The keywords to define and shape my gardening this last month have been "surreptitious" and "savour" and "remembrance".
If you missed my earlier garden posts, you need to know that the property we lease in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand has a big and fairly well established (boring) garden and came with the stipulation that the gardening be organized only by the landlady's chosen gardener. It chaffed a bit, I must say, but I consoled myself that I'd mostly focus on pots and enjoy what's there... and dream-envision-manifest my OWN piece of property during this transition phase. Well, the gardener thankfully quit and the landlady, unable to find anyone at the low price point, asked me to find someone. And so I employed myself. 馃槅 Because she wants it left largely as is and plans to live in the house herself when she retires (she's a university professor) she wants the basic layout to be left alone, and nothing labour intensive added. Hence my first word of the month: "surreptitious".
Because I sneakily planted two small papaya trees.... cos, really, which Thai person doesn't LOVE fresh papaya salad??!! 馃榿
I spent a lot of time savouring... on two levels. I savoured what was already there: the mulberry tree setting fruit...
and the jackfruit. We may well have enough jackfruit this coming hot season to feed the whole village, twice over! Gotta love tropical abundance!!
And I truly savoured the task of looking after my new baby trees, that I'm growing for my own place. The little lychee trees are doing well...
And I have 4 little lemon trees really starting to take off! In a country where limes are ubiquitous, I'm excited about local (huge!) lemons, particularly as an income source for village people in the future.
The tulsi that was just beginning to pop after cool season last month? It's BOOMING and happy that the hot weather is back!
From leaf to seed in not even 3 weeks!
Yes 
What gave me the greatest delight this last week? This crazy vine that grows stupidly fast to the point of strangling the lady palms, suddenly erupted into flower!
I did some plant identification work and discovered it's Purple Wreath Sandpaper Vine - Petrea volubilis - almost like an orchid, up close but damn it grows fast! Stunning flowers which attract loads of pollinating butterflies!
Which brings me to remembrance. Our beautiful black rescue boy, MD, finally breathed his last on Wednesday afternoon. He'd been slipping away for a week or so and succumbed to FIV, what's commonly called Feline AIDS. I laid him to rest under the banana trees near my bedroom window - he used to love sitting on the fence under the bananas on hot afternoons.
It's not quite the happy garden selfie I had envisaged, but we're gllad he has no more pain. I planted an amazing Thai herb on his little grave - Bai Chaa Phlu - and will write more about that next week. It's often confused with Betel Leaf and is a truly astounding little plant!! The purple sandpaper flowers adorned his resting place.
And so the days pass, the garden evolves and flourishes, and I am deeply grateful.
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