Reds in the garden

Ripe fruits of the Carpentaria palm at the front garden

Red Hibiscus at the back garden

Red Ti or Cordyline 'Firebrand'

CU of Red Cats' tails (Acalypha hispida)

Red hot Cats' tails

Red Ixora at side garden

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 )

Pages added to blog

I have added eight stand alone 'Pages' to the blog today.  These pages are located below the blog's header.  The pages titles are as below:-
1)  Birds are welcome here
2)  Dragonflies
3)  Fruits from the garden
4)  Flowers
5)  Colourful foliage
6)  Views of the garden
7)  Interesting insects
8)  Exotic palms

Pages highlight on the concept of the Malaysian garden better because they are pictures that tell many  thousand of words.

Of foliage plants in the garden

Red Ti plants provide lively red tonal effects to overall green column of shrubbery and trees
Often times the Red Ti plant refers to the Cordyline terminalis 'Firebrand' . But this species Cordyline fruticosa have foliages in a variety of colour combinations
Location : Side Garden

 Looking at the garden this morning I'm excited to see the role of foliage plants.  They add much needed colour to the greenery of the Kambatik garden, besides bio-diversity.  The garden architecture from ground  floor to top storey or canopy can be imaginatively layered or planted with foliage plants.  These plants whether trees, shrubbery, climbers or  herbaceous covers are attractive for their colourful foliages in full tonal or mixed coloration.  Some require shade to do well  while others may not object to semi-shade or full sun conditions.  In today's list I am able to capture the following plants as they exhibit their full potential in the garden this morning.  The plant list are as follows:-
Trees - Blood Banana -  (Musa acuminata spp. zebrina); Sea Cycas - Cycas rumphiiShrubs - Red Ti  - Cordyline fruticosa or Cordyline terminalis (Syn.) ; Croton - Codiaeum variegatumCovers -Golden Scindapsus - Epipremnum aureum or Scindapsus aureus (Syn.); Golden Pandan - Pandanus pygmaeus

(Note: This is a re-posting.  For full story and images, please follow this link....>>>>http://mygardeningprojects.blogspot.my/2014/11/of-foliage-plants-in-garden.html )

Tropical and lush greenery at the front garden

Yellow Palm, Carpentaria Palm and Red Sealing-wax Palm at the front garden

 The front garden is looking luxuriously tropical with its many varieties of palm trees.  Colour is provided by the Eugenia oleina tree, flowers of the Drunken Sailor, fruits of the Carpentaria palm and crown sheaths of the Red Sealing-wax palm.  The yellowish feather-like leaves of the Yellow Palm is also attractive in its on way.  Interestingly the Drunken Sailor has managed to hold on to the tall Carpentaria Palm.  Finally I think I have achieved what I wanted to create at the front garden.  A composition of luxury, evergreen and colourful nature to be enjoyed every day throughout the year.

Drunken Sailor (Quisqualis indica) scrambling over the Eugenia oleina tree

( Note: This is a re-posting.  For full story and images, please follow this link ....>>>http://mygardeningprojects.blogspot.my/2014/08/tropical-and-lush-greenery-at-front.html )

Two yellows and a Penda

A maturing garden - attracting attracting the 3 B's ( birds, butterflies and bees)
Note the Golden Penda yellow flowers at the top centre of the picture.

 What's interesting on this trip (44th trip to Kuching) is to see the garden gradually maturing.  For one thing the trees are getting taller and giving out much shade and shelter to the birds. The lawn is steadily thickening and spreading out to areas that were lately developed.  Three yellow flowers caught my eyes today.  They are the flowers of the Yellow Bells ( Tecoma stans), Cassia biflora and the Golden Penda (Xanthostemon chrysanthus).

 The sights and sounds of a maturing garden are evidenced by the presence of 3 B's - birds, butterflies and bees, not forgetting other insects that would like to join in the list like the grasshoppers and  beetles.
The flowers that bloom for the first time are Golden Penda ( Xanthostemon chrysanthus) and we felt rewarded now by our effort to introduce this plant in the garden nearly two years ago. 

( Note: This is a re-posting.  For full stoy and images, please follow this link...>>>http://mygardeningprojects.blogspot.my/2013/08/two-yellows-and-penda.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 )

A Kambatik garden pyramid

Varying foliage and colours in the Kambatik garden.  With flowers we sense the changing times and seasons.

