My garden

Some people have hobbies but not me. I have passions, and gardening is one of them. I'm lucky living in Malaysia where the climate is naturally for growing things. As long as the plant can take the heat, you can plant them here in Malaysia. I'm not one of those people who love watching growing things but refuse to go down and get dirty. I love getting dirty and digging in the dirt. It relaxes me.

Here in Malacca I can let my passion fly. The land is not big - just a small plot - too small for a passionate gardener to play in. The soil is clayey with lots of small stones and chips of concrete from when the builders built the house. Its tough digging any hole to plant anything but after 6 years I have more or less tamed the ground. It looks pretty now but not really landscaped. I have a little waterfall and fish pond built opposite the dining room so we can enjoy the sounds of running water as we eat. There is a clump of yellow bamboo just behind the waterfall and another clump, of the small leaved bamboo that I really love. I have a small bed of roses - and its a battle to get them to really grow, but its a battle I hope to win. It's hard work but worth it because every time I see my roses bloom, a song bursts out of me and I beam with pride. Right now I have 5 or 6 varieties - all tropical roses. The small red one is the most prolific, giving me bunches of red roses almost every week. I'm still waiting for the white rose as well as the yellow ones. My citrus tree is also now bearing fruit though it isn't sweet but edible. I have grapes hanging on vines - most of the time they aren't sweet though if they do get enough sunlight they can be sweet enough. My white anthuriums are my pride and joy - they are so graceful. And even my orchids are blooming now. It gives one a sense of satisfaction seeing what you plant and nurture grow...




my white anthuriums



My impatiens

 

Gardening blues

I love gardening. In fact its one of my favourite things to do when I'm in Malacca. I love getting my hands dirty and dig in the soil because after that its such a satisfying feeling to see your garden bloom. If I lived in Malacca full time, maybe that would be what I'd do. Today I cleared the vines near the pond, pruned the bushes near the fence and to my horror found a lot of snails clinging to the wall, and even on the leaves of the hibiscus. I pulled them out one by one and counted easily about 20 snails - all shapes and sizes. I hate snails and would gladly stomp on them if I didn't hate the mess you make after that. Urrggg!

Today I went to the Botanical Garden in Malacca and bought some orchids. Norlee my neighbour told me they were cheap there so off we went and I bought about 10 orchids, mostly red and purple cattleya. She bought another two to add to her already large collection! It was fun - I used not to like orchids, and loved roses. But even though I still love roses I like orchids too now. The flowers last longer and as long as the snails don't get to them they are ok. Most of my roses are gone now - eaten by white grubs. I only have the local pink variety which is sturdier and more tolerant of heat. Maybe next month, after the Id holidays I'll clear up the area near the fence and plant them there. Roses are tougher to plant in hot climates - although there are varieties which seem to adapt well to the heat, you'd have to really take care of them and mulch often, just to get them to grow well.

A view of my orchids

Home sweet home

Finally at long last I'm back in Malacca - doing what I love best - gardening. I know I'll get tanned again and my hands will be rough again but oh to feel the earth in your hands and to plant again. Most of my plants survived the 3 week absence but 2 of my roses died. The orchids bloomed though. Now I've got 3 orchid plants blooming which had never bloomed before. Today I spent a full day 'playing'in my garden - repotting some plants, adding fertiliser and trimming dead leaves and branches. I uprooted the hibiscus near the border because they were covered in aphids, and planted a row of canna lillies instead. Oh yes, my day lily has bloomed - a rich bright scarlet. Hmmm... happy happy day.

