Spartan Trees in Tropical Indonesia
Have you ever seen how Spartan trees grow? In our garden, a simple principle applies: “Mati? Ganti!” — “Died? Replace it!”
A Plot That Dictates the Rules
Our garden is not a flat, fertile valley from landscape design magazines. It’s a steep slope with a 70-meter level difference. Just three large terraces, and the rest are narrow platforms a meter wide, where the soil is mixed with rock.
The large terraces are a home for durians—our main “pets”. The steep slopes are given to avocados and citruses. Durians simply can’t survive there. And in the harshest places, where the soil is quite poor, we planted mangoes grown from seeds. Their hardiness is simply amazing! We need such а strong “players” to protect our plot from erosion.
From Anxious Care to Natural Selection
The first year, we fretted over every sapling. Fussed over every half-sick plant. Sprayed against pests, fertilized, and spent a ton of money on chemicals.
Then one day, we simply told ourselves: “Stop!” And we stopped being slaves to our garden.
When we gave up pesticides and chemical fertilizers, we quickly understood: vegetables don’t survive in such conditions. The environment is too aggressive—tomato and eggplant seedlings don’t even make it to flowering.
But fruit trees—durians, avocados, mangoes, citrus—turned out to be hardened fighters. Now each planting is an experiment for us. Will it work or not?
For example, we recently planted two grafted grape saplings of the same size and quality: “Preobrazhenie” and “Heliodor.” “Heliodor” took root excellently, but “Preobrazhenie” clearly didn’t like the spot. We’ll have to replace it with a hardier variety—such is life.
Peaceful Coexistence Instead of War
We no longer dig up the plot in pursuit of cleanliness. We simply mow the weeds regularly with a mower. The result? Tall aggressive weeds disappeared on their own, and low-growing grass formed a natural “lawn.”
We’ve moved from fighting pests and weeds to peaceful coexistence. We’ve accepted a simple truth: the natural environment of our garden is aggressive to weaklings. Therefore, only the strongest survive with us.
The only natural pesticide we use is neem leaf powder. It helps keep termites in check, which love to feast on the trunks of some durian varieties.
What about vegetables, greens, and flowers? We grow those on the terrace near the house in containers—in a completely controlled environment, without termites and other troubles.
A Lesson That Cost Several Years
It took time to learn to understand our plot. Not to subjugate it, but to listen. Not to war with nature, but to negotiate. Now our garden is not a perfect picture, but a living ecosystem where the laws of natural selection prevail.
And you know what? For us it works.