THE GINGER SHOW

Not for the spicy stew: this is the ornamental ginger. Very pretty to look at . It has been flowering in my garden for at least 3 weeks now.

This is the edible ginger - not sure about the scientific name of it -

but it produces groups of cone like flowers.

I was casually walking past the herb section of the garden, near the kitchen, when something stopped me and I had to take a closer look. The ornamental ginger had produced a beautiful, showy, pink flower, white in the middle. Underneath the main pink, were tiny yellow flowers. It's still going strong after several weeks. Interestingly, there is only one big flower hiding in the middle of big leaves. It is growing next to the edible ginger and a rosemary bush. I don't think that the ornamental ginger has flowered before, so this was a real serendipity.

I love the combination of ginger and garlic in food. Even though the edible ginger grows in the garden, and seems to multiply very easily, I have only tried to use it once or twice in cooking. It does not taste very nice raw, so I mostly buy the big, brown fresh ginger root from shops.

WHAT'S THAT NOISE?

This very enterprising guinea fowl flew over from the neighbourg's side of the fence. This bird made a terrible noise and it was very lucky not to be caught by the dogs. We managed to rescue it and return it to the other side of the fence.

One day I heard a sudden BANG! on the glass window of the main door and went out to investigate what might have caused such a noise. To my utter amazement, a beautiful woodland kingfisher had flown into the glass, getting quite a knock on the head. It was standing only half a meter from me, stunned, unable to fly away. This was the perfect opportunity to observe its red and black bill, turquoise-black wings and white underbelly. I was too concerned to leave the bird unobserved, since our cats would have easily had it for a tasty afternoon snack, so I could not reach for the camera (that was a real shame!). It took at least 10 minutes before the bird recovered and flew away. Since then at least one woodland kingfisher has become a frequent visitor in our the garden - quite recently it was competing for insects with a Hamercop: both birds were targeting the same insects in the pool, just after it had rained heavily.

Walking around the garden with binoculars is one of the most relaxing things to do. I am not very knowledgeable about birds, but would love to know more. The best time to look out for birds is very early in the morning, around sunrise, and late in the afternoon, just before sunset. The other good time is after a heavy rain or even during the rain (if it is just a light shower).

This year I have seen 2 Meyer's parrots - new to our garden. Other usual visitors include Heuglin's robins, glossy starlings, hoopoes, drongos, red bishops, blackeyed bulbuls, sunbirds and mousebirds. There are also a number of different types of owls in the area. Once I saw one sitting on top of the flagpole, looking down very majestically. In Malawi owls are not universally loved, they are thought to bring bad luck to the occupants of the house.

There are many more bird species in the garden than mentioned above and it is somewhat frustrating trying to find out what they are - but I am making progress. The birdbook and binoculars are now always close by: I am living in hope that one day I will be able to name them all...

RAIN, RAIN AND MORE RAIN, PLEASE!

Sometimes a thundering sound proceeds the rain - you can hear it long before the first drops hit the ground. It sounds like a fast approaching underground train.

Roses love the rainy season, this was taken in April 2009.

Over the years the garden has formed its own character. In places, it is quite formal. But there are also wild patches where a jungle forms very quickly, if it is not constantly weeded.

This is noticeable especially now, during the rainy season. As soon as the sky opens, everything becomes alive. Suddenly, tired and dry looking grass bursts with the deepest green colour, dead looking trees, shrubs and bushes decide to live again.

It used to be pretty much a rule here in Lilongwe, that the rains would start in mid-November. We would then have a heavy downpour almost every afternoon until end of February and then gradually, less and less until the rain would stop altogether at the end of April/beginning of May. But this pattern has changed in the last five years or so. We can now expect to have the first real rain in early December.

The rain, or lack of it, causes a great deal of anxiety in Malawi: there is either too much/too little/it's only in certain areas or it has stopped and there is a threat of a drought or crops being destroyed. On the other hand, riverbanks burst and houses collapse because of heavy rains. The rains are also very localised: it can rain buckets quite close to the house, and not a drop where you are standing. Usually one rainy season is enough to get a domestic garden going. Two seasons and it will be well established. This was certainly true with our garden.

You might think that this would be the ideal time to plant flowers and vegetables, since there is plenty of water (if you are lucky) and the soil would be nice and soft. But no - according to experts, all planting should be done before the rains start. If you start digging now, you might destroy the soil structure.

I have also never been very succesfull with vegetables in January-February. Usually, there is just some lettuce, perhaps the odd eggplant and green pepper growing. Fresh herbs are another story - plenty of those (right now lemongrass, mint, parsley, rosemary).

In a couple of weeks time it will be time to start preparing the vegetable garden. This year, I am also planning to establish a container garden and I have a perfect spot in mind: just behind the kitchen...

IN THE BEGINNING

This is from September 2003: bricks, mud, sand, cement...the garden but a distant dream

I have not always been a keen gardener. As a matter of fact, I was postively uninterested for years. However, when we moved to Malawi as a newly married couple, the house we moved into had a relatively large garden. As is customary here, we employed a Malawian gardener and I was perfectly happy to let him dig the beds and plant the seeds I managed to get from shops. As far as I was concerned, he was the expert and I had nothing much to contribute. I did wonder, at times, why did we need so much Chinese cabbage or why only some of the veggies ever ended up in our kitchen, but this was not a big issue for me.

The turning point came, when we moved into our own house. Suddenly, this was a different matter altogether, since the garden had to be created from scratch. Luckily, a friend, who is a seasoned gardener herself, agreed to design one for us. The plot was basically a mudfield and I had difficulties in trying to imagine, what it will look like with various trees and flowers. My friend, who came to discuss the plans, might as well have spoken a foreign language I did not understand - I was just happy that she had a vision. For example, there is no such thing as creating the grass simply by rolling a ready made pieces of grass on the ground, bought from the nearest garden centre. No way. In Malawi, grass is planted with runners - each and every runner has to be planted separately. This is - of course - a very time consuming and labour intensive process. In our case it took at least a month, if not longer, to have the grass planted.
Two rainy seasons late - and voila! Here was the garden.

Then one day I was walking in the garden and it actually started bothering me that I knew nothing about the flowers and trees growing there. I started to consult gardening books and websites, I talked to friends and visited the garden centre nearby to learn more.
And then it happened: I got the bug.
Since that day, a new totally new world has opened up for me. A curiously secret world, where I meet a different tribe: people, who are passionate about gardening, both expats and Malawians.
I feel that there is a story to be told - after all, gardening in Africa is very different compared to Europe or America. Also, beautiful and enjoyable things are meant to be shared - so, let the adventure begin!