Happy New Year! Enjoy our first garden of the year on the South Pacific island of Tonga.
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Music by Jason Shaw at AudionautiX
Featured image courtesy of Ene’io Botanical Garden
Transcript:
Hello Listeners,
Welcome to A Garden a Day with Mædunbroc Gardens. Today is January 1st, and this is the very first episode.
Happy New Year!
I hope you’ve been enjoying the holiday season doing exactly what you want to do.
As it winds down, I hope maybe you aren’t getting TOO anxious about getting back to schedules, routines, demands, school, work and all those things that require our attention.
Let’s try to enjoy one more good day at home before we have to get back to the grind.
If you live up north like I do, you certainly won’t be gardening outside any time soon. The snow is too deep, the ground too frozen.
But there are gorgeous gardens all around the world, just waiting for us to explore, even if our own gardens are buried under a foot or two of snow.
So, let’s take a few moments to visit our first garden.
To start off the new year, I thought it best to visit one of the very first botanical gardens to ring in the new year —
So, to do that, we have to go just west of the International Date to the islands of Samoa, Tonga, or the Kiritimati islands. So I thought it best to look there first. So, we’re in the South Pacific.
So, as I’m looking for a great garden to start off this new year and this new podcast, I found a fantastic garden for us to explore. We’re going to go to the Polynesian Island Kingdom of Tonga, and the garden is the ‘Ene’io Botanical Garden.
Today’s garden is a story of passion and commitment that only a lifelong gardener can understand. It’s also a story of vanilla and coconut and jasmine and hibiscus. Oh my goodness.
We’re talking about the life’s work of its owner and steward, Hanateli Fa’anunu. He received land at ‘Ene’io Beach when he was only eight years old, and he has spent his entire life planning and planting this amazing garden.
In 1972, right after he finished his university studies, he came back to this plot of land and began planting in earnest. And he’s planted and tended his garden every year since. He’s now retired, but during his working years, he spent half of every paycheck to improve his garden.
He opened the garden to the public in 2006, and today receives visitors for guided tours to see native Tongan flora and learn how Tongans used those plants for clothing dyes, shelter, medicine, and of course, food.
‘Ene’io Botanical Garden spans twenty-two acres and it’s the only botanical garden on Tonga and it’s also an unofficial bird sanctuary. So, if you are able to visit, and I certainly hope you will be able to visit someday, not only will you see the lush foliage of this tropical rainforest climate, but you will also hear birdsong, and they’ve done such as amazing job that you will probably be able to see some of the native birds.
You might see the red and green native blue-crowned lorikeet or the bright yellow of the Tongan whistler as you make your way down the garden paths.
Imagine dense, lush, tropical foliage. Fruit trees burdened with bananas, guava, papaya, and mango. Broad palm fronds swaying and swishing in the ocean breeze with the intoxicating scent of jasmine and hibiscus in the air.
There are over 550 plant varieties both native and exotic in the garden, including kava, vanilla, star fruit, coconut, breadfruit, and a native plant, found only on the island of Tonga.
I’m not quite sure how it’s pronounced. It’s spelled A-K-E. So, I don’t know if that’s ache, aki, or ack.
I’m not quite sure. But it is found only on the island of Tonga, and it does grow at Ene’io Botanical Garden.
January is one of the hottest months in Tonga with air temperatures and water temperatures both in the mid-80s Fahrenheit. That might sound divine if you are stuck in the snow somewhere, but know that January is also smack in the middle of the south Pacific cyclone season, which runs between November and April. So, perhaps consider visiting when the weather is a little bit kinder and a little bit gentler.
Or if you are close enough to Tonga to be able to risk it, you could go now if you know you’re going to be safe from bad weather.
If you do get a chance to visit Tonga, plan in advance to visit ‘Ene’io Botanical Garden because it is a gorgeous place to be. And while you’re there, you could eat at their on-site ocean-side restaurant, shop for souvenirs made be local artisans in their gift shop, and kick around on their beautiful private beach.
I’ve included links in the notes for you to read more about the garden and maybe even plan your next vacation.
Thank you so much for listening to our very first episode. Please come back tomorrow to find out where we are going next.
If you like A Garden a Day, and I certainly hope you do, please consider liking, subscribing, and telling your friends. And if you are able, please also consider giving us a five-star review. It lets me know you like the show, and that’s a wonderful feeling. And it also helps others find the podcast. I really do appreciate it.
If all goes well, I will be right back here tomorrow. See you then!
Read more about Ene’io Botanical Garden at these links:
https://nuwao.org.nz/eneio-botanical-garden/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ʻEneʻio_Botanical_Garden
https://book.tongapocketguide.com/product/a-walk-among-the-natives-tour/
http://old.cooksvanilla.com/the-godfather-of-vanilla/
https://tongapocketguide.com/tonga-weather-in-january/#elementor-toc__heading-anchor-1
https://tongatourism.travel/properties/eneio-botanical-gardens/
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