my Gardening Projects

Side Garden Deatils - South Fence Area

2009-07-11T19:18:00.000-07:00

About two months ago I planted a short cat's tail plant at the side garden. It has grown beautifully. Now the long cat's tails are showing. There are also many changes to the south garden area especially the area along the south fence. Below are some of the details.

Beautiful long red cat's tails ( Acalypha hispida)

More planting details at south fence

Even more planting details at south fence

LS View of front garden ( left)

Side Garden side shows

2009-07-08T17:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday something unique showed up by the side garden. Close to the fence where I planted the Hibiscus hybrid ( cream flowers) some funky bugs came out of hiding. They were very tiny about 3 cm long but had the most interesting characteristics. One looked like from the film ET having broad intelligent eyes and a unique facial mask. Another looked like one of those punk kids with blue Sioux hairstyle complete with matching eyes,nose and teeth. Below they are:-

ET Bug

Punk Bug

Two Punks Caught in the Act!!

Front Garden Update - July'09

2009-07-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

The front garden's fence area is now well covered by the Drunken Sailor (Quisqalis indica). The two Carpentaria palms have passed the ceiling height and the Blood Banana has grown into a respectable clump. One new attraction has been the Hibiscus Hybrid which flowers reguarly in red hues. Below are update photos as at today - 8/7/09.

The Drunken Sailor scrambles for support.

CU of Hibiscus Hybrid - looking healthy after some heavy dose of chicken manure, which they adore.

Coleus Collection

2009-07-04T19:26:00.000-07:00

After a couple of months planting and collecting coleus plants in Kuching, the coleus collection at the side garden is showing results. Coleus (Solenostemon scutellariodes) plants are appealing for its multi-coloured saw-edged leaves. Locally we call coleus as 'Bunga Ati-Ati' in reference to its heart-shaped leaves ( Hati= heart in Malay). I think my effort to plant them proved successful because these low shrubs are good as shirting material to to taller plants. They are very colourful, eye-catching and for one variety produces flowers that are attractive to butterflies. I have tried to use them as cut flowers and seemed effective for its colours and lasting effect if the stems receive water in the glass vase. Below are the growing collection of coleus in the Kuching garden right now.

Front Garden Update - July'09

2009-07-04T04:54:00.000-07:00

At the front garden , a species of our local orchid seemed to be doing very well after being planted in early June just before we left for Bintulu.

Today - when it has grown big

Before - when it was just small

To the right of the front garden, the Drunken Sailor ( Quisqualis indica) meets the Blood Banana ( Musa zebrina). It appears now that the Drunken Sailor vine has twined itself to the banana stem. Interesting move.

Update on Kuching Garden

2009-07-04T04:23:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since my last post (30/4/09). I have been very busy in May with my doctorate studies. May was my 1st semester with Asia e University where I'm taking up a doctoral study in Business Administration. This learning adventure will last for at least 4 years from now on i.e. according to plan. Thus after the 1 st semester exams I rushed back to Bintulu to spend a full month there to relax and look after the farm too. On Monday ( 29/6/09) we checked in at our house in Kuching in the evening after a 10 hours journey by road from Bintulu. Thus with the first available light the next morning I had a good look at the garden. The above picture shows the side garden with the grasses slightly higher than usual. However I was pleasantly surprised to see the Sassy Pink Heliconias showing off their long inflorescence's. Beautiful.

July- we would be here for the rest of the month. The 2nd semester will start next week and will end early August. This stint in Kuching will give me time to develop the garden further, especially the back portion.

Anyway, from today I'll do as much updates on the garden as possible.

Heliconia stricta

2009-04-13T20:37:00.000-07:00

Last week while in Bintulu, I spent a considerable bit of time thinning the Heliconia collection at the Heliconia Valley area. All seemed to be doing fine. They are sufficiently established now and in particular I was busy making cuttings of the Heliconia stricta. Since I was planning to go to Kuching I might as well take a couple of cuttings to be used later in Kuching . Below is shown the result of my morning's harvest. Then I used one stalk and mixed it with other flowers to make a simple composition of the day( inset right). I have now made a considerable arrangement of floral display using heliconias. For more examples see here.

