Garden Update: Lettuce & Friends, Flowering Cashew

Hey now, summer's here again. And it's the first summer since we've colonized the front lot. It's a laughable attempt, honestly, but hey! Our lives are colorful and lots of breaks happen. Above is a pair of anonymous legs, of those who work in the garden.

Below is our lettuce plot (those are still small and far from ready to eat), beside our tomato plot (equally small). The tomato plot is weedy. We can't mulch so much because the chickens tear that apart, and if the plants are small, they break.



A row of lemongrass-- the easiest things, it's funny to even see them in a row.



One of our many kalabasa or squash plants:



And after a few long years, our cashew tree is finally producing cashew nuts! Seriously, yes-- the flowers smell really really good, and have been appearing for a couple of years, but the nuts have finally developed. They look like beans. The nut kernel came out first, and the fruit will develop later on:

Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)

The water hyacinth is a loathed invasive plant all over the world. It is a floater, with stems that have a bulb containing a cavity with spongy material inside. The plant material is hollow, making for a therapeutic squeeze-ball. It multiplies rapidly by sending runners out, developing whole new plants in a bit more than a week or so. For a lazy gardener with some kind of water receptacle, it is great. When your pond is completely covered, mosquito populations can be controlled. Note the word "completely".



The plant sends up beautiful, fleeting flowers that are a pale violet in color. I was quite shocked to see them. I have just read now that they are fragrant-- and I went outside to check-- but the flowers close up at night.



The water hyacinth builds mass quickly with its roots (which often grow into a mat, like a bad wig). I got a plant from outside someone's house in Ayala Alabang, and grew it in an old refrigerator bin, and then in an antique iron pond-bowl. Their root system has some benefits-- I popped some gabi corms in one day, seeing that the roots created some kind of "soil-in-water" condition. After a week, small leaves came up, and now they live in harmony.



(Eventually, I will probably transition into mostly gabi.)

The water hyacinth is much-loathed, because it multiplies really quickly by both runners and dropping seed, and is known to clog waterways (see photo below, which I selected based on instilled awe, from this blog). Mindanao has seen massive flooding because of the plant. The problem is so great, that people have started to make things like bags out of the "bodies" of the plant. (You know that a resource is a pest when people start to make "unconventional" bags out of them-- e.g. juice wrapper and plastic bag bags). See the end of this post for a note on this whole bag-making thing.*



Water hyacinths have been known to thrive in areas where there are excess nutrients, or even chemical run-off from wetlands into lakes. The plant absorbs toxins and heavy metals while gathering solid waste and silt at its root systems. This characteristic has led to its use in wastewater treatment all over the world. It cleans bum waterways and reduces algae populations, like it did in Laguna.

If your water hyacinth babies are getting too crazy, do not hesitate to yank a few out and lay at the feet of your favorite trees. The plant is an excellent mulch. It contains a lot of moisture, and will keep your ground cool during the summer. If you don't have waterspace, you can actually grow them on land-- in Sri Lanka, they hold a nickname that translates to "Japan trouble", as the British are said to have planted them to give Japanese planes the impression of a body of water, leading to failed water landings.

And lastly, if you're not convinced enough, water hyacinth is actually edible (not only to animals, but to people)! I didn't know this before I sat down to write this tonight. It is added to soups in Thailand, and this guy claims that the stalks and leaves are edible. I will definitely try this soon. If you will too, make sure you know the water source isn't polluted-- grow your own, perhaps. But be careful and don't let it out into the wild.

*I would like to say that I am of the opinion that we should do massive composting or mulching instead with "harvested" water hyacinths. The material is flimsy and needs to be varnished in order to preserve it, so I think other resources are better suited for objects like bags and shoes.

Hibiscus

I love it when plants reach out like gangly tentacles. It gives me an opportunity to imagine them doing so in a time-lapse video, which in turn creates a sense of appreciation for the "aliveness" of the plant. This hibiscus plant is reaching out like there's no tomorrow. It's crossed its wall and fence, which all plants should be encouraged to do.

More Renegade Tomatoes

A vigorously growing tomato bush, with some oregano brujo (Indian borage) growing in the middle. This was in an empty lot along Pasong Tamo Extension.

Renegade Tomato

I've been seeing a lot of tomatoes in Metro Manila and other places, just growing in poor patches of soil, and, sometimes, in small cracks on the street.

Wild Amaranth or Kulitis

Kulitis, the thorn-less version of uray, is an edible spinach-like leaf that grows everywhere. It has been described in permaculture material as an "encouraged weed", which it definitely is, to many people in the world. It is delicious.

Plants in High Places

Euphorbias and sanseveria along a wall in Davao City. Beside is a thriving plant growing from a crack-- possibly an alagaw.

Since I'm moving around lots, I'll be stepping up my street photos to bring attention to the plants that cross the everyday person's path. I feel like the seeds of some kind of commonsense, urban garden wave is there. I will also aim to make people a bit happier with the small plant-related details they see everyday.

Arid Mushrooms

Kurakdot grows on driftwood, on an arid beach. Quite a surprise!

