PapaYawned

After my post on Mr Beethoven, the flowers on my papaya tree did Nothing. I waited and waited but the buds stayed buddy. I got all worried because Novice Gardener said that the buds might be boyayas (useless) rather than girlyayas (fruit).

But today, guess what? The buds opened!

Does anyone know why the flower has spots?

Grandpa says the papayas are finally doing things because he transplanted the tree into a bigger pot. He accused Mummy of cramping their style so we all made a trip to Toyogo in Toa Payoh and bought the second-largest pot there. Grandpa wanted the biggest pot but Mummy said she was absolutely not having the papaya tree the size of our (now gone) okra plants. Grandpa planted those in the ground and they grew up past our second storey windows, so it was a terrible job harvesting pods. Mummy was particularly annoyed because they were meant to be dwarf plants.

We needed a lot of soil to fill the pot. Luckily my wonderful dentist’s wonderful husband sent me 2 huge bags of peat. He is the man who owns the power generator at Gardens by the Bay that burns all the plant waste from the Gardens and all around Singapore. It is called a biomass power generator or combined heat power steam turbine, I think. I read it here and here. Anyway my peat is from the Gardens and I filled half the pot with it, so maybe that’s why the papaya tree is happy.

I’m Back!

I am back from holidays and school has started. School interrupts my life terribly. Anyway, we have re-planted the garden, so soon I will have lots of lovely photos!

While we were away, my corn managed to grow all by itself. It is now 8 foot tall. We have corn issues. They are all gigantic. Curious Gardener was most envious when she came to visit! Look!

Sorry it isn’t very clear. Those Chinese New Year lanterns Mummy hung up are very DISTRACTING!!! She convinced our neighbours on either side that they were beautiful, so now 3 houses in a row have the same lanterns. The Big Sister made uncomplimentary comments.

The Big Sister’s friend gave me a present. It is a Japanese cyclad, or sago palm. This is the friend who knocked off some of my frangipani leaves. Here is a photo of the palm. It is very spiky but quite handsome.

Mummy says the best present ever was a Meyer Lemon tree, all the way from Florida. Her kind friend got it for her from a Very Secret Source. It even had a tiny lemon on it! The Meyer Lemon is a very fragrant lemon. It smells all lemon but is as sweet (almost) as an orange.

Here it is:

If you look at the photo on the left, you can see the graft sticking out on the right side? We have to cut it off once we pop the plant into the ground. Isn’t it a pretty plant? Don’t get distracted by the lanterns!

Gardens by the Bay – Third Time Lucky!

I went to the Gardens for the third time, with my friend S and his mum, on Saturday. It poured in the morning but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. Have a look at my dewy photos!

 

 

 

 

Second Visit to Gardens

I went to Gardens by the Bay as an ordinary boy (not a VIP like last time) last night. But I got to stay much later, and I also managed to go to the Cloud Forest Dome. The last time we went, the Prime Minister was inside so they wouldn’t let us in.

The Cloud Forest had a wonderful waterfall and a zigzag sky track that was lots of fun, although Mummy and my Pediatrician got very dizzy. Here are some shots of the waterfall. I got very damp.

Another new thing was the lighted up supertrees and skywalk. Don’t they look pretty? Like stars and the milky way, except the colours kept changing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we went into the Flower Dome. Of course the first place I went to was my favourite, the desert section. The plants were the same, but here are some photos anyway.

 

 

 

 

Some of the succulents had flowers on them.

 

 

 

 

My Pediatrician is not a desert expert, but she recognized the prickly pear cactus:

 

 

Then we went to the harvest display which the newspapers wrote about. It was rather disappointing. It had autumn flowers and medium pumpkins, and fake chickens. Here are some photos:

Along the way I took some photos of flowers. I don’t know their names except for the hibiscus and rose, but never mind!

Life’s Just Peachy when I’m on Holiday

Look at how heavy-laden the boughs are! In Sunday School we sing a song “Are you weak and heavy-laden?”. Grandpa’s peach tree is definitely heavy-laden.

Strawberry Fields

I love tic tac and they just came out with a new flavour called strawberry fields. Grandpa has strawberry fields – kind of – or strawberry beds. He uses the plants as ground cover. His strawberries don’t have pointed ends, their ends are rounded like acorns!

Here are the fields and here is a flowering strawberry plant.

The Last of the Snow Peas

Our snow peas never grew very well in Singapore, because they didn’t like the heat. The snow peas love Australian weather. This is the last of Grandpa’s snowpeas. You can see how strong the plant was. We kept a few peas for seed (below):

We have an Old Fashioned Tomahto

Mummy says that the Yes we have no bananas song also has tomahtoes and potahtoes in it. Grandpa’s garden also has tomahtoes. Here are some, and yesterday he bought a tigerella tomato plant as well. It has tiger striped fruit (not yet though).

Yes, we have [No] Bananas

Novice Gardener likes to sing about her corn. So I will sing about Grandpa’s bananas. In addition to the bananas we harvested 2 days ago, here is another lot:

A Rose by any Name

I picked a yellow flower for Mummy today. Grandpa called it a wild daisy. Mummy called it a stinking roger. I think wild daisy sounds better.