Front Garden Surprises

The front garden at Kuching surprises me today with lovely flowers of the canna , ixora and the 'Drunken Sailor'.
I have now more or less achieved what I wanted for the front garden. The idea of multiple colours that can be enjoyed regularly has been achieved. Today's blossoms are testimony to my concept of the
'Laman Kambatik' or the Kambatik Garden= Malaysian Garden. In our tropical garden a riotous gaiety is I think a most welcome sign to our paradise. This is how it should be . Today you get to enjoy the reds, tomorrow yellows and perhaps a week's time pink and lavender colours.

( Note:  This is a re-posting.  For full story and images, please follow this link ....>>>>http://myussop.blogspot.my/2009/07/front-garden-surprises.html )

Kuching Garden Update

I have been staying in Kuching for slightly more than a month now. TheKuching garden is shaping up beautifully. For one thing our presence in Kuching enables us to water and carry out general maintenance of the plants on daily basis, the latter being critical in times of drought that Kuching faces in July and now continuing to August. On the left (inset) is a LS view of the side garden of which the planting has now obscured the fencing. Below is a medium shot picture of the side garden showing the many varieties of plant materials used to colour the garden. Generally I am quite pleased with the result thus far, though further improvements are possible.

The front garden at Kuching surprises me today with lovely flowers of the canna , ixora and the 'Drunken Sailor'.
I have now more or less achieved what I wanted for the front garden. The idea of multiple colours that can be enjoyed regularly has been achieved. Today's blossoms are testimony to my concept of the
'Laman Kambatik' or the Kambatik Garden= Malaysian Garden. In our tropical garden a riotous gaiety is I think a most welcome sign to our paradise. This is how it should be . Today you get to enjoy the reds, tomorrow yellows and perhaps a week's time pink and lavender colours.

(Note : This is a re-posting.  For full story and images, please follow this link...>>>>http://myussop.blogspot.my/2009/08/kuching-garden-update.html )

The Rains Are Back

The last few days, the rains have started to return to Kuching after a prolonged absence since the middle of July to middle of August.This is good news especially to those working in the field and fasting. Above, is a picture I took on the 19th of August when the rains came in quite heavy

On the way - the Back Courtyard

Chinese lantern plant

I'll be in Kuching for the whole month of October. While busy studying and preparing for my series of tutorials next weekend, assignments that follow and an exam slotted at the end of the month, I'll continue to pick up on my back courtyard gardening. The side garden is more or less completed by now, though more continuing experiments, additions and subtractions are a pleasant activity to further improve it. The yellow bells flowers (Tecoma stans)(see inset) mark the entrance to the back courtyard. My idea of the back courtyard according to my "Laman Kambatik "or the Malaysian Garden concept is basically that of an edible garden. In Malay there is at present no name for 'edible landscaping'. Thus I have coined a term to describe it. I call it "Sara Landskap" in Malay. Truly, I'm the only one soul to use this term in Malaysia at present. Whether it will be used commonly in future is yet to be seen. If it ever does, then the word originate from me. Will it be taken up by DBP? I wonder.

(Note:  This is a re-posting.  For full story and images,please follow this link...>>>>http://myussop.blogspot.my/2009/10/on-way-back-courtyard.html )

Two Years Tall

While writing this blog post, the end of year rains are tapping on my rooftop and the abundance of heavenly water it pours on the garden will be evidenced tomorrow on depressed surfaces over the garden floor. With the coming of the wet season, I will normally start to add new planting materials to the garden as a welcoming gesture to the days ahead of garden renewal and green sprouts. It has been just about two years down the road when we made the once-in-a-lifetime decision to put foot in Kuching. We have no regrets even though the decision was highly pragmatic and in the most casual "take- it-as-it-comes" approach.

The rains will come and go, like our entrances and exists of daily existence. It will come and nourish the garden. Our front garden plot is small but has been a great a spiritual retreat , a story of growth and decay in the working wonders of nature . Besides the garden has been a most pleasurable physical workout place to unwind my hurried life. It's about two years tall and the garden is shaping up well. It sings out a calling in me to live up to my whole senses ( spiritual, emotional, intellectual and civil) in order that the garden of my life will be filled with moments of discovery, wonder and blissfulness. Like a blessed garden our life has to be lived in, re-worked and re-discovered not once but continuously.

(Note:  This is a re-posting.  For full story and images, please follow this link...>>>http://myussop.blogspot.my/2009/10/two-years-tall.html )

Kuching garden progress

20 April'09

Our front garden in Kuching is now about 1 year 4 months old. The planting progress photographs are shown below. Up to this point my initial design concept is more or less achieved. Just this month I added one cordyline plant, variegated yellow in colour for that golden sparkle to the garden. Now every morning I'll take a brief excercise at the front porch and then go for a bicycle ride around the neighbourhood. It's good for the health.

( Note: This is a re-posting.  For full story and images, please follow this link ....>>>>http://mykambatikworld.blogspot.my/2009/04/kuching-garden-progress.html )

Colour the garden

Living in an evergreen tropical climate one's eyes is constantly washed by the refreshing and healing colours of green. Often times when I enter a room or an office my eyes are naturally attracted to live plants that would indicate to me that there is live, growth or stability in the living or work place I am part of. Green is easy on the eye.

Still, we do need colours in our lives just as we need them to add vitality, appeal, sparkle and warmth to the garden. The green wash is considered a 'cool colour' and it is the hot or warm colours that we need to paint the garden to make it look vibrant and invigorating. After about a year since we started digging and experimenting with our garden in Kuching, some positive results are showing up. My focus today is flowers of the red hue( fully saturated). Add a little white and the redness dissolves into more pink values (tints) and here I have planted a couple of species like the heliconia 'sassy pink', pink hibiscus and pink frangipani that hopefully would tickle my senses ( see inset above).

