Starting out with the custard apple plant

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The custard apple plant grew steadily when it was first placed out in the garden. Surprisingly, it has not taken root through the container yet.

The custard apple plant grew steadily when it was first placed out in the garden. Surprisingly, it has not taken root through the container yet.

A friend gave me some custard apple seeds last year because she had eaten the fruit and found it so delicious that she HAD to save the seeds and share them. I admit I wasn’t too sure whether I wanted to grow the custard apple, but because I love growing plants from seeds, I sowed a couple anyway. Only one germinated, and when it grew a few sets of true leaves, I put it in a medium container and set it out in the garden.

It looks like an incey-wincey worm but this is just the stem of the custard apple sprout before the head emerged.

It looks like an incey-wincey worm but this is just the stem of the custard apple sprout before the head emerged.

I first placed it in a protected corner between a trellis and some bushy plants that started intruding into its space. However, it seemed to appreciate the spot, and even branched out, growing a secondary stem. I thought it would do better with more space, so I moved it away from the other plants to get more sunshine. What happened next? Because it was now exposed, the leaves were attacked by beetles and/or grasshoppers, and it was stripped bare. I was disappointed and stuck it back in the original corner where I would not see the bare stems and feel depressed. However, because plants are so tenacious, it grew new leaves and recovered! I have left it in that spot since it seems to like it, and thought that would be it for a while because it’s not growing all that fast.

And here's the little star of this post - the miniature custard apple fruit. It's adorable!

And here’s the little star of this post – the miniature custard apple fruit. It’s adorable!

Well, when I was pruning the plants around it this week, I had the shock of my life, because there was a tiny custard apple dangling off one of the stems! I don’t know if it will grow to maturity, but it’s the cutest little thing! If it does make it to harvest, I’ve read that it will be a wait of 20 to 25 weeks.

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Return of the wayward rooster

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The wayward rooster was not too pleased that I interrupted his search through the leaf debris on the shed roof...

The wayward rooster was not too pleased that I interrupted his search through the leaf debris on the shed roof…

The neighbourhood rooster – wherever he hails from – has discovered the joys of our “back to nature” garden. He chose to “help” us clear the roof of a little shed that has an accumulation of leaf debris on it, then he discovered his “nirvana” – a big heap of compost. When he was done, part of the heap had been spread out into multi-tiered terraces, and in one case, a bowl-like circle. I guess he really enjoyed digging around!

I don’t mind that he did this. In fact, I’ve heard about a commercial composting outfit in the US that makes use of chickens in their composting process:

Apart from the compost heap, Mr Rooster has also expressed interest in the commercially-bought compost. I know this because I had put a layer of it around the base of the papaya tree, and the following day, it was scattered and dug up. Unfortunately, that was before we saw the rooster, and our dogs got the blame for that, as usual. :D

See where the rooster scratched his way through the compost heap?

See where the rooster scratched his way through the compost heap?

There was also one afternoon that he spent here. He had been foraging near the compost pile before it started raining; and then we were quite amused to see him strolling around through a raging thunderstorm while all of us took shelter indoors. Yes, he seemed at ease in the pouring rain, only pausing for brief shelter under plants occasionally. Then, when the rain stopped, he perched atop the garden swing to dry off.

I would have thought that he would come back the next day, but he hasn’t survived this long without reason – he’s somewhere around, maybe even in his home (we still don’t know if he belongs to someone or is an escapee). We hear him, sometimes to the left, other times to the right; sometimes near, other times in the distance. I guess we aren’t the only ones who get to enjoy the sight of him.

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Saving a root-bound papaya plant

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It was so promising a year ago when I transplanted this into the second, bigger pot...

It was so promising a year ago when I transplanted this into the second, bigger pot…

I know that it’s been over a year that I happily proclaimed how I had successfully grown a Red Lady papaya plant from a stem cutting (read that post here). At the end of that particular event, the cutting in question had been growing in a small container. True to form, I left that plant in that small pot for a few months before I finally transplanted it to a bigger container; and still true to form, that plant remained in that bigger container for way too long – it got root bound, and the growing tip grew smaller and shorter until I frantically realised I was likely to lose the plant very soon.

This was as deep as I could plant the papaya plant.

This was as deep as I could plant the papaya plant.

So, during the long Chinese New Year weekend where I told you I caught up with several of my long overdue gardening tasks, I finally planted out that papaya plant. Since I now know that the stem, like the tomato plant, will grow more roots given the opportunity, I dug as deep a hole as I could for the almost one metre tall plant – in this case, almost half a metre deep because that was where I hit hard clay. I wanted the plant to have as much new root growth possible so that it will hopefully be stronger. As we all know, root bound plants are stunted because their roots have reached the boundary of the containers and grow in tightening circles because they have nowhere else to go. I figured new roots would equal better growth – at least I hope so!

