Count Your Blessings!

With love and passion, everyone can have a nice garden...Elaine Yim

Count Your Blessings!
Count The Garden By The Flowers, Never By The Leaves That Fall.
Count Your Life With Smiles And Not The Tears That Roll.
..... Author unknown.

Knowing me, Knowing you..... Aha.....!

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Malaysian Flora USDA Zone 11
Welcome to our exotic world of everlasting summers and tropical rainforests!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

My Blog Plans for 2010


My Dear Friends,

Today, I'm going to talk about my blog plans for this year. For a start, I have found this free site at the web and created my own mangatar. If you wish, you can also try doing your own at the Face Your Manga. I like cartoons, anime and manga too. Sometimes, I am quite curious to know why my teenage son is still watching cartoons, so I join in as he watches his Naruto and Avatar cartoons. Seems interesting, so far, but my fave is still Tom & Jerry, The Road Runner and Pink Panther. I still watch them because they make me LOL .

I am using this avatar in Blotanical now.

I plan to write about 3 posts per week. The rest of the time to be spent visiting and commenting on other blogs.

This is what I intent to blog on:
a) My Home garden
b) The gardens of 1-Utama Shopping Complex, namely The Secret Garden, The Rainforest and The Victoria Amazonica Water Lily pond.
c) Gardens and plants in the places I visit


As I am a Do-It-Yourself gardener, I shall be writing about what I am doing in my garden. I plant many different types of flowering plants, shrubs, foliage, vegetables, fruits, herbs and also medicinal plants. My garden landscape is always changing according to my whims and fancies of the moment. As I live in the city with limited garden space, my posts will be mostly about urban and container gardening, with occassionally some old wives tale or grandmother stories thrown in.

I also live with 9 koi fishes in a water fountain, 9 gold fishes in a little indoor aquarium, 1 garden tortoise, some frogs, butterflies, caterpillars, dragonflies, spiders, some other visiting wildlife and also a fat & white, freelance cat who occassionaly come to my house to peep into my kitchen, then walk around my garden to pee and poo. My garden consists of a few eco-systems with a bio-diversity of flora and fauna.

The Secret Garden of 1-Utama is an experimental garden using novel technologies to grow 500 species of interesting, rare and unusual plants in an open tropical roof-top environment. The soil medium is based on granulated horticultural carbon. Chilled water is provided by sprinklers at night. The plants in the garden fall under several themes. The names of the plants and their origins are provided in small labels at the base of the plants. Yor are welcome to take photographs but please observe that this is a NO-SMOKING area.
.... from the words of Consultant Botanist, Dr. Francis Ng in their brochure.


This is the place where I satisfy my hunger for knowledge on plants and also where I practise my photography skills. Here I can find tropical, desert and even temperate plants. With close to 600 species of plants now, I can write a post each day for each plant continuously for nearly 2 years! Usually I will take pictures of those plants that are blooming and record the information about the plant 's botanical name and origin.
Once, I am back home, I will surf the internet for details and information about the specific plant. By the time I post in on my blog, I would have done my research and homework. This way, I find that I can learn a lot about native plants around the world and I also hope to share this knowledge with you. There are also some rare and unusual plants grown here too. Some examples are the grass orchids, Arundina sp; Kinta orchid Papilionanthe hookerina and Tapah orchid Arundina gramilifolia. I will be posting about them soon.
As we know, growing native plants in our garden has a lot of advantages and it contributes positively to our environment. If we know more about the native plants and their origin, we can select the suitable ones to grow in our garden. Many native plants are hardy and easy to grow in their places of origin and they also have medicinal values.
Learning about and teaching our kids about rare plants will raise awareness on the need to do our little part or what we can in preserving the environment that we live in and in preventing rare and endangered species from disappearing altogether from Mother Earth.
There is a wealth of information to be learn from this roof-top garden in the city.

This garden has taken urban gardening to a new dimension.


The Rainforest of 1-Utama contains real forest trees and hundreds of species of plants. This is another good example of beneficial urban gardening.
Can you imagine a rainforest inside a shopping complex? There is also a pletora of fresh water fishes, making it a very good learning ground for adults and kids alike. The flora and fauna here are properly labelled.
Malaysia's rainforests has an incredible biodiversity of flora and fauna and they also have a wealth of rare plant species which are very important to medical and scientific research. Indigenous people who live in the rainforest have their own medicine men (MM). These MMs are already very old now and may be into their 70s. They know a lot about the medicinal use of many herbs and rare plants. Whenever an MM dies, a wealth of knowlege is burried together with him/her and this knowledge may be lost forever. There is a real and immediate need to "Save The Rainforests" from further destruction and/or disappearance. The least we can do is to learn more and then to educate our children and future generations to the best of our ability, to care for the environment.


