thing about it was that the balcony was built inside the lift lobby! Although now I have a community garden, I still very much wanted a balcony or at least a sun-lit corridor where I can grow something near home.

My parents declared in an unexpected occasion this April that they wanted to shift out of the current apartment for a change in our living environment. After a few month’s worth of search, we finally decided to buy and move to a maisonnette apartment near Hougang Central.

We just got the keys to the apartment only yesterday after the final bits of paperwork had been completed. My family and I, brought along my dog to our new apartment to take a closer look at it and also to discuss the renovations that need to be undertaken to refurbish it. The gardening part of me kicked in and I went to survey the possible gardening areas’ availability of light and space.

The balcony of a typical maisonnette apartment in Singapore is unique among other publicly-built apartments. Because the apartment is a two-storeyed one, the balcony has a high ceiling that allows much natural light to stream into it. My balcony faces North and as a result, it would probably be receiving some direct sunshine only during the April to August period each year.

With this type of lighting conditions in mind, the types of plants that are suitable would be shade-loving ones like flame violets, prayer plants, gingers (such as my present favourite – Costus or Spiral Gingers), ferns and related allies, shade-loving orchids and palms. I intend to have a small round garden table in the balcony as well, so that my family can relax in a lush, tropical paradise.

The only places that I will have direct sunshine would be my bedroom and the stair-landings located just outside my apartment. The two areas will be receiving direct morning sunshine all year round as they face directly eastwards.

The thought in many people that their bedrooms will be receiving direct sunshine is a disaster to them because the room will be expected to heat up to a high temperature during the daytime, which can get quite unbearable and uncomfortable. I thought little of that because for five days a week and sometimes six, I would have departed home for school (and soon, work) or gardening very early in the day.  I told my parents to build a low, long row of cupboards along the window so that the top part of the cupboard can serve as a ledge where I can grow some smaller plants.

The two stair-landings located just outside my apartment also faced east and fortunately, they have not been occupied by anyone. I have been told by my new neighbours that this staircase located at the end of our corridor is hardly used. I thought of constructing some metal racks where I can line the along the ledge some pots where I can now grow various edible plants or any other sun-loving plants. 

It is now time to brainstorm for the design to be adopted for my balcony as well as what are types of plants that I must have. I must also go get a contractor to take the measurements of metal racks I want to have at the stair-landings. My dream has finally come true and the new gardening era for me has just began.

Today, I got to enjoy yet another long Saturday worth of gardening-related activities. Although I yearned for more rest at home due to the fatigue caused a past week’s worth of issues and hectic work at the lab, by attending events that take place during the weekend do help me to relieve my mind thoughts and worries that are related to work.

It started out with a kind invitation from Mr Victor Lee (who is Vice-President) to the Singapore Gardening Society’s Annual General Meeting Lunch at the RELC Hotel. Besides the good food, the session was a fruitful one as I got to meet up with some friends who I can seldom meet. It was indeed a good opportunity to have been able to catch up with them as well. I felt honoured to have been invited.

Later in the afternoon, I adjourned to Woodlands Regional Library to attend Cindy’s gardening sharing session with Rosalind (our famous Madame Butterfly from Alexandra Hospital), her friend, Lucy and my good friend, Cheow Kheng. I opened the session to spread the awareness of the upcoming Singapore Garden Festival, the Green Culture Singapore website and discussion forum as well as the existence of this blog. This was followed by a short introduction of who Cindy is to the audience.

Cindy’s talk today focussed on tropical pitcher plants that belong to the genus Nepenthes. Carnivorous plants like the tropical pitcher plants have always been attracting a lot of attention from Singaporeans, especially children, and I was not surprised by the overwhelming crowd that completely filled the little glass-walled function room where the sharing session was conducted.

It was heartening to see many GCS members who were present in the hall. Notably, Joseph, a former veteran pitcher plant grower, also a member of the GCS forum, who brought along some tropical pitcher plant seeds to share with the audience all the way from Clementi despite his busy weekend schedule. I admired his readiness to help as I witnessed him helping the library staff to lay our more chairs at the back of the room so that there are more seats for the audience who just walked into the room. I also got to meet up with Limei, who is already a member since the early days of GCS.

After Cindy’s talk ended, one member, Bill, who was accompanied by his wife, approached me to show me a picture taken using their digital camera, which showed a very healthy and large tropical pitcher plant grown inside a hanging basket. Bill told me that this plant was originally a small plantlet that was given away as a first prize during the GCS gathering that took place in March last year. Indeed, Bill has taken good care of his plant and with that plant, it also sparked his interest to grow more pitcher plants. A couple of other pictures showed more pots of pitcher plants, which were his evidence to show how their tropical pitcher plant interest has grown.