I'm Blogged

2009-04-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

Me at the Mid Hill Footpath at my eco-farm ,Bintulu. Note the Staghorn fern that grows naturally at the top right hand corner of picture.

I was lost for words. I was so honoured when Deb Peterson blogged about me. Deb is from About.com which is an online company belonging to the New York Times group. Her blog is here.

Trailing Parasol

2009-04-13T19:05:00.000-07:00

This is the view towards the south of my Kuching garden. A few months ago I started to plant the Cup and Saucer ( Holmekioldia sanguinea) by the south fence. On this trip back to Kuching

I was surprised by the stunning display of the Cup and Saucer colourful bracts . It has now somewhat fully established itself and begin trailing the fence. Now my idea of having bright orange to red colours all day long to decorate the fence is achieved. In full sun the parasol-like calyxes will grow fast especially having the fence as support. In some quarters the Cup and Saucer plant is called the 'Chinese Hat' which is also quite appropriate but where is the Dragon Girl?

December '08 Update

2008-12-08T04:41:00.000-08:00

Side Garden

The heliconi sassy pink are doing fine and so is the lower storey of colourful caladiums.

Front Garden

The orange ixoras are in their best blooms. I notice that the other plants in the background are taller .

Front Garden ( Side )

The white ginger lily flowers well together with the 'sepenuh' flowers and the drunken sailor blooms in the far background( partly seen).

CU View of the White Ginger Lily ( Hedycium coronarium )

CU View of the 'Sepenuh' flower

A collection of coleus ( solenostemon scutellarioides) are doing well. These were planted in October.

Another variety of the coleus plant. The coleus collection are planted on the side garden area.

Main Steps Planting

2008-09-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

The planning now is to plant heliconia rostrata ,sometimes referred to as 'fire crakers' along both sides of the center footpath thats runs up the hill. In reality however you need to walk up the center footpath by a series of steps. I would prefer to call the planting along this center footpath as the Main Steps Planting from now on. Planting of the heliconia rostrata have been done last month but due to insufficient quantities was not completed. Therefore whenever planting stocks are available progress would ensue.

Mid Hill Footpath - early September

2008-09-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

This morning I notice that the white caladium cover plants along the mid hill footpath are in excellent condition. The same goes to the cordyline terminalis ( Red Ti) planted at the opposite end of the caladium. Below is a view of the mid hill footpath taken from the top hill location.

View of the mid hill footpath, looking east.

Love those caladiums

2008-08-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

Been back from Kuching, where we spent about a month of holiday. At the first opportune moment yesterday, I went to the mid hill footpath to check on the caladiums I planted sometime in early July. To my amazement, they grew like ..well crazy. I had purposely planted these caladiums as ground cover for the heliconia strictas section of the footpath.
Their excellent growth must have been due to the filtered light, rich forest soil and the regular rain experienced in Bintulu lately. Caladium x candidum have large ovate heart leaves and may come in various colours and combinations of colours. As an example above, the green veins spread over the white wash leaves. Generally they like sunlight but not direct. You can get heads over heels about caladiums when they are at their best colours. As such there are one of my favourite foliage plants.

Kuching Garden Project

2008-08-23T07:42:00.000-07:00

Soft Landscaping

I am pleased to see some good improvements on the soft landscape of our house garden at Kuching.

On this Kuching trip I am pleased to note the good results of the soft lanscaping works done on our last visit here. Below is the picture taken when we were at Kuching last June showing the ixora coccinea in orange blooms.

On this trip I noticed the sea cycas palm that I pruned have produced new fronds as seen below.

Below is a picture taken during one of those rainy days ( which are many ) on this August trip.

The white ginger lily has been producing good blooms recently,which I used as cut flowers.

Above is a cu of the sea cycas tree that I brought from Bintulu and given a light pruning to encourage young shoots. I have started to circle the base of the tree with rhoe discolour. The pearl grass species were planted by spot turfing method and hopefully would provide total cover soon.

The wild banana have produced fruits and would be saved for its seeds for propagation purposes. Thus , overall the the results have been fruitful even though we have been away for slightly more than a month .

On this trip I managed to order good friable topsoil of the tarat series. Here I topdressed the side garden with new topsoil prior to turfing with pearl grass. I guess I would be able to see the grassing result when we next come to Kuching ( probably in October).