Next, during my travels to other places, I may come accross interesting local plants which I will highlight in my blog posts.

Hopefully, when you read my blog, you get to know more about tropical, equatorial Malaysia, our rainforests and our gardens.
Finally, before I sign off, your feedback and all comments for improvement shall be greatly appreciated. Comments do not have a closing date, so there is no such thing as a 'late comment'.
My post today is dedicated to jodi DeLong, writer, editor and photographer from Canada of Bloomingwriter: Gardening in Nova Sotia. She was the first commenter of my previous post on the Cardinal Creeper. At the time of writing this post, her blog is the no. 1 most popular blog at Blotanical. Congratulations!

34 comments:

  1. Why, thank you, Autumn! I am so glad to have tumbled across your blog in my wanderings. I love that we're communicating across the miles and continents and seas, and learning more about each others biomes and ecologies and botanies.
    Rooftop gardens fascinate me, although we have nothing here to the extent you've written about. It's partly a climate thing; trying to create a rooftop garden while planning for snow load, freezing rain, winds, fogs, etc. There are a few experimental ones being planted around my region, but for the most part just a few small rooftop veggie and herb gardens at restaurants get the attention.

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  2. your photos are always so wonderful, no matter what you post! hope to see lots from you this year....have a great weekend

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  3. Your blog plans sound great! I love seeing gardens from all over the world, it's fun seeing how different and how the same the are.

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  4. I look forward to all of your post Autumnbelle! Lovely photos here and very interested in the Secret Garden project.

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  5. Hello,

    I am looking forward to reading your blog in 2010. I love how beautiful your part of the world is and appreciate the fact that you share it with all of us.

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  6. Good morning Autumn Belle, I see you are very organized and plan ahead what you want for this year for your blog... that´s so good, I have to learn from you. Really you are going to post 3 times a week??.. my god, that´s a lot.
    I smiled when you confess you favorite cartoons... mine were the Flintstones (Picapiedras) and Supersonics!!!
    Muchos cariños
    Maria Cecilia

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  7. Thanks very much Autumn Belle, for adopting the Secret Garden and the Rainforest of 1 Utama as regular features in your blog. I find it much easier to read your blog than to write my own.

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  8. Hi Autumn Belle, you're truly a great gardener we can be proud of:)) I love the info and the tips you share.

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  9. Autumn Belle,
    You are going to be growing by leaps and bounds with all those wonderful bloggin plans, darling! I look forward to all these posts you plan on making. I have always enjoyed what you blog about. I feel connected to Malaysia in a way now. Thanks...I am glad your migraine and toothache are gone now. :)
    Rosey

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  10. I am looking forward to your posts - I am learning about Malaysia and all the exotic plants that grow there. Your photos are beautiful. Happy blogging 2010!

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  11. Hi Autumn Belle, that plan for 2010 is already a very big mission and as i wrote earlier you should be given honorarium by different departments of Malaysian government. You write and present your blog excellently...and we love it!

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  12. Jodi, Tootsie, Catherine, Carol, Noelle, Maria, Sunshune Girl, thank you very much for your encouragement and support. I'm glad you are ok with my plans.

    Maria, actually I like Flintstones too. Its so nice to see dinosaurs living in harmony with humans. Hopefully, I can keep up with this schedule. Sometimes I need to maintain a balance, otherwise I have no time to visit other blogs.

    Dr. Ng, I am very happy to get your blessings. Actually, you are writing on a much deeper level, something that I cannot do. You plan, manage, consult and attend to the intricate scientific and botanical details. I'm am only enjoying your hard work.

    Rosey and I were talking about the dentist. I am so glad I went to the dentist to clear my toothache and migrane. Now, I can enjoy life. Rosey, I am enjoying myself getting to know about life in Colorado too.

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  13. Deb and Andrea, I am so happy to see you here, giving me the much appreciated encouragement. Your words are so sweet and nice, and I am very humbled by it.

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  14. What a wonderful way to start the year with a clear plan for your blog. Look forward to see all your post and they are very informative and interesting.
    Regarding some feedbacks - I would suggest if you could also add some videos in your blog too

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  15. Dr. Francis, do visit my blog when you have time. I'd be happy to have you 'watch over me', just in case I gave some wrong details. Please feel free to comment and correct me if I am wrong. Thank you very much for the support.

