Wo Wu Yuan and Xinmin Primary

The whole of  2011 the CG was involved in the students' learning experience of the CG.  Shared here are the links of  two video clips taken during the students' learning trip to the garden. The links were taken from HDB Hearland Buzz Website.

Video Clip 1

Video Clip 2

Succulent Dishes Again !

I checked the post when I last did up the succulent dishes and found out that it was more than a year ago. Looks like it was time to redo them cos' some plants had died and some just overgrew and took over the whole pot leaving others no chance to survive. This time I had more plants to 'play' with and had some earthstars to add to the combination of succulents.

Tapioca Harvest

Finally after the stem reached almost 4 stories high, my CGer decided to chop a couple of stems down.
The tubers were huge ... I must say. Someone is definitely gonna have lots of tapioca to eat.

Hibiscus Blooms Updates

Some of these hibiscus plants were 'donated' to the CG by people in the neighborhood. They came with bad soil, root bound plants and plants that were suffering from neglect and rejection. Here in the CG they have a place in my heart.

A flowering Agave plant in the neighborhood.

I had been observing this plant from a far for almost a couple years now. Off and on when I travel in the bus that took this route, I would turn my head at the window seat,  and my gaze would fall on this huge plant that seemed to be significantly towering over all the other plants that the gardener grew round it. A couple of months ago I noticed a huge spike that grew .... and slowly it did grow huge almost 4 stories high. It was after one of my tea time with dear husband around the neighborhood  that I finally got a chance to inch close up on this plant. It's pretty amazing ..... many of my gardening  friends couldn't help but commented on this beauty when I shared the photos here at a social networking site :-)

According to a friend the ID is Agave atrovirens . It may have taken 40 years for the plant to grow this size big. After flowering, the mother plant will produce hundreds of offsets and then it will slowly die off. Such is the cycle in nature to propagate the plant.

Agaves

When I first came across these plants they were only palm size. After growing in the CG for about a year they are now larger than palm size ....LOL Pot size to be exact and if they are planted into the ground they can grow larger than human size.
Agaves are desert plants which can take hot and cold temperatures but not frost. Over here they are perpetually under  hot  temperatures and hence they grow pretty well and fast too.

In Life Storeys ...Life in the HDB Heartlands

In issue 2 -Dec.2011 , the CG was featured in a write up In Life Storeys .... Life in the HDB Heartlands, Live Green .... Power to the Youth article. The link is here ....
http://lifestoreys.hdb.gov.sg/power-to-the-youth.html


EARLY BLOOMERS
An even younger batch of Heartland Ambassadors from Xinmin Primary School also got to put what they learnt to the test on 12 November, at the official launch for the adoption of Wu Wo Yuan community garden at Hougang Avenue 4.

The project is also a Community in Bloom – in the Heartlands initiative that aims to encourage green enthusiasts to actively participate in the community via gardening.

Fourteen of these primary school ambassadors guided and briefed Grassroots Adviser Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, the guest-of-honour and MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC, as he explored the community garden. They also showcased the results of the blossoming garden — among them were sweet potato, bitter gourd, and sand ginger — to residents from the neighbouring blocks who had dropped by.
These ambassadors also set up a recycling booth to share simple recycling tips with the residents. Prior to this, these students had participated in HDB's 'I love my Community Garden!' — a one-day learning trip where they learnt more about gardening in the heartlands.

Fruiting Veges Updates

The vege garden grows and changes too fast for me to write about them. So here's just some updates on what had grown and are growing in the vege patch.

AMK - In Bloom Awards

Wu Wo Yuan received a Gold Award for it's efforts.

 

My CG Leader and the RC Chairman  during the award presentation.

Cannas

A friend decided to donate most the the cannas from his garden to the CG cos' his garden was getting too shady for them. They were grown in their pots at the staircase before they were transferred to the present location. They grew tall and managed to flower. So here's a pretty yellow canna bloom. Enjoy!

Bromeliads

A couple of these ornamental pineapple plants were donated to the CG about a year ago. They have grown and fruited a couple of times. They look pretty with the way the striations are colored on the leaves but they fruit cannot be eaten. While repotting them I got my two arms scratched quite a bit.
Nevertheless, they are lovely to look at but got to be careful when handling them.