Exploring Kranji Countryside

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"Welcome to Paradise," was the very first thing farm owner Ivy Singh-Lim greeted us with. I guess Bollywood Veggies is paradise to anyone who loves growing plants. I liked it.

“Welcome to Paradise,” was the very first thing farm owner Ivy Singh-Lim said to us. I guess Bollywood Veggies is paradise to anyone who loves growing plants. I liked it, as apparently did the droves of people who visited the farm.

What better way to start Singapore’s extra-long Jubilee Weekend than with a field trip to Kranji, the country’s farming district? Well, it is, in my book! Going to the Kranji countryside is like going back in time and visiting Singapore in an earlier era. The roads are mostly narrow and winding, bordered by lots of lush green growth. There’s also a good variety of wildlife as it is next to the Sungei Buloh Wetlands park. Drive carefully because you don’t know what may be on the roads. We spotted what was likely a pangolin that had been run over at the edge of the road. :(

All this lush growth lines the way in to the bistro at the entryway to the farm, together with the song of frogs hidden somewhere within.

All this lush growth lines the way in to the bistro at the entryway to the farm, accompanied by the song of frogs hidden somewhere within.

Armed with cameras, wet weather gear and good company, we started out at Bollywood Veggies in the not too early morning. The first matter to attend to was to have brunch at Poison Ivy Bistro. The food was delicious and well presented; and it was well received, too! However, my eyes were continually drawn to the outdoors where I could see ponds and lots of land contouring. My thoughts on this were confirmed when Ivy Singh-Lim, one of the owners of the farm, came around to chat, and mentioned how they harvest and conserve water there. I couldn’t wait to go out and see this in practice as I’ve only read about it or seen videos on it.

The first of the ponds, next to the bistro.

The first of the ponds, next to the bistro. It didn’t feel like we were on mainland Singapore any more…

The weather wasn’t too cooperative, though, as it began to rain while we were still eating. When there was a clap of thunder, a siren went off to warn people out in the farm to get indoors quickly. Singapore has the highest instances of lightning strikes in the world, after all. Why? I haven’t discovered yet. Fortunately, the rain had begun to peter out by the time we had finished eating, and we went exploring in a light drizzle.

Near the entrance of the farm, plants are more on display - laid out neatly and named properly for visitors to see.

Near the entrance of the farm, plants are more on display – laid out neatly and named properly for visitors to see.

One thing to bear in mind when you’re going to traipse around these outdoor places is to have proper footwear. We city-dwellers are used to properly paved paths wherever we go, but out on the farm, tracks are more common – and on a rainy day as we experienced, they were a bit muddy with lots of puddles everywhere. I don’t have anything against that because plants need the water, and at Bollywood Veggies, they certainly know how to harvest rainwater!

Notice how they have made the swales around the rows of plants? Bollywood Veggies has a wide variety of banana plants, so you will see rows and rows of them everywhere.

Notice how they have made the swales around the rows of plants? Bollywood Veggies has a wide variety of banana plants, so you will see rows and rows of them everywhere.

There were swales aplenty that, thanks to the wet weather, were demonstrating just how they worked. Many were flooded in varying degrees and were channeling the water in them around the farm, and in cases where there was sufficient water, into the farm drains that I suspect probably led to the many ponds dotting the property. Ivy mentioned that they had enough water to run the farm for 3-4 months, which is very impressive, considering all the plants they have to maintain.

Banana plants are heavy feeders, and here they have build a compost pile right next to the plant.

Banana plants are heavy feeders, and here they have built a compost pile right next to the plant.

I was of course attracted to plants that I’ve tried growing, and was interested in seeing how they organised the place. There were pumpkins, bananas and beans; flowers and herbs and fruit trees. The farm is quite sprawling, and no thanks to the weather, we did not cover everything. However, it was really nice to just be out amidst all that growth and appreciate all the things they are doing to be ecologically friendly.

Pumpkin plants are also heavy feeders, and here is a very healthy looking plant growing on the side of another compost pile.

Pumpkin plants are also heavy feeders, and here is a very healthy looking plant growing on the side of another compost pile.

Here are some random shots from around Bollywood Veggies…

Nice large arched trellises for winged beans to grow on.

Nice large arched trellises for winged beans to grow on.

Rustic trellis for the Honolulu creeper to climb on. They had several varieties of the flowers, including a white one I had not seen before.