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  16. James, it is very funny. Today, I seem to get the comments received and comments made appearing in the wrong order. Thank you for your suggestion. Now I'm wondering what kind of videos will be suitable. Do you mean you-tube ones?

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  17. Hello Autumn Belle, that's a good plan! I like those cute plants you have planted. Although many plants but you have managed to make them look neat. What a good place to relax! It is good to know that you'll be covering the Secret Garden. I look forward to seeing plants that they are growing there. That garden a remarkable one. Here is wishing you lots of fun in blogging, visiting new places, discovering plants and gardening!

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  18. Looking forward to reading more of your entry on plants!

    I got to visit the secret garden, is it far away from KL?

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  19. Fantastic - I look forward to reading your blogs.

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  20. Hi Autumn Belle, what a refreshing lesson plan for the year, I love it! We look forward to learning much more about Malaysia and your area, and know the info will be well researched. The rain forest studies are particularly of interest, I feel there are secrets locked within those plants that we need to know. Nice too to know that you are exactly 12 hours ahead in the time zones, it must be late afternoon there. Well done on every level! :-)
    Frances

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  21. Belle... thats good. You really strategise how to go about blogging for the next 12 months.... Mine is more of rojak-rojak one... anything goes!! ...

    ~bangchik

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  22. good goals! I love the facts you give on these interesting plants I have never - and probably will never see! I also love your grandmother stories scattered throughout. You are such a generous commentor and sweet person!

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  23. I love the Secret Garden! And I'm so glad that we can look forward to several posts from there. And your plantings in the first two pictures look very pretty. Loved reading about your plans for 2010. I already know much more about your country from all the fantastic Malaysian bloggers. And I must tell you that your posts are special!

    Happy blogging, Autumn Belle!

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  24. Autumn Belle - its a pleasure to come over here and read your posts. I love seeing and learning about plants that I have never even heard of before. I really appreciate the time that others take researching and writing good pieces on plants. I am learning all the time when I read on the gardening blogs. Its really good to have a focus to your blog so having 3 main areas and interwined with thoughts and past experiences from your grandmother will be a great read. Sorry its taken me a few days to get commenting here - running behind on reading my posts this week.

    Take care my friend
    Rosie.

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  25. It is good to have plans and goals. Mhen I started my blog, it was to inform my family and friends in distant places about my home and garden. However it has grown with the mumber of lovely visitors that I have had. My one resolution that it would only be photographs that I have taken on my blog, hopefully I can keep that.

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  26. Autumn Belle, I love the plans you've laid out for your blog. I really look forward to seeing them unfold. Oh, and I love your new 'mangatar' too! -Jean

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  27. I love garden too and having fishes around, this must be an exciting time for you now exploring diy garden additions. As I can see you have pretty garden, such green thumb!

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  28. How exciting Autumn Belle and I can't wait to see more of your garden photos and posts. I love coming by here, it's like breathing in some nice fresh air.

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  29. What an inspiring read for a new blogger!
    Thanks for all your info on the Secret Garden and 1-Utama projects Autumn Belle. I'm also very inspired by your own project of researching your native plant life.
    This is my very first comment so I hope I can make it work!

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  30. Utube would be nice, but Im suggesting those that you can record from your camera or h/p?

    SOmething that you are really capture in one picture.
    Eg: beach, birds, waterfall...
    you know - something which you often come across (with sound or movement)

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  31. Dear Frens, thank you very much for the visit, encouragement and suggestions. I will be learning video taking soon. I don't have a view cam but I can try using my point and shoot Olympus FE-4000.

    As explained in the post, any comments and suggestions for improvement later will be welcome too.

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  32. I really love your pictures. Man you've really got a green thumb! I hope you will visit my blog. smile-windie.blogspot.com/

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  33. Autumn Belle,
    Didn't realize this "About me" page till now (I think I read your "About me" page b4, didn't know that you have written another one :) Anyways, it is very nice how you know so clear of your blogging plan, and how you know the topics you would like to focus on. Please keep it up! I always enjoy reading your blog ;)

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  34. Hello, Autumn Belle!

    I was intrigued by your entry here about your avatar and your goals for writing in 2010. Your example is a good one. I hope to find my avatar and get clearer on my blogging goals as well. Although I love to blog about photographing things and being positive I find that it is not easy to remain consistent. I have learned one thing though...the more I do it the more ideas I get. I loved your entry here and your other one on the Auspicisious flowers of Chinese New Year which I found via another blogger from Today's Flowers. TQVM to you too! Maria

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