When I designed a children’s garden for Healing Present and other schools in the Philippines, I needed an special architectural element that would impress students. One structure wowed children: Living Arches. Living arches can be rectangular pergolas, curved arbors, or archways filled with growing vines, ephiphytes, flowers, or edible flora.
Children are awed by towering structures that gently envelop a space. Arches strewn with plants can make a garden entrance, stairway or outdoor path magical. Interactive pergolas and archways can be a delightful design choice. In Healing Present’s, I designed pergolas with edible fruiting vines, berry shrubs and flowers. This design facilitates fun harvesting activities and healthy fruit snacking.
Photo 1. One of the Healing Present pergolas with herbaceous borders along the path.
I made sure the plant varieties for Healing Present’s pergolas produced eye-catching shades of red, pink, orange and yellow petals or fruit. The edible fruits were multiple passionfruit types varying from yellow, purple, red and green hues.
Other seasonal Planting Combinations included:
Aromatic Shrubs/Trees: Acerola Berry, Bengal Berry, Cinnamon Tree
Fruit Vines: Apple guava passionfruit, Cherry Passionfruit
Overall a broad biodiversity occupied the pergolas and archways. Some of the pergolas included herbaceous borders (Photo 1) and playground features (Photo 2) beside or underneath the pergola. This gave children a visual and edible feast at their feet and above their heads. The delicious assortment of tastes, sounds, textures, aromas and tasty treats were a sensory treat.
Photo 2.A) Custom-made “monkey bars” B) Custom Slide; C & D) Swinging Rope Bridge
When Healing Present’s founder and staff asked me to design a green roof project in the Philippines, I was beyond excited. I knew a green roof would long-lasting value to the site’s environment as well as the owners themselves. Designed thoughtfully, a green roof gives people a layer of beautiful plants on their roof. Yes, a green roof can morph a plain roof into marvelous riots of floral color and soft, organic forms.
But beyond a look and feel, green roofs absorb heavy rainfall, reduce flooding, and naturally cool a building.
Plus a green roof is extra real estate! It’s more growing space for herbs, flowers, and vegetables. For Healing Present, it’s also another playground for children. All these benefits attracted Healing Present and other clients to the prospect of a green roof. Since Healing Present is in the middle of tropical, upland area of the Philippines, the plant selection was delectable and vast.
We planted (A) coleus (B) cuban oregano, (C) purple & Italian basil, (D) amaranth, and (E) purslane. A wide selection yields excellent harvests and dynamic, colorful combinations. You can install seasonally, diverse plant combos 2 or 3 times a year for fun.
Plant Mixes for Gardens in the Sky
Berries + Bulbs: In tropical areas, heavy duty roofs can handle dwarfed versions of acerola and calamansi (calamondin) trees contrasting tropical bulbs from the lily and onion family.
Native Meadow: Choose a mix of meadow flowers and grasses native to your region. In the past, I’ve chosen species that can easily grow in soil 4 to 6 inches deep.
Cozy, Happy Edibles: Choose edible dwarf varieties or veggies that can handle crowding and moderate soil depths like such as spinach, lettuce, and radishes. Or try herb mixes with lavenders, oregano, chives and sages.
Mediterranean Meadow: In regions outside the tropics, you can still mix dwarf fruit trees, native perennial succulents, flowers and berries. I had a successful design growing in a Mediterranean climate. The middle of the roof was sedum varieties with columbines, yarrows and chamomiles. Then the outer edge of the roof was planted with berry bushes like gooseberry and chokeberry. For our readers in Mediterranean climates, here’s a sample green roof concept. This is inspired by my work in the Bay Area (California). See the diagram below.
For readers and Healing Present advocates in the US or in more temperate regions, you may want to consider the following planting combinations listed above. Of course, when you consult or hire a designer the planting combination should match your specific roof angle, roof soil depth and weight capacity.
If you’re interested in gardening outside of Cebu, you may want to check out my posts at my posts at Inflourish: Around the World. There, I post gardening ideas inspired by my work in California, East Coast of US, Belize, Australia and other regions.
One of my first major landscape design requests was for Healing Present’s Yoga Area.
Photo 1. Healing Present’s Yoga Garden
Healing Present has many themed gardens and forest patches designated for past retreat activities. One of my first major landscape design requests was Healing Present’s Yoga Area. The Yoga Area’s landscape was a vibrant and unique outdoor garden around of Healing Present’s two-storey retreat house. After a collaborative and thoughtful design process, I proposed a calming design theme, outdoor furniture, plant selection, pergolas and other features. As requested by Healing Present’s founder, my proposals celebrated local medicinal and therapeutic plants.
Most groundcovers and shrubs I chose were ingredients from Healing Present’s menus or their health products. The proposed trees attracted local songbirds, butterflies and other beneficial wildlife. Many of the plants exuded a modest or calming aroma for visitors to enjoy. Photo 1A to 1C shows the selection of medicinal and edible plants that thrilled visitors during Healing Present’s organic product demos and botanical tours.
Photo 2. Healing Present’s Yoga garden seating was my custom design; grown with lemongrass and citronella to repel mosquitoes.