Gardening has always been more than a hobby for me. Its my solace and my therapy. Before when I was still working at the Exams Council, gardening saved my sanity I think. Whenever I was tensed and anxious after a hard week of preparing exam questions, I go back home and 'play' with my plants. When I had problems at work, digging in the earth and planting could always relax me and gave me a sense of peace. I'm very much a "hands on" gardener. I have no patience with people who cannot abide a bit of dirt. For me if you say you love nature and flowers, you'd need to go down and get dirty. Many of my friends wonder why I enjoy it so much - they feel that its something that should be relegated to gardeners - after all you've paid for their help. They love a beautiful garden but prefer not to get their hands dirty. Well I'm all for getting dirty - I prefer doing the potting and the digging myself. My gardener can trim the hedges and mow the lawn, but I'd rather plant my flowers myself. Its very much like bringing up children - after all you don't want the maid to bring up your children do you?

Garden pests

To get rid of white aphids - get a clove of garlic, blend with a cup full of water until very fine. Put the garlic water into a spray and spray the affeted parts. Do this twice a week until no more aphids remain.

Bicarbonate of soda is also good for getting rid of red spiders and other pests. Spray on the leaves of affected plants once a week.

White aphids which are actually live pests look like clotted powdered milk and stick to the stems and leaves of plants, killing them slowly. Most of my beautiful hibiscus have to be destroyed because of this pest. And cutting the affected parts is better than leaving them because the aphids will fly to other plants and infect them too. Once you have cut them, put them in plastic trash bags and either throw them or burn them. Since its the hot season now here in Malaysia (well Malacca anyway), we don't burn our rubbish. We don't anyway - usually the thrash is put in the biodegradable bags and the thrash man will take them away. Aphids love the hot season which is why there are so many just now.

My roses however are doing wonderfully. Most are in bloom though I can never get them to bloom as flourishingly as I always see them in the UK or US. Especially if you are there in summer - at Hyde park or the Regency Gardens.

I dare not use chemical pesticides because Chi Chi and Ginger love to eat the grass outside and Toi the tortoise eats the hibiscus flowers too. So no chemical pesticides for me. Our poor tortoise though have to hide under the bamboo leaves nowadays because of the heat. I have put a tray of water for it to splash in but maybe its too shy to come out. After all Repin likes to take it and put it out on the grass whenever it tries to come out at all. In fact at the beginning of the hot season, sometime in January I thought Toi the tortoise had gone away. He was no where to be seen for a few weeks at least. But about two weeks ago I caught sight of him hiding under a pile of dead leaves under the bamboo trees. Maybe its cooler there. What a relief! The Chinese believe that if a tortoise comes into your garden it is good feng shui. Our Toi has been around for almost 2 years now - since the big flood in 2006 when we were away doing our Haj. It must have been carried into the garden by the flood waters and decided to stay on for good. I hope for good anyway.

Hobbies or passions?

Some people have hobbies but not me. I have passions, and gardening is one of them. I'm lucky living in Malaysia where the climate is naturally for growing. As long as the plant can take the heat, you can plant them here in Malaysia. I'm not one of those people who love watching growing things but refuse to go down and get dirty. I love getting dirty and digging in the dirt. It relaxes me.
Here in KL it does not give me much of an opportunity for gardening - I live in a condominium. But in Malacca I let my passion fly. The land is not big - just a small plot - too small for a passionate gardener to play in. The soil is clayey with lots of small stones and chips of concrete from when the builders built the house. Its tough digging any hole to plant anything but after 4 years I have more or less tamed the ground. It looks pretty now but not really landscaped. I have a little waterfall and fish pond built opposite the dining room so we can enjoy the sounds of running water as we eat. There is a clump of yellow bamboo just behind the waterfall and another clump, of the small leaved bamboo that I really love. I have a small bed of roses - and its a battle to get them to really grow, but its a battle I will win. It's hard work but worth it because every time I see my roses bloom, a song bursts out of me and I beam with pride. Right now I have 5 or 6 varieties - all tropical roses. The red one is the most prolific, giving me bunches of red roses almost every week. I'm still waiting for the white rose as well as the yellow ones. I wish I'm there all the time, not stuck here in KL but since Repin is here, here I'll stay until he decides to retire. For me the garden will be there waiting for me - a work in progress, never quite finished and always a delight to the eye.