I like to look at  a garden like viewing a pyramid.  At the bottom level is the architecture, another row up is the environmental sustainability and the very top of the pyramid is pleasure.  We start first by thinking from the basic building block of space planning, choice of texture, shapes and colours for these constitute the the architectural aspects of the garden.  Combining the contrasting leaves forms and textures help obtain a distinctive exotic and tropical image.  For instance, large or broad leaves can be combined with structural plants like palms.  The flowers and foliage can recreate the feelings or mood of change of seasons. Most importantly plant trees, trees and trees because trees are the urban lungs. Columns of biomass around our house provide better micro-climatic comfort and oxygen.  Without trees we have no future. Simple as that.   Next in the environmental sustainability come the important denizens of the garden, principally the wildlife from the lowly earthworms to those high above the trees mainly the birds, butterflies and bees.  These group of garden creatures are our "voiceless" neighbours with which we should care and collaborate with.  They need us to give the freedom to build their nests, provide food (edible landscaping) and branches to preen and play.  In the process the garden becomes a nature sanctuary for food, foliage and fun for the wildlife.  Finally, at the top of the pyramid view is the pleasure we get from both active and passive recreation.  In active mode we sweat in bodily welfare from excercise and working out in the garden.  Most important is the inspiration that the garden can give us.  In reflective mood we begin to find the feeling and sense of beauty of the place and nature in particular.  That is it! The garden is a step into paradise. Therefore, create your own Kambatik garden.  It is never too late to create paradise on earth especially if you believe that ours is a blue and green planet.

( Note: This is a re-posting.  For full story and images, please follow this link...>>>http://mygardeningprojects.blogspot.my/2016/02/a-kambatik-garden-with-broad-leaves.html )

The maturing Kambatik garden

View of garden

On this visit the garden looks luxurious, tropical and exotic.  Swaying palms, bamboo leaves, use of broad leaves, colours from flowers, climbers and sheaths of the Red Sealing Wax palm and tall trees help make the garden cool yet colourful.  The columns of greenery provides much sanctuary for wildlife especially the common garden birds here.
( Note: This is a re-posting.  For full story and images, please follow this link ....>>>>http://mygardeningprojects.blogspot.my/2016/01/the-maturing-kambatik-garden.html )

Looking beyond the Kambatik garden

Bringing nature outside the bedroom
View from main garden, looking west.  Note the mountin range in the far horizon.

Occasionally we need to re-focus our sight.  Beyond the Kambatik garden (Malaysian garden defined) I see the distant hills, with bluish green cover.  Further still the mountain range seemed a formidable soft barrier of blue.  The expanse of sky and open air beyond reminds me of nature's kindness, giving life and hope in an encompassing universe that needs to be conserved for the future generation.  It prompts to ask 'What have you done to your country, if you say you love your country?'  Closer to home, I see the football fields and the green open spaces of the neighbourhood.  There are trees that adorn the streets and the fields.  It is a connected world.  The Kambatik home garden is but a tiny sanctuary in urban green lung.  The prime idea however is its role in the passageway of nature's big corridor of wildlife and the plant kingdoms we needed most to be alive and kicking.  We need to build home gardens to provide transit and temporary home to some of nature's wildlife species as they travel and forage for food.  Without plants and wildlife human will naturally die.  With nature humans prosper.  Do a Kambatik garden if you are a Sarawakian, and soon.  Very immediately you'll partake in nature's power and glory.  Look beyond the Kambatik garden!

The Malaysian garden defined

View of Kuching Kambatik garden looking north-east
25 March'15

The side garden is attaining the image of the Kambatik garden now.  The cascading network of long violet or purple sprays of theCongea velutina is a crowning glory to the Malaysian garden.  This plant has been trained to climb the tall 'Lumok' tree with its leaves providing broad shapes in the garden landscape canvas.  The flowers are actually small but it is the four petal-like bracts of theCongea velutina that provides the colour.  The garden too is a grove of various palms and columns of trees with attractive colours when in flower.  Striking foliage colours provide permanent colours to the garden in many hues from  pale yellow  to red .  The thick greenery around the house is home to a growing list of many nesting birds and fruiting trees.  It provides an inviting passageway to visiting birds, butterflies and many other representatives of the insect world by day.  This is the garden character that is definitive of the Malaysian garden which I have researched over a decade and defined as the Kambatik garden.  It is a garden sanctuary of wildlife, a micro world of the original forest once gone, a place in the sun where shade creates a micro-climate conducive to many passive and active recreation under the tropical sun and a source of edible fruits and medicinal herbs within an arm's length.  What more could Malaysians ask?
For those interested to know the full list of plants suitable for the Kambatik garden can check the plants lists which I have shared online in the following blogs shown below:-
( Note: The page views indicated below are as at 26 March'15.) 
All the plants (4th Ed.)  -  10,608 page views
All the Plants (3rd Ed.)  -  203,442 page views
All the Plants (2nd Ed.) -   30,913 page views
All the plants (1st Ed.)   -  54,258 page views

( Note: This is a re-posting from my Gardening projects blog.  For full story and images please follow this link ....>>>>http://mygardeningprojects.blogspot.my/2015/03/the-malaysian-garden-defined.html