SUBURBAN LIFE IN THE CITY

 is not all bad. I would prefer to live further away with more greenery and trees. But getting to work and back would have involved fighting traffic. Thus, in exchange for less driving time, I live a suburban life where condominiums tower over terrace houses.

Residents have learnt to nurtured their front and backyards with flowering plants, vegetables and fruit trees. This post is dedicated to vegetable plots and fruit trees which are not all that interesting, unless one finds them blooming along main roads and drains.  

This purple sugar cane plot is beside the main road with cars zipping along and maybe some lead pollution. 

    The morning glory vegetable or Chinese water spinach patch is doing very well. Stir-fry with prawn paste and chilli, it is delicious with just white rice 😋😋. 

Can you imagine mangoes hanging by the main road? DRIVE BY and PLUCK!

Bananas at our front gates. Many of these trees do no require any care. Malaysia's sunny intersperse with raining days are perfect growing conditions.

Papaya trees are common and another easy-peasy fruit to grow in the tropics. Dig in some seeds, and harvest in a few months. We share our fruits with the bats, birds, squirrels and monkeys, and occasionally some wayward humans who steal the entire stalk overnight.

Noni, a fruit featured in traditional medicine is now reported to have antibacterial, antiviral and even immune enhancing properties. 

I know it sounds yukky to have fruits growing beside drains, but this is very common in Malaysia. The pomegranate shrub is flowering and fruiting.  

So is this passion fruit tree,

but Kim Lian's passion fruits grown in pots inside are better specimens. GOOD JOB. 

Lots of banana and papaya trees next to monsoon drains. These idle plots are called "no man's land"  as they belong to the municipality, who are happy the plots are taken care of for them. 

Abundance of coconuts by the drain. If there is a space, there is a fruiting tree.

Another very common farming practice here is "backyard farming." 

Here we have sugar cane, banana trees, screwpine (pandan), lemongrass (serai) and pumpkin along a narrow strip of soil. Vegetables and fruits for a family's needs.

 Another flourishing "backyard farm" just outside the back door. 

We may be boxed in by choice to live in the suburbs

but we have turned our "no man's land" FRUITFUL and GREEN.