The Curious Gardener | Gardening discoveries in Singapore

Spurt of the red flat beans

Posted on May 4, 2014 by CuriousG

Young leaves of the flat red bean plant.

Well, we didn’t get three bean plants after all. The last red flat bean to germinate was a “breech” – it didn’t know which way was up and died of confusion, aided by some hungry insects.

If I were Jack, I’d be happy with this stout, strong beanstalk!

So we have just two Myanmar red flat bean plants currently growing. Since I was highly concerned that snails would snack on them, I opted to grow them in a big pot that formerly housed our loofah plants. The ready trellis was a huge selling point for me.

And here are the plants steadily winding their way upwards.

One of the pair was a much stronger plant. It had a lovely thick stem when it germinated, and grew much faster as well. Since this is a climbing bean, both plants have been happily winding their way up the poles. I reckon they should start flowering within a couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see if their flowers differ from long and winged beans. Stay tuned!

Watermelon defeat

Posted on April 29, 2014 by CuriousG

Here’s the watermelon after it plateaued out. At this point I was hoping it was just taking a breather and would get bigger.

Well, the watermelon plant that showed a second wind was certainly willing, but it couldn’t triumph over the combination of wet weather and mischievous critters.

After the lovely phenomenal growth spurt, the fruit slowed down – probably because the plant didn’t have enough leaves and strength to fully develop the fruit. All I know is, one evening I noticed a yellowish spot on the fruit, that developed a brown spot and some softness in the skin just two days later. Two rainy days after that, I went to check the fruit and found this:

This is a sad but curiously intriguing sight – to me, anyway. I’m guessing this was the work of an insect first, then snails.

Oh well. There will be more plants and I should be a bit wiser to help them along when they grow.

‘Tis lily season

Posted on April 20, 2014 by CuriousG

Our main cluster of Hippeastrum lilies that I planted around the base of our orange Peacock trees.

Every Easter, just like clockwork, our orange Hippeastrum lilies burst into bloom. For this reason, I like to plant them in a clump, because what is more pretty than a whole cluster of blooming flowers?

We love the salmon pink of these flowers! And how they grow as a cluster at the top of each stem.

I don’t know how the flowers sense the season, and I won’t try to understand it; we simply appreciate the timing of the flowers, despite this region not having specific seasonal changes, and know that these lilies mean Easter is around the corner.

Some of the plants are still sprouting. They seem to appreciate the mulch produced by the peacock trees above, which since they produce bean pods, I guess are considered leguminous plants – which equals “good” for compost! I think.

Like all lilies, these flowers grow from bulbs. I transplanted them from a sunnier section of the garden that I wanted for our veggies (and the pumpkins have thrived there!), but despite my best efforts at unearthing all the bulbs, a few new plants have popped up since the transplant. Bulbs can be sneaky that way. I don’t know if they grew from a remnant of roots or from a tiny bulb that I missed.

Another photo of the cluster of lilies just because they look so happy!

I have noted, however, that certain creatures like living around these plants. One in particular creeps me out – the blind snake. It looks like a shiny, long worm, but moves sinuously like a snake. I haven’t taken a photo of it yet because I don’t really want to look at it longer than I need to…

Look! Even the ants like the lilies – well, the pollen, anyway…

In spite of this, I do intend to maintain a few groupings of these lilies. All creatures have their role and place, and should be left to do whatever they were designed to (unless they pose a danger). Besides, we love that they remind us that Easter is around the corner. So, whether you celebrate Easter as a day of bunnies and chocolate eggs, or as a Christian holiday, we’d like to wish you a Happy Easter!

The Collared Kingfisher

Posted on April 17, 2014 by CuriousG

Leave something for birds to perch on, and birds will perch on them! I was lucky to spot this Collared Kingfisher as it began to drizzle late one afternoon.

This seems to be the season for new birds in the garden! We’ve been hearing the call of the kingfisher and assumed that it was the Smyrna kingfisher that we’ve seen several times before. However, I caught sight of a kingfisher as it began to rain, and when I examined the photos, realised it was not our usual visitor!

I discovered that it was the White Collared Kingfisher (Halcyon chloris) and that it is the most common kingfisher in Singapore. They are known to be fiercely territorial to all birds, including other kingfishers, and are possibly the reason why other kingfisher species are in decline now. That isn’t nice news to me because I quite like the Smyrna or White-throated kingfisher. Just look at it below:

What an interesting colour combination of electric blue, teddy bear brown and white!

We shall see how this kingfisher drama plays out.

For older posts on the Smyrna kingfisher, follow this link: the Smyrna Kingfisher

For more information about the Collared kingfisher, visit Ria Tan’s site on Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve.

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