Now, on to my first adventure in HDB gardening.

I started with seeds from Ban Lee Huat Seed, which I read, was quite comprehensive in their stock of seeds, with a helpful storekeeper ‘uncle’ to round it off. True to what our online friends shared, both accounts were true when I visited the shop. Being a wholesale supplier, it was stocked with the seeds of vegetables that are commonly grown on farms in the local climate. If you were raised in any way like me, you might be fascinated to see the seeds of so many of the familiar vegetables we eat for the first time. I knew I was. Uncle Chen, the storekeeper, was patient and indulged my questions at every point.

Seeds I bought from Ban Lee Huat

I ended up buying the seeds of kangkong, parsley (some of us may know it as chinese parsley) and tomato, three of my favorite vegetables. Of the three, I was actually the most excited about the kangkong and the parsley. The kangkong, because it’ll supposedly be ready for harvest within 4 – 5 weeks, and the parsley, because I’ve recently fallen in love with it as a main ingredient for pasta. Most people know it only as a garnish, but it actually kicks-ass well on its own. I’ll share more about this in my future posts.

Kangkong seeds up close

The kangkong seeds look like little pebbles. That’s Uncle Chen’s Chinese-calligraphic hand-writing, which I complimented him on. Behind the bag are information from him which I scribbled on in the shop.

Parsley seeds up close

The parsley seeds were much finer in comparison. These little babies will supposedly take 2 – 3 months to harvest (gulp). But Uncle Chen pointed out that they’re mostly ready to eat when they have sprouted. They don’t have to be ‘mature’.

As for the tomato seeds, well, I’m sure most of us know what they look like, so I’ll skip the mugshot.

For planting containers, I got some used styrofoam boxes from the vegetable vendors at the wet market. Of all the sort of pots and containers I saw other folks use, I like these coz’ they’re zero-cost and recycling-friendly. I also liked the size of the crop I visualized on their surface area.

Used styrofoam boxes from the wet market

You can use pretty much any sort of sturdy container, as long as they have holes at the bottom to allow water to drain out after they move downwards through the soil. Water logged plants are very unhappy plants. So, I proceeded to make holes at the bottom of my boxes:

Made holes at the bottom of the boxes for water to drain out

I did this using a philips screwdriver. I didn’t know how big a hole I needed, so I went and made many holes. Trust my kiasu Singaporean blood!

Next, I lined the bottom of the boxes with gauze to prevent the soil from falling out – or worse, clogging up – the holes. I remember seeing this as a kid on the numerous occasions when my folks were gardening. Oh, the gauze doesn’t have to be one whole piece; overlaps from several pieces are fine, as the soil will weigh them down later.

Gauze to hold in the soil

I had originally intended to follow some of the soil blends shared by the online gardeners, but I ended up feeling a little confused as to which I should follow. Some compositions sounded straight-forward and logical, while others bordered on the arcane, for a newbie like me. In the end, I chose to follow the corresponding advice of Uncle Chen and my folks – I used ‘ordinary’ potting soil bought from a nursery. These, my folks had in storage, and kindly sponsored me their usage. I can always attempt another batch using the more sophisticated soil blends next time.

Pour in the soil

For now, I made sure that I had about 2 – 3 inches of soil depth in each of my boxes. I then tilled them lightly with the claw of my hand. Ah, the good earth. I channeled Wang Lung as I did this for the next couple of minutes.

At first, I had the grand, green notion that I’ll fertilize my crops using kitchen refuse like vegetable trimmings and egg shells. In fact, just a couple of weeks before, I was still dropping cauliflower trimmings from my cooking into my parents’ flower pots. Then my mother informed me that this may not always be good, as she had bad experiences with this when the trimmings supposedly became a breeding ground for parasites that practically destroyed whole plants. I guess, the correct way might be to bury the trimmings well under the soil, so external parasites can’t reach them easily.

Fertilizers; I mixed the green one in with my soil

I didn’t want to risk this issue this with my babies, so I used what Uncle Chen recommended me. I mixed in a moderate amount of the green-colored fertilizer with my potting soil. Uncle Chen called it “NPK fertilizer”; I thought it was some Asian brand until I realized that it stood for Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, three important nutrients for plant growth. The blue one is for when the tomato starts to bear fruit. When you’re fertilizing, remember that too much of it can actually ‘poison’ the seedling (local-bred Singaporeans, I’m talking to you, haha). A light scattering should do just fine.

The seeds went in next. At last, the single most symbolic act of this endeavor!

Time to plant the seeds!

