There is a particular subject in my elementary school years where we are involved in planting some crops in a particular place around the school premises. We are divided into groups and we plant whatever our subject teacher told us to plant. Usually we just plant eggplants and a vegetable similar to Bokchoy cabbage. However the planting are is not secured and as soon as there was a substantial amount of vegetable to harvest, some pupils or maybe other people would take those vegetables home. Me and my classmates just ended-up in competing for which plot is looking better regardless of what is planted in it. Our plot of soil was a bit rocky and always got a water run-off because it is close to the dike of the river so whenever it rains, the rain water would slide don to our plot of soil and ruin it. We are also permitted to bring our own Bolo or machete in the school and it is just a normal thing for us to do although some tricycle drivers would tell us from time to time to be careful with it. It is indeed a very good thing that young pupils are told to do some gardening at an early age so that they can know the value of planting food in our backyards to help augment our diet particularly now that the cost of basic foods had become very high due to inflation.
I had done some gardening when I was still young because of what I learned from my elementary school so because that I used our own backyard to plant some vegetables which are easy to grow like eggplants and Okra. I have noticed that eggplants really needed a full sunshine, daily watering or at least keep the soil where it was planted on to be moist and the soil is rich which would translate to getting a bigger and better yield of eggplant fruit. Actually it is the same for other crops where often an introduction of urea fertilizer does help a lot although I never used it because I can't buy such fertilizer. However I also noticed that certain crops like Yam or Ube doesn't require a good soil because I planted it before in a sack full of pumice sand with about 15% soil and planted Yam on it. I let the vine climb our tall tree back then and get a full sunshine. I also had water it from time to time and putting leaves on top of the soil for some protection. Upon harvest time it yielded about 4.5 kilograms per sack of the three sacks where I planted those Ube vines. So I proved to myself that sometimes not every vegetables are needing the same care because they have specific needs in order to grow normally. Now we cannot do any much gardening in our backyard because it was turned into a store and bakery until my eldest brother decided to live in it and finally turned it over to my sister where they are living in it until now.
I decided to leave my father to do gardening in a small plot of soil at the back of the house because he is always intruding my gardening efforts. There was this instance that I had put a drip system for a guava tree which I wanted to grow faster and what he did was taking that drip system and directed it to the other tree which actually doesn't need it. Right then and there I abandoned my gardening efforts because my father would always mess with my work. There is also this instance where we were given a passion fruit by our neighbor and upon making it into a juice drink, I got captivated by its flavor. So I decided to make use of some of its seeds and planted it. One seed had successfully propagated to my delight and grown to be a potential vine that I can harvest from. So I made a horizontal trellis for it and hoped for it to produce flowers. My father is still abroad back then and when he arrived he whacked it all saying that it can bore some snake. There was nothing that I can do because the passion fruit vine was already cut after going home from the school.
My father seems to like gardening but being a man with no patience, he will soon destroy the crop which he is growing in the end after relocating it several times and cleaning the garden which ends up in totally removing the planted materials. That is why after he came home from abroad and stayed home, I never felt secure about growing things in the backyard which I was growing before because my father just dominated on how things are done in the backyard. Also, my body went weaker until I cannot anymore do things around the house anymore. Now my parents still grows potato vines for its green tops to serve as a leafy vegetable and I am not sure if they also grow a moringa tree because I haven't been in the backyard to if they have it there as well. Moringa tree by the way has very nutritious leaves and it is very good to incorporate it to our diet because of its health benefits to support the normal processes of our body in order for us to stay well-nourished an healthy. Every household should have it because it is easy to grow although in cooler climates that experiences snow, it can never survive. But I guess that having a plot of land for us to plant some crops into is a very good thing to help us with our nutritional needs and not relying on foods that are made to look like food where in the end will just cause ailments in our bodies like cancer, heart ailments, high blood pressure, and diabetes, etc.
There was this instance as well where my father had panicked upon seeing the chili pepper's leaves lined with bugs which is really a non-issue because the leaves can still be used by just washing it. But my father decided to buy Malathion pesticide and make a bucketful of pesticide using the half of the 60 mL bottle. He didn't sprayed it to that single chili pepper plant but to the whole of the small plot of soil including the soil, whatever grows in that plot, and the concrete fence. Oh the smell of it really is enough to poison us because it entered the house considering that our house has no effective ventilation system. That is why letting my father do all the gardening and stuff will not be good because instances like that, he is much better in fixing a diesel engine car than anything else because neither cooking or gardening is not for him to do based on my own experience.
Now as for gardening, I really cannot foresee that I will still enjoy in doing it anymore. My body is not cooperating because of the physical changes that happened where even a few steps from my bed to the bathroom is a very big effort for me to do as well as getting on to my knees for example or doing normal body movements for some things that I wanted to do is now a thing of the past for me already. Because of that it is just pointless to buy a property that we can use to plant something unto because I will not be able to enjoy it anyway. However it is not a final decision because if I will be getting an extra money to spare, then why not because at least I can still benefit from it because my parents will still be using it to grow crops which we can use for subsistence and sustaining our diet with extra nutrition. There are certain crops that are ready to harvest their seasonal fruits and these are the grafted trees which can be easily bought even from Facebook marketplace which can easily be found in my area. They would require some bigger space to grow which our own current backyard can't provide much less if my father will be around to take care of it which can end-up in deliberately destroying it simply because he is not the one who bought it. As you can see, I have my own reservations about buying a plot of land to make use of because of my father as well and I do not think that a future garden will work for me as I would expect it to be.
Now if it happens that I can have the extra funds to buy myself a plot of space where we can use just to grow some fruiting trees, berries, and some vegetables, then I wouldn't even hesitate to do so all because of the soaring prices of fruits and vegetables where now we are ending-up in augmenting our diet with some leafy vegetables that my parents get from the small plot of soil at the back of the house. It seems to be impractical to buy fruits now because it just costs an arm and leg now not to mention the price of the rice which had been already controlled by hoarders to make the price to soar and they are always successful in doing so and the fact that the government cannot do anything effective to do much about it is a very pressing problem to every citizen in this country. Still the farmers are powerless about that issue because their rice are often bought cheaper by the middlemen that buys their rice and passing it to consumers which will be the victim of these rice hoarders.
There is still a possibility for me to reach my extra dream of buying a house and lot or at least the full ability about renovating this house to make some space for a pretty much useful garden which can make use of sunlight from east to west and spacious enough for the crops which will be planted to harvest the energy of the sun for the said future garden which truly I wanted to happen despite of my physical impediments. It is also better for me to have some sunlight once in a while or even everyday and and being surrounded by plants, vegetables, flowering plants where I can stay for a while and relax because in this current house of my father has no more space to relax on because of the caged birds of the husband pf my sister and the scent of their dog really annoys me a lot a sit produces unusual scent not to mention its droppings. There is too much pollution f\even from the noise created by two dogs in our backyard particularly with the dangerous feathers coming from the love birds sold commercially as those feathers can bore pathogens which can cause dangerous lung issues, So there is nothing more safe and comfortable for me to stay other than this room where it gets too hot during the days where the sub is shining bright. Our house can actually make extra space particularly if I will make it to have a second floor in order to make way for a bigger backyard. But it has to be planned well to maximize our limited space to make way for a possible bigger garden although I guess that I can still make a garden on top of the roof which will truly give me the maximum space although it might cost me a lot because a garden on top of the house requires a special plan as it needs a tougher columns and foundation to support it.
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