The green wash of the small lawn, palm leaves and shrubbery at the front garden gives out much oxygen and freshness. Besides the the overall greeness, I have added darker values of red ( shades ) to the lower storey plants, thus the dark red or maroon leaves of the irisine. Even the wild banana leaves are variegated with blood red shades of colour.

Pink Hibiscus

In order to enjoy the garden early my strategy was to complete the front garden first. The side garden and the back garden would evolve later. Presently I plant all sorts of species at the back garden as 'advance nursery' which would provide me with the required quantities and heights of the plants upon transplanting . This method is cost saving because you get to propagate the plants yourself instead of purchasing them which is not cheap considering the quantities involved later.

Above, I use a lot of the highly variegated coleus species ( darker shades of red) as under storey plants for the side garden which is slowly emerging.

Having spent a good morning walk about at my garden , I was delighted to make fresh cuttings of the frangipani, hibiscus and heliconia that make their starring performances today. As a test to my kambatik garden concept, I would put it that in our rich tropical diversity, one should be able to move out of the house and within minutes make a simple composition for the table. I attempted it just now and pleased to call this composition 'My Pink Lady'. For more fast compositions of floral arrangements from the kambatik garden please browse here.

( Note: This is a re-posting.  For full story and images, please follow this link ...>>>http://mykambatikworld.blogspot.my/2009/02/colour-garden.html )

Colourful hearts

View of side garden with coleus planted as cover in border planting.

I am pleasantly surprised to see the coleus plants parading their best colours today. It must have been the manure that I generously applied before I left for Bintulu two weeks ago that did the magic. Coleus (Solenostemon scutellariodes ) are known here as 'Ati- Ati ' derived from the Malay root word 'Hati- Hati' meaning hearts. I plant them for their gorgeously bright multi- coloured foliage. In our tropical evergreen environment where the green wash is an everyday occurrence, splashes of colours can be obtained by planting the coleus plants. Being herbaceous perennials ( i.e. they don't have woody stems above the ground) they are rather short-lived,maybe surviving for 1-3 years at the most. However they grow very fast and thus useful for 'instant' garden results. It is important to prune them head back after every flowering season for renewed growth and fresh new foliage thus creating showy masses of colours in the garden daily.

(Note: This is a re-posting.  For full story and images, please follow this link ....>>>http://mykambatikworld.blogspot.my/2009/04/colourful-hearts.html )

South garden details - South Fence area

Beautiful long red cat's tails ( Acalypha hispida )

About two months ago I planted a short cat's tail plant at the side garden. It has grown beautifully. Now the long cat's tails are showing. There are also many changes to the south garden area especially the area along the south fence. Below are some of the details.

( Note:  This is a re-posting.  For full story and pictures, please follow this link...>>>http://mygardeningprojects.blogspot.my/2009/07/side-garden-deatils-south-fence-area.html )

Coleus collection

After a couple of months planting and collecting coleus plants in Kuching, the coleus collection at the side garden is showing results. Coleus (Solenostemon scutellariodes) plants are appealing for its multi-coloured saw-edged leaves. Locally we call coleus as 'Bunga Ati-Ati' in reference to its heart-shaped leaves ( Hati= heart in Malay). I think my effort to plant them proved successful because these low shrubs are good as shirting material to to taller plants. They are very colourful, eye-catching and for one variety produces flowers that are attractive to butterflies. I have tried to use them as cut flowers and seemed effective for its colours and lasting effect if the stems receive water in the glass vase. Below are the growing collection of coleus in the Kuching garden right now.

( Note: This is a re-posting.  For full story and pictures, please follow this link ....>>>>http://mygardeningprojects.blogspot.my/2009/07/coleus-collection.html )

Front garden update - July '09

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At the front garden , a species of our local orchid seemed to be doing very well after being planted in early June just before we left for Bintulu.

To the right of the front garden, the Drunken Sailor ( Quisqualis indica) meets the Blood Banana ( Musa zebrina). It appears now that the Drunken Sailor vine has twined itself to the banana stem. Interesting move.

( Note: This is a re-posting.  For full story and images, please follow this link ...>>>http://mygardeningprojects.blogspot.my/2009/07/front-garden-update-july09.html )

Update on Kuching garden

View of front garden, 30 June,2009

It has been a while since my last post (30/4/09). I have been very busy in May with my doctorate studies. May was my 1st semester with Asia e University where I'm taking up a doctoral study in Business Administration. This learning adventure will last for at least 4 years from now on i.e. according to plan. Thus after the 1 st semester exams I rushed back to Bintulu to spend a full month there to relax and look after the farm too. On Monday ( 29/6/09) we checked in at our house in Kuching in the evening after a 10 hours journey by road from Bintulu. Thus with the first available light the next morning I had a good look at the garden. The above picture shows the side garden with the grasses slightly higher than usual. However I was pleasantly surprised to see the Sassy Pink Heliconias showing off their long inflorescence's. Beautiful.

July- we would be here for the rest of the month. The 2nd semester will start next week and will end early August. This stint in Kuching will give me time to develop the garden further, especially the back portion.

Anyway, from today I'll do as much updates on the garden as possible.

( Note : This is a re-posting.  For full story and pictures, please follow this link ...>>>>http://mygardeningprojects.blogspot.my/2009/07/update-on-kuching-garden.html )