Setting up the first phase of Seri Iskandar Garden.

We spent 2 weeks recently over in Seri Iskandar home, a house built almost fifteen years ago but we never stay even for a night. The feeling is still like coming home.   The inside is empty, surprisingly all lightings, pipe fittings, built in kitchen cabinets and bedroom wardrobes are still in good conditions.  A dream house some years ago, and now we coming to stay for real.

Kakdah was busy with her curtains and getting the basics going. New big refrigerator, washing machine and gas stove were purchased. It's like a young couple getting basic infra into their first home....... We realised things are costly now.

While kakdah was busy inside, I stayed outside assessing what's need to be done. Some seedlings had been prepared and carried all the way from seri kembangan, 300km away.

Garden and Lawn

Before: 2  mango trees, 1 lime tree (limau kasturi), 1 henna tree (inai), 1 big clump of lengkuas or galangal, and 1 clump of  lemon grass.  And there is colony of cherry trees at the front gate which probably grow through birds dispersal. The rest are all patches of grass growing on poor soil.

After: Both of us discussed, and agreed to allow only one mango tree, so one had to go.  I did it in stages, trimming branches and upper parts, before finally coming to the main trunk.  . Mansor brought in 10 bags of decomposed cow dungs, 5 bags of palm oil refinery waste from Pengkalan Bharu for soil improvement.  I put in a number of plants to form skeletal framework to the garden.

patchy grass on poor soil

soil improvements done in sections

soil improvements done in sections

a peek through old mouldy front fence gives eerie feeling

limau kasturi / citrus microcarpa  at the backyard

Ceperai/ champeria manillana    

3 papaya seedlings

papaya close up with coconut husk as soil cover

3 papaya seedlings

4 pineapples seedlings

3 companions : asin-asin, keladi and ginger

It's the eventual retirement house, so we will keep coming back to get used to things around here, the house, the garden and the neighbours.  Newly introduced plants like pineapples, asin-asin,  keladi or yam/taro/caladium, papaya, cemperai, lemongrass, Leucaena leucocephala/petai belalang  and Napier grass. are tough and they dont need a gardener to babysit them on daily basis. We will keep returning to the old house on regular basis, once a month at least, until I finally retire.

It's really a rare 2 weeks long vacation.

bangchik and kakdah

Gardening at Seri Iskandar Home.

SERI ISKANDAR HOME, Muntingia calabura at the front

Visiting Seri Iskandar Home is always memorable. It is a house which we never stay even for a night when it was built more than a decade ago. We built a house somewhere , but work somewhere else, so that's how the story goes. Two tenants had stayed there and now we are ready to call it HOME. That will be our only HOME after retirement. We have a few years to get used to the place, a number of projects in store to get the setting right. The house does require a bit of facelift here and there. 

There is a tree called pokok ceri in Malaysia, but known scientifically as Mutingia calabura. For the moment the tree is wild, growing and branching at will. I am going to tame it, putting it to the right shape and size....... one of the first few projects, during long end of the year holidays.

pokok ceri or mutingia calabura

Seri Iskandar Home, getting old.

Our house is not far from oil palm plantation.

bangchik and kakdah

SERI ISKANDAR HOME

Rearing chickens

We had discussed at length, about rearing chicken. Kakdah seems to agree, but she put down a certain prerequisite. The neighbours must agree, she said.  It's still a plan, as we would soon get into Seri Iskandar HOME.  It's sort of retirement plan, so to speak. It's a long way to go, but it is worth going through things we would do, to fill up space and time.

We had given the tenant ample notice, two months ago, about us wanting to get in middle of December 2014. Last week we paid the tenant a visit. Yes they found a new house to rent nearby. Saiful mentioned about a mango tree that had to go..., the roots had meandered too far. He works with Petronas.

We had gone through chicken rearing way back in 1983 - 1986. That was while we were staying in Ipoh. What a lovely experience that was. So many eggs collected, and so many home grown chicken ended as most delicious dish. Neighbours had fair share too......  I can still remember the look of that chicken coop, a simple 5x3 house, and surrounded by fishing net. Chickens had a space of 15 feet square to roam about. And at times we open up to let them free..... Over in Ipoh, the space was big, half an acre compound.

Seri Iskandar Home is small.... space is limited. There is one neighbour on the right, none on the left and back. So only one person need to give his approval to our adventure. I suppose if the number of chicken is kept to a certain number, and if cleanliness is priority number one, no weird odour going round the air, No one would mind. Give aways in form of eggs and chicken meat would make it more agreeable, a a true community consent to benefitial activity.

I wonder if Majlis Perbandaran (Town Council) would allow such activity.....

bangchik and kakdah

my little vegetable garden