Rustic trellis for the Honolulu creeper to climb on. They had several varieties of the flowers, including a white one I had not seen before.

It was such a wet day that even snails were trying to get off the sodden ground!

It was such a wet day that even snails were trying to get off the sodden ground!

Purple long beans were growing up a shrub that had died but worked as a great trellis.

Purple long beans were growing up a shrub that had died but worked as a great trellis.

I thought this was a little whimsical, set along one of the paths, but there really are ants around the farm, and they bite! So I was told.

I thought this was a little whimsical, set along one of the paths, but there really are ants around the farm, and they bite! So I was told.

The ponds had lots of frog eggs floating on the surface of the water.

The ponds had lots of frog eggs floating on the surface of the water.

There were too many flowers and fruit trees to post here, so here's one I really liked...

There were too many flowers and fruit trees to post here, so here’s one that I really liked….

Interesting mushrooms growing along a bit of log.

Interesting mushrooms growing along a bit of log.

With the weather remaining sporadically wet, we decided to head for an indoor venue at one of the fish farms, followed by a very quick stop at Hay Dairies for a peek at the goats (think overwhelming smell of mutton out in the pens!) and a drink of ice cold fresh goat’s milk. All in all, it had been a satisfying outing where we had seen quite a bit, but know there’s even more to go back for. The bad news is, the farms will only be at Kranji for a couple more years, when their land leases expire. Their fate is still undecided, so we have to make the most of things while they are still there. Are you ready for a road trip without leaving the country? Visit the Kranji Countryside website for more information.

The goats at Hay Dairies.

The goats at Hay Dairies.

© 2015 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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Peanut butter fruits – on the way!

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The first two peanut butter fruits!

The first two peanut butter fruits!

It’s been quite some time since I mentioned the peanut butter fruit plant here because after my first and last post on it, nothing happened. Oh, it did bud and bloom several times, but it didn’t set fruit. So I naturally kept mum about it. (Whenever I stop talking about a plant, it means nothing has happened, or it died…)

Well, you can guess that I’m now talking about it because there’s a good reason – it has taken the next step and has finally set fruit! I noticed last week that there were a couple of possibilities among the flowers that bloomed, but it was only today that I confirmed that there are indeed two fruits growing. They are only going to be the size of cherry tomatoes, and we may have to contend with the ever-present birds to taste them, but I’m looking forward to watching these new (to us) fruits develop.

There are several other spikes of buds, but we’ll see whether they are fruitful too or not.

Up close and personal with the forming peanut butter fruit.

Up close and personal with the forming peanut butter fruit.

For a look at the development of the peanut butter plant, check out my previous post on it (8 months ago – yikes!).

© 2015 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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The Lawn Wars

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Edge of the lawn war zone - see how there's just the one little plant of cow grass and a whole sea of other irritating grasses?

Edge of the lawn war zone – see how there’s just the one little plant of cow grass and a whole sea of other irritating grasses?

I may have mentioned once or thrice how irritated I’ve become with mowing the lawn. Cow grass is fine with me – it has grown in our garden as long as I can remember, and is not to difficult to maintain. However, there are others that I don’t know the identities of, but are both adept at avoiding the blades of the lawn mower and grow prolifically. I’ve found that they have taken over a lot of the garden and grow back within a week, so that I have to cut the grass every week if I want the garden to look domesticated – which I haven’t been able to manage lately. So, I’ve started to wage war against the grasses – and weeds – that have been trying to dominate the garden.

Just over a week after pulling out the grass I don't want, a sea of weeds has sprouted. I wish they were leafy greens instead...

Just over a week after pulling out the grass I don’t want, a sea of weeds has sprouted. I wish they were leafy greens instead…

“War” against a plant means not simply pruning it, but uprooting the entire plant. I know that this will take time because the plants I don’t like have had time to disperse themselves and lots of seeds. Plants like grasses also spread by runners, meaning they send out new stems that can be layered over themselves. So, I’ve been denuding the lawn bit by bit, leaving the cow grass and yanking out the other plants I don’t want.

I have no idea what the other grasses are called. One may be lovegrass. Another may be something called nutgrass. Yet another may be what I’ve seen in an online catalogue as “bunnytail” grass because of the white ball-like structure of seeds. And yet another has horrid, tough runners that run beneath the soil. And all of them, I believe, will be able to regrow from bits of roots left in the soil. So, getting rid of them completely is going to be difficult.

