The morning we were leaving for our holiday Luke and I sat outside, watching the chickens pootling around the garden and having a cup of tea before our epic journey. Suddenly I saw a flash of blue and lemon and thought how sweet that a baby blue tit was flying so close to Luke. Then Luke lurched forwardly ever so slightly because he felt something on his back and sure enough, that little bundle of down and feathers with it's inquisitive darting eyes and teeny beak was on LUke's shoulder. A moment later it must have realised it wasn't the right place to be and flew a couple of feet away onto the decks handrail and peered at it's temporary resting place - Luke. We were delighted. I wanted to tell my MUm about it but thought she might have an old wive's tale about birds landing on you before a holiday meaning something dire. In fact later when I did tell her the only wives' tale she knew was that a robin in the home meant twins! Where do these superstitions come from?
Anyway, it was a charming interlude and a sweet start to our holiday.
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Gardening Maldivian style.
Blimey, can we ever get away from the pull of plants? Would we ever want to? There was no mention of a garden in the brochure, all it talked about was sun, sea and sand which suited us to a tee. So imagine our surprise when we chanced upon the Reethi Garden and found out it was okay to wander around it even though it's a working garden, supplying fresh vegetables for the restuarant and young plants for the guest's bathrooms. These are no normal spindly aspidestras though. No overwatered spider plant trailing off the window sill. These are the big boys, a lemon plant only six months old yet already being used to create new lemon trees and looking about five years older than our expensive and non productive tree at home. Either I need to learn how to care for lemon trees and the such-like or I need to realise my limitations and stick to what I know will grow in our conditions. Part of me thinks life is too short to be fussing over a mere plant which doesn't like our climate whilst the other part of me, the side I usually listen to, likes the challenge and thinks, What's life for if not taking some chances? After all, if you don't chance things you and the plants don't grow.
So, after a photo op of the welcome sign into the gardens we made our way, found the guide book to their garden plants and then got set upon by the head gardener. When we went back later to take photographs (having politely asked if this was okay to do) we got accompanied around again by another gardener; this led me to question , do they not trust us to leave the plants alone or are they super efficient and glad of the interest from tourists? I have no answer nor do I need one. It was kinda irritating to be followed around yet again but it helped when we had questions about the plants and their care.
We saw the usual things that our Victorian ancestors had in their parlours; brought back from daring travels into unknown lands; palms -a-plenty but also poinsettas, bouganvilleas, almonds, lilies, orchids hanging in the shade and growing in plastic pots with polysterene in the bottoms for drainage. On the ground, not an inch was left unplanted although most things were grown in old catering size tins and vegetable oil containers, filled with imported soil and cow dung. Lots of more established plants were in larger pots with rough pieces of coconut husk laid on the top of the soil to limit moisture loss. The Bangladeshi head gardener, a man who had trained for four years before getting this job chatted about the different plants. I loved the small patches of grass they had laid out, wispy stems of bright green which cushioned your feet after the extremely hot sand of the pathway. They had nicely dotted rustic seats around the gardens and even created a few vistas to sit and admire. Glass bottles had been stacked to make tables and hung from circles of wood with energy saving lightbulbs to make crude chandeliers whislt the basil was grown by the hundreds in small plastic cut off containers. The best by far for me though was the ordinary garden mint. Everyone knows what an invasive plant this is. In our garden we have to grow it in a container to stop it's roots spreading and overtaking the finer herbs. Over here though there is no soil involved. What they have ingeniously devised is a watering system of several lengths of pipe on a table top; 2cm diametre holes cut out of the top, ten cms apart. it is linked up to a water tank which provides fresh water constantly in the pipe.
The gardeners have sheets of foam moistened and pre sliced with a 1cm long slash in each 3cm square, into which a mint seed is placed and then put in a dark container for three days to begin it's life. After that it is put into a different container with water and a lid for a few more days before the foam square complete with tiny mint plant is pushed into the hole in the pipe (this is rather hard to explain so look at the photo for help once I've uploaded it).
Over the next month, whilst each tiny mint grows in it's own waterlogged piece of foam, liquid feed is pumped through at fortnightly intervals to provide nutrients needed for good growth. Once this is grown to the required size it is all cultivated and the process starts again. They don't seem to do successive sewing here for continual crops. it's the same with their lettuce, grown in water-fed pipes, cut and come again types which last the restaurant for a week before it's all over and a new batch is sewn. They had things we are used to seeing like Elder as well as LUke's favourite, the Screw pine tree which throws our long shoots as it grows to help stabalise it on it's merry way to the light. These root systems can be as high as six feet on this island. How exciting it must have been to have discovered these strange, to us, plants.
