My Not So Secret Garden

When I got back from Switzerland in February, I was shocked to see that alot of my garden had been dramatically cut back. There’s a villa with a huge glass window that abuts the wall behind my pool. Before, the window had been obscured by greenery, but now all I could see when I sat in my living area was this big glass window staring back. They also cleared so much out of the bathroom garden that it now seemed bare and forlorn, rather than lush and tropical.

Surely, they were just doing their job. Because things grow so fast here, I think the Balinese take their tropical paradise for granted. They have the attitude that plants are forever plentiful and maybe even aggressive in their unceasing growth. So from their perspective, it’s no big deal to cut them. They will always grow back, and fast. But one of the reasons I fell in love with this villa was its lush garden, so I was very sad to see this new state of affairs.

I asked the gardeners to make amends and plant some new trees in front of the gaping window. Their solution was to stick tall potted plant alongside a couple of skinny banana palms that promptly turned brown and died.

There was an even bigger disaster the day I left for the States. One minute the back wall behind my pool was its usual verdant green with splashes of blooming flowers. The next moment, I heard Putu cry out, “Oh my god.” J. and I looked over to see that all those trees and bushes were laying on the surface of the pool.
It seemed that the workers, who have been building a house on the other side of the wall for the past month, decided to cut down all my trees. Including a big thriving multicolored bougainvillea. Why did they do this! How could they do this?

The best explanation I’ve gotten is that this kind of thing happens all the time in Bali. If your neighbor decides your tree is encroaching on his property, he can and will cut it down. Perhaps the trees were getting in the way of the roof’s construction. Still, to cut down ALL my plants and leave them floating in my swimming pool for my staff to clean up? This seemed like too much.

In a lame attempt at reconstruction, the gardeners replanted what was salvageable, in some cases just leaving branches standing against the wall. Since I’ve been traveling so much, and because the construction continued on the roof next door, I decided to ignore the disaster until the time was right.

While K. and I were walking on the beach yesterday morning, I told her about my garden problems. It turns out she used to have a big garden in Australia, so she offered to help me. After breakfast we drove our motorbikes out to the nurseries in Kerobokan and spent a few hours in the mid-day sun picking out plants.
It was hot as hell, but fun. We got a couple of small palms, lotus flowers for the temple pond, several small bougainvilleas, and lots plants that I can’t remember the names of. Some have purple flowers, some yellow, and some that glow like clusters of polished garnets. An hour after we got home, five guys showed up with a small truck full of tropical lushness. These guys were so great – not only did they plant everything they delivered, but they also undid the crappy work of my gardeners by removing the dead banana palms and the detritus they left leaning against the wall. K. and I had a ball supervising this landscaping improvisation.

It’s amazing to me that while some things seem so difficult in Bali, other things can happen almost effortlessly and instantaneously. Like this instant rejuvenation of my garden.

It’s not perfect yet --I still need at least one big tree to soften a particularly ugly corner of the wall. But it is sooo much better than before. Especially the bathroom garden, which has been filled out and enlivened with flowers. Now I just need to work on my communications with my gardeners so that we can keep everything alive.