Patah Tumbuh Hilang Berganti

Bunga kenanga berputik kembali

Tenang sungguh suasana di taman

Patah tumbuh hilang berganti

Pepatah Melayu zaman berzaman

It was quite a tough week. Grandma's funeral and prayers were held in Pekan Pahang from Wednesday, 27th October for three days. When I returned to KL, we were exhausted yet satisfied that we had done all we could for her and met all her expressed wishes.

By Sunday, I felt a need for quiet contemplation. I had, over the last few days drafted a simple ode to grandma which I posted here. But I needed to get my hands dirty and busy in the garden.

So early Sunday morning, I set to re-pot all the overcrowded plants I had. I took the wild gingers, aloe veras and a water orchid to tasks. From one plant, I ended up with six to seven new pots of each plant. The cekur which descended from my late Grandma Jamilah's garden needed repotting as well.

In Pekan, I took a cutting from the Tok Rahmah's favourite kenanga tree. I am trying to encourage rooting - we'll see.

It was many years ago when I inherited Tok Jamilah's 80 year old water pot. Through thick and thin, together with her aloe veras, they have followed me. Now I have Tok Rahmah's century old rice pot as well in my garden.

The garden is slowly shaping up. I am content.

Gardening Sunday

Today, I moved our bird nest ferns to the curb near the entrance to accompany the young frangipani. It has been quite lonely. And they look lovely together.

After the general weeding and pruning, we had rozelle drink, some ciku and nona fruit, all from the garden.

Sigh...

Rememberance

Whenever I am in the garden, it is a trip back in time. Generally, my instinct for gardening was borne of unconscious observation...watching my grandmother in her garden.

My two grandmothers must have played a significant role in my life. One gave me stories, the other an absolute love for all things green. It is of my late Tok Jamilah that my thoughts fly back to today as I weeded and got rid of browning leaves in my lttle garden.

Tok Jamilah never sat still in her garden. As she sat on the steps of her house, she diligently removed all the baby aloe veras sprouting beneath the huge aloe veras that flanked the magnificent entrance steps to the old cengal house in Kampung Baru Jaya Diri. Tok Jamilah's garden had golden coconuts, rambutan, jambu air, mempelam and delima at base of the back staircase leading to the kitchen. There was the great towering sireh, serai, lengkuas, kunyit and a bush of chilies. There was guava at the gate entrance snd a circular rose garden as you drove in.

Tok Jamilah was constantly weeding, pruning, removing unwanted young sprouts. This was my first lesson in the garden. This is vital. It is a serious undertaking - this removal of the weak and browning. My grandma was relentless.

One day, I saw my grandma setting traps in the garden. By evening, she caught a beautiful squirrel. She calmly drowned the poor creature. I cried and asked her why. Her answer, the squirrel ate her coconuts. Certainly, gardening is not for the weakhearted. Now, today, I would love to have squirrels and birds in my garden, I would never resort to killing them. But I remove snails and spray pests with my citronella spray. And remove leaves with cocoons. I suppose I am not as ruthless as my grandmother. But then my garden is not even one tenth of her one acre compound.



Another thing. To grandma, the house was part of the garden, not the other way round. The kitchen extended into the garden, with the lesung kaki housed under a huge shelter at one end and several tunku at another end. The lemang stove area was the centre of the hari raya season. They were people in the garden night and day. I can't remember why. But there were always nieces, helpers, anak angkat and gidzillion of people around.

My grandmother looked after her garden all her life. Even when rheumatism must have caused her so much pain. I feel her close when I am in the garden. Experimenting. Remembering. Loving.

The garden - her legacy.