Leucaena (Petai Belalang), a player in garden sustainability.

A young lady Nor Hidayah came to the office last week for her doctoral research. I was chosen as her expert panel for professional inputs, which I gladly accepted, to ease out her quest for knowledge. The central issue is sustainability.  While going through the discussion, I pointed out FOREST as the best example of sustainability, the fact that forest exist within a system that is self propelled.  We may emulate contributing factors in forest sustainability into other systems.

This particular post is about Leucaena, which many would happily regard as a nuisance, or invasive.  Folks around here call it as petai belalang.  I on the hand place Leucaena as a treasure. Leucana has small leaves which would fall off from time to time. So small the leaves, that they blend well with grass underneath and decay in no time, adding organic matter to the soil. Some snails may venture out at night munching leaves on the ground, and probably leave poos behind , again as first class  organic fertiliser in ready form.  And that is a recipe for sustainability.

Pic 1: Leucaena alongside Moringa, both with fine leaves
behaving like deciduous trees,
dropping leaves regularly as agent of organic matter

Pic 2: These leucaena had been pruned twice already.
In the wild, Leucaena will be very bushy.

________bangchik and kakdah________

leucaena growing healthily after pruning

People like plants for various reasons.  Not all plants are for consumption ending up on dinner plate. Some plants are grown for sheer beauty, for shade,  for colour, for exquisite flowers. Kakdah (my other half)  wonders what's so special about leucaena, that I reserve quite a space for them.

They grow so fast, reaching a height of about 10 feet in a year. That's the main reason I grow them. I need plants or trees that fill the higher space, giving shade to the ground. Creepers, okra, pandan, lemongrass cannot do that, because they are designed to fill lower space. Rambutan, and mango trees may take 5 years to reach that height.

I love leucaena because the leaves are small. When they fall, there is no need to sweep. the dead leaves will blend with the lawn and decompose over time.  Its nice to have them around to fill up the upper storey of garden space and with small sparse leaves, vegetables underneath can still enjoy sunbathing!.

I pruned once a few months back. Leucaena demonstrated the best regrowth I ever seen.

Leucaena: Young leaves

Leucaena: Older leaves

Leucaena: leaves view from below

Leucaena: a row of leucaena

bangchik and kakdah

Putrajaya Garden

Lawn and effort to improve soil

We did try hard to improve the look of our lawn at Seri Iskandar home. Organic fertiliser, biomass waste of palm oil, cow dungs were used every time we spent weekends there. The lawn look alright for the moment, helped by the regular rainfall at the tail end of monsoon season. For the next two months rainfall will be a lot less, the grasses have to handle themselves. We would come back once or twice every month.

The improved lawn.

the shadow of heavily pruned mango tree

our own nitrogen fixer: little mung beans or kacang hijau.

I am trying to see the impact of mung beans on soil health, since they are nitrogen fixers. 13 leucaena (petai belalang) seedlings are growing steadily and they too are nitrogen fixers. We will be back on 19 - 22nd of february to see the progress.

bangchik and kakdah

seri iskandar home

Leucaena leucocephala or petai belalang

So they say petai belalang are good as both nitrogen fixer and fodder plants. We have a number of seedlings ready to transform Seri Iskandar Home. Thanks to Tahir who had given away cuttings and seeds. We are planning to grow Leucaena leucocephala or petai belalang as hedge. I wonder how the hedge will look later. The soil in seri iskandar home isn't too rich, so Leucaena or petai belalang may be able to do nitrogen fixing. I am planning to regularly prune, and use leaves as mulch. Five seedlings are grown from seeds and 10 from cuttings.

Leucaena had been grown for many reasons, and mainly as fodder throughout  the world. The trees are planted in closely packed rows.

Leucaena leucocephala or petai belalang seedlings

bangchik and kakdah

vegetable garden