Sights and sounds to soothe the senses

Sights and sounds to soothe the senses

Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Transforming an austere house into a pleasant, inviting home with
a strong "green" element is a challenge of time and creativity.

For young couple Ari and Agung, it was their dream to remodel
their house and small garden in Bintaro, South Jakarta, since
they moved in eight years ago.

Back then, the house was unwelcoming, with its small, dull and
disorganized garden shut behind high fences.

"But for the first couple of years, things remained that way
since we didn't have time to remodel the house as well as the
garden," said Ari, a mother of two.

Occupying 100 square meters on a 170-square-meter plot, the
home did undergo minor changes two years after they moved in,
with the addition of some artistic design elements and more
ventilation.

But it was not until Ari left her job five years ago that she
started making plans to transform the small garden into a living
homage to her love of plants.

Although from a family of devoted gardeners, Ari as well as
her mother and sister were unable to experiment much with their
hobby due to land constraints.

But once she had the chance to experiment in her own home, Ari
found it was not as easy as she thought. She turned to magazines
and books for reference and also inspiration in landscape
gardening.

"At first, I still made mistakes. I put plants in spots that
are not suitable for them to grow," Ari said.

"Several days later, they started to wilt and I had to replace
them with new ones. It happened several times."

During a period of trial and error, she started learning from
her own mistakes and soon enjoyed improved results.

Encouraged by the progress, she started tending plants
indoors to fill the empty spots in the front and rear garden, as
well as the space at the side of the house.

Several months later, her patience and hard work paid off with
the blossoming of three small gardens beautifully accentuating
her house.

Some unplanned experiments yielded excellent results. For
instance, in her front garden, a combination of red, yellow and
orange frangipanis with a Balinese style decorative umbrella
gives a hint of Balinese nuance.

"Actually, we did not plan to have a Balinese-style front
garden, we just planted some frangipanis and added a decorative
umbrella that we bought when we went to Bali ... and it turned
out great," explained Ari, who also uses lesung (a traditional
container) as a pot for the side garden.

In the rear part of the house, there is a kitchen, a
terrace/dining room and a tropical garden. Before the makeover,
the garden had a pond with water cascading from the wall, but it
was remodeled after one of their children was injured in an
accident.

From the terrace, the owners can enjoy their meals while
relishing the breeze as well as rich textures and colors of leafy
plants, neatly arranged in a bed and stretching along the sides
of the garden.

A pathway was added on the space where grass does not grow due
to little sunlight. Later, a miniature pond made out of brick and
equipped with a pump was added at a corner to provide the
gurgling sound of rippling water.

The soothing view of the garden and the sound from the pond
relaxes the senses. "It's sort of a therapeutic garden and the
pond was specially built for that purpose," Ari said.

Maintenance includes removing dead leaves, watering plants
twice a day and adding fertilizer, depending on the type of the
plants.

Her gardening success has drawn praise from friends and
neighbors. Some even came to her for advice or sought help to
redesign their gardens -- but she has learned to be selective
about who she helps out.

"It's such a pity to find out that after all the hard work,
the plants are not properly taken care of," she said.