Today i had the pleasure of visiting Sir Munir...a lovely afternoon full of gardening/forum gossips, sumptuous lunch, best wishes from him and last but not the least, his hidden Garden which seemed an endless bounty flowing without boundaries into the wilderness of nearby mountain & waterway
...something i could look upto as a retirement plan.For me this is a new era of social gardening. I call it first of the series that i and we all must carry-out to take our bobby to new level. To be true i have never paid such a formal garden visit ever before. Anyways i am just a newbie in gardening and lot to discover.
Its lovely to interact in reality with members, being knit closely together virtually. Greeted warmly, we did not waste much time(few minutes at max) to divert our discussion to Gardening affairs only to be interrupted by the call of lunch...not to mention that even the meal ended with tasty home grown grapes.
Munir Sb has great ideas to make the forum more helpful to new gardeners, he has been visiting NARC and is actually making efforts to convince professional horticulturists to devote some type to forum, in advices especially relating to productive gardening such as Fruits and Vegetables.
He also suggested that we should have a label for members in fields that they specialize in. This will enable other members to seek help regarding those plants from that member.
This was followed by Visit to the garden, I could not take pictures(except one
) due to mishap with my camera but i will try to narrate it out. We started from some shade plants in his porch....where my attention was caught by caladiums, ......to be honest i am still wondering were they artificial or real because they were so healthy ....Sir correct me if wrong
.....then the inner front lawn decorated with perennials such as ferns and variegated spider plants in masses, and then ofcourse different vines of which the most notable was golden shower,clinging to wall, almost hiding the structure. Roadside venture of roses and celosias followed.Then we walked to the side alley where he kept his cacti. I was wondering is this it? when suddenly the alley opened up into a huge backyard with beautifully layed out fine dhaka. Grass was as good as it could ever be. lawn was perimetered by borders of various perennials.
Munir Sb has special interest in Fruit Trees. Frankly i can not think of any fruit tree which was not there, my senses failed to register how many fruiting plants we counted
......he has special affinity for lemons and other citrus plants. Being weak in perennial knowledge i could not remember all such plants he introduced me with. Lawn also housed a bird house with dozens of parrots. Asparagus, Hosta, Amaralyis, tuberoses, pink plumeria, fish tail palms were some notables that i can recall of an unending list. By this time, i was thinking that this must be it when we suddenly descended into a sloping hill at the backside of his home to my amazement....and then it appeared as if there is no end to his gardens as it merged with the landscape and the wilderness of wild plants. A veggie section laid out with a good scheme, incorporating all seasonal veggies with permanent trellises for tomatoes, bitter gourd and cucumber and so on. and again fruit trees such as black berries, pomegranates, apples and what not poked here and there. Grapes vines climbing the perimeter.....Believe you me my memory fail me for the extensive plantation he has undertaken especially in fruiting trees.
Some things which i observed were, the quality of soil, which he has replaced with custom soil to improve drainage. However i feel, drainage still requires some attention. Veggie yard being a prairie faced beetle attacks of whose remedy i can not think of due to closeness to the wilderness and the large scale.
He plans to further uplift his borders especially as he has developed a recent affinity for fragrant plant, we discussed ideas for some borders which we ofcourse could not finalize as you see i hold special affinity for laborious annuals/short lived perennials.
After a snap....we bid farewell, and with fleeting glances i saw him bending his back over some plants...Old habits die hard
Whereas on the journey back, i wondered what future of gardening is in store for me. Project Spring 2014 is On or not....hahahha @Sir Munir..i hope you understand
.farhan bhai be careful next time before visiting senior members gardens to take camera with you 
..am i right sir Munir