Spiral Ginger (Costus)

My neighbour planted this after receiving the stems from a talk she attended at the Serangoon CG. At first the stems went brown and she thought she an a failed attempt at growing the ginger. But then another week went by and we saw leaves growing from the ground next to the brown stems. Yeah! Now I will be looking forward to the flowers cos' I heard from her that the flowers can be eaten.

Sand Ginger

This is grown in the CG ..... More information is found here .....

http://www.greenculturesg.com/articles/oct08/oct08_sandginger.pdf

Cooking Gingers

At the shadiest part of the CG, I've decided to grow some gingers cos I heard that they tend to grow well there. So here's yellow ginger planted and the leaves took quite sometime to appear. Although I have planted more than ten rhizomes, not all of them grew leaves.

Below is the row of 'tom yum' ginger. I bought the rhizomes from 'Little Thailand'. That row grew leaves in no time. They seem to be the easiest to grow here and the ginger is sort of whitish in color.

Here is the lovely leaf from the tumeric ginger. The rhizome was also from 'Little Thailand'. They grow oh so slowly.

Below is the 'blue ginger' which I got from a GCS member when I first joined the CG. It was actually delivered to me by another GCS member. Such a generous community of forumers who helped one another.

I was looking at the three ginger plants and I think they all sort of look alike in appearance.

Now maybe gotto look forward to them flowering to see their differences.

Variegated Tapioca Update

The leaves have grown out nicely and how I love the variegated leaves. They sure perk up this dull little corner at the back of the CG.

Hibiscus sabdariffa / A Row of Roselle

The row of Roselle is looking good. One of the plant even has a branch growing outwards while the others are just shooting upwards. The stems are red and this is an indication that the plants are receiving enough sunlight to grow well.

Winged Beans On A Fence , Flowers & Fruits

Winged Beans Harvest ; Pods and Seeds

Here's an article by Wilson on Winged Beans ....

http://gardeningwithwilson.com/2008/03/30/growing-the-winged-bean/

According to my neighbour, it is better to harvest the younger ones for cooking. The three longer ones were already too old. It's better to get the shorter ones.

I managed to get some dried pods to at a later date. The seeds look just like the a soya bean size.
Hope to plant more in the CG. Only problem is that it requires a huge trellis .... now gotto look for that space!

Kaffir Lime

I have this in the CG planted in the fruits garden area. I will be exchanging a small plantlet with a GCS member for some Epicias for the Passion Fruit Cover in the CG. I hope the small plantlet will grow well. I heard that it grows very slowly.

Variegated Tapioca

I got the stem cuttings from a GCS member. The leaves look beautiful and very ornamental. They also produce a root vege which is smaller in size when compared to the common tapioca. My neighbour and I will look forward to the day when we can see more leaves in the stems. They are growing pretty well too!

Roselle Calyxes

The row of Roselle plants are fruiting with these lovely red calyxes. I havn't tried making a drink with them cos' I heard that they are pretty tangy sour. I know anything that's sour has lots of Vitamin C. I will collect one to try soon. I also heard that the leaves can be eaten in a salad and they taste a bit tangy too. Now wait till I make my salad first.

Here's Wilson's article about the Roselle Plant also called the Ribena Plant .....

http://gardeningwithwilson.com/2009/04/30/ribena-plant/

Three Times Sweet Potato Leaves

A couple of elderly ladies in the CG love to grow this. They will lovingly weed it, water it and put compost on their planter beds. I can see that they are regularly harvested for consumption.

There are three kinds of sweet potato leaves grown in the CG. The palm shaped leaves and the heart shaped leaves which have filled the planter beds. There's also the purple heart shaped leaves which my neighbour is trying to grow.

I ever bought sweet potato leaves from the supermarket and stir-fried them with garlic. My dh and I couldn't stand the mucilage layer that came with it after the leaves were cooked. I guess some just loved the way the cooked vege tasted. For the moment I don't see these ladies going gaga over the root vege that's supposed to come with growing sweet potatoes. I would love to get my hands on the root vege though and make sweet potato soup!

Mulberry's Growing

These are grown from cuttings of the first pruning in the CG. They are growing more leaves. The smaller ones are also catching up. Stay tune for flowers and fruits update.

Bigger Brinjal

Can you see the two here? They are getting bigger by the day :-)

White Mirabilis

This was found outside the garden gate where my neighbour planted the extra Mirabils. I thought I germinated some orange ones and yellow ones ..... I can't recall how the white got there. It could be the GCS member who gave me some yellow Mirabilis seeds to germinate also gave me a white seed without knowing. This is indeed a nice surprise.

Marigold Flowers Galore

I'm so happy here. Finally I see more than a single bloom and am waiting eagerly for the day when I can collect the dried flowers to get seeds. Now I wonder what Marigold seed pods look like.

Long Beans On A Trellis

Here's how the vines got spread around on the trellis. I removed the bamboo poles cos' there was not enough to build. Instead I burried broken clay pieces after tying them with blue raffia strings and attached the raffia strings to the top of the trellis. This will enable the vines to climb up and then later the vines may cross over to the other side of the trellis.

On this trellis I have red long beans gotten from Little Thailand and also a kind GCS member. There is also the green long beans which I bought from the supermarket and managed to germinate them successfuly. Now I wonder if the red and green long beans would cross-pollinate to give another kind of long beans with red and green coloration .... maybe wishful thinking LOL

I always let my impatience get the better of me. Somehow I messed up the planting location of both kinds of long beans. I will be happy as long as the plants produce some edible long beans for us here in the CG.

Old Cucumber and Cucumber

The one that I planted in the CG is beginning to show fruits and there are still lots of flowers too. I was fighting a battle with thrips earlier on in the week. Continuous application of a generous dose of chilli, oil and detergent solution helped me get the pests under control although they are never totally eradicated. And of course I can't do without the ants cos' they definitely helped in the pollination .... haiz!

Found this one that was hidden from view.

My neighbour has allowed a number of the cucumbers on her plant to age and wala .... is this the way to get old cucumbers for making soup. I'm learning everyday.

A French MG in the CG

An update on the MG from a GCS member ..... latest news from her ... the ones in her home are flowering. The one in the CG has covered up the trellis nicely but ..... flowers? I'm anticipating them. I heard she's got intense fuschia flowers ......

Old Cucumber

Three of the seedlings survived and they are climbing up the trellis. I see many flowers too and I suspect there is a fruit coming up. I noticed that there are plenty of ants aound this plant ... some on the leaves, others on the stems , stalks and leaves and even the flowers. I assume that they are the main pollinators for the plant.