This yard may seem small to some, and compared to what I had growing up it hardly counts as a yard, but to me, in our context, it is a diamond in the rough. We have lived in Indonesia for over four years and the first three and a half, we had no yard, no green inside our gates, and hardly any natural lighting.

Moving here last year, in the middle of the pandemic, was such a gift to me to have green and living things right outside my window. I love that I can see the sky. I love that there are birds and butterflies flying in every day. I love that my kids can get outside to play, especially as parks have been closed down so long.

This is the front yard near our driveway. There are fruit trees! A jambu air (guava) tree on the right, and lemon and lime trees closer to the house. There's a bamboo bench by the front door, and we have another one in the backyard. The metal square in the middle of the yard is our water tank.

As you can see in the front yard, there are many potted plants.  Most homes here have potted plants on their cement terraces. Most of the plants have something to offer, though I haven’t learned them all yet. There are aloe vera, lemon grass, cabe (hot peppers), strawberries (no fruit yet), ginger, and more. I bought a few plants, pots, and soil before we left for the summer, and my helper grew the collection while we were gone. Most locals get creative with their ‘pots’, using plastic bottles, empty oil bags, just whatever they have.

More trees! Those lime trees doubled in size while we were in our passport country, just 4 months! Our jambu merah (guava) tree is heavy laden with fruit right now! The bags are to protect the fruit from bats, though they still get to them sometimes!

My husband made the sandbox; they don’t have anything like that in Indonesia usually. He and the boys drove to a beach an hour away, and paid about $15 to load up as much sand as possible. It doesn’t get used much during rainy season, but now someone plays in it most days.

Another thing we did was hang solar-powered lights in the backyard. Honestly, we don’t go outside to enjoy it very much since we’d rather be in the AC, but we do enjoy seeing them from inside. :)

Although, it is so hot here that we don’t want to go out until the sun starts going down and it cools off a bit, around 3 or 4 pm.  To get out in nature more, we take walks around our neighborhood or go to a big field about a block away. We like to get out of the city about once a month and go for a hike or to a few different parks more in the mountains.

Street view from our gate.

One special thing about our neighborhood is that everyone is required to have a mango tree outside their house. Ours hasn’t had fruit yet, but neighbors are always sharing. Once a neighbor told me that if we share, we’ll have more fruit next year, but if you don’t share, your tree will stop bearing fruit.