ML Poomchai Chumbala seems to genuinely love the challenge presented by reshaping the grounds of King Rama VI's Mrigadayavan Palace.

For a year the blue-blood interior designer has been coming each weekend to the palace in Phetchaburi. During a short break from his labours, he shows off the completed Venice Vanich, Jasmine and Herb Gardens and the work in progress in the Palm Garden.

Poomchai is much admired for his unique interior and furniture designs as well as his own gorgeous garden at Agalico, his teahouse on Bangkok's Sukhumvit Soi 51.

It may have been his student years in England that nurtured a love for gardening.

"When I was young and didn't have a garden of my own, I always borrowed others'," he says on Agalico's website.

He always wanted "to see man's vision of nature, to linger with the past and to ponder the future or just simply to laugh and cry".

What he had cultivated in Britain and elsewhere came into full bloom when he was put in charge of the garden at Mrigadayavan Palace. Here he can give his creativity (and his showmanship) free rein and at the same time give Thais a place to renew bonds with their country's royal history and culture. 

Before he died, King Vajiravudh made no specific plans for the palace grounds, so Poomchai had to devise his own.

"I just sit in silence and contemplate the surroundings. The palace architecture actually tells what I should do with the gardens. The gardens have to accentuate the beauty of the architecture, not to overshadow it."

Chiefly, he says, the gardens have to exude romance.

"Reading the King's poems and prose, which he wrote right here at the palace, you find them all romantic and beautiful. So, for me, this has to be the character of the whole garden complex."

A smaller but still crucial factor that Poomchai has to consider is making the garden big enough for catered parties of 3,000. He's planning a wide walkway that zigzags through each area and encircles the palace.

Each of the individual gardens is named for one of the King's literary works.

"Next to the old royal entrance will be the Sakuntara Garden, a lawn for functions surrounded by colourful ixora [khem]

flowers, and next to it the Vivaha Phra Samudra, named for the King's story that was

written and performed here.

'The area between the covered corridors of the palace will be named Madanapadha," Poomchai says, "and will be a rose garden, in keeping with the King's play about the legend of the rose. Here I'll plant white gardenias around the edges, and people will have to walk in to see the precious wild roses in the middle."

The Savittri Garden by the sea will be a blend of foliage and shrubbery for some tranquillity and mystery. Nearby will be a deer park, linking to the name of the palace itself.

In an inner courtyard next the royal entourage's house, Poomchai points out a completed geometric herb garden with rows of jasmine and aralia next to it.

"All of these plants can be used beneficially. Not many people know that aralia leaves can be deep-fried and eaten with a summer rice soup.

"In the herb garden are citron, pandanus, sweet basil, pomegranate and lime, all planted to grow in a geometric design. People can walk through and pick whatever they need."

Each garden will have its little hidden surprise that can only be discovered upon entering, Poomchai says.

Work continues on the Palm Garden, which has many varieties already, though Poomchai would welcome more contributions.

He has five years of work ahead of him, but Poomchai's passion has no end.

"I just have to keep doing this project bit by bit," he says. "The garden has life to be taken care of."

Vipasai Niyamabha

The Nation