Heartland Ambassadors at the CG

Twenty Heartland Ambassadors are chosen from Xinmin Primary School to help the CG volunteers to conduct the CG programme for their schoolmates.
They came over to the CG to plant at the Hibiscus Patch.

 The students scooping out the compost in their pails to bring out to the Hibiscus Patch.

 Students weeding out their planter bed and loosening the soil before planting

Getting the water ready

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 Fencing out the Hibiscus Patch area using the planter guards.

  Happy students with their hibiscus plant.

                                               

Iris giving a session on recycling pet bottles for containers on the fence.

 Happy Heartland Amabassadors giving the thumbs up for the activity

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New Nepenthes

In the program "I Love My Community Garden" I noticed that many students get pretty curious about the pitchers of the pitcher plants. They keep getting distracted when we conduct the sharing sessions near the hanging pots of pitcher plants. Since quite a number of them get curious over these pitchers, I usually have an informal sharing session about the pitcher plants just to get them interested about plants after their formal lessons were conducted.

The CG has only two kinds of pitcher plants .... the N.x Ventrata and the N. Miranda were donated to the CG. Since they do interest the students I decided to try to increase the collection in the CG to show to the students different kinds of pitchers in future sharing sessions in the CG.

I have some kind members of the GCS forum helping me increase the pitcher plant collection. In an exchange of plants I managed to get another 5 pitcher plants and I have two cuttings rooting too. I am thankful to have the forum which allows me to do plant exchanges with plant lovers and appreciate their generousity to help the CG through their donation of plants. Thank-you very much Lam and Butterfly Pea.

The above pic shows how the pitcher plants are grown in the CG.

N. Rafflesiana .... pretty speckled pitchers.

N. Viking X Amp.

Three pitchering ..... N. Rafflesiana 'squat' , N. Viking X Khasiana and the N. Mirabilis 'red

Taiwanese Mulberry Update

After about one and a half years of growing in the ground the tree has fruited a couple of times. The fruits seem a little larger than the old mulberry tree in the CG. Now I can share the cuttings with others. Please refer to the GCS forum under give away section regarding request for cuttings. Cuttings are available for a limited time only.
http://www.greenculturesg.com/forum/index.php?/topic/18604-taiwanese-mulberry-cuttings-sase-open/

Please do not request for them here.

Mini Watermelons

Flowering Hoyas

Ornamental Pineapples Fruiting Again

Pineapples

Finally after more than 9 months of growing on the slope, the three planted crowns fruited.

Nepenthes Flowering

This pitcher plant is known as Nepenthes miranda. I grow these two plants from a cutting given to the CG by a neighbourhood friend. Somehow the recent weather triggered both plants to flower. The flowers are unique and quite cute. I think the cg nepenthes produced male flowers only. No female flowers mean no baby nepenthes.

Flowering Episcias

Yellow Climbing Rose

I just realised that the CG has a pot of yellow climbing rose when I discovered it. I assumed that the climbing rose given to the CG were all Cecile Brunner's. It's a nice surprise and I will be watching this together with the baby pink ones. Later may decide which to one is to be planted into the ground and then let it grow up a trellis.

Bicolored Rose

This rose has a pretty dual coloration of yellow and pink. It's a nice surprise and I like it. It's a pity that I don't get many blooms from the plant. It's always a single bloom at a time ....haiz!

Hibiscus Orange 2

I believe this cutting was given to me by a friend and this is the first bloom of the orange hibiscus. It's different from the other orange hibiscus in the CG. Petals are a lot rounder and thicker and the bloom is sort of held nearer the stem, not the free hanging type. Looking forward to more blooms but it's rather a slow growing plant.

New Trellis

The hoyas, nepenthes had spent months hanging on the green fence and finally a new metallic trellis was constructed for them. No more hanging on the fence!
One of our regular CGer exclaimed her first impression of the 'new' trellis .... "it's just like the pasar malam tent where they sell plants" .... and it's quite true .... LOL The CG had sought the help of our regular RC tentage guy to help build the trellis and also several ones in the CG and cos' we were lacking funds and we will be paying him in installments. I must say it's better than nothing and hanging on the fence.



Below is another trellis built at the Episcia Corner. The bamboo trellis had broken and the episcia pots I hanged between the Jambu and Chempedak trees will soon be transferred to this area. The area is now bigger ... thanks to having a bigger metallic trellis constructed and I continue to use the green netting for allowing a higher light intensity through. Over here I place all the hibiscus cuttings to grow too. It's also sort of a nursery area for new cuttings to root and grow.

I Love My Community Garden Learning Trip Pt.2

In the learning trip the students had the chance to taste first hand some kaffir lime leaves and the rose cactus leaves. They also had the chance to touch the various kinds of leaves with different textures at the episcia corner. Some students gamely tasted the raw leaves and didn't like the taste took to gulping down some water to wash away the taste. They surely look a sight as their friends were laughing at their expressions.

Here was the display of other ways of using the pet bottles.

Students were grouped together to plant their vegetable seeds in their 'adopt-a-pot' project.

Students taking a breather to pose for a group photo. A bird's eye view of the community garden in the hot afternoon.

I Love My Community Garden Learning Trip Pt.1

On the 30th of March the CG entertained a class of Primary 4 students from Xinmin Primary school. This visit was part of the Community in Bloom - in the Heartlands ..... to bring the students closer to the community. The students were introduced to the garden and were given a briefing on some of the vegetables , medicinal and flowering plants that grew in the garden. After that they had a chance to do some hands on .... weeding the pots and watering the vegetable plots. Then they also had the chance to plant vegetable seeds in their own 'adopt-a-pot' program. After planting the seeds the students would take the pots back to school to nuture the germinated seeds and then harvest their vegetable. A booklet was prepared for the students to do an exercise to help them remember what they had learned about the CG. This exercise had given the community gardeners another dimension of community gardening to reach out to the young in the community. This was possible through the liason officer from HDB who made the first contact with the CG. This was indeed a positive experience for all of us ... so thanks Jessica for making this possible. Arrival of students to Wu Wo Yuan ..... Aunty Iris briefing the students about the vegetable plot.

Watering activity using a recycled pet bottle.