Our Forest Garden Green Space
Here we keep track of all the species that we’re living with in our household’s space. Of course, its a work in progress as new plants, animals, birds and insects take up home here. On the one hand, we are constantly discovering the names new species. On the other, we are constantly adding and open to new species joining! You can read the story and the philosophy behind the space here.
We also keep track of the space that we are sharing with other species. When we first moved in only about 10% of the space open to any species. Over the last years, we’ve put in a compost, turn grass to garden, and welcomed lots of our fellows to be friends.
Of the 224.25 square meters of our space, 110 meters are open to all species. The ration of our open/closed space has increased from 12% when we moved in to 49% in 2021.
Full Life List
TREES & LARGE PLANTS
Banna tree (Musa acuminata)
passion fruit (passiflora)
Moringa (Oleifera)
Jack Fruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)
Coconut
Star fruit tree ( Averrhoa carambola)
Lime
Taro
PLANTS
Sweet potatoe(Ipomoea batatas),
Brazillian spinach,
white ginger (Zingiber officinale)
Galangal
Puring
Mangosteen
Hibiscus (bunga sepatu)
Snakefruit
Porang
Cactus
Guava
Papaya seedlings
HERBS
Lemon grass (Cymbopogon)
Cabe Merah (bird’s eye chillie)
wild fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)
Greek oregano (Salvia fruticosa)
Pandanus
Luffa ( Luffa aegyptiaca )
Katuk (Sauropus androgynus)
INSECTS:
Praying mantis
Butterflies (needs photos and breakdown)
Moths (needs photos and breakdown)
Beetles (needs photos and breakdown)
LIZARDS
House Gecko
Wall gecko
ANIMALS
Bali dog
House Cat
Roosters/Chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus)
FUNGUS
Mycorrizal network (unidentified)
2021 Count: 37
Regen Reporting
Full R&A Household Regenerativity Report
Russell & Ani's Home Office CO2 impact report - 2020 - v1.0
Household Plastic Impact Report
Russell & Ani's Home Office Plastic Impact Report - 2021 - Live
Lemon Grass
Cymbopogon
We have planeted Lemon grass (Cymbopogon), or daun sereh, for making tea and for keeping the mosquitoes away.
Bird’s Eye Chiles
Cabe Merah
We have a bunch of these plants scattered around the garden. They grow happily and produce all the time.
Bananas
Musa acuminata
We’ve got banana trees in the back. Unfortunately, Ani was burning our paper one day and it cooked the bananas on the tree! We harvested these but they weren’t edible. :-(.
A Little Lemon Tree
jeruk sitrun
We have a bunch of these plants scattered around the garden. They grow happily and produce all the time.
Passion Fruit
Marquisa (passiflora)
Our passion fruit vine has taken over our jackfruit trees canopy. It loves it up there! It produces soooo much fruit, we can’t keep up. It literally rains passion fruit every day in our garden. Breakfast is often gathered from the ground in the morning.
Moringa
Moringa Oleifera (Daun Kelor)
One of the most abundant residents of our garden is our kelor tree. It grows like crazy. For a while it towered over our house and went to seed. Our neighbour explained you gotta trim and prune it so that you can reach the leaves! So, we cut it, but it just keeps growing up and out! We have unlimited greens from it for smoothies and steamed greens.
Katuk
Star gooseberry or sweet leaf (Sauropus androgynus)
Katuk has been growing in our garden for a long time, but ani only just remembered her Javanese lore and that this plant is super nutricious and can be easily eaten. I am now using the leaves (sweet!) for my smoothies and munching on the berries before they go to seed.
Kecombrang
(Etlingera elatior)
We’ve got this growing at the back the yard. It’s awesome for making sambal matah– balinese hot sauce.
Jackfruit
Artocarpus heterophyllus
The center tree of our garden forest!
Sweet Potatoe
Ubi jalar (Ipomoea batatas)
A little known secret of sweet potatoes is that you can eat the leaves raw. They make awesome smoothies.
Balinese Spinach
Trying to figure out the right name still
This wild spinach grows wild around our area. It grows great with zero effort and zero reseeding in our garden. I use it for smoothies every morning. Any likes to fry it to make crispy leaves.
Star Fruit
Averrhoa carambola,
We’ve got a star fruit tree that produces way more than we can consume! It rains them down in a corner of the garden and every morning I pick some up for my smoothie.
Herbs
Various
We’ve got some great herbs thriving in our garden. When it comes time to make an omelette rather than reach for the spices we take a walk outside!
Insects, etc…
Still to be sorted…
Animals, insects, etc…
Still to be sorted…
Still trying to sort these guys out…
Fungus
Still figuring these out!
Start Tracking Your Ecological Impact
My Ecobricks.org team have been hard at work the last year generating a household plastic assessment system. It's a great way to start tracking your ecological impacts and tend them towards green.