It was nearly dusk when we arrived at our destination, where setting was by far more rural than ours. With the cool breeze and serene ambiance, simple living is a way of life; uncomplicated, undisturbed and close to nature. On the contrary, our trip in quest for a container for dish garden was not quite that simple. We almost lost our way along hectares of tall sugarcane plantation but I did enjoy the agricultural scenery especially the sunset moment.
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| sundown |
We were accompanied by some ordinary folks and led us to "darapilan" as it is called or local crushers where juices from sugarcanes are extracted. Sugarcane juice is then cooked in these huge containers to produce molasses and made into candy bars, or mixed with native rice cakes. Interestingly, it is not very common to have this kind of large vat nowadays so locals command a high price for it. There it was, almost 4 feet in diameter, 40 kg of cast iron for my container garden. Excited and awed by just looking at it, I was already wondering on how and where to begin with the landscape considering I only had a hand on fish bowls for my terrariums.
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| "darapilan" |
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| before |
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| after |
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| dish garden |
Utilizing the available resources, I used white and seven-color pebbles, white stones, some garden decors for the landscape, planted some ferns, combined with sansevieria, prayer plants (maranta), variegated ornamental grass (versicolor), juniper and some little succulents. I had fun in making a dish garden.