While Uncle Chen was measuring out the kangkong seeds for me at the shop, I asked him how much space each seed required. Like, how far apart should I plant the seeds. He laughed and revealed that I need do no such thing. Kangkong – and parsley – seeds should be scattered on the soil. And if my seedlings thrived, I should get a messy, crowded boxful of kangkong. I dispelled the images of padi-planting, where the farmer bent down and put each plant one by one into the muddy field.

So, I scattered a palm-full of each seed across the surface of their soil. Then I went in with my fingers again and tilled them so they were very lightly covered. And in case you’re wondering if I’ve forgotten about my tomatoes, they’re in a brown pot which was recently filled with new soil by my mother, but ended up unused. She even pointed out to me tiny caterpillar-like creatures in the soil, which she claimed were sorta ‘good insects’, which helped to loosen and aerate the soil, not unlike earthworms. I immediately wanted to throw out the soil, ‘coz they looked more like silverfish to me (and I absolutely HATE silverfish, those creepy, disgusting freaks of nature). But upon her assurance, I went ahead and used it. I mean, she did successfully bring up more plants than I’ve planted seeds. I’ll see if I can include some pictures of them in my later posts. Maybe you guys can identify them for me.

Fertilizers sitting over the spot where my tomato seeds are buried

For my tomato seeds, I buried them about an inch under the soil, as advised by Uncle Chen. When I spot the seedlings coming up, I’ll put in a sturdy stick beside them for their latching on. My tomatoes will supposedly take 2 – 3 months before the harvest, just like my parsley. It’s starting to sound like a real long time. I might try singing to the seeds to see if they’ll push up any faster.

At this point, I started unraveling material for my genius of an idea – protection from butterflies!

Believe it or not, my plan was to build simple four-sided cages using wire mesh, and put them around each of my boxes like closed fence; a big piece of the green gauze (used for lining the pots) will be stretched over the top of each cage, forming an impenetrable fortresses against evil, caterpillar-spawning butterflies! This way, I can totally lay back and watch my seedlings grow!

I gave up the idea after half an hour of cutting, bending, and shaping the mesh. It looked like shit, though it might have worked. The mesh simply refused to stay in shape, no matter how delicately I manipulated or cajoled it. And because of this improper state, it looked like it could topple over. I couldn’t accept this. Actually, I think it was the shitty look that I couldn’t accept. I’m such a sucker for appearance presentation. So I abandoned the idea. For now. I’ll take the option of daily inspections on my seedlings. It’s something that many gardeners normally do. We’ll see how I fare on that.

Right. No more stupid cages. My planted crops looked ready to get wet and sunbathed…

No. Wait, there’s one more thing left…

LABELS!

Everyone gets a label!

Ah. Now we can move on to greater things! Each crop clearly labelled and dated, and looking very decent indeed (I told you I was a sucker for appearances presentation). I invited my mom to do do the honor of writing the chinese names for each of the crop (actually it was because I didn’t know to write the characters for two of them). In the end, she couldn’t remember how to write one of them either, as it was quite a complicated character to write – the character pronounced “weng“, the chinese name for kangkong. We settled for the laymen’s name, which directly translates into “empty core vegetable” – an apt description of the key characteristic of kangkong.

Lastly, placement. With advice from the mother, I assigned spots to my crops to live. This is according to the estimated amount of sunlight our corridor receives every day, where and for how long. The kangkong got a spot in front of the door…

… while the parsley and tomato got another supposedly sunbathed spot, literally around the corner:

What you see under the boxes are old wooden planks from my childhood bed, which my dad had the foresight to saw up and store up. I placed two under each box, so that the water could drain. Then, I gave them their inaugural watering. I made sure that the watering was just enough to leave the soil nice and moist. Though I had the holes in the boxes, I didn’t dare water them too much, as I wasn’t sure how effective my holes were yet. I was also anxious to see how the sunlight would work out, as it had been some time since we got some really strong and lasting rays. Lack of sunlight will produce only weak, weepy looking plants. I also wasn’t so sure how organic I could get my crops to be; in the course of writing this post, I read that the NPK fertilizer I used was inorganic. In other words, artificial. I’ll need to read up and ask around more about this issue if I’m gonna get any organic veggies growing at all.

It felt really good to see the soil and fertilizer blend as they turned dark and damp with water. After a fair bit of physical effort, I had started my first adventure into HDB flat vegetable gardening. Personally, I felt that I had spent quite a bit of psychological effort in asking, listening to, and ultimately taking the advice of other people, because I knew squat about gardening. While I felt helpless and embarrassed at a number of junctures, it did feel good to exercise the letting go and the trusting that is often required in learning something new. And the Lord knows how increasingly difficult it can get to let go and trust, the older we grow. This whole thing may turn out healthy for me in more ways than one.

I’m terribly anxious to see how my seeds will turn out. Are you? Let’s see what happens on Day 02…