My gardens ( 1 )

Posted on 22 Aug, 2008 5 comments

As a child I grew up in a tropical garden and I was mentioning somewhere tonight that I can still remember the smells. It was not really my garden, as it belonged to my parents, but I will briefly describe the first garden in my life which made an enormous impression to me and which probably gave me the incentive to love gardening for ever.
Our house was small and stood against the neighbouring fence, but on three sides was garden. The front garden had some lawn and only one border which was right in front of the veranda. The veranda had a little wall in front, which acted as a partition between garden and veranda. In the border between the lawn and the veranda were some busy lizzy plants, white ones and pink ones. The fence between the neighbours and us was really a solid brick wall, about 5 ft high I would say, I could not look over it. In the corner grew a large Poinciana ( Delonix regia ) tree, which bore the most spectacular red flowers in spring. The leaves were dainty, light green and the tree provided a lot of shade. My sister and I played here cubbies etc. but mosquitoes also loved this shady spot and she was always bitten. In front of the garden was a big hedge to provide privacy. These were Ixora’s, yellow, orange and red ones. A Plumeria, the creamy variety, was growing on the other side.Then there was just a gravel path. The path lead to the water well, which was surrounded by banana trees. We often played there, carving in the sappy trunks and getting our dresses spotted. The path then lead to the back yard, which was not much of a garden by any means. The back veranda looked out onto it. We had some chickens roaming around in the back yard, a paw paw tree, which I had planted grew there and some peanut plants, which grew when I stuck the peanuts in the ground. I cannot remember if I ever picked peanuts from them. There was not much grass there, just clay like soil, hard in the dry, and soggy in the wet season.
Then I lived in cities in various places, some with small gardens, some had none. When we moved to Australia I finally had my own garden.

Comments

Chrispook

Well that was an interesting account Marguerite because it was so different to any garden that those of us remember who were brought up in UK. If you moved to Australia later where was the tropical garden of your childhood?

22 Aug, 2008

Spritzhenry

I was wondering that, Chris! Thanks Marguerite - I always enjoy reading your blogs, even if the plants are not familiar ones!

22 Aug, 2008

Madaboutgar..

Chris reading your blog reminded me of my tropical childhood, and its amazing how the gardens you grow up in shape how we garden now...
I grew up in Rhodesia and remember most strongly hibiscus grown as hedges, jacaranda tree's, glory lilies growing in the wild, the fragrance of frangipani tree's and a bush I only know as "yesterday ,today and tomorrow " that had flowers that faded from brilliant blue to white........
Thanks for reminding me of those memories

22 Aug, 2008

Marguerite

Hello Madaboutgardening. You probably mean me when you mentioned Chris, but never mind. I can so relate to you growing up in Rhodesia and know all those plants you are mentioning very well. The Jacaranda's were not where I was born, but they are here and also in abundance in the South West where I spent 37 years. I also grew up in a colonial place, the Dutch East Indies, which are now called Indonesia. This was the tropical childhood I had Chrispook. Then I lived in Holland for 12 years and migrated to Australia. But only the last 4 years I've been back in the tropics in this country. Indeed I have gone through many garden phases in my life, from temperate and frozen lakes to hot and steamy jungles. It's all been part of my life.
Thank you all for your comments.

23 Aug, 2008