The neighbourhood's vagrant rooster - we never know when he'll decide to drop by, but he certainly loves scratching around the overgrown areas!

The neighbourhood’s vagrant rooster – we never know when he’ll decide to drop by, but he certainly loves scratching around the overgrown areas!

One thing that nature doesn’t like is to have vacant bits of land. If there’s an opportunity, something that can grow in that spot, will grow. So now after removing the bulk of unwanted grasses, I have weeds (also known as plants I don’t want growing there) to contend with. Argh. I’d like one of Geoff Lawton’s chicken tractors with a troop of chickens to scratch up the ground and eat up the weeds and their seeds for a week, then scatter my veggie seeds and let those take over the ground. Instead, I have just normal human power and the sporadic visit from Mr Vagrant Rooster, which aren’t as effective.

The Lawn Wars will continue…

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Anticipating more hot weather

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Adding a layer of mulch around plants helps keep moisture in the soil from evaporating too fast. If the mulch is organic, it will also become food for the plants when it decomposes. Win-win.

Adding a layer of mulch around plants helps keep moisture in the soil from evaporating too fast. If the mulch is organic, it will also become food for the plants when it decomposes. Win-win.

It’s been unseasonably hot in Singapore over the last several weeks, and I’m concerned, because the hotter months – traditionally, anyway – are yet to come. As you know (if you’re a regular here), I’ve been reading up about permaculture. There are lots of things I have yet to share about that, but the thing that I’m thinking about today is how to keep my plants, if possible, naturally watered in our hot climate.

In permaculture, there are several ways to get moisture to plants. One is heavy mulching. I’ve been experimenting with that ever since we discovered the volunteer red spinach plant that sprang up and grew quite well without our knowledge in leaf litter last year. Finding good mulch is the issue. I’ve taken pruned bamboo branches from my neighbour because I read that the leaves contain silica, which is one of the things that plants need. Using grass cuttings means that you’ll probably get grass seeds in that mulch, so I usually compost those unless I’m desperate for mulch material. Heliconia, fruit tree and curry leaves, which we have quite a bit of, aren’t suitable because they’re pretty hard and don’t decompose fast. My current favourite are the leaves from our belimbing tree which are somewhat soft and spongy when they dry up, which is good for soaking up and retaining water. Mulberry plants are also pretty good for chopping and dropping, if you use the newer parts of the stems.

Another permaculture method that intrigues me is the use of swales.

How to make a swale.

How to make a swale.

A swale is generally a low tract of land that is usually moist or marshy. I guess you can consider it a ditch in the landscape that, since it’s the lowest point of land, has the most moisture – because water collects at the lowest point of land. Permaculture practitioners work with the landscape to create swales that slow the drainage of water from the land. Instead of digging a trench to drain away water, a swale usually is angled to delay the flow of water and encourage it to meander across the land, thus giving the water more time to soak into the ground.

We have in our garden an inadvertent swale around a row of palm trees. It wasn’t made by us, but by one of our dogs that has a habit of running around this row of trees when excited. Yes, really. This little trench has been created over the course of a few years and is impressively deep at over a foot or so. The interesting thing about it is that when it rains heavily, a “moat” forms around the trees, and it takes time for the water to drain off because the trench is so well trampled.

The dog-made swale flooded after some heavy rain. Water runs off the driveway into the trench, and collects until it finally soaks into the ground. Since the soil is somewhat compacted, it takes a while to drain away.

The dog-made swale flooded after some heavy rain. Water runs off the driveway into the trench, and collects until it finally soaks into the ground. Since the soil is somewhat compacted, it takes a while to drain away.

I’ve heard about people who practice permaculture who have adopted this practice to harvest rainwater. There are places where people have to get a permit to dig a well or make a dam, and to avoid red tape, they have contoured their land with swales – or in some cases, simple holes – to collect and hold the rainwater near their crops when it rains, which gives the water time to seep into the ground where it’s needed. Isn’t that smart?

Here in Singapore, we have a ready supply of water, but I thought it might be an interesting thing to experiment with some “land contouring”, particularly with the hottest, driest months coming up. I recall my gardening buddy Novice Gardener talking about her young nephew digging little trenches and pouring water in them, but you know, there’s something in that…

I’ve already noted that water, when it rains, tends to drain from the front to the back of the garden, so maybe I’ll experiment a little. What harm could it do?

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