White Brinjal Fruiting

This is the season and I see one of the plants with the white brinjal fruit. There should be many more to come.

Marigold Beauty

I am happy regarding the Marigold. Even though only five plantlets survived they have grown healthy and are flowering now. I see a couple more buds and am waiting to collect the seeds too to grow more for the CG.

Curry Plant .... dying!

I know when I see flowers of a herbaceous plant .... they will then die back after a while. So here is the Curry Plant in the CG ..... the creamy flowers are going to bloom and I will wait for the seeds and collect them and start anew. It was doing very well a couple of months back and then we needed to install another tap at the CG. The tap is just next to this only curry plant in the CG and I have sounded out my concern to my neighbour. It is dying a slow death as I can see the plant gets weeker by the day because of the water logging condition in the soil and more water runoffs from the tap as more people have been coming in to help in the CG .... haiz! Now I only wait for the inevitable to happen and yes .... the seeds, must remember to collect them.

Flowers on Mt.Tabor

African Tulips, Cyclamens, Pansies and Agaves were seen in the church grounds on Mt.Tabor in Israel.

Here's the link about the place we visited ....

http://www.bibleplaces.com/mounttabor.htm

Plant Life in Tabgha and Mt.Beautitudes

Here's another lot of flora seen at the site of Mt.Beautitudes in the church grounds. Even though it's mild winter then , there were many kinds of plants flowering.

Here's some information about the place .....

http://www.bibleplaces.com/mtbeatitudes.htm

Burning Bush at St.Catherine's (Eygpt)

My family and I visited the Monastery at St.Catherine's in Mt.Sinai and saw this growing in the monastery grounds. There is only one such plant here. This is the Burning Bush .... set on fire when Moses met his Creator in Mt.Sinai.

Here is the story behind the Plant ....

http://orthodoxwiki.org/St._Catherine

Here's more about the plant and it's identification .........

http://www.jewishnaturecenter.org/html/burning_bush.html

Sycamore Tree in Jericho

In Jericho this Sycamore Tree is more than two thousand years old. You need at least seven people to join hands to encircle it's girth. Here's more about the tree ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platanus_occidentalis

Mulberry in the Planter Bed

When I first pruned the mother mulberry I planted about ten cuttings in this planter bed. Along the way only these four cuttings managed to survive. About a month back the two smaller cuttings actually got fried one hot afternoon. I left them alone and some how they are survivors. New leaves began to grow again. I've been trimming them once in a while .... wanna make sure they don't grow too large here. No flowers nor fruits yet ......

Tom Yum Ginger?

I got this ginger from Little Thailand supermarket at Golden Mile Complex. This ginger is used for making Tom Yum soup. Now I can see leaves growing.

Marigold Update

It's growing more leaves by the day .... and then I spotted a single flower .... defiled!
Dear Marigold .... you must grow well to help your neighbouring friends to repel nematodes ..... OK?

Full Bloom Moon Vine Flower

I guess I was a little too late to enjoy the full beauty of this bloom. The rain drops got to it first and split the petal into this pattern. Any way this is one pic for rememberance.

Pelargonium citronella (Mosquito Plant)

I bought this from FEF at Hort Park and donated it to the CG when I was first involved in helping out in the CG. It was growing pretty well in full sun. When a shade was built over the area where this plant was growing, I noticed that the leaves started to grow a lighter green.
I also tried to propagate this plant via stem cuttings .... I tried to root the stems in soil as well as perlite .... both attempts resulted in failing to root the stems. I'm wondering if i should try again. Now I managed to transplant this to an area with full sun and it's suffering from transplantation shock!
My dear plant .... please don't die on me.

Pink Mirabilis Row Attention!

The row of pink Mirabilis has materialised. They are flowering prettily and non-stop too. When I stand outside the CG and see the pinkies through the green fence, there is a sense of satisfaction.

I remember someone told me that the local Mirabilis grown in Singapore has no fragrance.

As the Mirabilis in the CG are flowering profusely and also seeding quite a lot too, I decided to gather the seeds to give away to visitors to my CG. I had to pluck out the seeds and literally put my nose into the flowering plants. I noticed a very nice and light fragrance that is coming from the flowers near my face. I can definitely confirm that the Mirabilis I have in the CG gives off a fragrance .... light and fresh!

Long Beans Update

The long bean plants have filled the tiny trellis that I built. My neighbour who has the experience of growing them helped me build this gigantic trellis over my tiny one LOL.
I have adjusted the growing vines and trailed each of them onto a piece of raffia string tied and anchored with a stone burried into the soil. Now I can't wait to see the growing vines creeping onto this trellis. Update with pics at a later date.

Grosse Lisse Tomato Update

They are slowly growing taller by the day. I just checked them this evening and two of the six plantlets had been fried under the hot sun today ... haiz! I just trimmed off the fried leaves portion and hope for the best that the stalks would regenerate.

Update 30th Apr.'09 ......... all the six seedlings planted in the CG had gone to plant heaven :-(

They died after one another during the season of heat and rain.

Honey Dew Update

The plants have almost filled the trellis. Maybe got to build a bigger trellis for them. I see lots of flowers but no fruits yet at the moment.

MG from scatterseed

Updating the MGs growth from scatterseed ..... they are now slowly climbing the trellis and the fence too. They seem to grow rather slowly and since they are exposed to full sunlight, I sometimes worry for them if they can get fried from the mid-day sun.

Xiao Bai Cai

Here's a batch of the vege green sprouting on the planter bed.

Cassia alata (Seven Candle Stick Plant)

I got to know this plant through the GCS forum here .....

Seven Golden Candle Stick Plant

This plant has medicinal properties of helping to elevate a person's eczema condition.

Here's the website on it's medicinal properties ....

http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/plants/candlesticks.htm

I got some seeds from Herb Lover and germinated four of them successfully. There are three of them growing in the CG now. The leaves are huge. The last check on them .... I saw some leaves had some green caterpillar on them. I cut off the leaves that had the caterpillar and also cut the caterpillar into two. Have to check the plant carefully for caterpillar infestation.

Black Beauty Melon

I bought a black beauty melon to try. It's actually a smaller version of a watermelon which has black seeds inside the red juicy flesh. I had successful germination with the seeds and have planted about four in the CG. Two of them managed to survive the CG. Let's see how it grows.

Old Cucumber

I bought an old cucumber to make soup with it. I washed the seeds and had some success in germinating some of them. I planted six in the CG and three of them managed to grow to a good size to climb up a trellis. Let's see how they grow.

Cymbopogon nardus

About a couple of months back when I was first involved in CG I appealed for this plant and HL had gladly donated a couple of stalks to the CG. They are growing well in full sunlight and now I have enough to transplant them to grow them at the fruit garden gate area.

I also noticed that the leaves had been cut recently and discovered that someone from the group had been using the leaves to cook curry with it! She said the smell is very strong and fragrant and she loved that. She had already cooked curry twice it. And she and her family didn't die from eating the curry .... She didn't even want to use the lemongrass which was also growing nearby when I told her that the plant wasn't meant for cooking but it was a form of natural mosquito repellent. I wonder if I can confirm now that Cymbopogon can be used for cooking. LOL

Notice the stalks of the Cymbopogon. They are purplish in color while the lemon grass stalks are usually cream in color.