Often a lot of people asked about my garden,
and this will lead to a basic fundamental question:
How can I start tending a decent garden?
Well, as usual my basic answer will always be:
What do you want?
And from there you can start building your dream garden. Very often I notice garden beginners tend to mimic other gardener's taste and eventually spite the factor that one thing that they don't love having in their garden. A telltale examples of passed & hand-over plants from mothers, good hearted neighbours & friends and eventually the beginner will have a "zoo" of garden plants and having no clue what goes where and the whole garden either turn into a jungle or withered forest of dead twigs and few survivors.
Eventually - its a pathetic scene of what was wanted and what is not.
So, before beginning anything, its always good to read, to survey, check around your neighbourhood & surrounding of what can thrive, live or survive in your garden atmosphere.
Then another factor is how much time can you give for your gardening.
One hour a day? Few minutes a day? Few minutes a week?
or just enough time to water & enjoy the garden as it is:
(this is the case of my garden)
But you see, I spend hours during weekends going through each pot, re-setting, uprooting and replanting when it is necessary - eventually those I don't need doing that becomes my permanent seated pots. So, all that is needed is pruning and re-arranging.
This happens about 3 - 4 months once.
But actually..
What is your Garden?
Or perhaps another way of asking a question:
What is Garden to you?
Or ultimately:
What kind of Garden pleases you?
That is the Garden that you must seek to cultivate.
Given the reasonable time for tending,
plants that thrive in your region and suit your ideal factor of pleasure.
Why?
Because - until you find out what exactly you want, you might end up planting a beautiful flower garden and then realise that all you desire is a vegetable garden. And chances are you might unconsciously "kill" those flower plants to replace them into a vegetable garden.
And then, lo & behold - you found out that not all vegetable can't really grow well due to certain unavoidable factor and so you take up the consolation prize of having the most ugliest vegetable plants crawling all over your garden.
Then, after few months - some of the un-sprouted seeds of zinnia, marigold or sunflower springs up and give you the "regretted earlier garden" and you suddenly realised:
"Wow... that Floral Garden do look good after all...but..."
Somehow in that collection, you suddenly have a little of that & a little of this and everything under the sun. And you realise that you had invested quite a considerable amount of time, finance and resources maintaining what you don't want.
Then when the question arises - Do you really want it?
You wonder - How did this plant get into your garden?
Well, All I can say is:
Join the club. It happened to me.
So, after few years of trial & error - I realised what I really wanted.
Its not all perfect to say that I got everything I wanted, but to a certain degree it gave me enough pleasure to enjoy what grows in front of my house.
That is to say:
Enough colours to brighten my day,
Enough fragrance that lifts my spirit,
Enough nectar to give food for butterflies, bees & sunbirds,
Enough useful plants that serves me as herbs, spice and medicine.
Enough time - just to water them late nights.
And...
Enough to say that they are exotic looking that make some of my neighbours jealous.
So..
What more do I want from my lovely garden?
What do you expect from your lovely garden?
16 comments:
Hi James,
I love reading and seeing the photos of healthy plants in ur blog. It is true what you say here. A garden is just a collection or plants we love, - we arrange and tend them to our delight and joy. Some people tell me I must have a theme for my garden, should get professional landscape help, etc....etc... but at the end of the day, I am glad I did not listen to them. My garden is very young and still evolving. I really love what I see in your photos....you arrange all ur plants so beautifully ! I have lots to learn from you. Thank you.
James: Well said! You have a very nice collection of the foliage in all your containers. I saw myself collecting those similar plants as well and put them together in a container. They look lovely together.
James, you seem to be in your full energies again, as you posted a very long text and a lot of photos. You should have cut them and put the next photos next time, hahaha, just joking. That means you are already back in track, your normal self again.
Good tips! I also loved seeing all the photos of your garden, especially of the maidenhair ferns and birds nest fern. The "mother of thousands" kalanchoe you pictured last is neat but probably too invasive for my garden. Have you had any problems with it?
Hi James, Im joining your club! Sometimes, we can be overly ambitious but in the end, we lack the energy or the time to do it and neglect is the next sad thing...Anyway valuable lessons learned and thanks for the tips too. I love the colour of your garden and all your plants with their beautiful foliage!
ha ha! You're so right. And I think that knowing it's a fluid process is important. I don't think any of us will ever be totally satisfied, right?
Your garden looks great! The potted hanging plants are really coming along.
You are right!
you have variety of green leaf plants! they look so lush!
I think your garden is green and lush now. I have never seen such so many healthy plants in hanging pots! It is not easy when watering them, I'm sure. To answer your question, I think my garden is full of memories, especially pertaining to those plants that are given by who and when. Thank you very much for the contact for the Ylang-Ylang. I will keep it. I have just found a source in Klang.
Sun-ni - Thanks for your lovely comments & thoughts. Appreciate very much for dropping by and glad that you can get few tips from my garden & blog.
Ami - I can only have a container garden as my garden is fully cemented. The plus point is that I can relocate & arrange them time to time.
Andrea - Im surprised too..
hehehe.. I will try to post as much as possible. As for now, I got few more picture sets to load up which I have been keeping for weeks.
Rainforest Gardener - I do not have much trouble concerning the Kalanchoe. They seemed very much contented living inside their potted area. Sometimes the plantlets do drop & fall to the ground but they do not able to survive.
P3chandran -Yay.. I got a kawan for my club..
I guess we all learn from experience.
Aaron - You have planned well in your gardening expertise and have a clear idea exactly what you want. Good to know you like my garden too..
Wendy - I guess there is always room for improvement - the "getting it done" brings that satisfaction. Since when plants totally obey the master gardener? And so the saga continues.
Malar - Thank you. I think you too have very good hands in vegetables & herbs, Im not so good with them.
Belle - Actually, when it comes to watering I just spray the water at the base of the pot without getting the plants wet. It a quick few second pouring and I manage to get all of them within minutes.
Wow.. Garden of Memories.. that is truly heart warming.
Thank you everyone for your lovely comments.
Hi James
The basils grow very well be it ground or pot esp. the Indian holy basil. In fact, even the little babies are flowering! The other day I clipped of one plant cuz I didn't want the flowers to bolt and suck it in the ground and its thriving! I am searching high and low for the Krishna holy basil.
cina fong - Somehow my basils don't do so well in my garden, probably they need the good sunlight which my garden lack, as my garden is in the shady region.
Good luck in hunting for the Krishna Holy Basil. Do you have a picture of it, probably I might able to find one & post you the seeds.
Your garden is getting better and better James! I wish I can be like you. Revamp garden every few months. Requires lots of effort!
I love all your foliage. So many pattern and colours. Those hanging pots on the metal fencing is a good idea to create more pot space... great idea for me! TQTQ!!
Very nice photos of your garden! and so many different plants. I hope I do get to have my own dream garden some day too
Stephanie - it takes a lot of effort actually to find uninterrupted time to tend the garden. With 2 children at my heels all day & night long - they just need constant attention.
Fer - I'm pretty sure you can do it - having a dream garden is not impossible as it sounds. Thanks for dropping by.
Wow! Such a great collection of foliage plants and all looking so happy with your TLC, James! I'm impressed and am wondering how you managed them so well. Though we've managed to trim down our collection and haven't added any new plants for more than 6 months now, we still find it quite tiring at times tending the balance. Hehe, I know, it's our old age syndrome, huh!
BTW, I like how you summed up what you want for your garden. I've enjoyed reading this post and seeing your wonderful garden...thanks!
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