Sound Garden

Radio in the morning.

"Why is the radio playing outside?" our visitor asked.

"The plants are listening to the music," my wife replied. I did not look to catch the reaction on our visitor's face, but it's quite understandable if she was mystified or puzzled by what my wife said. She might even be thinking that we have lost our sanity, or, on the other hand,  she might understand. 

It has become a habit to listen to RJ 100 FM in the garden every morning because I love old songs.

Slow growth rate.

Anyway, the music is for the birds and bees too. Music is universal language and every living thing is listening and creating music in their own ways.This I believe because in reality everything is moving and dancing. 

Scientists have long discovered that all things create or emit vibrations, and what is music but vibrations. It's just that people, like the other creatures on the planet, have different means and methods of apprehending and comprehending it.

Anyway....This is a  ficus.  I have been growing and training this for almost a year now and because it is grown a rock, it grows very slow. 

I clipped the trunk and the other branches.

I cut the top and left this single branch that will eventually merge with the trunk. I am trying the clip and grow method used by the Lingnan penjing school.   Lingnan is a place in China where penjing (bonsai) artists have mastered this method. It uses no 

(or very little) wires because the 

branches are cut and then grown until the desired form is achieved.

Lingnan method produces the most exquisite, beautiful, and natural looking trees because the constant cutting and growing produce fine branches that twists and turns. 

Wired and twisted.

Usually the trees are defoliated for exhibition to show the beautiful branches--what they call the trees within the tree.

With the Japanese bonsai method a tree can be developed and trained to be presentable in as little as one year  while with the Lingnan (Chinese) penjing method it could take decades of cutting,growing,and training before a presentable tree could be achieved. 

Then...I clipped the trunk and cut off the other branches. I left two branches, one lower and the other higher. The lower branch will cascade while the higher branch will later develop as the main trunk. When this branch grows and heals with the trunk, the larger main trunk and the smaller branch will produce the desired tapering.  After cutting, I wired the branch and twisted it a little to simulate a tree that clings on  a rock or in a crevice.

Maybe a decade or two...