Many Hands Make Heavy Work

 

Need I say more? We have distributed about half the hands and the rest will be distributed over the next few days. Some people tattooed their names on the bananas!

It’s not Good to Boast

So I will let the picture speak for itself. I’ve lost count of the number of banana harvests we’ve had!

Every Cloud has a Green Lining

For the last year and a half, our neighbours have been rebuilding their house. They razed their old house to the ground and built a mansion in its place! We have been suffering from noise, dust and traffic jams because of all the construction vehicles.

Our neighbours decided to build a lap pool along their wall that adjoins us. They asked Mummy very nicely if we would consider chopping down our lovely bamboos that grew along that side of our house. Bamboo leaves are fatal for swimming pool filters!

Mummy is a firm believer in being a good neighbour so she agreed with a heavy heart (she is very fond of bamboo, you see). Our neighbours tried to make it up to her by building 6 sets of 2.1m trellises along that wall and we have started our new climbing vegetable garden!

Here are the bittergourds. Daddy took the photo but strangely managed to avoid getting many of the bittergourds in the photo. If you look hard you can see 3. Actually we have about 8 and have harvested one already. Look at the number of flowers we have!

Here are the long beans. Remember our bananas had a signal banana? Well our long beans followed their example. Here is the signal bean which I yanked off before school this morning. I am holding it down by my shoes so you can’t see my face. Daddy says privacy is privacy. Hmmmm ignore my tummy!

And here is the trellis for the long beans. Don’t the plants look healthy?

Bano!nas

Third bunch from the grandchild sucker.

 

One hand has been promised to Aunty Jin for her birthday. She wrote her name in black marker on the largest hand. (I don’t think she was being greedy, I think it was the top hand and the easiest to write on.)

 

 

 

Bored with Bananas

Are you getting bored by my banana stories? Actually I am a bit bored with gardening, but Aunty GL who came for dinner last night with her family told me she misses my blogs. So here I am again, with my bananas, like a bad smell. 

Here are some photos of our banana plantation.

Short and leafy bananas:

Here’s a clearer view, because the photo above looks awfully crowded. Just tilt your head to the right a little, and you”ll have a better view:

Now we also have some banana plants in a pot – they are very slow to fruit but never mind! I don’t eat bananas anyway.

I’ll let you know when the spade leaves appear!

 

 

 

 

Right Angled Banana

We have been having terrible weather here in Singapore. It has been very hot and muggy. Our helper is always rushing outside to bring in the clothes because storm clouds loom – the moment she brings them in, the sky turns blue again!

All this hot weather is doing terrible things to our plants. Our banana plant started to lean over to one side so Mummy tied it to the fence with gardening tape.Unfortunately our bananas are fed very well, so the weight of the bunch dragged the plant down at right angles! Our neighbour’s contractors had to be summoned urgently to help – they lifted the bent bit up gently and Mummy and our helper bandaged it to the fence, see? Now the plant looks like it has a plaster cast around the stem, but actually it is a towel-cast and a Daiso-tablecloth-cast.

Then to make sure there was more support, our helper stuck a pole against the towel-cast.

I don’t think that will help at all because the pole is very narrow, but maybe this is what people do in Myanmar. In Singapore most people use 2 poles and make an X and the plant rests on the X. I think I should speak to Godma’s husband who is an expert on casts. Maybe he can help with our next banana plant.

 

45-Day Bananas

I just blogged about bananas and about how there are supposed to be 2 types, 45-day and 60-day bananas. My wonderful dentist’s husband gave me some 45-day banana suckers so I wouldn’t have to wait so long. We popped them in pots. Now they are tall and slim but have shown no signs of fruiting:

Now I will do some math. If my 60-day bananas take 90 days to from Bell to Harvest, then my 45-day bananas will take 67.5 days. Do you think this means I have to harvest it very late at night?

Almost Time for Banana Harvest

My very last post was about bananas and I wrote it about 3 months ago. Well it took 3 months from Bell to Banana – which means many people have been LYING to me: the Paid Gardener, our wonderful dentist’s husband, and Grandpa. They said bananas come in 2 kinds – 45-day and 60-day. Mine, they claimed, are 60-day bananas – except they are 90-day bananas.

Here are my 90-day bananas:

If you look carefully, you can see the signal banana turning yellow, just at its tip. Look to the right? If you can’t see it, here is a close up shot:

When the signal banana is more or less totally yellow, the whole stem of bananas is ready for picking! We have been arguing at home about what the collective noun is for bananas. Seems like the correct word for the “bunch” of bananas you can buy from Kevin our fruit man is “hand”. “Bunch” or “comb” refers to the whole stem of bananas you see in the photo above!

These bananas look bigger than our first bunch. I think my by-products are getting more nutritious!

 

Oh one thing I did not write about before is this. Just like the signal banana signals that the bunch is ready for harvest, the banana tree puts out a special leaf, called a spade leaf, just before the banana bell emerges.

See? I call a spade a spade, hahahahaha!!!

B1 and B2

Have you ever watched children’s TV in Australia? I have. I watch a lot of TV in Australia because WE DO NOT HAVE A TV IN SINGAPORE. I hope Mummy hears me loud and clear.

There is a show called Bananas in Pajamas. Here they are:

One banana is called B1 and the other is B2. I named my bananas after them. My first bunch of bananas was B1. Now B2 has appeared from B1’s sucker child!

Here is the B2 Tree. Its leaves have been shredded by the wind.

Here is the banana bell with all the little bananas inside:

You can feel the little bananas when Mummy isn’t looking. She does not like me to have itchy fingers.

And here is the close up B2 bell. The colours are so pretty, fine lines of purple madder and terra verte!

Now we have to wait and wait and wait…

Remember Jonah?

When I was in Australia on holiday, I went to my QQ’s church. QQ means younger brother of my mother in case you are not Chinese. Anyway, one week at church, their pastor spoke about Jonah. Everyone knows that story, right? He disobeyed God and was swallowed by a whale who spat him out in the end (I am not surprised the whale spat him out, I would too). After all that trauma (I learned about trauma from The Big Sister – her driving instructor has been traumatized by her) Jonah decided to be a good man and go do what God wanted him to.

QQ’s pastor had a very low opinion of Jonah. But never mind that. One part of the story that you may not know is that God gave Jonah a leafy plant to shade him from the sun. According to Mummy, no one really knows what that plant was. I think it must have been a banana. Look at our baby banana tree (the baby of our big banana tree that gave us our whale-sized bananas). Just look at the size of its leaves! Jonah would have been a lucky man to be given our banana tree!