Top Hill Footpath completed

2008-07-16T04:10:00.000-07:00

At last, the Top Hill Footpath is completed today. The photos were taken late in the afternoon, i.e. about 4 pm and therefore there is a strong evening sun overcast on the footpath. Two species of the heliconias that I planted here are the psittacorum and the latispatha varieties. In the picture below, towards the foreground on the right is the inflorescence of the Heliconia psittacorum which is commonly referred to as the parrot flower.This variety has yellow and pink bracts.

The stock for the parrot flowers above were taken from the valley section of the hill as shown clearly in the picture below.

On the left side of the footpath in the picture below are planted the Heliconia latispatha. This variety is indeed a pleasure to see and for that reason I have taken a close up view of the inflorescence.

Below is the CU view of Heliconia latispatha. This variety has green colour at the tips of its bracts.

Total manhours for the Top Hill Footpath is 9 man hours.

Lipstick Red Footpath

2008-07-02T08:17:00.000-07:00

On Friday and Saturday last week, the lipstick red footpath was planted with heliconias and ground cover plants.

On the left of the picture is planted the 'parrot flower' heliconia ( Heliconia psittacorum) . The reddish ground cover plants are the 'red ti' or 'fire brand' ( Cordyline terminalis). In the miidle of the footpath is the belian log that has been cut and to be used for benches, stools etc.later.
View from east

View from west
On the left of the picture can be seen white caladium ( Caladium x candidum) planted as ground cover for the heliconia stratas above.
Total man hours spent for planting = 10 man hours

View from the hill top of Vegetation Island No. 1

2008-06-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday ( 29 June) is a rest day for me. Therefore I just had an early morning stroll around 7.00 am to the top of the hill of Vegetation Island No.1. With my camera hand phone N93i, I took two shots of the surrounding view .
Below is the view towards the south. The densely forested area to the right of the picture is the Vegetation Island No.1 where the heliconias planting are in progress.
The tall trees on the left of the picture looks small from above here, but are actually 20 meters high.

The above picture shows the view towards the east. The tall trees to the left of the picture are the trees that have been here more than 60 years ago.

Additional Plantings on Sassy Pink Footpath

2008-06-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

Ground cover in between the heliconias.
Two varieties were planted today. The spider lily and a species like that of the scindapsus. Both can be glimpsed below.

View from west. This morning I have added spider lily (Hymenocallis littoralis) in between the sassy pink heliconias as seen on the right of the picture. Spider lilies have white flowers and are scented. On the left, however, I have placed a species similar to the 'scindapsus', though at the point of writing I am unable to name it I'll get back to it in the near future.

Mid Hill Footpath

2008-06-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

View from the East. Ati is in the process of planting the 'lipstick red' heliconia, from which is derived the name of the mid hill footpath.

Lipstick Red Footpath

2008-06-27T08:26:00.001-07:00

The Mid Hill Footpath is today being planted with Heliconia stricta, seen on the left of the picture. Towards the bottom right of the picture are two varieties of heliconia which has strong orange colour and the other a mixture of yellow and orange colours.

View from the west. Observe the belian log that has been cut by chainsaw in the middle of the picture.

The Mid Hill Footpath

2008-06-26T04:13:00.001-07:00

With the aid of the mighty chainsaw, our morning's work in cutting this extremely hard fallen log of the belian tree was carried out doubly fast. Below is the view of the footpath from the east and Ati is somewhere in the middle of the footpath. There are at least 50 species of trees within this small vegetation island. I have not yet inventoried the trees. My knowledge of the trees of Sarawak is limited. I think when I am free in future I will seek the assistance of my class mate who worked with the Forestry Department till retirement to name the species found here.

Anyway, the species that stood in our way in the picture above is the familiar belian species ( Eusideroxylon melagangai). Here in Sarawak and just as well in Brunei, we use belian timber to build our traditional houses because it its the hardest tree available in Borneo Island, well you can say that it is equivalent to the teak tree of Thaliand. In Bintulu's kampungs today you can still see the houses built totally of belian from posts to shingles intact even after 80 years ago. Of course the belian posts can last a lifetime even when submerged in water. Life time means , yes a hundred years. Belian timber never rot .

