Sunday, March 18, 2012

Sightings at Pulau Ubin

As nature lovers, we're always out in the forest during the weekends. Lately Pulau Ubin, which is a short boat ride away, has been our regular hangout.

We hiked a different route yesterday and came across some interesting flora and fauna. This sprawling hoya plant growing by the mangrove swamp is hard to miss.

The flowers are much smaller than the ones we grow at home. Some of the photos below are taken by my son.


Lizard.

Newly molted cicada.


The baron butterfly's caterpillar.

We spotted three hornbills.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Vegetable patch at HortPark

I was at HortPark yesterday and naturally, I got really excited when I reached the vegetable patch. I took so many photos of the tropical vegetables until my camera battery went flat!

This is the tumeric plant. Tumeric root is used in our Asian cooking.

The tumeric flower is really pretty.

This is a small olive tree. I wish I have one in my garden.

Did you know that your favourite cincau drink is made from the leaves of this plant?


In case you've never seen a groundnut plant, here it is.

The ladys fingers here are so fat, they look quite scary.

A very lush winged bean vine.

Close-up shot of the winged bean flower and fruit.

A bolting kai lan vegetable.

The long bean plant.

It is easy to grow radish in Singapore.

Asparagus grows well here too.

In case you're wondering, only the young shoots of the asparagus plant are edible. Can you see a tiny one emerging from the ground?

Brinjal (eggplant).

A large kangkong patch. If you're new at growing vegetables, start with kangkong. It's almost foolproof.

The sponge gourd vine. The dried ripe fruit is the source of the loofah, the kind you use for scrubbing your body or dishes.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Makeover


My sons have given the garden a makeover. Diseased plants were thrown out. Healthy ones were rearranged. The floor had been scrubbed. The garden feels more spacious now.

There is also a larger shelter for the nepenthes. The area under the netting is perfect for my delicate seedlings.

Mustard green


I've just sown a new batch of mustard green. I didn't plan on growing them. I bought a small pack of mustard seeds to make lentil curry. The seeds looked so fresh, I decided to sow the leftovers. They germinated in 2 days. I can see some true leaves forming already. They can grow into really showy vegetables.