This is all well and good. Hooray for Healing Present. But the reality is Healing Present is closed to the public because of this pandemic. So can we still have a piece of therapeutic paradise close to home?
Potentially, yes! During this pandemic, many of us discovered the safest spot to travel was your backyard or a space near your home. So how do we transform a safe space into a therapeutic sanctuary? Let’s brainstorm. First, your sanctuary should be a reflection of your preferred method of relaxation. Make moodboards to investigate how you want to relax. Look at the sample moodboard.
Your moodboard can be a collection of images that help you organize relaxation ideas, color motifs, garden architecture, comfy furniture, natural flooring and other elements you envision. Make multiple moodboards to help you refine your ideas.
How do you relax, de-stress, or rejuvenate? Breathing exercises? Do you relax with yoga? Reading? Arts and crafts? Aroma therapy? Cooking? Sleeping? Then build a garden that accommodates your specific technique and enjoyment. For instance, if you enjoy naps, then maybe incorporate a hammock or cabana with flowing fabrics and mosquito nets. Or add tall hedges that act as sound barriers. If you like cooking, incorporate a simple kitchen garden with your favorite herbs. Or a firepit where you can cook or grill.
Photo 3. A Powerful Vista in Healing Present. Sometimes creating a meditative space starts with site observation.
Design ideas to create your own sanctuary or healing outdoor space:
Create A Powerful Vista. Is there are view around your house or apartment you love? Is there vista you could create with a new balcony, a renovated deck or a tree house? Observe your surroundings from different areas of your house. Change your normal eye level by using a ladder around your house. You might discover an amazingly peaceful view.
Revisit an abandoned space. Sometimes there are abandoned or neglected spaces that can transform into sanctuaries. I’ve seen this makeover happen with apartment rooftops, community gardens, or a backyard. A meditation garden in a community space or residential backyard does not have to be huge. You can create a humble, small-scale retreat to suit your preferences. With the right seating, platform and plants you can make a space of recovery and stress relief. Though the example (Photo 4) has in-ground plants, you can easily build a peaceful container garden instead. Use cheap pots, re-use buckets or buy fancy ceramic planters from a flea market. Tall or short. Just choose plants and garden elements that will make you relax. This is a time to cater to your needs. This could mean comfortable seating or tall container gardens so you don’t have to bend and strain your back. Or maybe relaxing means designing a more minimalist garden. You can choose a small amount of large, low-maintenance feature plants. Perhaps a grand agave or dwarf, sprawling fruit tree. Then add pebble or gravel flooring with gorgeous stone statuary. This reduces maintenance, provides calming beauty, and still incorporates therapeutic plants.
Photo 4. Diagram of a small, personalized, and relaxing yoga garden.
Want a fun, plant-powered recipe for your vegetable harvests? Check out Healing Present’s e-books. And great news, later in February, I’ll post downloadable gardening pamphlets, educational posters and e-books just for you. For now, enjoy some quick techniques on camote care.
1) HOW DO I EAT & COOK CAMOTE (SWEET POTATO)? I grew up with classic recipes like Camote-Cue (Caramelized Sweet Potato) and Camote Tops Salad. The leaves, purple camote and orange camote tubers are so delicious, versatile and nutritious.
2) WHEN DO I GROW CAMOTE IN CEBU? Generally January to March, November to December. But it always helps to ask experienced gardeners, farmers or plant nursery staff for your area’s specific planting seasons. Local knowledge is golden.
ANY SPECIAL TIPS FOR GROWING CAMOTE (SWEET POTATO)? Here are general tips and reminders for growing camote. If you want a more detailed description for growing and harvest, later in February I will post a special, illustrated downloadable gardening guide.
GROW camote in a sunny location where it’s exposed to 6 hours of sunlight. Camote thrives in garden soil with good drainage and lots of organic matter. If you have low-quality soil, you can mix the soil with earthworm vermicast (“worm manure”), aged compost or other sources of organic matter.
REMEMBER to plant vine cuttings or clean, sprouted camote tubers. These tubers are called slips. One way to plant slips is by burying them at a 45-degree angle, leaving the sprouting end exposed.
HARVEST the camote tops or young shoots any time while you wait for the camote roots. The roots require more patience. It can take 4 months to harvest them.
ADD organic matter like mulch or compost if your harvested camote has cracks and rough skin. The organic matter will improve your next batch of harvested camote.
In February, what are we supposed to do in a food garden? You can maintain and take care of the seeds you planted in January. Some gardeners and farmers around Cebu plant sitaw (longyard beans), camote (sweet potato), munggos (mung beans), rabanos (radish) and singkamas (jicama). The best way to find out what’s best for your growing site is ask experienced gardeners or seed store owners in your area. Their knowledge is priceless. For February’s garden project, why not start a raised bed. Click here for an article on raised beds just for you. A simple raised bed with eggplants, sweet potatoes and tomatoes mixed with lumps of flowers like cosmos and cannas may flourish in your future garden. For detailed food garden designs, order my new Kitchen Garden design book.
