Growing Culinary Herbs

Many had approached me on how to grow culinary herbs at home, which can be a tricky task as such plants can be quite fussy if the conditions are not right. However in my opinion, these herbs such as rosemary, thyme, tarragon or mint, are easy to grow. The trick lies in the choice of potting media and watering.

Healthy thyme 

Most of these herbs are grown in Mediterranean conditions, which basically means dry soil conditions. Potting media used should be water draining and well aerated, not forgetting to contain good amount of organic matter for nutrients. These plants do not like their roots to be immersed in water for long periods and if so, they will suffer from root rot and start to die down. Water them only when the potting media feels dry and resist the urge to water them too often. I had gardeners who feel “guilty” for not watering the plants!

They are preferred to be grown in 4-6 hours of  direct sunlight. Healthy herbs tend to have stronger fragrance and greener leaves. They can be easily propagated by stem cuttings. This will also mean that the fresh cut herbs available in supermarkets can be used for propagation! Many of my friends had successfully propagated from these sources and had excellent results!

Herbs are not only interesting plants to grow, but also useful in your kitchen. Anytime you feel you need to “spice up” your food, head over to your garden!

Self- Peeling Banana?

Oh yes, it is known as self peeling banana! I came across this banana plant on my recent nursery trip and it’s definitely a pleasant discovery. Musa velutina, also known as the Velvet Pink Banana, bear short and stout looking fruits which are very different from those we had seen in the supermarket.

But why does it peel by itself? A good answer would be to attract birds and other animals to disperse the seeds. Everyone enjoy convenience, isn’t it? This plant has a good advertisement strategy! The flowers and fruits are covered with short hairs which give them the velvety touch.

Many would ask “Are the fruits edible?”. The answer is unknown but probably not as it will not be a good experience as the fruit is filled with black seeds! It is not a tall plant and can be a fast grower, perfect candidate for an interesting community garden!  

Dwarf Pineapples…

Remember the dwarf pineapple i blogged about? Not long ago I visited my aunt’s place and saw the “mother” plant where the pups were passed to me a few months back. I was amazed and delighted to see the plant was flowering again. Not only the mother plant is flowering, even the two pups beside it flowered at the same time! Three flower spikes were arranged in an orderly straight line and bear some reddish colour!

 

 

From my understanding, this plant is grown along the corridor and exposed to only direct morning sun and bright light throughout the day with frequent wind.The leaves are longer and narrower than mine, which yet to flower under my direct afternoon sun and windy condition. My dwarf pineapple plant are greener and have broader leaves as compared to the mother plant.

It’s definitely a pleasant sight to see these unique flowers bloom along your corridor. As the dialect name “ong-lai”, which translate into chinese as 旺来, meaning arrival of prosperity, it’s definitely a good omen for many! Pineapple plants are generally easy to grow and suitable for most growing conditions. They can get fairly big even they are “dwarf” and be careful of their serrated leaves which got my hands painful stings when watering the plant. Ouch!

Video Blog #2: Propagating your Rosemary Plant

In this 2nd episode, I will share how to propagate rosemary plant by stem cuttings. There are various ways to do stem cuttings and the way I shown here has been very successful for me.

 

Rosemary plant is an easy to grow herb. As long as the soil is draining and fertile, it will grow very well in various growing environments. Hope you enjoy this video blogs. More to come!!

Dwarf Pineapple

Ananas nanus, commonly known as Dwarf Pineapple, can be an interesting plant to grow. Gardeners grow them for their flowers, which resemble  “mini” version of pineapples! I got mine as a baby pup from my Aunt’s flowering plant and it has been growing very well. I have put up a photo of this very plant in my earlier post. See how big it has grown!

 

Being in the same family of Bromeliads, they have rosettes of very stiff leaves with sharp edges, and therefore not suitable to grow beside a pathway. They are best grown under full sun and still do very well in bright light with occasional sun.

                      new pup!                                           New leaves in rossette arrangement

They produce offshoots, which emerge from the base, and these shoots can be separated to form new plants. Just like any other bromeliads, the plant will die away slowly after flowering. But in most cases, they have already produced many pups which are soon flowering!

Chiku for everyone!

The Chiku plant (Manilkara zapota) can be a easy and rewarding plant to grow in your garden, even along apartment corridors. They are extremely hardy and adaptable to varying conditions.

