Vegetable greens in the CG

These have been some of the vege greens my neighbour has been taking care for the Elderly Corner. All of them are grown from seeds ... When grown to a good size they are harvested on a Friday evening and then stored at the Elderly Corner. The next day, a group of volunteers will cook enough veges to feed about 50 elderly folks. This is part of the community work that the community gardeners do to help the poor in our community.

Vegetable greens grown are Kang Kong, Sharp Spinach, Kai Lan, Chye Sim, Sweet Potato leaves.

We are also trying to grow the asparagus, cabbage and a kind of vegetable that looks like a species of the Tang Oh but it's gigantic in size. This plant I noticed that neither insects, snails nor bugs would attack. It definitely has the makings of a natural pesticide. The only problem is that not everyone likes the taste of the Tang Oh vegetable.

Harvest Time (Kai Lan)

It was the first time in my entire life harvesting the Kai Lan greens. I helped my neighbour pulled those veges off the soil and there you see her cutting away those holely leaves to make them more presentable for the cooks who were cooking for the folks at the Elderly Corner of the RC. I must say it's back breaking work. Now I truly appreciate those green veges that I eat knowing the back breaking work the farmers go through to take care of them before the harvest.


Here you see some neighbourhood children who visit the garden. We let them help us weed a bed of Kang Kong planted for the Elderly Corner. Some enjoy it and of course some don't LOL
This acitivity helps the children to train their patience.

Rooting Stem Cuttings of Mints, Purple Basil, Lime

In these two bottles of water are the mints which Herb Lover from GCS donated to the CG. I also added a purple basil cutting and 3 small lime cuttings from the CG. Thanks to Herb Lover who gave me tips on getting successful roots from stem cutting, I hope that these will be successful rooted too. These mints will be planted around the Cymbopogon citronelle when they grow stronger.

Method :

Select a healthy stem with a growing tip.

Make a slant cut about 1 cm. below a leaf node.

Strip all the leaves away from the stem and leave about 2 to 3 leaves at the growing tip.

Immerse the stem in water and watch the roots grow in about a week's time.

Change the water every two days to prevent mosquito breeding.

Hydrocotyl asiatica (Pennywort)

I read about this herb from petunialee's blog and found it pretty facinating. This plant seems to be very versatile. It can grow in water with the pot submerged and also in the soil. I have transfered some of the stem cuttings with roots to another area in the CG. When transferred the plant went limp ... let's see how it grows in the new area.

This herb is good for elevating concentration and also for sleep too. Read all about how Petunia prepares it for her family.

Hort Park GH Glass Houses

Behind dd M are the glass houses which keep the experimental plants from the cooler climate. for propagation. All the flowers here live in air-conditioned glass houses ... what comfort they have while the three of us were sweltering drops of perspiration in the sun. The blooms were big, beautiful and colorful too. However no fragrance of flowers could pass through those glass walls.

Hort Park GH Ideas for planting herbs in CG

This was what I really came to Hort Park for :-)
How to mix and match herbs when planting them in the garden to make them look attractive.

Hort Park GH Recycling Garden

Here's the recycling garden which is close to my heart :-) Interesting set up in the way they display the containers recycled from old common everyday things. This is giving things a second chance to be useful again. I wonder how many of us have second chances in our lives. I'm sure we have many .... so let's count our blessings.