A New 'Malaysian' Garden

A Garden in Waiting

The big move north has been complete, temporarily, for some months. Now, we wait.

Realising our dream comes at a small cost: for the moment, we rent until such time that our new home, on a small acreage, is finished. If the construction continues to plan, we move again at the end of autumn: a grand time to begin planting an orchard and gardens.

There are no regrets. Even at our rental home in a small Mid North Coast city, life is splendid. Regular visits from koalas, kangaroos, ringtail possums and deer are preferable to the congestion and continuing over-development of Sydney. How people’s lives have been altered by the mushrooming high-rise and endless traffic of a once beautiful city!

Overall, our wait will be for about one year. Our new garden will also have waited for one year…

Preparation has been the key to the move. Some of our most precious plants were disinterred from the Sydney home. Then potted. Our two most special fruit trees, a seedling mango with Maha Chanok parentage, and a pomelo, were grown as grafts. Other fruit trees, such as Starfruit, Jackfruit, Longan, Chiku (Sapodilla) and Lychee were grown from seed. And, an array of citrus trees was purchased as available.

A selection of 16 mangoes, jackfruit, starfruit, chiku, papaya and macadamia trees...

 Furthermore, we have prepared for the planting of an Asian floral and senses garden in similar ways, some plants cutting-grown, others purchased, others removed. White and yellow Chempaka trees, Heliconias and Azaleas were purchased, Frangipanis were grown from cuttings. Our collection of Gingers, both ornamental and culinary, were uplifted and potted… Native plants, Staghorns, Orchids, Herbs and pond plants, all came north to grace an abundant, new garden.

Some of our ornamentals awaiting transportation

Gingers, edible and ornamental, kaffir lime and lemongrass

Moving so many potted plants from Sydney in the beginning necessitated the hiring of a van to complete the massive job. Luckily, the second move will be much simpler, being just a hop-skip-and-a-jump in comparison, requiring a few short hauls in a family car.

As you can imagine, the yard of the rental home is overflowing with young plants, perhaps 200 in total, all requiring daily attention during the current, warm days of summer. Watering, potting, repotting. And, of course, preventing our hungry, pet rabbit from eating them!

A collection of citrus trees

When we walk amongst our green babies, they seem to suggest that they would enjoy immediate planting at their new home so that they may spread their expansive roots. So, which of our precocious plants will be first to be planted?

"Will I be first?" A 'Carter's Red' pomelo in fruit appears to suggest that it should be the first planting

Wishing you hours of enjoyment and contentment in your garden…