The Curious Gardener | Gardening discoveries in Singapore

The winged beans are here!

Posted on November 30, 2014 by CuriousG

Winged bean flowers …and the first bean.

I had big doubts whether our winged bean plants would make it or not, because, as usual, I didn’t plant them out soon enough, and the plants were stunted. Nevertheless, I halfheartedly put them in the same large pot that houses our purple brinjal plant, because that pot also has a climbing structure that the beans could use. If they didn’t make it, I reasoned I could still make use of legume plants’ nitrogen-fixing abilities to help the brinjal plant.

I’m always thrilled to see these frilly-edged beans develop.

Well, after many weeks of the winged bean plants weakly winding up the stakes, they suddenly seemed to switch gear into Full Steam Ahead growth and grew bigger leaves, and stronger stems, until they reached the top of the trellis. After the usual dithering-about period, they then decided to start budding. That’s when I went into expectant-parent mode and waited none too patiently for the first bean to develop. That took more than a week, but finally, it’s here!

I find that the growing season for these beans doesn’t last that long but have yet to learn how to plant successively successfully. We’ll get a few meals out of them, though.

Fun with mulberry cuttings

Posted on November 23, 2014 by CuriousG

I recently pruned our mulberry mini-tree – so called because it’s rooted in the ground and has grown rather big. The main stem of the plant is easily almost 10cm (2-3 inches) in diameter, and some of the stems are showing the same tendencies towards girth. Since I don’t want the plant to grow into a big tree, I chopped off a lot of it, especially the long branches (yes, they’re worthy of the term “branches”). In doing this, I inadvertently removed a few clusters of ladybug eggs, and a couple of new fruits (note to self: check leaves thoroughly before pruning, especially if the plant looks like it’s thriving).

Quite a number of mulberry cuttings because of the massive pruning done to the big plant

Quite a number of mulberry cuttings thanks to the massive pruning done to the big plant

And since I absolutely detest wasting good growing material – and because I want to have more mulberries to harvest – I kept most of the woody stems for cuttings, while the leaves and softer stems went to the compost heap (they break down fast and are good for composting).

A root beginning to grow out on a cutting.

I don’t know if it’s just my hope, but I kept most of those cuttings rather long, at over half a metre in length. I say “hope” because I reckon long cuttings will have more new stems, which will give us bushy plants with more fruits. After all, there are bud nodes every 3cm or so, and each cutting has already sprouted one or more new stems.

There must be a lot of energy stored in those thick cuttings, because several of the new stems are bearing little fruits as well! I don’t expect them to grow to full term because most of the cuttings don’t have roots yet, but it’s still amusing to see those tiny mulberries coming out.

New leaf growth accompanied by new fruits as well!

The cuttings are sitting in a bit of water until I have the time to plant them. I will plant them. I will.

Bird-watching: Scaly-breasted Munias

Posted on November 15, 2014 by CuriousG

The scaly-breasted munia.

When it comes to the weekend and I want to relax, I grab my camera, stick it on the tripod, and keep an eye out for bird activity. Sometimes, movement will catch my eye, but most times, sounds catch my attention.

This time, it was the soft calls of the Scaly-breasted Munias that alerted me of their presence. A pair of them were foraging for grass seeds, and struck the motherlode just outside our house. Yes, I’m behind on gardening again. This turned out to be a good thing for me, though, because I got some good video footage of the two birds greedily gobbling up grass seeds as they flitted here and there.

I’ve written about these birds here before, and you can read that article here: Scaly-breasted munias.

The peanut butter plant

Posted on November 9, 2014 by CuriousG

The peanut butter plant sprout when I first got it.

More than three years ago, I was given a seedling of the peanut butter plant (Bunchosia argentea) by one of my gardening buddies, Skyfiery, who unfortunately doesn’t blog any more. It’s a pity, because the plant has grown and is starting to do interesting things.

The peanut butter plant now, after a bit of a prune that kept only the stems with flower buds on them.

In my usual way of doing things, I’d left the plant in a pot in a corner of the garden where it eventually took root. Fortunately, it wasn’t fast-growing, but it eventually grew more than two metres high and branched out quite a bit. In fact, it was starting to get in the way of hanging the laundry to dry, so I went to give it a bit of a prune. That was when I noticed that it was starting to bud!

The flower buds were already in progress, but I managed to catch a few more bunches of buds developing, and these are the stages I managed to get:

The peanut butter flower buds beginning to form…

Stage two of the peanut butter plant buds – which reminds me of icing-topped cupcakes, with the icing dripping down the sides…

Stage 3 of the peanut butter flower buds – where it reminds me of popcorn…

Stage 4 of the peanut butter flower, where it actually blooms.

So far, no fruits have developed yet. I’m all agog with anticipation, though. This has been a mystery plant to me. I’ve read that the fruits are small and reddish-orange, and have a sticky, dense pulp with a flavour reminiscent of figs or peanut butter. In fact, the fruits are supposed to smell like peanut butter! I have to smell it to believe it. Let’s hope that the fruits do come when the plant is ready.

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