Millie Braham watering her plants with a 100 year-old canister.Story and Photos by Carlington Wilmot, Contributor
MILLIE BRAHAM is mad about flowers and plants -- and it shows.
In every corner of her garden, there is a potted flower or plant. The eye catcher is her small indoor flower garden with a tiny fountain in the foyer right under the staircase.
And that's only the inside.
In her spacious (total land space 14,000 sq. ft.) Queen Hill (next to Forest Hills), St. Andrew yard, leafy green ferns, and a riot of tangerine, rose pink, pink, red, variegated red and white impatiens reign. Then there are the vegetable and fruit trees with fist-sized limes, luscious looking sweet peppers, june plums, oranges, guava, pomegranates and naseberry. Braham, a haulage contractor even grows bananas and plantains, just for the fun of it.
Braham fell in love with gardening 16 years ago. She started planting roses -- the only flower that interested her at the time. Soon she was hooked and started adding a variety of flowers, plants and fruit trees.
Most mornings she and her husband of more than 27 years, Lyndon, take time out to feed the birds and sip coffee in a section in the garden that they call the coffee corner. She spends between half an hour to an hour with her plants most mornings, but at least five evenings of the week she tends to them for between two and three hours.
It's a labour of love for Braham who gives away the fruits of her work to friends and relatives.
Braham's daughter Shelly explained her mother's love for gardening. "I think her garden means everything to her...she loves her garden just as how she loves her children. My mother is in the garden every morning and every evening or I should say that she lives in the garden. But even though she spends so much time in the garden, she still finds the time to sit with me and chit chat."
COLOURFUL IMPATIENS ARE HER FAVOURITES
Of all the plants in the garden, Braham said the ferns and impatiens are her favourites. "I love the impatiens more because of the beautiful colours it has.
"For one to take proper care of the impatiens, you will have to be a well experienced gardener because impatiens need different care in different environment. Where I live is very hot and windy and in order for impatiens to grow vigorously, you have to keep them away from the full sun exposure, and windy conditions." Plus she added, overwatering can also be a problem.
Braham who was hard pressed to say how much money she spends on her garden, noted that she catches and stores rain water which she uses for her plants, and that once a year she applies an all-purpose fertiliser to the trees. Her biggest expense, she added, come from the amount of containers she has to buy because of the stony nature of the soil in her neighbourhood.
Still, it's not the amount of money spent that accounts for a beautiful garden, it is the care, patience and dedication of the gardener, she noted.
Besides homegrown fruits and a blaze of colours in and around her house, gardening also has another benefit, said Braham. It has helped her to stay in shape, she boasted. "Planting is my hobby and if you are an active gardener it will help you to be in better health, physically, emotionally and spiritual enhancing.
Besides gardening, her other passion is her teapot collection.
In the garden with...
So you think you have t he best, the coolest , the prettiest, or the most amazing garden.
Well, don't keep it to yourself. Tell us and we'll feature your garden in an upcoming issue of lifestyle. Just drop us a line telling us about your garden and we'll do the rest. Contact by e-mail: lifestyle@gleanerjm.com; fax: 922-6223 or948-1804; or mail: Gleaner Lifestyle, 7 North Street Kingston.
