French Bean Trellis

We are growing the french beans again. This time we built a bigger trellis for it. The idea of the trellis was obtained from a visit to Hort Park (without the second layer). The frame was built using bamboo poles and I wanted to string the frames with blue raffia to make the netting. However my CGer wanted the second layer built and it was done without me knowing. That is why you don't see the blue raffia netting as I stopped building the netting after the top raffia string was done. My CGer thought that the french bean plant would branch out somewhere and take over the second layer. I didn't agree with her but I didn't want to argue with an elderly lady. I observed from the previous experience that the bean plant tend to just grow straight without branching halfway. So let's just observe the bean plant growing.

Now you see the bean plants have reached the top of the trellis. They didn't branch out to take the second layer built by my CGer. So one evening while we were looking at the plants, I asked her to look at the bean plant trellis. I casually said to her .... you know the bean plants like my "penthouse" on the trellis. They don't like you second story house. And of course .... we both had a hearty laugh about it.

NParks Visited

Here's a pic for rememberance. Our visitor from NParks came to tour our CG and she had given us many useful suggestions on how to landscape our CG better. We noted many useful tips to make the Fruit Trees area more presentable. Together with her is our RC chairman on the right and the CG leader on the left.

Adenium Update 4th Mth.

I participated in an adenium growing project organised by the GCS forum group. Received the seeds and germinated them in May this year. Five of them managed to survive till this growing stage. The seedlings here were four months old and they had just shifted to a bigger 'house'. Will be putting them in the CG to receive full sun for at least half a day ... rain or shine.

CG Volunteers

We have CG volunteers and CG volunteers but a couple of elderly ladies living around the area work so tirelessly in the CG. They come at least twice during the weekdays and sometimes even weekends if they are not sick. I really admire their energy ..... Without them .... I really can't imagine, cos' the CG really depends on this group of dedicated volunteers to survive.

Succulent Patch

..... and the Dracaenacea too. This is an accidental patch created cos' my neighbour moved the two medicinal herb cactii to this plot. After thinking about what else to plant .... it was decided to put plants with the same kind of water and sunlight requirements at this plot. Hence the CnS Patch is borned.

Here below we have ......
(top L) the Zig Zag Plant (Pidilanthes titymaloides)
(bottom L)Pony Tail Palm (Beaucarnea recurvata)
Centre (Pereskia grandiflora)
Right (Sanseviera cylindrica).

Over here below we have (top L-R)
Mother-in-law's tongue (Sanseviera trifasciata), (Euphorbia lactea).
(Bottom L-R) Aloe vera, Rose cactus (Pereskia bleu), Euphorbia millii.

New Mirabilis Row

Two months ago, I did a hard pruning for the pink Mirabilis shrubs in the CG and also changed the color of the flowers by replanting the planter beds with the three colors. And now I have the white, the yellow and orange flowers all blooming at the same time .... in between the pink Mirabilis shrubs. A sight to behold when they bloom in the evenings . Somehow the pic here doesn't do the Mirabilis blooms justice. It's better to see them for yourself :-)

Silver Beet

Here are the Silver Beets ...... seeds donated to the CG by a GCS friend and visitor to the CG. I passed the seeds to our elderly volunteer to sow it and asked if she had tried Silver Beets before. It drew a blank look .... this is definitely not the everyday vege our elderly folk is used to. So she's game to try growing this Western Vege/Salad. Actually I have not tasted this too ... LOL

Chillies Galore

Chilli Padi time at the CG and we even have the coffee bean chilli which has the chillies in a round shape. I was surprised at the size of the chilly plants ..... they never seem to grow tall at all and then I realise that they are chilli padi plants .... LOL

Marigold Giants

These Marigolds were planted in the centre of each vegetable planter. Now after so many months of downing chix poo and compost from the nearby vegetable feeds, they have grown to my chest level. I was pretty surprised to see Marigolds this tall.

Recently I was voicing out my frustration to a friend who visited the CG ...... about these tall growing Marigolds and was wondering how to make them flower since they have been enjoying the chix poo meals regularly which make them grow leaves and make them grow taller only.
My friend suggested to me to foliar feed them with diluted coca cola! LOL I did not .... but I did foliar feed them with phostrogen and I see positive flowering results. But phostrogen is expensive. Maybe will try it with diluted coke next :-)
I will definitely get their flowering pics in the next couple of days.

Here are their flowering pics .... and they will bloom more in the following days to come.

Basils (Thrice)

I got three kinds of basils doing well in the CG. The Sweet Basil below that were grown from cuttings. It has grown into a very big bush and I had trimmed it down.

The Purple Basil that were also grown from cuttings. The basil cuttings were bought from 'Little Thailand" supermarket.

This is the Lemon Basil plant that was grown from seeds given to me by a GCS friend.

DIY Welcome Signage

This was what I did .....
Nailed a couple of wood together. Stuck a number of tree twigs to make out the alphabets.
Ta-Dah! A welcome signage is created. Can't expect it to be top quality .... cos' everything comes with a budget. Everything used here is recycled matrial. Bought only the saw, nails and glue.

Brugmansias

I saw in the forum some postings about the brugs and the lovely flowers they produced .... gosh the flowers are huge and they look like bells hanging from a tree. Someone in the forum selling brug cuttings even posted the lovely brugs he planted on his pavement in Singapore. So if brugs can grow and flower in Singapore ... I suppose it's worth while trying to grow them too in the CG.

So two kind friends gave me cuttings and the brugs are growing in the CG.

Hopefully they grow well to look like the subsequent pics of brugs from Cameron Highlands. What a lovely thought to have flower bells hanging down from two trees in the CG and I heard that the fragrance they emit can make you do strange things .... LOL.

DIY Sun Catchers

I trawled the net to get some ideas for garden decoration using recyclable material and came across many interesting ones. One of them is using CDs to make sun catchers like the pics below.

A sun catcher reflects light and in this way it distracts the birds that wanna disturb the plants ... hopefully ... but they do make a pretty sight with the reflective beads added.

This was what I did .....

Glued two pieces of CD together with their reflective surfaces facing outwards using Lawn & Garden glue.

I glued a Japanese one yen coin in the centre to cover the hole and also some red x'mas deco beads around the hole.

After the set up had dried out I punched the four holes on the CDs using a large metal paper hole puncher.

Then I strung beads together in their various combinations with nylon strings and also copper wires. The nylon strings gave the strung up beads a life of their cos' they tend to bend and not straighten out like those strung up beads on the copper wires.

Once all five sets of sun catchers were completed, I set them up for display using and old bicycle wheel sitting on top of four bamboo poles. I didn't realize that the spokes were angled downwards and after setting up the display for a day the sun catchers all moved to the center of the spokes .... LOL . So now I get them to stay in place by wiring them to the rubber tire on the side. Now the sun catcher set up is standing on the succulent and cacti patch

Vent 1 .... Ripped Off

This lovely Pink Mirabilis Hedge was ripped off on either Monday night or early Tuesday morning. I believe the 'demons' are at play again. .... haiz! This hedge had given the children in the neighbourhood great joy cos' they picked the seeds and the flowers and sometimes just pause to look at it. Even adults look at the lovely flowers cos' the plants had been blooming almost non-stop for the past couple of weeks. Now it's gone overnight. I guess some person or persons in the community felt threatened by the lovely hedge .... a psycho perhaps or even worse ... one with an unpeaceful heart or an unforgiving heart that the person/persons had to take it out on the hedge.



So now the hedge looks like this ..... it got us thinking what to plant again, recondition the soil and make it better.