Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Loving gardeners without space or budget

Tết Holiday at Tao Đàn Park

I have been living in Vietnam for a year now. It's taken me a long time to write as I lost confidence and but I have been working on that and I can't help but see the love of gardening here in HCMC and want to talk about it.

If you come here as a tourist you are most likely to go downtown to Districts One, Two and Three. There, you can see tree-lined avenues and large public garden parks. They are quite lovely and offer a respite from the heat and noise of the shopping streets. There’s a lot to do and see there as you can easily find out from websites like Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor.

Tao Đàn Park

Công viên Tao Đàn

However, I lived in Bình Thạnh District in my first year, and although I have moved to a pretty tree-lined street in District Seven due to work, I miss it there. The streets are narrow and noisy, but there are little shops everywhere as the entrepreneurial Vietnamese are aiming high in their economic growth.

Somewhere in Bình Thạnh, Phuong 14

In fact many of my university-aged students frequently have jobs and companies as well as their full time studies. So, back to the streets of Bình Thạnh where, as you wander around, you look up and see the balconies with plants from fully decked-out gardens to just a pot of lemongrass for cooking. It is rare to see a balcony empty of anything. In a country where personal political opinions are not encouraged, the Vietnamese express their individuality through their homes and balconies. Sleek modern straight lines neighbour flamboyant baroque-like facades. 

Join me as we explore the gardens in pots around HCMC.

Trees aren't cut down - They are built around.

Mango in the Compost

Sometimes magic happens. I've been making a new bucket of compost and a couple of weeks ago right in the centre, I couldn't have placed it better myself, a small seedling with long soft purple-bronze leaves grew.

I couldn't for the life of me think what it could be. I racked my brains trying to remember what I'd put into the compost; there'd been cut flowers, fruit and vegetable peelings and so on and so on. I scoured my books and images in Google. The problem is that there aren't so many photos of seedlings. Finally, a picture that looked just like my little plant came up - it was a mango, and I had been eating a mango a few weeks back.

The leaves are still soft with a bronze tinge.

The leaves are greener than they were at the beginning.

I'm glad I persevered as it's beginnings are quite different to what it looks like now. Now, it looks like many green seedlings, but in the beginning its three long leaves dark-coloured leaves were very soft and could have you believing that it didn't have enough water. I knew that there was plenty of water, so I thought I'd wait and see.

Sure enough, the seedling's leaves are now sturdy and sticking up as normal leaves do. They've also changed colour to a rich green. Very nice. However, I have to find my little plant a new home in due course as it will grow far too big for my balcony and apparently it likes a deep place to send it's main roots down.

But for now, it's looking very beautiful in my compost.

Lisianthus in the Tropics

One of my readers finally gave me the name of the 'Paper Rose' that I bought a few years back,  Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum), thank you Tramadol, and I can now research it and find out more about it.

The first thing I found is that it's from the warm regions in the Americas and so is definitely suited to our tropical climate here in Malaysia and South-east Asia. Secondly it is an biennial, so it will die off, but it can give you a couple of years, or seasons, of flowers.

Apparently it's drought resistant, but likes regular watering with good drainage. It likes the sun a lot, but a very wind-sheltered sunny spot might be too hot. To promote flowering you can cut the long stems which are great show flowers and can last 2-3 weeks in a vase.

So, if you are out in Sungai Buloh and you find these flowers, you can rest assured that you can grow them in a sunny spot in your home. I'll put some links below to sites I looked up if you want to know more. However, I mention the main care needs above, and will mention one more word of caution - that they don't like their roots disturbed too much. So either keep them in the pot they came in, or put them into a bigger pot without trying to separate or loosen them.

Have fun with them. They are such beautiful flowers.

http://www.theflowerexpert.com
www.bhg.com 
http://www.dontveter.com

The difference between Tree Tomatos and Tamarillos

Nothing!!

This wonderful sweet and tart fruit apparently originates from the western South American countries including Peru and Chile. People from Naga in Sri Lanka also claim that it comes from there, but as it's part of the nightshade family that originated in South America I'll put my bets on there.

Home Grown

As you can see it's aptly known as tree tomato. It grows into a shrub of about 1.5m tall and will fruit all year round in a warm climate. In New Zealand, it's known as tamarillo. A blend of the Spanish word 'Amarillo' for yellow and the Maori word 'tama' for leadership, tamarillo helps to distinguish it from it's more savory cousin, the tomato, yet it still has a similar sounding name.

Growing up in Gisborne on the East Coast of New Zealand, I got to try a lot of exotic types of fruit as it's got a warm, dry micro-climate to the East of the Raukumara ranges. Feijoa, jack-fruit, paw-paw and so many more. My two favourites were feijoa and tamarillo. Of the two tamarillo was harder to find as it wasn't grown commercially in a big way until the late 80s when they began to grow it for export. I was working for my friend's father in the kiwifruit orchards when we were asked to help with planting out the new tamarillo orchards. I remember the leaves were quite smelly as I had to put my head against them each time I planted one.

I've heard that you can get them here in Malaysia, but only in the highlands as it's a sub-tropical plant rather than a tropical plant. If I'd known that before I went to Cameron Highlands a few years back I'd have been more diligent in looking for a tamarillo plant - or at least the fruit. I miss them so much. I love their slightly sour tart flavour. You can put sugar on them of course and the yellow ones are supposed to be sweeter, but for me it also makes the taste blander.

A link to recipes

If you know of where I can get my hands on a plant. Please let me know.
Resources and Recipes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarillo
http://www.tamarillo.com/mains/
http://www.nagafoods.com/Tree_Tomato.html
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/tree_tomato.html
http://www.nosygirl.net/2011/09/tree-tomato.html
Books
Berry Bounty: How to Grow Traditional & Unusual Berries
Seeds from Overseas