My Tiny Garden on the Roof

My Childhood Memories

My parents loved gardening. I remember when I was a kid, back in Malaysia, we moved house and the house came with quite bit of land (for us) for the lawn. My father bought several plants and both of them started planting in our small lawn.

They made a great team because he said he didn’t have "green hands", the term used in our culture for individuals who can grow anything, so he did all the soil digging and my mother, who really can grow anything anywhere, did all the planting.

We had lots of plants and trees. We had honey mango trees, honey jackfruit trees, rambutan trees, chillies, okras, snake beans, morning glory and sapodilla. For that amount of land for the lawn, we really had a lot.

We still have our honey mango trees until now, after more than 20 years. The trees are still giving fruits. Lots of them.

Now

I was never into gardening until now. I think my interest in planting emerged out of desperation. Why? Well the city that we’re living is not that big. So you couldn’t really find Asian produce or stuff.

That was years ago when I first moved to Spain, now I have my fix on my Asian things in a shop at Sevilla, which is our nearest big city. It has almost all.

Anyway, so when I came here years ago I couldn’t find any lemongrass nor chillies. Those 2 are like my crucial items in my cooking. At first my family sent me boxes of chillies and lemongrass, among other stuff.

Then my mother suggested why don’t I plant the lemongrass. I was like, how? I mean, I never planted anything in my life. The only experience that I have in that department was watering the plants at my parents house when I was a kid.

She said I needed to grow the roots out of the lemongrass first, by soaking the bottom part in water for a few days. I did that for almost a week and nothing came out. She said to plant them anyway so I did. I started planting 3 lemongrass and look at them now.

Happy! Both them and me.

Ever since the lemongrass started to grow more and more, my interest in planting started to grow too. My mother sent me varieties of seeds and I planted them. It’s quite challenging for me because since we live in an apartment and of course with no land.

We do have our own roof terrace upstairs and that’s where I put all the plants, in pots of different sizes. They do suffer a lot during the summer as the summer heat here is unbearable. But they hang on and keep on surviving.

          

Now upstairs, I have okras, chillies, banana tree, lemongrass, eggplant, basil, parsley, Thai basil, lemon thyme, bay leaf, mint and chives. Yes I know they don’t look the greatest but considering what they’ve gone through enduring the heat and cold upstairs, I’d say they’re the champions!

I freeze the chillies and okras so that I have stock all year long. And ohh.. I planted Thai basil because I really wanted to make the some Thai dishes! We both really wanted to try that meal and it was all worth it.

We get to make our homemade green curry paste and cook chicken green curry using it. And yes, I freeze the Thai basil leaves too.

Now I’m a proud owner of a tiny garden on the terrace. Do you plant? Let me know in the comments below.