Tomatoes, aubergines and gourds are grown whereever space permits and as we left the garden having returned to photograph it, we saw the gardeners debating who went up the the twenty foot ladder to remove some of the air plants which had taken over. Good luck to them. Under the Thank you (No, thank YOU) sign and we were back on the sandy trail tot he beach. What a discovery. Who'd have thought?
So, after a photo op of the welcome sign into the gardens we made our way, found the guide book to their garden plants and then got set upon by the head gardener. When we went back later to take photographs (having politely asked if this was okay to do) we got accompanied around again by another gardener; this led me to question , do they not trust us to leave the plants alone or are they super efficient and glad of the interest from tourists? I have no answer nor do I need one. It was kinda irritating to be followed around yet again but it helped when we had questions about the plants and their care.
We saw the usual things that our Victorian ancestors had in their parlours; brought back from daring travels into unknown lands; palms -a-plenty but also poinsettas, bouganvilleas, almonds, lilies, orchids hanging in the shade and growing in plastic pots with polysterene in the bottoms for drainage. On the ground, not an inch was left unplanted although most things were grown in old catering size tins and vegetable oil containers, filled with imported soil and cow dung. Lots of more established plants were in larger pots with rough pieces of coconut husk laid on the top of the soil to limit moisture loss. The Bangladeshi head gardener, a man who had trained for four years before getting this job chatted about the different plants. I loved the small patches of grass they had laid out, wispy stems of bright green which cushioned your feet after the extremely hot sand of the pathway. They had nicely dotted rustic seats around the gardens and even created a few vistas to sit and admire. Glass bottles had been stacked to make tables and hung from circles of wood with energy saving lightbulbs to make crude chandeliers whislt the basil was grown by the hundreds in small plastic cut off containers. The best by far for me though was the ordinary garden mint. Everyone knows what an invasive plant this is. In our garden we have to grow it in a container to stop it's roots spreading and overtaking the finer herbs. Over here though there is no soil involved. What they have ingeniously devised is a watering system of several lengths of pipe on a table top; 2cm diametre holes cut out of the top, ten cms apart. it is linked up to a water tank which provides fresh water constantly in the pipe.
The gardeners have sheets of foam moistened and pre sliced with a 1cm long slash in each 3cm square, into which a mint seed is placed and then put in a dark container for three days to begin it's life. After that it is put into a different container with water and a lid for a few more days before the foam square complete with tiny mint plant is pushed into the hole in the pipe (this is rather hard to explain so look at the photo for help once I've uploaded it).
Over the next month, whilst each tiny mint grows in it's own waterlogged piece of foam, liquid feed is pumped through at fortnightly intervals to provide nutrients needed for good growth. Once this is grown to the required size it is all cultivated and the process starts again. They don't seem to do successive sewing here for continual crops. it's the same with their lettuce, grown in water-fed pipes, cut and come again types which last the restaurant for a week before it's all over and a new batch is sewn. They had things we are used to seeing like Elder as well as LUke's favourite, the Screw pine tree which throws our long shoots as it grows to help stabalise it on it's merry way to the light. These root systems can be as high as six feet on this island. How exciting it must have been to have discovered these strange, to us, plants.
Tomatoes, aubergines and gourds are grown whereever space permits and as we left the garden having returned to photograph it, we saw the gardeners debating who went up the the twenty foot ladder to remove some of the air plants which had taken over. Good luck to them. Under the Thank you (No, thank YOU) sign and we were back on the sandy trail tot he beach. What a discovery. Who'd have thought?
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Gardeners never rest.
Well, hello. I know I said we were away for two weeks so I wouldn't beginning on but would you believe it? Here we are, on the tropical paradise that is THe MAldives and we
Have found their garden. Not only that but we were given a guided tour of it by the head gardener. When we are back next week we will upload the photos we took and I will rave about their ingenious way of growing sprigs of mint. We loved looking around at the empty tins now used as pots to grow a variety of plants. What with that and seeing sting rays being fed and snorkelling alongside sharks I've got lots to tell you. I hope you have the patience to wait for me. You might like to know that the chickens are okay. How
Do I know that? Because Jack rang us
Last night atmidnight our time
To say they were out in the
Garden! Agh!
Have found their garden. Not only that but we were given a guided tour of it by the head gardener. When we are back next week we will upload the photos we took and I will rave about their ingenious way of growing sprigs of mint. We loved looking around at the empty tins now used as pots to grow a variety of plants. What with that and seeing sting rays being fed and snorkelling alongside sharks I've got lots to tell you. I hope you have the patience to wait for me. You might like to know that the chickens are okay. How
Do I know that? Because Jack rang us
Last night atmidnight our time
To say they were out in the
Garden! Agh!
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