The above picture is taken from the proposed top footpath.The' sassy pink' footpath can be slightly seen from the picture i.e. the the lower section of the hill.

And finally , the footpath is more or less delineated and cleared. I think planting can proceed tomorrow. Not bad for a good morning's workout.

View of the footpath from the west. Total man hours spent = 10 man hours, Ati and me included.

Spectacular finds

2008-06-25T06:21:00.000-07:00

The richness of the forest floor around the sassy pink footpath can be glimpsed from the images below.

This complex web of climbing vines. We need Tarzan around here.

A multi-layered fernleaf. Will become pinnate once they get matured, like the one above it.

A birds nest.

Never seen this flowering ginger plant family ( zingiber) before. Love the brilliant red tones.

Licuala Palm

2008-06-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

I have always make it a point to preserve this native licuala palm called Licuala spinosa. It is extremely difficult to see one with leaves about a meter long in width like the one in this picture. They prefer to hide from the direct sun as they get bleached easily. I have seen it bear fruits once, but it so difficult to propagate it because it takes more than half a year for the seeds to grow into seedlings, if you are lucky. Normally I forget where I germinated them because of the unduly long time frame and my age catching up!

Well, what do you do if you have a clump around your back door? I tried my creativity. Took a piece of rotten tree trunk that was hollow and stood it up. Then I trimmed the huge leaves to match the size of the tree trunk 'plant container' and iin an instant I had created a unique display , very raw, basic, but all the while speaking to me, my senses and make me sing .....Windmills of your mind.

'Windmills of your mind' in silhouette, and taken with a clear background below.

Forest Wonders behind my back door

2008-06-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

The forest always amazes me. And I am so fortunate to have one right behind my back door. This is the kind of magnificence that I would like to retain in my eco-farm. Being an eco-friendly farmer, I must retain as much of the original jungle habitat as possible, for sustainability reasons. Therefore where possible vegetation islands are kept for posterity.

Like this Stag's horn fern ( Platycerium coronarium) that 's just above my head. It is more than six feet long, hanging its penduluous fronds and taking the appearance of the Stag's horn.

And this giant of a climber. It makes it a habit to turn and twist around this erect tree , reaching for a better view of the forest from upstairs, the fresh air it offers and lots of sunshine too. Isn't it not true of penthouse dwellers?

And on the ground level, Ati has to move slowly with his bush cutter to cut the 'resam 'thickets which are plenty here. Sometimes called bracken ( Gleichenia linearis) these terrestrial ferns are a formidable blanket that I need to push through to inch my way on the forest floor. More forest wonders coming.....

Sassy Pink Footpath Project

2008-06-24T04:21:00.000-07:00

This is Vegetation Island No.1. In this hill are tall original trees that constituted the jungle behind my chalet , about fifty meters away. In the far background is Vegetation Island No.2. The total area of these two vegetation islands are an acre and a half in size. These two small hills and the valleys around them make up the area to be developed as Heliconia Valley. But one thing at a time. Today I shall focus on the first footpath to be cleared i.e. the sassy pink footpath in respect to the beauty and splendour of heliconia 'sassy pink' species.

The above is a view from the south-east. Observe the tall trees that have been there hundreds of years ago, and recently introduced ones like the oil palm tree, coconut tree and banana trees that occupy the lower section of the hill. My equipments and tools are temporarily parked at the valley floor in the foreground.

This morning ( 23 June) my project involves the demarcation of the footpath as above, which follows closely the contours of the hill. All dead leaves, humus, branches and twigs are swept towards the sides of the footpath. At present the footpath shall remain earthen for budgetary reasons.

View from the west. A clump of yellow bamboo provides shade and marks the western entrance to the sassy pink footpath ahead.

View from the west, half way along the footpath . Ati ( in blue coverall) is busy clearing the undergrowth using a bush cutter in the far background, somewhere in the middle section of the hill.

View from the east. I had the honour, delight and fun doing instant transplanting of this tall stand of heliconia' sassy pink' to mark completion of Phase I of the 'Sassy Pink Footpath. Total time taken to complete the works was 10 manhours, myself and Ati included.

In the next posting I will describe the wonders we discovered while clearing the undergrowth.

Initial notes

2008-05-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a blog dedicated to anything I do around my garden. Created this blog Sunday,12 may 08.