Back in Melaka

For once all the orchids bloomed!

Chinese New Year Holidays mean the balik kampung rush begins. That is one thing that is unique about KL - come any holiday and we have the general exodus back to hometowns all over the peninsula. I still remember setting that question for the MUET and the best essay for that year - using Lat's cartoon to stimulate the students. Actually we didn't get any really good essay (no Band 6) so I had to write the Band 6 essay to get a sample. To avoid debate I did not say that I was the writer (or maybe it was pure cowardice) but to cut a long story short, most of the examiners accepted it without question as a Band 6 essay, though Usha did comment that the style of writing seemed familiar. (LOL)

This CNY season however there was no real rush to go back home. I left early - on Friday morning around 11 am so I missed most of the jam on the highway. AS usual the moment I arrive home my heart lifts in a song. I go around the garden to look at the plants (some are wilting under the fierce afternoon sun) but the roses, especially the red ones are blooming. My peach colored hibiscus looks really gorgeous - each flower looks as big as a dinner plate! However the beautiful yellow ones are looking a bit the worse for wear - maybe its high time I take some cuttings and plant new ones to replace them. Oh yes my longan is also growing well as are my kailan! And the impatiens that I took from Lela - surprisingly - are also doing well, though looking a bit fragile. Still they are under the shade and with a bit of extra water, will definitely add colour to my garden once they're bigger. I went to Leela Brito today and saw her garden - she's got some new plants which she grouped into an old barbeque stove - quite innovative I thought. I might do something like that too - have to look into the store room to see what I can use instead of a barbeque thing.

Garden in Batu Berendam

A corner of the garden in Batu Berendam. The ginger plants are on the right, next to the Bird of paradise flowers.

My Ginger border

Last week I bought some dahlias - bright yellow ones and also a deep dark red. Both of these I planted in pots because there isn't that much space left. I don't want a cluttered garden and Repin prefers to keep the lawn as green and flower free as possible. So if I get any more new plants they'll be potted ones. The dahlias are growing well I think. At least they're blooming now. Hopefully they will still bloom in January.

I've designed a border - at least its a start. I'll have some primulas I think - maybe pink and white ones because of the colour and I'll mix them with the marigolds. Will the colours clash? I like marigolds because they're perennials and easy to maintain and so are primulas.

So far my lillies have not bloomed except for that one occasion when one of the white ones sprouted some blooms. Can't wait to see them actually because I really don't have any idea what they look like. They were given to me by Norlee and hers too have not bloomed.

Frustrations of koi rearing

I never seem to learn. This is the second time all my koi have died on me and this time its totally my fault because I was so stupid! Yesterday seeing that the pond has not been cleaned for a long time I decided to clean it. My maid was ever ready because she had wanted to do it for weeks but I was a bit worried. Well.. I should have stayed worried and not clean the pond because half an hour later - the koi started having problems. Two of them were gasping for breath and I quickly caught them and transferred them to another container. But they died anyway. I just cannot understand it - I did everything I was suppose dto. Drained out half of the water , topped up the water with tap water which I had de-chlorinated and still they died. Six koi and two jelawat, two long tailed gold fish and some baby koi. Sigh.... when will I ever learn? I think next time I shan't clean the pond. Just leave it like that. The water was still clear... it's just that I wanted to get rid of the algae.

The dahlias were beautiful of course. Especially the yellow dahlias - so bright and cheerful. And the hibiscus are simply gorgeous. I"m not talking about the roses. I think I'm done with roses for the time being.

How does your garden grow?

I'm back in Melaka and things are just great. My roses however are not doing so well though the orchids are showing their true colours. I still don't know many of them - I guess orchids will always be strangers to me. My true love is always the rose, in spite of the many difficulties growing them. The problems with the roses seem never ending. First its the little white maggot like caterpillars, then it was whitespots, now I don't really know what's eating them. I've sprayed them with an insecticide but the problem has persisted and now the buds look stunted and brownish. If anyone who knows how to deal with them is reading this, please please tell me what to do! This time around none of the roses look healthy, though the white one is not too bad. The lllies on the other hand are doing great! I've pictures to show them off but will have to wait until I get back to KL to upload them.