What I have witnessed this afternoon was a wish that had been materialised. The gardening forum I have set up almost four years back has served its purpose as a platform to allow enthusiasts to share their gardening experiences as well as one that helps novices to start their hobby. There, friendships are also forged which will help gardening more enjoyable with the company of fellow like-minded friends. Gardening talks that were a result from GCS’ collaboration with Community in Bloom and the National Library Board had helped to cultivate Singaporeans’ interest in gardening. I am very grateful to GCS members who have volunteered to come forward to share their gardening experiences in these talks.

One phrase that I noticed Cindy had repeatedly used during her talk was “Wilson’s forum”, which referred to the GCS discussion forum. I would hope one day, members and moderators alike will say that the GCS discussion forum is “our forum” instead of “Wilson’s forum”. Although it was set up by me, the GCS discussion forum had been sustained and made purposeful by the active participation and generous contribution from fellow members. The success of GCS is made possible only through the avid support from all our members.

For quite some time, I was not able to tell what was being grown inside a trough. The plants in there were grown by one of my community gardeners. It appears grassy and when the hollow leaves were injured, they emited an onion-like odour. That pointed me that it could be a species of Allium. Interestingly, the leaves are not round in cross-section! They seem to be flatter on one side.

However, I thought it was a failed attempt to grow plants from the Allium genus as many are known not to thrive under our tropical climate. The plants never grew too tall and most of the time, the leaves never stood erect. The diameter of the leaves also never grew thicker as well. Neither did the plant appear to increase in clump size. All such observations seem to suggest it is a stunted Allium.

In the morning two days ago, I was surprised to see a recently harvested bunch of onion-like plants placed at one corner of the washing area in my community garden. I asked what it was and my community gardener who grew it told me its Chinese name, which was called “乔头” (qiao tou). The bulbs were white and small; they were about 3 cm in diameter and each plant has several bulbs clustered at the base.

I did some research on this Allium plant and found its botanical name, which is Allium chinese. From the PROSEA database, this plant is documented to be native to central and eastern China and is widely grown in China and Japan and to a limited extent in South-East Asia. It is known by its English name as “Rakkyo”, which sounds more like Japanese to me.

I also now recall that these are the white little bulbs that are sold in the supermarkets as pickles! Surprisingly, also documented in the PROSEA database, this plant has important medicinal properties, the bulbs are of interest in the prevention of thrombosis. They are used for the treatment of heart failures in Chinese medicine. Rakkyo is also used against fever, stomachache and eye infections.

The plants do not produce seeds and are propagated by bulb division. When I asked where my community gardener got the plant, she told me she bought it from Cameron Highlands in Malaysia many, many years ago.  To ensure a continuous crop, she divides several small bulbs from an uprooted clump and then plants them singly into the trough of soil again. Several small bulbs will be obtained from each of these bulbs that were planted.

I have finished my second Mandarin talk this year just now at the Geylang East Community Library. The crowd was satisfactory only maybe because it was not widely publicised. I guess after much practice of using my much unused Mother Tongue lately, using it for the presentation is now a lot more fluent for me. The presentation of the gardening session went relatively smoothly.

The presentation slides I did were mostly pictorial fearing that the library computer may not have Chinese language support. The sharing session ended right on the dot as well.

However, after the sharing session just now, I somewhat do not feel good about it. Usually after every successful sharing session, I tend to feel elated, if not, gratified, to have been able to dispense knowledge to help others in the gardening hobby.

Thanks to Shirley who has helped me to take some photographs during the session but I noticed something strange about myself as well – I keep having audience to face my back… Hmm… That’s wierd!

I still feel somewhat not too used to using Mandarin as the language to present my talk. One thing I noticed I could not really express myself as well compared with if I were allowed to use English. The sharing session just now appeared to be a little monotonous. It could have also be the topics that were being discussed as they are mostly technicalities that are required for starting a garden, such as how to choose a good location and steps to build a raised bed for vegetable gardening.

My English talks tend to be a little more lively with jokes from my personal gardening experiences that often perk up the crowd in the mostly an hour long sharing sessions. A friend of mine suggested me to use our local colloquial language, Singlish, which is a fusion of English, Mandarin and even dialect for my talk but I refrained as that may confer an unprofessional image to my audience.

I guess perfection comes with more and more practice. I just hope my Chinese audience give me some time and room to improve so that I can make my future sessions more lively and interesting.