Green Springcleaning. I am 2 today !!

Today I'm 2 years old. Yes, all of  730 days to date since I decided to create this pastime for myself. Guess what, writing is good for through it I've found so many friends the world over. Simply this blog is to share life's precious little pleasures with you in the manner I can. Also, these tales which I relate will allow me to remember them myself, not forgetting your shared thoughts when the grey matter fails me.

Thanks for staying with me friends. Fingers crossed, I'll be blogging much longer. How does one celebrate this day - March 12, 2011? It's springcleaning time. Not only my fuzzy mind needs it, My garden too!

I need a dusun ! Out of the confines of my garden proper -  hibiscus, mango, banana, mulberry, plumbago ,herbs -  curry leaf, daun kesum, pandan, aloe vera, cinnamon.  On the other end of the perimeter wall  - ixora, brazilian firecrackers, 2 jacaranda, Pride of India , flame of the forest and a couple of plants .
I bought a Pride of India (lagerstroemia speciosa) sapling in December, can't wait to enjoy the flourish of the pink/purple flowers. The Flame of the Forest has not shown its beauty yet - more fertiliser !

A couple of medium to tall trees flank one end of the garden. The  costus curvibracteatus adds some colour sandwiched between the phyllanthus and the misai kuching on the ground.  I started with  9 weak misai kuching plants and have been faithfully cutting and multiplying them. It does not look  a great plot yet but  it will in time.


Standing tall behind are  palm trees with their berries, few eugenia plants, the handkerchief ( maniltoa) tree and the rukam. I love the handkerchief  tree when there is a flush of new leaves.  It is like a story unfolding. As they dangle in a spear like form the colour and shape changes . Finally, they appear like the rest of the mature leaves on the the tree, quite undistinguishable. As for the rukam, the birds hop over for refuge. The berries are plentiful and they are raining on my garden! What do I do with them??  

The workers were heaving the spiky trunk of the hura  onto the truck. My cinnamon tree with a nice canopy was a gift from a friend in Penang. Though  scraggy, the mulberry plant beside it has fruits appearing. 

Safe in their yellow bucket, the workers loped off the spindly branches of the neem.  It has overshadowed  the erythrina glauca and bougainvillae in my garden proper . 

How the neem has grown from a small plant given to me in a milo tin by my sis in law's mil. Her name is Mrs Selvadurai, a dear old, sweet natured lady who came for our house blessing  20 years ago. The neem  popularly known as ' Heal All' in India  is a major component in Ayurvedic medicine.  

A day when the grass cutters and the DBKL guys came calling. Reluctantly I allowed the gardener to trim the grass of this patch as during the previous cutting months ago,the earth was exposed here and there. I resurrected it and got the cover back by regular watering.

Up with the birds and clouds. After the neem, it was the turn of the hura crepitans ( sandbox tree) trees. Hura in normal  circumstances has an erect trunk witk a lovely canopy. They were looking like crooked stairway to heaven  before the cutting. White sap (toxic)  flowed quite freely from the remaining trunk . I went with my friend, Uncle Foo to Sungai Buloh to get  a few plants upon his recommendation.  During storms, the branches have fallen. They are fast growing . It's time to get them down to size.

Finally, when the job was done, it more than filled the truck. Thanks DBKL, we await the regrowth. 

Awesome BONSAI

Amidst the profusion of colours at the Floria 2010, Putrajaya, the bonsai was another show stealer. The exhibits caught my attention though the dominant colour of bonsai is green, as we know it.

Up close with the exhibits, it is not difficult to see why bonsai lovers put patience and artistry into this art of tray cultivation (literal Japanese translation).

The many visits to the nurseries have not lured me to cultivate bonsai . Somehow, the appeal of the painstaking cultivation is lost on garden enthusiasts, like myself. Many nurseries do not have the luxury of exhibiting their bonsai in a 'perfect' setting - for viewers to appreciate its beauty unmarred.

This time round, it certainly was more than a cursory look. I enjoyed the exhibits which were placed at eye-level. I could just imagine myself being Gulliver in the land of Lilliputians looking at the small trees which in normal conditions grow big. I also noticed someone on duty keeping a good eye on the precious and expensive exhibits.

