IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN

Those who know what my father does for a living assume (rather logically, I admit) that our home is a masterfully landscaped paradise, a showcase of all his best and brightest ideas.

But they would be wrong. So completely, utterly, not-even-close-to-the-ballpark wrong.

Our home, for as long as I can remember, has always been a jungle. It's not a house merely surrounded by trees and plants, it's been long swallowed up by them. I no longer remember what its basic structure looks like; old pictures now fill in the gaps of my memories. One of my favorite features of my childhood home is one I haven't seen since I was a toddler (and barely, even then): arranged in a floating pattern on the front wall are square blocks, each inscribed with a character of the pre-hispanic Tagalog alphabet. I must remember to ask my father which letters he selected and why, since I'm pretty sure we don't have all 17 of them displayed. And now that I think about it, I need to find out why he chose the design motif at all -- was it in honor of his father, my lolo, who was a Tagalog poet? Or was it simply an aesthetic decision?

While I was growing up, before I became truly interested (almost obsessed, really) in plants and horticulture, my surroundings looked nothing more than masses of leaves obstructing the view beyond the walls. But now that I've become the kind of person who visits garden nurseries in the weekends the same way I trawl through malls, I can appreciate the extraordinary variety of plants that my dad still brings home regularly. I see each plant as distinctly as I would every heartbreakingly gorgeous pair of shoes displayed at Barney's, and I have to resist the urge to bring a few cuttings back here with me lest I be detained and fined at LAX.

My dad is eccentric in the way most artists tend to be, and he doesn't much care for what people might say about him. And although I sometimes shake my head when he explains his decisions, at times I am simply floored. For instance, if anyone remembers Makati in the '70s and can still visualize the row of trees that dotted the center of EDSA, it might be interesting to know that we nurtured their mother tree, from which they all sprung, right in front of our house in between the front and side gates. The same tree that I used to think simply took up too much space and hid even more of the house, to me suddenly represented history, a remembrance of when the city I grew up in was not yet a harsh concrete jungle.

During my mom's last visit to my townhome here, she looked out from the dining room into the pocket-sized patio garden and said my house now looked like our place back home. So many plants, she bemoaned, and I flinched at the perceived insult. After all, I may not have had professional training, but I do have an instinctive sense of design and color that I inherited from my father. Couldn't mom see that I actually selected each plant with loving care and consideration?

But looking out this morning during breakfast, I realized my mother was right after all. All I could see were masses of green interspersed with rich purples and burgundies and dotted with clear, bright white. I'd covered the ugly concrete patio wall with reed fencing, upon which rests plum-hued heavenly bamboo, apricot-scented sweet olive, lush vanilla trumpet vine, and profuse, heady gardenia, the oldest shrub of them all. I realized my tiny garden consists of all kinds of plants I'd fallen in love with and even remind me a bit of home (for instance, just outside the dining room is night-blooming jasmine that announces itself to the entire neighborhood on warm late summer nights with its intense fragrance, just the way my favorite dama de noche used to by the side entrance to my old house.

My tiny, too-tiny garden is a lush, verdant refuge, a riot of texture, shape, color, and fragrance. When a strong breeze goes past these days, you can smell sweet stephanotis, exhilaratingly fresh lemon verbena, crisp rosemary, calming lavender, and even slight whiffs from pots of lemon and chocolate scented geranium and chocolate mint herb. Somehow, defying all rules of space and logic, I managed to fit in three varieties of glorious japanese maple trees, and even more shrubs, grasses, dwarf fruit trees, and vines. And that's all just in my pocket garden. I've got pots and pots more of other plants I've fallen for outside the front door and upstairs in my balcony.

Just like the next person, I can truly appreciate neatly-clipped and manicured gardens, beautiful in symmetry and harmony, and stunning in discipline and restraint. But as much as they can make me lose my breath, they don't turn me on. I much prefer it when all my senses are alive and electric, and when I can find magnificence buried within the customary and mundane.

Others might look at the same view I see everyday and see only green. But I see my heart.

Comments

[Anna]

I've always admired people with a green thumb, like my mother. Me, I touch a plant and it dies. I like hardy plants that stubbornly thrive even though I shamefully neglect them, like the 50+-year-old roses in my garden.

[Trish]

I love your last sentence, pretty much says how I feel when I am in the caribbean -- surrounded by their vegetation -- makes me feel like I am (almost) home. Strange how plants/shrubs/trees have that effect on so many of us.

[jase]

Oh my gad!!! We really have the same interests !!! I love plants and flowers as well! And gardening (pottering around!) is something that I find so peaceful and calming. My favorites are the bamboos and the ferns and the japanese maple trees... they are really very artistic and they give any garden that tropical jungle look that I love! Exactly what our friends and visitors say when they come and visit our place. Ohhh, I love the birds' nests and the birds of paradise too!!! Could you post some photos ah?

[Gigi]

Anna - Geraniums. But you need to go to a well-stocked garden nursery to get the more interesting varieties. They love the sun and can take abuse, and produce really pretty flowers.

Trish - Not to mention they're good for the environment, and for us as well. What I love about being surrounded by greenery (both here and back home) is that it's always cooler inside somehow, and definitely more relaxing.

Hi Jase - I'll take pictures in the Spring and post them. That's when it gets really pretty. :) Don't forget to post photos of your place as well, OK? I love gardening...time passes by quickly and when I'm done I feel like I'm settled with my thoughts, I got a bit of a workout, and everything looks better than before I started. Definitely win-win all the way. :)

[cheH]

Gi,I also like plants. My living room is like a li'l jungle actually lol I'm not sure if I am with green thumb though!I'm into orchids,btw since orchids are relatively cheap here!