I was watching the news last night and the news about the plundering of our Forest reserve came on. To me it isn't really news - this has been going on for years and only now the authority finds out? One does not need any great intelligence and a research team to know that anybody who can, is stealing our logs, taking reserve land, killing the forest and goodness knows what else! Admittedly Jandabaik is a bit off the beaten track but if you are in charge of the forests, wouldn't you be there going around, flying over the forest reserves tracking poachers, and log thieves or illegal land acquisitions? Even in Selangor I think a lot of our reserves have been taken over by illegal immigrants. There's this area near the MRR2, just across the Putra Terminal that I notice has suddenly bloomed into a mini township with largish bungalows and semi-Ds. Whether they are legal or not we don't really know but they do look haphzard and very illegal -looking. In fact they look very much like a group of squatter homes due to the nearness and lack of proper drainage systems. Also they have been cut into the hillslopes - much of which I feel pretty sure belongs to the Selangor government. Doesn't the Gombak District Council realise what they are doing? If the land is legally owned, the way the buildings are put up definitely look unsafe and illegal anyway. They really look like a squatter settlement, albeit with brick houses. Can somebody tell me what they are please?

Generally Malaysia is great country. We are so blessed in that we don't have any natural disasters and please don't say that our floods are a natural disaster! You have not seen the floods of India and China or even what hurricanes can do in some parts of the world. And yet its as if we want to kill the very goose that laid the golden egg. Instead of fighting with each other - in politics anyway - I really wish the Opposition would look at the REAL issues - pollution, environment degradation, poor education planning (esp the curriculum), poverty, improving our infra structure and the list goes on. Not how many MPs are leaving BN for PKR, or what Hindraf is doing... When BN lost their seats in the last election it shows that the people are fed up with its lack of action with all the problems that have been plagueing us all this while. But now that PKR has been given a chance to do something... what have they done besides gripe and boast and generally create a scene during the parliamentary sessions? Even Anwar is just acting - Nst -Oct 13-Act 1 scene 1 (front page news). Come on Mr Opposition, stop boasting and start working! Show us that you do care for the country and that your party is not just for you to take revenge against the BN for what it did to you before!

my garden in Malacca

Its almost three weeks since I last saw Sophie - Its so long I'm sure she has forgotten her grandma by now. I do miss her toothy grin, her curious look when she is interested in something ... but most of all her enthusiasm for her food. In fact Pohling says she eats everything in sight - whatever she can get her hands on. Can't imagine it. Heard from Rizal that she's coughing - they took her to clinic this morning.

On the home front - we're in Malacca right now and my roses are all in bloom. Its amazing - even the ones I took from mother's backyard the other week are now in bloom and there are so many flowers. It's really good to see them now - they were so straggly and yellowish when I got them I wondered if they'd grow. But they obviously love the new environment. Well I did give them a lot of nutrients and plenty of good soil so I guess it worked. Just now bought two more roses - yellow this time. I hope they'll grow well too. I love roses - they're just so pretty and so feminine, if you see what I mean. Right now I've got two reds or more vermillion I'd say, one white, two yellow roses and two of which I still am not sure because they don't seem to be blooming. They look healthy though. Maybe they need more sun? But I'm not in Malacca so often I daren't put them in the sun as yet. Maybe once I'm back permanently I'll put them in the sun a bit more and less shade.

Gardening is a passion with me - it sort of relaxes me, takes out all the stress and also is good exercise for me. Just being in touch with the soil gives me pleasure , but roses delight me. I need to be careful though - can't carry the heavy stuff because of my torn ligament. Otherwise it's is really the best exercise there is and you get the benefit of having something beautiful growing after all your hard work is done.
But I really need to work on the pool next. Should get some nice fish and add more water plants.