www.williehalliday.com

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I can’t really call myself a gardener, but I like growing things.  I’ve bought a greenhouse so I can grow orchids (there are over 800 varieties in Bhutan) and the really hot chillies they eat over there as a vegetable. I like the thought of growing my own food (like the monks), and as I don’t eat meat, vegetables are important to me.  

Just at the moment we’re eating some winter lettuce.  There are a few new potatoes left and we still have cabbage, onions and garlic. There are plenty of different herbs, and chillies in the greenhouse.  The seeds I brought back from Bhutan. Plus a few other varieties!  I’ve just planted some radishes, beetroot and spring onions – and more varieties of lettuce.

The garden is about half an acre but very hilly.  I’ve tried to reproduce the countryside of the East and planted a lot of bamboo and rhododendrons.  And cosmos too - every year – it’s very common in Bhutan, as are gentians.

A feature of the garden is the prayer flags and prayer wheels I brought back with me.  The flags have auspicious symbols, invocations, prayers and mantras printed on them. They are planted in high places where the wind will catch them and carry the ‘vibrations’ from them across the countryside.  Prayer flags are meant to bring long life and happiness to the planter and those living nearby.

Over the last couple of years I’ve built a stream with a rough bridge across it.  It ends in a waterfall in a glade of bamboo. I often sit there in the late afternoon or evening.

“ I wanted to smell the scented smoke of the juniper twigs and see the young monks holding their archery contests.”

Prayer flags