Organic matter heaped onto root collar of trees

A mass of fungus was observed to be growing at the root collar of trees, and we wondered if it was *gasp* ganoderma. Upon closer look it was not, but the guard was not let down, as it could still be a type of necrophytic fungi.

Looked like someone left food scraps at the root collar.

Prying the damn thing out.

Scraping the remainder off. Hmm looks like it was just a saprophyte fungus feeding on organic matter that was not part of the tree. The bark was still intact.

Poking around for anything soft, which could indicate left over fruiting body or decaying bark/tissues.

Cinnamon powder is known to be a natural fungicide, so I applied it on the crevices after I cleared out the organic matter and fruiting bodies. But apparently, the correct method was to mix the powder in water, let the mixture sit a while, and then spray on the target area.

Hopefully there would not be a recurrence of this fungus problem on the treated trees.

Bark Colours and Textures

Looking at the photos of Eugenia deglupta (Rainbow Eucalyptus) online, wow... the colours of the bark is so psychedelic. All these nice photos were taken at Hawaii or the Philippines, like the one below:

Rainbow Eucalyptus bark (Attribution link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/verzo/, Edit: photo cropped)

But how about the ones in Singapore? Looking at the ones at Kallang Park, Gardens by the Bay and HortPark (below), they seem to pale in contrast.

 Close-up of the bark of the tree below

Rainbow Eucalyptus in HortPark

So are they worth the price tag? One source state that a sapling of slightly over 2m height retails for $100+. For more bang of the buck, the trees below could provide interesting bark colour and texture as well.

Cratoxylum cochinchinense 

Lagerstroemia speciosa

 Syzygium antisepticum

Honourable mentions:
Syzygium gratum
Melaleuca cajuputi

Tristaniopsis whiteana

Pink

A tree (Maniltoa lenticellata) sprouted with pink flushes in Feb 2011, and after that, I was hard-pressed to find a tree with such an occurrence. But at least the following is something - almost three and a half years later.

News article on the cloning of 'Pink cascading bean tree': http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.sg/2010/08/singapore-lab-photocopies-forest.html

 Saraca indica with a bit of pink flushes

Saraca indica 3 days later

Maniltoa lenticellata, photo taken on Feb 2011

Solar Panel

Trying out the seemingly defunct solar panel meant to power lampposts. Great success.

Feeding squirrels and mistletoes

There was a squirrel feeder in our office compound and it was being stocked up diligently, in order to entice squirrels to keep coming. But wasthat the right thing to do, for wild animals to have part of their diet contributed by humans?

Got your attention right?

The squirrel feeder was to be left of the near bald Lagerstroemia tree. Why was the tree so? Note that the Lagerstroemia to the right seemed to be relatively healthy.

The tree was rid of mistletoes, which was festooned on it!

Some of the mistletoes sprouts were about 7 cm high, and could be spotted on the top of a 4 metre tree.

This was just 2 cm tall and cannot be seen with naked eyes when on the top of a 4 metre tree.

The Lagerstroemia tree putting out new leaves soon after the heavy pruning. Thank goodness.

So what happened?

• Squirrel may have emptied their bowels on the tree before and after tucking in at the feeder, and probably deposited the seeds of the mistletoe fruits they ate earlier.
• Are mistletoes desired or tolerated on trees in the garden? If no, there should be no feeder or the feeder should be located in a more obscure area.
• Could mistletoes be culled before they set root? When high up in a tree, the chances of spotting mistletoe sprouts are low.

Kanji Signs for Japanese Inspired Building

This was a sign that was outside one of the rooms and it looked... hideous. So a new set of sign were made to compliment all the room. Oh, and somewhere within the history is a small, out-of-pocket budget.

Hand written sign 

Half way there

Ta da

This room has three air-cons in it, so...

Recently discovered that it looks like a coldroom from the outside.

Office Garden Improvement

The little shrub bed that everyone passes by before entering the office looked like part of a dump, and everyone, although in the business of garden maintenance, walked by the mess because it is not accessible to the public. But could we deliver what the client wanted if we could not deliver it to ourselves?

Before:

After:

6 months later: