Food from the garden

To be truly productive, grow your own food.

WHY take the trouble to grow your own food in an age when everything can be purchased from just a stone’s throw away?

For want of an answer, the best person to speak to is Haji Mohd Arif Rahmat, 79, who was only 10 when the Japanese army invaded Malaya in 1941. Though this retired headmaster has not divulged the details of his life during that period, it is a well known fact that folks from the “banana currency” era had to grow their own food to survive.

These days, what used to be known simply as plots for growing your own greens has taken on a fancy name: “edible garden”. But to Arif’s generation, the ability to grow one’s own food was a way of ensuring survival.

Haji Mohd Arif Rahmat needs only a pot with a bit of soil and he’s ready to plant.

Having grown up in an era which put a premium on thrift, Arif likes to share the fact that he has never had to buy a single leaf of ulam nor any of the local fruits like durian, langsat, mangosteen or cempedak.

As he puts it plainly, “I have always believed that to be truly productive, you must be able to grow your own food.” But thanks to modern abundance, it is no longer necessary for us to resort to growing food for the family. However, there is a legion of avid gardeners out there who will think nothing of sinking their hands into mulch, coaxing the soil to produce a harvest that they could confidently tuck into.

It is also common for growers of edible plants to share their passion as well as the fruit of their labours with their relatives and friends. When she has visitors, Eunice Quah, a freelance designer in her 30s, usually takes them to her herb garden to introduce them to her collection of plants. “Here, smell this. It’s lemon balm,” she would say. Or “You’ve got to taste this.

This is stevia, which is sweeter than sugar.” And it is!

Most times, growers of edible plants also rank quite highly in their friends’ and family’s popularity list.

Before Arif moved from Kedah to Kuala Lumpur to be closer to his three children, he had a 1.69ha orchard that was a favourite among his grandchildren and their parents especially during the fruit season. They would help themselves to the durians, mangosteens, cempedak and langsat in the orchard.

Tall order: Ong with her 1.829m-high kailan. It was grown from a cutting given to her by another gardener friend.

Six months after settling into his ground floor apartment in Wangsa Maju, Arif’s place is now bursting with greenery from the host of potted plants he has planted. They include limes, mint, turmeric, ginger, curry leaves, lemongrass, kesum (laksa leaves), sweet potato, cekur (sand ginger), kuchai (Chinese chives), coriander, screwpine and tulasi. His little garden is now a popular spot for his daughter-in-law, Yasmin Medeonus, 48, who is a great cook.

“All you need is a pot with a bit of soil and you’re ready to go,” he says. Quah agrees, as she is also growing her sage, rosemary, sweet basil, thyme, marjoram, mint and other herbs in pots and planter’s boxes in her Taman Tun Ismail home.

Ong Suan Huah, 65, who lectures on green architecture in UiTM, has been planting long beans, convolvulus, spinach, brinjal, bunga kantan and basil on the backyard plot of her Section 17 home in Petaling Jaya for some years now yet she still feels amazed by the sight of her growing plants. “It’s an awesome feeling when you see your own brinjals hanging from the vines. You feel like such a genius even though you know that it is all nature at work. I guess this is because you know that you have nurtured your plant from seed to bush.”

Ong started growing vegetables when her grandson, Anton Siew, now six, was born. Her main reason, she says, was that she did not want her grandson to ingest the harmful chemicals that came with the bought varieties.

She began with Chinese kale (kailan) grown from a cutting given to her by her husband’s relative in Ipoh.

“After the success with the kailan I went a bit mad and started to try my hand at mustard greens, French beans and mustard celery. But I was not successful with this lot.”

Still, it is thanks to Ong’s effort that Anton and his younger sister, Trinity, five, love to eat vegetables, which is not often the case with most tots.

“This is because home-grown vegetables are nothing like the ones bought from the market. Like my kailan, there is no bitter aftertaste. There was also a time when we had long beans and we chopped them up for omelettes. They were crunchier and sweeter than any of those I had ever bought,” says Ong.

Keen gardener: Partini prefers to potter in the garden rather than watch TV in her spare time.

Dispelling the idea that she has “green thumbs”, she says she wasn’t successful at gardening before. To explain, she goes back 15 years to the time when she went on a field trip to Cameron Highlands with her colleagues. There, they visited a nursery and she emerged from it with her arms full of potted plants. They eventually died from want of attention, she says.

These days, though, she will spend entire weekends tending her plants.

“The moral of the story is, only when you are passionate about your plants will they grow,” she says.

Initiative, agrees Partini Safrudin, 35, the Indonesian housekeeper of Alex Wong, a recording artiste and Elvis impersonator, is the important factor. Though her employer’s double-storey bungalow in Ara Damansara has only a small patch of land for gardening, she has managed to plant rows of screwpines, a papaya tree and daun salam (Indonesian bay leaf).

“In my case, it’s for want of something to do. I don’t like taking naps or watching soap operas all day. So I plant things, which in turn rewards me with a sense of satisfaction and helps me to relieve stress,” she says.

Herbs to the fore

Passion for herbs: Eunice Quah with her collection of herbs. She is surrounded by thyme, rosemary, marjoram, basil, mint, sage, parsley and coriander.

FOR those who are interested in beginning a herb garden, enthusiasts like Eunice Ouah, Ong Suan Huah and Haji Mohd Arif have a few suggestions on the types of plants to try.

> Dill flower: Dill is especially suited to containers and will produce wispy leaves growing on a single stem to about 75cm high. It can be harvested about eight weeks after sowing. At this stage the plant will begin to produce flowers, causing the leaf production to stop. Keep the plants on a sunny windowsill but out of direct sunlight.

> Lemon balm: The lovely lemony scent of this herb makes an excellent iced tea with honey. It is easy to grow and thrives well in loose, fairly fertile soil with little watering.

> Rosemary: The three fundamentals for successfully growing rosemary are sun, good drainage and good air circulation. Rosemary is usually propagated by cuttings as seeds can be difficult to germinate and often don’t grow true to their parent. For a good start, gardeners have recommended periodic spraying of liquid fertiliser on the leaves.

> Sage: Grown from cuttings, the best place for planting sage is in full sun. It should be put in well draining soil as it does not like its roots to remain wet. As it originates from hot, dry climates it will grow best in local conditions.

> Stevia: Non-toxic, insect repelling and sweeter than sugar, stevia plants do best in a rich, loamy soil. Since the feeder roots tend to be quite near the surface, it is a good idea to add compost for extra nutrients if the soil in your area is sandy. The roots can also be adversely affected by excessive levels of moisture, so take care not to overwater. Choose fertilisers with a low nitrogen content.

Starting out

IF you are planning to start your own vegetable or herb garden, start by saving the seeds and stalks from everyday staples like chillies, bitter gourds, basil or daun kesum. Soak the seeds overnight in water to speed up germination. If you’re using stalks, place them in a jam jar filled with 1cm water and let them sit for a few days until a substantial length of roots can be seen.

Soil should be loose, well drained and fine textured. To ensure that your pots do not become waterlogged, place a layer of gravel or charcoal at the bottom before sowing the seeds. To revitalise used soil, heap it in a corner or place it in a large container if you live in an apartment. Instead of throwing away dried leaves that have fallen off your plants, toss them into the soil heap and leave to mulch. You can also add in peeled skins of fruit, vegetables or the pulp from blended juices. Another type of soil which some gardeners prefer is worm compost which is said to require very little management.

Here are some home recipes for fertilisers. One is to tie up a bag of dried leaves, wetting them with a bit of water beforehand. Seal the bag tightly and let the contents disintegrate naturally before placing them on your plants. If you can get goat’s faeces, this is good manure for the plants.

Otherwise, there is the packed and sterilised variety of blood and bone meals which will have all the nutrients that a plant will need. Some gardeners also recommend rice husks and the husks of yellow peas which is purported to give excellent results.

The secret to every successful gardener lies in their willingness to experiment. This is especially so with Mediterranean herbs like rosemary, sage and thyme. The best way to start off with this lot is to buy ready-grown plants from the nursery. Otherwise, stick to easy-to-grow plants like daun kesum, basil, kailan or spinach which can be easily propagated from stems.

You can opt for chlorine-free water for your plants by collecting rain water. Watch out for dry spells, especially in fully concreted areas, which can make your plants wither. Device methods of shading with umbrellas when necessary.

If your garden is on landed property, you may eventually have a problem with pests. One gardener, who has experienced an attack of snails that destroyed her chilli and spinach plants, suggests sprinkling salt around the perimeter of the plants. Otherwise, arm yourself with a torchlight to remove the snails from your plot at night. The kids will find this fun!

Published in The Star March 14, 2010