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.

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.

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.

My father's farm

Aside from some herbs, lime, pandan, curry leaves and tomato, I don't have other edibles growing in my patio.However, it's a different scenario at my parent's home. My father is turning into a farmer! When he comes home from work each day, he heads straight to the yard to tend to his plants. I think he's hooked on growing. Every inch of available land is utilised and everything seems to thrive here, from papaya trees to herbs and vegetables.

This is the sweet basil patch.


The passion fruit vine and pumpkin vine are fighting for space on the same trellis.

The sweet potato vine and pumpkin vine are all tangled up together here.

Mum keeps urging me to bring some produce home. I spent the evening harvesting spinach, sweet potato leaves and other vegetables. Well, somebody's got to help eat up all these plants!

Showy balsam

I've never taken the balsam plant seriously. They're one of the easiest plants to grow and will thrive without any attention. I used to find their flowers too delicate and tiny, so I've never paid much attention to it.

Then out of the blue, a balsam plant started growing in my garden. It grew into a lush plant with beautiful green serrated leaves. Slowly, buds formed and turned into pretty rose-like flowers. I thought they weren't going to hang around for very long.

To my surprise and delight, the seemingly delicate flowers do not fall off or wither quickly. In fact, they're going strong for weeks now. And new buds burst into fresh flowers everyday.

In fact, the entire plant is covered with red blooms. Whenever I look out into the patio, I see this gorgeous plant with more flowers than leaves.

I have grown to love the balsam plant now.

Cooking with herbs

I'm beginning to use home grown herbs in my cooking. I make a delicious salad dressing using majoram. Simply stir minced majoram and garlic with cider vinegar, mustard and olive oil. Flavour with pinch of salt and ground black pepper. It works with any salad really.

When I'm making pasta sauce, I often throw in a handful of sage, tarragon and majoram to give it an added kick.

Picking leaves from the herbs helps encourage growth too.