Coffee Blossoms

This year the coffee blossoms are angry!!! That's a good thing. After last year's paltry "harvest", this is a welcome process. Coffee blossoms smell so good-- like a rounded-out jasmine. They are also so beautiful-- like pompoms along stems.



This is a robusta variety that loves the heat (making it suitable for my garden). Though less "smooth" than arabica, the freshness should make it all worth it!

Summer Is Here!!

It's summer! We've gotten watermelons, onions, corn, kadyos, etc. in the works. I planted some glutinous white-and-purple corn in a few weeks ago and they are kind of runty, beginning to show heads of corn at a couple of feet. I was pretty late in transferring them, so... Yeah, my fault completely.





The cotton is bolling again. I've already got a lot to sort out.



The Indian mango tree is blooming like never before! Because we have been making siga or burning dried leaves under the tree. This traditional burning (mostly related to agriculture) is the only exception to the Clean Air Act. It keeps the pests away from the fruit, and somehow, stops the falling off of immature mangoes.



We're collecting seed from some denizens, like eggplants:



The garden is on steroids by the way.

After getting together with the fantastic people from my home, we created a common vision for a dynamic urban farm, and we immediately attacked the garden, energized. Now we are utilizing spaces we never touched (the place is 2,500 square meters-- some areas are dead zones), cleaning, preparing soil like never before. I've always been a solitary gardener at home (save for a few common projects and amusements), so this felt... great. It feels strangely exciting to step out of the house everyday with 2 or 3 companions, ready to get our hands dirty, ready to "deserve" lunch after hard work. The progress is astounding. I haven't got the most recent pics, but I'm extremely psyched about the way things are going.

We sort of started by fencing off this idle plot (we needed a goat-proof place), which was eventually vetoed by the padre de pamilia, and moved further down. To date, the area pictured below is covered by a tent, contains a long and convivial table, surrounded by flowering plants. It is the new designated coffee-drinking area.



My "laboratory" is serving as a nursery (I caged the seed beds to prevent the chickens from trampling and scratching). We're doing a lot of lemongrass because we're preparing a massive weed barrier for the front lot.



I hope to post more often. Stay tuned.

2011 & The Garden

Hey you guys, you haven't stopped reading my blog! Nice. I've been remiss in filling up this space. For the first time in my life, it's not because I'm doing "a whole assortment of things", but because I'm running a shop, learning real-life-business-skills, and managing a few more people and "operations" than I am used to. Yes, this is growth. For myself, it's life on steroids. I suppose I won't have the energy for this sort of thing when I get older, so what the heck.

A month and some into 2011, I'd like to share my resolution with you: to garden more, and to feed more people with my garden.


(Above, a normal meal from the garden, assorted greens and flowers with our own coconut milk!)

To Garden is To Live

It is one of the greatest joys in my life to garden. Perhaps, like there are hunting dogs and those meant to become topiaries of hair, there are also people who just like the soil and leaves. I love the soil. I can live in a shack, for so long as around me is a garden (or something that can become one). I am happy when I garden. I daydream about it. I hyperventilate when I meet people who are doing exciting garden things. I am, quite clearly, a garden nerd, and, most probably, a garden bore.

Given the world is obviously ending in 2012-- I'll probably be watching Paranaque from the top of a coconut tree whilst slowly sinking with the trunk into water and/or lava-- I should do it while I can. Simple. The truth is, I want to do what I enjoy most, not save enough money and retire on some leisure farm, only to find out my back can't take wielding a pickaxe, and that I am to die running amongst the tomatoes a la Vito Corleone.



Can it be simple? I enjoy doing it and it teaches me about life and the universe. And I will do it as much as I can, screw what everyone says.

The Urban Farm Project

I live in a lot that is 2500 square meters large and within a "mega-city". 1/8 of it is a house (a converted handicrafts factory), 1/4 is my chaotic garden, and the rest is wild grass, trees, and patches of leisure. I've been feeding myself (and the familia) with wild food plants and cultivated vegetables for quite sometime, recently more than ever. I can feed more people. I just have to think about scale. I've even got a name for the farm. If it's got a name, it's happening.

I'm quite used to doing small garden projects. Growing enough cotton to make a few small dolls, growing all sorts of gingers and all sorts of cemetery trees, but I haven't been able to maximize the yield. It's been about amusement and meeting a very limited food demand. I can make cheap, low-carbon organic food for people. Closer even than Cavite farms, cleaner than the urban ones fed with sewage. Yes, be a farmer most of the time! See point A, above.







(Just wanted to show off my ginger assortment, above).

I was wondering if I should keep this goal of mine secret, but I decided to put good pressure on myself by telling other people. Besides trying to get people to eat "weird" crops (we eat a variety of plants that modern Filipinos have never heard of), I want to feed their brains by creating a farm that is more organized chaos. Fieldtrips within the city, etc. Teaching them to compost, showing them that chicken eggs don't all have white shells. Stuff like that. Sounds like fun? It's hard work and fun. The good kind of hard work.

(Pause)

I have been pretty busy with the shop. I've not stopped gardening, but I don't have a lot of time to take photos or write. I tend to get intense when I write this blog, or spend hours poring over plant history and research. In time, I'll get my schedules sorted out and wallow in my delightful mud that is plant love.