Chiku, as known as Sapodilla, is an edible tropical fruit originate from the tropical Americas. The egg-shaped fruits are brown in colour and rough texture. The common chinese name for this fruits is “人心果” meaning human’s heart fruit as it has little resemblance. Malay name is “Buah Chiku”, simply means Chiku fruit.

Chiku flower 

The flowers are produced at the growing tips of the plant and usually produce singly or in a cluster. Therefore, it is not advisable to trim or prune the plant. Bear in mind that this plant is actually a tree! And can grow to enormous size! Pruning would be inevitable for apartment gardeners but they will still fruit all year round.

Full sunlight is the best condition for this plant but 4-6 hours of direct sunlight is good enough to maintain a healthy plant. It is not a very fast grower and flower and fruit regularly, makes this plant an ideal collection for any aspiring apartment gardeners!

Flowering Sugarcane!!

I was at Hortpark attending Wilson’s Easter gardening talk last Saturday. He brought me to see a flowering Sugarcane plant (Saccharum officinarum)! This was the first time I saw sugarcane flowering and was amazed by the thin inflorescence it put out. The flowers are very similar to many species of grasses, as it belongs to the Poaceae family.

 

 

Like grasses, the inflorescence is put out high up above all its leaves and the tiny flowers opened on the extended flower stalks. The flowers do not have any showy petals and and not very visible. The inflorescence is beige in colour and very eye catching when you can see it sway side to side in the wind!

Pinto & Butterscotch Beans

                                                   

                                                                           Pinto Bean Flower

I have just returned from a short getaway in one of the hotels in Singapore. It was a well deserved rest and it was a pleasant surprise to see my small plant in bloom. The pinto bean plant is blooming! I was rather amazed that this small plant had started flowering in such an early stage.

 

Commonly known as the “Pearl Beans”, the yound beans can be used to make soup and other delicacies. The seed pods are red and speckled with white and green spots. Like any other bean plant, their flowers are white in colour and elongated. They are not long vining plants as they can be grown into a shrub. Some support is needed to prop them up and they don’t grow very big, which means corridors are ideal places to grow them!

                  

                                                                    Butterscotch Bean plant

The Butterscotch bean plants had turned into a mini hedge for me! The plants in two neighbouring pots started to intertwined with each other and their leaves were so close together that blocked out most of the sunlight over my other plants! Bean plants are fairly easy to grow and they fruit frequently. Good amount of sunlight and plenty of water are needed to keep them green and healthy. As they are fast growers, regular dose of fertilizers are needed too!

My Garden with new plants!

I have recently added some more plants to my small garden and they are growing very well. Remember my Ying Yang beans? Actually the correct name is Butterscotch beans! They have been losing their leaves and tendrils were turning yellow. Looking at their present state, I added a generous amount of growth fertilizer to the soil and they started to grow with new energy! More leaves were formed and they started flowering again!

Same goes for my Capsicum plant. The fruit stopped growing and remain green in colour for quite sometime, only after adding the fertilizers, the fruit finally ripen and turning yellow! My recent additions were the Pinto bean plant and the dwarf pineapple plant. Pinto beans are also known as “pearl beans” to grocers and they are seasonal vegetables. Their pods were red and speckled with white and green. The beans itself is almost pure white, with streaks of pink, hence its name “pearl beans”.

                          Ripe Capsicum                                               Pinto Bean seedling 

I got my dwarf pineapple plant (Ananas nanus) from my aunt who had been very successful in growing this plant. The flower is smaller than the typical pineapple plant and their fruits are small and unsuitable for consumption. There were small pups growing from the mother plant and my aunt picked one of them for me to grow! I potted them up in a draining and open mix and placed it side by side with my veggies. Hopefully one day I can blog on their flowers and new growth.

                 

                Dwarf Pineapple Pup                                                    Rosemary

My Rosemary plant finally got a bigger home after growing in a 3-inch pot for so long. The roots were almost “ate up” the soil! Rosemary is easy to grow if you keep them dry and a good amount of light. Many had failed and the common reason is the moisture in the soil is just too much for them.

                                                          More cherries coming up! 

My Barbados Cherry shrub, grew a lot of leaves over the past few weeks and I gave them a nice haircut! It was a pleasant surprise to see them flower again! This time, I got four fruits forming instead of just one during the previous flowering season. I guess hand pollination is still important as my area don’t really have natural pollinaters around.