Prior to digging the hole, I watered the plant’s roots with a strong concoction of seaweed solution, because that helps plants to cope with transplant shock. It was also a rather hot day, and I wanted to give the plant as many advantages as possible, since I’d shortchanged it for so long. It absorbed its drink while I prepared the hole, and seemed happy enough when I plopped it into its new home in the garden. I had also poured about two litres of water into the hole beforehand to let the water soak into the soil – a nifty trick I learned from watching some BBC gardening shows.

After planting it out, the stem looked quite thin and fragile to me. I wish I could have buried more of the plant...

After planting it out, the stem looked quite thin and fragile to me. I wish I could have buried more of the plant…

When I backfilled the hole, I left a bit of a dip around the stem of the plant so that when I water it, it will retain the water around the stem where it will soak down to the roots instead of running off where it isn’t needed as much – also another trick I’ve learned recently from my forays into the world of permaculture. If I really wanted to keep the area around the plant moist, I could have added a good layer of mulch. However, papaya trees don’t enjoy wet soil, and I certainly did not want to risk making the stem below ground rot away!

The latest flower buds look promising...

The latest flower buds look promising…

In the fortnight after the transplant, I was careful to water the plant only when the top inch of soil was completely dry. Finally, new leaves began to grow – bigger, healthier leaves. There were also some tiny flower buds at the leaf junctures, but they were really small, and all aborted. However, like the leaves, they have been increasing in size, and finally look normal. I think they will start blooming very soon! It will be wonderful if it starts bearing fruits, because this is grown from F1 seed, which you can’t propagate from seeds as they won’t be true to the parents. That’s the downside of using commercial seeds. So it’s nice that we managed to propagate this from the previous plant as it should continue growing the same way. Besides that, this is a hermaphrodite plant, so we don’t need to worry about pollination. Yay!

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Nature vs nurture: the gardener’s choices

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We have a neighbour who loves gardening. Their garden is beautifully manicured and neat, and I know, a joy to them. There are lots of colourful flowers and ornamentals, as well as a few edible plants. I guess it suits their wants and needs.

So it must pain them to look at our garden and see how “unkempt” it is, by their standards, with the freely growing (most of the time) plants and messy compost piles. As a matter of fact, we had a visitor a month or so back who commented that if ours was his garden, it would “be beautiful”.

Beauty is of course dependant on your definition of it. Manicured gardens are definitely pleasing to the eye, but less tidy gardens have their charm, too. Part of my way of doing things is to just let plants do their thing and observe what they do, and that’s what has been happening here. Well, it’s also partly because there have been periods when I was simply unable to tend to the garden, and the plants just kept growing.

When that happened, a whole new environment developed. Plants became bushier and merged with each other, creating more shade and places for creatures to live and forage, and breed. Just look up the Fauna category to see what I’ve written about before – some are common birds and fauna while others are rather unusual, but they really do and have come here.

My neighbour with the neat garden has commented wistfully that there are a lot of “unusual” birds in our garden. What caught his attention was what he called the “burung pipit”. I think that is Malay for the sparrow, but if you look it up online, it could mean any of these:

These little sparrows were oh so common back in the 1970s. For whatever reason, they seemed to disappear, but recently began to show up here again.

These little sparrows were oh so common back in the 1970s. For whatever reason, they seemed to disappear, but recently began to show up here again.

At a quick glance, the scaly-breasted munia can be mistaken for a sparrow.

At a quick glance, the scaly-breasted munia can be mistaken for a sparrow. As long as there’s grass with seeds, they’ll be here. Just look up the video of them feeding at my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/FhaiP8Rpc-8

The common tailorbird is also easy to confuse with sparrows because it's small, brown and fast - making identifying it a challenge.

The common tailorbird is also easy to confuse with sparrows because it’s small, brown and fast – making identifying it a challenge.

What I’m most pleased about are the Oriental magpie-robins. Once an endangered species in Singapore, they are making a comeback – and have chosen to nest in our garden! People buy these birds because of their beautiful birdsong, and all of us in this neighbourhood now enjoy that for free every day. I have also heard them in other parts of the country, too, and am glad they are getting their old niche back.

A juvenile Oriental magpie robin accompanied by an adult male (partially obstructed above).

A juvenile Oriental magpie robin accompanied by an adult male (partially obstructed above).

Other birds that visit us are those I have mentioned in previous posts. The fact is, many of them would not be here without the kind of habitat that they like. If you think about it, before Singapore became the modern country that it now is, it was an island covered by jungle, inhabited by all these birds and creatures. Some have disappeared while others have learned to adapt to the changing environment or found pockets here and there to live.

Well, I’m glad to share a place that some of them can call home, or just a fast food stop. Yes, having a less than manicured garden also means that there is more life – not just in the foliage, but also in the soil – namely, insects and worms that are food for those higher on the food chain.

I’ve also discovered that plants with old branches that are rotting have an interesting effect. Insects live inside those rotting branches, decomposing them, and that in turn attracts interesting birds like woodpeckers, which we would otherwise rarely see.

So, when we trust nature more than our own nurturing, we get more interesting results. You know which way I lean toward.

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