I wouldn't have guessed my hubby was swayed by the beauty of the bonsai . Our last stop was at a stall selling bonsai plants and the paraphernalia that go with the art for hobbyists. He bought himself a tiny one in a polybag to try his hands. That is a small step into the immense world of bonsai ! I guess fingers will have to get busy to train the young juniper plant to a desired shape with plenty of tlc too!

The asam jawa bonsai

The tree, the pot as one unit harmonizing

The ixora red bonsai

For some peace and quiet?

Majestically gnarled

Two tones to the twisted trunk

Ready to wire up??

Set me free!

Essential tool - to trim and prune to keep the plant a miniature

Your choice - size and shape to suit the plant

Which sage to choose from?

The Man Who Planted Trees

If there's one poem that I would love to sing better, it's Trees by Alfred Joyce Kilmer ( 1886 -1918)

I came across this lovely piece of poem when I used to do more singing and taking lessons. Why this piece? What's the pull factor when you can see trees everyone, you might argue.

Singing this song, the beauty of trees overcome me. Nature and God inNature surround me and there I go, gazing at trees, in wonderment.

Here goes: Trees

I think that I shall never see /A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest/Against the sweet earth's flowing breast
A tree that looks at God all day/ And lifts her leafy arms to pray
A tree that may in summer wear/A nest of robins in her hair
Upon whose bosom snow has lain/Who intimately lives with rain
Poems are made by fools like me/But only God can make a tree

That shared, the wonder of trees is not over yet. An article I wrote was published in The GreenFingers newsletter of The Selangor And Federal Gardening Society.

Friends, I'd like to introduce you to Elzeard Bouffier, The Man Who Planted Trees.

The story goes that somewhere in deepest Provence, France, a shepherd, Elzeard Bouffier put his heart and soul into planting trees - 100 in the morning and 100 in the afternoon. After the deaths of his wife and son, single-handed, with only his dog as a companion, he cultivated a forest over 4 decades. What had been sparsely populated land, where nothing new except wild lavender, Bouffier transformed desolate landscape into a valley akin to the Garden of Eden.

On 11 Oct, 2008, I was in The Actors Studio in Bangsar Shopping Complex among many parents and excited kids. I was with the Sunshine ladies who volunteer their help at Selangor Cheshire Home and we were on a special outing with the disabled residents of the Home. All of us waited eagerly for the performance of 'The Man Who Planted Trees'.

Soon the 'green' message became clear. Undeterred by 2 World Wars, Bouffier kept planting , planting and more planting - oak, birch, beech ... tending the same with no thought of personal gain. He never faltered though he lost some trees to rodents and unpredictable conditions.

Image from the web

The trees grew and wondrous things occurred. Water flowed in the brooks that had been dry for many years. Life blossomed and the harsh barren land changed drastically.

Image from the web

How the audience, most of all, the children, reacted to the whistling wind, the wafting scents of the lavender, the rain mist, the birds twittering and flying above our heads on fishing rods. Truly, it was a multisensory treat.

The children loved the stick-loving puppet dog and warmed up to every antic of his. I suspect, if they could take him home, he would be THE prize, unanimously claimed!

Winner of the Total Theatre 2008 for Story Theatre

The show had its touching and sad moments too. Bouffier lived to a ripe age of 84 and died in a hospice in Banon. Few knew him as the hand and soul behind this environmental miracle.

I left the theatre warmed in my heart by the impact of this simple fabulous eco tale which reached out to the children and adults. As author, Jean Giono states, the moral message of the story is 'to make people love the trees' or more precisely, 'to make people love planting trees'.

This message is so relevant in today's world where issues of deforestation and destruction of the natural environment crop up with an alarming and increasing frequency.

The innovative staging of this eco message must imprint a certain degree of awareness and inspiration among the young and old and it further inspires those of us who are already committed to finding more ways to engage the young in spreading the 'green' message.

Let's connect with the world around us. GO GREEN!