Enthralled by the colours of nature

One can be easily enthralled upon seeing a multi-coloured hibiscus

 I am extremely enthralled to see the flowers in the garden.  They come in a diverse range of colours and the tones,contrast, tint and combinations of all these makes me delighted to observe the workings of nature.  Even in a small garden space in town nature seems to offer unlimited wonders, albeit with a little effort from us.  The orange tinted hibiscus with an inner core of pink shades surrounded by a glorious variation of orange to yellow colours gives a soft but happy image. This is in contrast with the strong red colours of the ixora that dot the garden with brightness and vivid life.  The composite bluish purple colours of the 'Seribu Bahasa' gives a royal and mystic  touch to the place.  The long drooping curtain of Congea velutina purple bracts connects the ground with the top canopy of trees making the garden space look like a wall painting that never cease to stimulate our senses and intellect.

Ixoras dot the garden with vivid life

Pink to purple bracts of the Congea velutina

The long and drooping curtain of Congea velitina makes the garden space like a wall painting

Nature heals

View of Side Garden, looking south as seen today.

While doing a bit of gardening work this morning I was pleasantly surprised to discover a a robin's nest with two tiny chicks in it. This gave me so much pleasure, satisfaction and happiness. It has been about three years now since I started to create a garden around our home here in Kuching. When we first moved in here there was not a single plant growing except for wild grasses and weeds that grew naturally on infertile barren ground that was provided by the housing developer. There grew an opportunity to bring nature back close to our house and I set my mind to gradually make the garden as a labour of love. One of my criterias for a successful Malaysian garden is that it should be able to procreate wildlife and nothing proves it better than to see the birds coming around the garden to build their nests. It showed that nature is slowly healing itself and that I should do more to encourage its diversity. Thus from now on I'll try to plant more fruit trees besides flowering shrubs to attract other birds species to call our garden home. It has been my belief that gardening is a workout for the soul. Moments spent in the garden have much positive therapeutic influence on one's moods , emotions and pysche. When I see nature heals with a little help of my hand I feel I have not wasted my time gardening even on a tiny garden plot in Kuching.

( Note:  This is a re-posting.  For full story and images, please follow this link...>>>http://mysarawak2.blogspot.my/2010/05/nature-heals.html )

The Malaysian garden in Kuching

The Kambatik garden in Kuching in 2013

http://mygardeningprojects.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-kambatik-garden.html

The Malaysian garden defined = Laman Kambatik (Malay) or the Kambatik Garden.

On this visit to Kuching I have a fair bit of time to compile my blog postings on the Malaysian garden as I have created it in Kuching.  Over many years I have written about the issue of the Malaysian garden with no name.  But it need not necessarily be so.  Over a period of about more than 10 years I have researched and actually built gardens and park based on the Kambatik concept.  I have taken up the challenge to develop a name for the Malaysian garden which is called the 'Kambatik garden' or Laman Kambatik in Malay.  In this posting I have gathered some relevant posts and pictures on the Malaysian garden in Kuching.  My effort to create the Malaysian garden is very much inspired  by nationalism, aesthetics, healthy life-style, green living, love of nature and wildlife,  recreational needs and creativity.  Please go the the links below the pictures to have a closer understanding of the Kambatik garden.    

( Note: This is a re-posting.  For full story and images, please follow this link...>>>>http://mysarawak2.blogspot.my/search/label/Kambatik%20garden )

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