The Curious Gardener | Gardening discoveries in Singapore

Next generation of marrow plants

Posted on April 11, 2014 by CuriousG

This marrow broke open when it was aborted by the vine during the drought.

The 2-month drought may have killed off our third marrow, but the rain has apparently brought about new life.

I was so disheartened by the havoc wreaked on our plants during the drought that I barely did much gardening at that time, so the half-grown fruit that aborted during the dry season remained on the ground, where it slowly decomposed.

The outer skin of the fruit that remained after about 2 months.

Through this, I learned that the skin of the marrow is pretty tough. The softer interior of the fruit disappeared, leaving a papery skin behind that has only recently begun to crack and tear open.

Quite a mass of seeds remained within the skin of the fruit, but they looked smaller than those from the mature fruits, so I left them there. The round green things you see are young fruits dropped by the jambu tree, which is just overhead.

While I saw a mass of seeds inside, I figured that the fruit had not been very mature when it dropped, so the seeds wouldn’t be viable.

Yeah, I was wrong.

One of the new marrow sprouts. I do love seeing sprouting veggie plants!

Thanks to the rain, a couple of the seeds have germinated. The sprouts have that distinctive cucurbit look, so I’m certain these are marrow plants. Now I have a few days to decide whether to leave them there (if the snails don’t feast on them first) or to move them – but once again, I need to work on more trellises… Hmm. Maybe I’ll leave them there for now.

Willing watermelons

Posted on April 8, 2014 by CuriousG

How exciting to see this pair of fruits next to each other, on parallel vines!

Three weeks ago, when I checked the condition of the plants after the drought ended, I noted that the watermelon plant showed some possibility of making a comeback. Then, two weeks ago, I noticed possible new fruits growing – quite a few of them, as a matter of fact. I didn’t expect all to set fruit because the plant isn’t particularly vigorous, and true to my expectations, one has aborted while a couple have seemingly come to a standstill.

Thankfully, one is sailing along happily:

One of these fruits is on a vine that must have taken root well! It has grown tremendously while the other fruit is not growing as noticeably. Yes, this is the same pair of fruits as above.

This looks promising! I wonder if we’ll finally get a full-sized watermelon, or another miniature?

In the meantime, I sowed a few seeds from our first harvested watermelon (I’m a compulsive seed-sower, remember? haha) and this has happened:

The first plant to grow from seeds kept from the first harvested watermelon!

I think we are going to have a watermelon patch next, don’t you?

Wanna-beans

Posted on April 4, 2014 by CuriousG

I absolutely cannot see a part of a plant that shows some potential of life without attempting to encourage more growth. Last week, my mum – from whom I obviously inherited my sense of curiosity – was browsing around some shops when she noticed some interesting pink beans on sale. When she asked about them, she was told that the beans were from Myanmar and were usually cooked in soup. Ever game to try something new, she got a recipe and bought some beans.

My first view of the beans – and I was firstly, entranced by their colour; and secondly, interested that several were showing signs of germination…

Now, when I was inspecting the beans, I noticed that a few of them were showing signs of germination. With my mum’s blessing, I took three that looked like they could grow, and sowed them in small pots, one per pot.

The lucky three beans that I chose to plant.

A closer look, because I’m quite fascinated with the beans. Isn’t it cool how much like a lung it looks? I also have to own up that I didn’t sow the seeds for about two days after choosing them – they remained wrapped in a bit of tissue before I sowed them, which is why I’m doubly thrilled that they actually, ALL, germinated!

One thing that worried me was that the beans were already somewhat soft, and I wondered if they might rot if I watered them too much. So, I moistened the soil very tentatively the first day, and waited until it dried out the next day before I watered again. This continued for almost a week before we saw this:

Ladies and gentlemen, we have the first red flat bean sprout! The other two were also stirring but not as advanced as this one.

Yes, amazingly, it was three for three! It was just this morning that we saw the first sprout, and the other pair starting to emerge. I expect they will both be up and all will bear their seed leaves over this weekend.

I tried Googling the beans and found that they are “red flat” kidney beans from Myanmar. Another good thing I discovered is that they are organic. Will they be climbers or bush beans? I’m guessing the former. As with all my first-time plants, I will probably let the plants grow and do what they want to, just to observe what happens. Well, I hope they grow, and grow well!

Garden visitors in March

Posted on March 29, 2014 by CuriousG

Well, it may not be raining every day just yet, and the weather is still hot and hazy, but the temperatures have cooled a little, and nature’s creatures seem to be happier, as we are. There seem to be more birdcalls around, and that made me get out the camera to do a little stalking…

There are several oriental garden lizards living here. They are territorial creatures that stake a claim in certain areas – like a tree or stretch of the wall – and you can count on seeing them at the same place every day. This fellow caught my attention because he got alarmed when I walked by with the camera, and changed the colour of his head to warn me off. When calm, the entire body is the same colour as the lower half in this photo. Only males change colour like this.

This is one of the best shots I’ve ever taken of the Brown Shrike. While small in size, they are hunting birds that like to take a high perch and watch for prey on the ground. They eat insects and small creatures like lizards. My mum refers to it as the “Bandit Bird”. Can you guess why? :D

Here’s another “bandit” – the black-naped Oriole. They are very alert and shy, and tend to fly off quickly whenever we pass by, so I count myself lucky to have taken this shot of it in the jambu tree.

Here are two sets of birds demonstrating their differences in diet – mynahs eating up a papaya that had fallen from the tree, and a dove busily pecking at grass seeds (which is why you don’t see its head).

These speckled doves also seem to like to perch in many places – here is one on the wall between houses, seemingly very happy amidst the thick ivy!

This photo is not rotated in the least – the green parakeets that visit our peacock trees have been seen in all kinds of acrobatic positions as they feed on the bean pods on the trees.

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Dec
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31