[Gej]

Enjoyed this post!

Like you, I've had my share of visits, no, safaris, to plant nurseries, garden shows and plant bazaars.

I remember your rain forest of a house of course. However, during college, the time we met, my interest in plants took a back seat to sports ( oh, and girls too). I did not explore the different varieties of plants in your place, as I would have done in high school . after college, and now, when I make more space for my love of plants. As I told you before, had I known that there was such a field as landscape architecture then, that would have gotten me thinking.

I hope you could post or send me pictures of your garden. Pinky liked it a lot when you brought her to your home last summer.

We share the same preference in design it seems, not the symmetry of manicured gardens, but the natural shapes and sizes of plants, with the different heights, colors and textures carefully considered and combined.

For me, not even the most expensive decoration can beat how plants can liven up the house (and with very little cost). Whenever we have visitors, we bring in several potted plants in, and place them in various kinds of baskets - really tranforms the place.

How plants almost always bring you back to your relationship with your father struck me too. Plants have indeed taken added significance because of family. The rosemary at the doorstep has become more special because of how the kids would brush the branches early in the morning to release the scent. Mexican cilantro always reminds me of Pinky's frequent pickings for her cooking. Now I anticipate that daughter Gabrielle will soon be raiding the lettuce beds to feed our new pet rabbits.

Your mention of chocolate mint, reminded me to pass by the Manila Seedling Bank and finally buy the herb tomorrow, when I go to Quezon City.

[Gigi]

Hi Gej! Bawal ba magdala ng halaman doon? Let me know, because it would be great if I can bring you some herbs on my next visit. Ang sarap talaga ng amoy ng chocolate mint, 'no? When I'm watering the plants and I brush against the leaves with the hose, the scent is so wonderful...cooling and yummy. It's amazing how many varieties of herbs exist -- if we had a huge garden I'd have a whole area devoted solely to them. Anyway, I miss you guys na -- are you planning to visit us before I go home in October next year?

[Gej]

Bringing plants might pose a problem. We used to sneak in plants from abroad , in our long bags, with sina W and Mon P when we used to compete - exciting then, but not a good idea for you.

But seeds are ok. Yes, would love to order some.

An herb garden would be really nice. Even 4 square feet for herbs will be enough to have quite a number of them.

You might also have heard of herb spirals, with several herbs positioned well in a corkscrew- like mound walled by bricks. The herbs are positioned based on their sunlight and water needs (e.g. the chervil on the shady side of the spiral, or the rosemary at the top, so as to max imize sunlight and assure good drainage for its dry-soil -loving roots). Usually, it can put in 1-4 sq meters of space.

I also make edible gardens - veggies and herbs all mixed in . Will work on this some more as I get more space.

Is the chocolate mint as invasive as the other mints? Do you grow pineapple sage - intriguing variety ha. Also, did the Peruvian restaurant have this special yellow chili - aji limo- used in their salsas? Very nice flavor daw, so would be a nice hot chili to grow.

Till your next green post...

[Gigi]

Hi Gej - dad used to do this all the time, too. I probably shouldn't say more and "out" him this way, but how else did he get all those plants back home di ba? :)

Chocolate mint is invasive, but I grow it in a huge pot. Mine dies down in the winter and then returns in the spring, so I usually hide it behind other plants when the pot looks empty. You can find Pineapple sage fairly easily here, believe it or not (I've seen them at the Armstrong Garden Center even, I think) and the only reason I haven't planted one yet is because I have no idea where to put it! Must build some kind of raised planter box talaga.

These plants really surprise me; for instance I had a medium-sized pot of lemon verbena that I sat on the ground. Next thing you know, it's this tall tree-like shrub! The roots found their way through the drainage hole of the pot and submerged themselves into the soil. It grows so fast that I keep hacking into it -- but keep telling myself I need to learn how to distill the oil and make soaps or something. Sayang naman.

Yes, the name of that chili you mentioned sounds really familiar. That Peruvian place I brought P to serves two kinds of sauces -- one red/orange and the other one green -- based on two different chilis. I normally don't like spicy food, pero masarap sila. I'll ask the owner more about it next time I'm there (which should be soon).

[Gej]

I planted my peppermint, java mint and spearmint in open beds too, so now, they're by the fringes and eager to visit new places. I also experience mint dying out, both in pots and in the field. Read somewhere that , digging the soil,burying the leafless stems back under, and adding new soil and compost to cover the thinning parts helps re-invigorate the plants, and it's been working so far too.

Found some interesting recipes with pineapple sage so it made me curious.

Pictures of your garden ha. Also hope I could meet your Dad and see the plants the next time you visit ( I don't think I'll be going the the US anytime soon).

Yes, distilling oil and other similar processes using herbs can be very interesting - can be part of your Beauty Jones blog in fact. Do you want some formulas? Have quite a bit from the books I've accumulated on herbs. Am just focusing on culinary herbs now under the name "Kitchen Herbs" , but I suppose the "Beauty Herbs" part will be for the future.

Just got a visit from a friend who lives nearby (and who by the way loved Howling Dave's- your friend Batjay's bro - short-lived 70s rock radio show) who collects a lot of different chilis and makes several kinds of hot sauce concoctions. Naturally the aji limo story intrigued him. Funny though , the next generation of seeds from his chili collection became almost the same, from all the cross-pollination - so soon he will have a collection of i chili variety.