Rain... Rain... Rain... Finally, there was some sunshine!

The torrential rainstorms over the earlier part of this week wrecked much havoc for many Singaporeans. Trees were uprooted, nurseries along Thomson Road were flooded and many of my gardening friends who grew airplants in the outdoors were lamenting that their plants would rot if the rains were to continue.

I was worried sick about my vegetables and herbs that were planted at my open community garden. With the torrential and relentless rain, I reckoned, nothing would really survive. What's more - there is really nothing much you can do! I was told by my community gardeners that all my fruiting vegetable plants were lying flat on the ground due to the sheer weight of their soaked foliage during this time. I was praying hard that the rains would stop...

I woke up this early morning, feeling elated, as I was greeted by the much welcomed sun rays that shone through the windows. I hope this fair weather would persist for the next couple of days although the weatherman had already forecasted that wet weather is to be expected until the end of this week.

I rushed down to the community garden to take a look at my plants. The first thing I did was to check those plots that were recently ploughed to prepare for a new crop of Chinese cabbage. Sadly, many seeds that had been sown in them were washed by the rains. The soil was compacted and those seedlings that germinated did not really survive the floods:



Organic material was also washed away since they float to the surface when the plot was flooded during the rainstorm. The drainage could not cope with the huge volume of water that rained down.

Taking a closer look at the Chinese cabbage seedlings:



That was the fate of unprotected plots. Some of the plots with protective tents made from agricultural fleece and bamboo poles did not suffer as much from the rainstorm. It is perhaps time to construct more!



Take a look at the rainclouds congregating in the skies just outside my window at 11 am. No more rainstorms please!

Fatal Mistake?

It was such a crazy time during the Singapore Garden Festival that I can hardly find time to update this blog. I will try to post up the pictures and thoughts related to the event later on...

When it is late in the day and when one is tired, it is best not to perform any vital operation, which I did. I forgot to do something so vital - to fill up the pitchers of my Nepenthes after potting them up! Look at the pic below - all the dried up pitchers which have been cut from the plants... We must not leave the pitchers empty and to prevent them from drying up, we need to fill them to a level that is halfway of a pitcher!



I bought three more pitcher plants on the first day of the Singapre Garden Festival. The very reasonably priced baby plants arrived at the NParks Plant Shop early in the morning and were quickly snapped up by eager aunties and enthusiastic youngsters from GCS. The three plants I got were - top left, N. ventricosa; bottom left, N. muluensis x lowii and bottom right, N. truncata. Pardon me for the fuzzy picture. The blur was brought about by the high humidity which caused the walls of the tank to fog up.



The Nepenthes ventricosa I got has the largest pitchers to date!

Nepenthes muluensis x lowii is a highland plant. Bought it as it has dark red pitchers and wanted to gamble on it to see if it can be grown in my light garden where the temperature is always below 30 deg C. Once it shows any signs of deterioration, I will bring it to my lab's pantry where the environment is air-conditioned. I am not optimistic though.

Nepenthes truncata is an odd one out of the ones I got. The leaves of this plant are roughly heart-shaped as pointed out by Cindy. It is a slow-growing plant though. Unfortunately, I accidentally torn one of the pitchers while potting it up... Argh! How clumsy!

Crazy farmer pots up his carnivorous plants at the crazy hour

I have gotten my itchy hands to grow something different again. This time, it is some pitcher plants that I got from a group order from Borneo Exotics, which took place in my forum, Green Culture Singapore.

Yesterday was a busy day filled with madness for me but I forced myself to take some time off from my sleep to pot up the three bare-rooted (naked!) plants up. It was 2 am in the morning when I started planting the already-asleep-pitcher-plants. I hope I did not wake these babies up! The plants were planted inside a perlite base and with some wet sphagnum moss on the surface.

Three different species of pitcher plants I ordered are shown in the picture below - the leftmost is N. macrovulgaris, the plant in the center is N. albo-marginata and the plant at the bottom is N. bellii. They look really cute, don't they? How I wish they stay at this size forever!



Nepenthes, as we all know, will grow a lot bigger than the sizes you shave just seen inside my terrarium. That will take some time as they will need to establish themselves first.

Jason and Justin (young members from GCS) had their fluorescent tube set-up where they grew pitcher plants featured in the papers recently. I believe the trio above will not die on me since there is a already success story - I ought to find out more and learn from the duo.

At present, I felt the light intensity of my set-up isn't sufficient. Will keep all of you updated on how the plants are faring. Hope they do not die on me!

From a patch of grass into a community garden...

Early this October, my wish to be able to grow edibles in a patch of land near my home was granted. Apartment gardeners living in the newer estates like me hardly have the space and the most essential element, light, to be able to grow anything decent!

I must thank all the people who have given their support, which include my Advisor (Mrs Lim Hwee Hua), my Resident's Committee (Serangoon Zone 6), National Parks Board (Community in Bloom) and Aljunied Town Council was instrumental for all this to happen.

Now, I have the chance to lead a group of residents in this venture to showcase to the residents here how herbs and vegetables are grown, especially to the young ones who could have never seen how food is produced! It is also a good opportunity for me to interact with my fellow residents, especially the many senior citizens who are better farmers than me whom I have lots to learn from!

I was tasked to choose a site and to draw up a plan... I was given very little time, roughly about a month . The date of the launch of this garden was scheduled on 5 Nov 06 so as to coincide with the Clean and Green week.

Let's go for a chronological journey of how this community garden at Serangoon North appeared from ground zero...


This was how the original site looks - a field of green grass located just behind the spectators' gallery of a basketball court.


Construction commenced. The first thing that was done was to mark out the boundary of the garden.


Skipping the intermediate steps... The drain on the right had a dual purpose - it acted as both a retaining wall to prevent erosion as well as a means to channel heavy run-off away from the growing beds during a rain storm. Note that the terrian is inclined at an angle.


The front part of the garden designated for the growing of herbs and spices - the brick borders for the raised beds have been painstakingly built by the workers. Great work. The central circular patch is designated to be the spot where the Guest of Honour will be planting a small ornamental tree, Yellow Bells (Tecoma stans).


The rectangular raised beds located just behind the herb and spice garden meant for the growing of vegetables and herbs.


Soil was added into the raised beds and black compost was added as a soil conditioner (courtesy NParks). This was the final stage of construction. The hedge consisting of Eugenia oleana was also ready. This stage was roughly one week before the launch.


The medicinal herb garden was planted just two days before the launch. A million thanks to Margaret and William who have taken their precious time off to come to the garden to help with the planting. Without their effort, the garden won't be possible!

Welcome to my Garden Blog!

Hi All,

I felt it is time that I start a blog to share all the farming and gardening that I do. Pardon me for the lack of flowery English as my grasp of the language isn't that good. But I will compensate that using as many pictures as I can to tell you the story. A picture tells a thousand words.

On this blog, you will see the various "farming" activities that take place in the community garden conceptualised by me. In addition to that, you will also witness the other facet of gardening I do - apartment gardening. If I drop by any nursery or garden, I will also share with all of you the interesting stuff that I saw along the way!

Wilson Wong