Why Garden: Co-creating With Nature Is A Step Towards Less Consumerism

 

Moringa Oleifera (Malunggay in Filipino)

One of my favorite non-fiction author, Michael Pollan, whose books include "Botany of Desire," "Cooked," and "The Omnivore's Dilemma," posed the question, "Why make your own bread or beer when you can buy them for only how much at the store?" to paraphrase him. Indeed. 

The answer is that we've lost touched with how our food is grown and produced. We've left the growing and production (also over-processing) to faceless workers and corporations who make us laboratory rats of their sinister recipes. Maybe, we shouldn't be surprised if the young kids (or new generation) thinks the food they eat are grown in supermarkets. And talk about the current state of obesity and poor health.

Gardening Notes: When The Universe Sends You Something To Affirm Your Faith In Humanity

A green set of gifts -- Alocasia and Caladium

It's been a kinda bittersweet couple of months, especially, the last few weeks. I would've thought that there was relief coming to my corner of the world after a trying period from last year -- losing my job, getting sick with Long COVID-19 (4 months), selling my belongings to survive, being scammed, getting close to getting employment about thrice but not clinching it, getting sick with psoriasis, getting scammed again, and getting scammed still one more time. The past month, one of my brothers suffered a stroke. Honestly, if there's a reset or reboot button, I would've pressed it long ago.  I admire my sister for all she had to put up with. I can't do even half of what she does.

The other day, I was particularly on the low side of moods -- my two-month-old Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse faltered (my best bud called it Lugi-tech). I'm facing a payday with one day less pay. I mean, c'mon Universe. 

Then, I met a 2-3 year old cute kid wearing a shirt that says "Today is going to be a great day." Hmmm, I get the humor but I feel pained. I felt like telling the Universe, "you think that's funny, huh?" 

Gardening: Confronting Decay and Mortality in My Small Patch of Earth

The five elements come together in a shower of green

I actually had this realization awhile back but only wrote this on this space now. I think one of the reason why people (particularly city people who think themselves sophisticated and as far away from an agricultural existence) can be averse to farming is that soil is a reminder of our mortality.

It came to me as some sort of epiphany while meditating at a nearby park. It was raining so I had to find shelter in one of the park's gazebo. I realized that the tree is a great intermediary between the four elements (five, if we count the invisible spirits flitting around and inhabiting spaces we thought are inanimate and devoid of life), taking in air, exhaling carbon dioxide, getting nutrients from the soil, relishing the rain and whatever water we can also supplement it.

More Electroculture Stories: From Skepticism to Belief

Note the Electroculture stake amidst the Oregano and giant Pothos

Pardon if the title borders on the religious but it's how I describe my conversion from being skeptical to believing in what a piece of wooden stick and copper wire spirals can do for your gardening. It doesn't matter if you're doing it on a potted plant or on the earthen plot, whether you're using the bioelectroculture technique on edibles or ornamental plants.

About two months into the experiment, my initial findings were the following:

Electroculture Gardening Experiment: I Was Really Skeptical But...

New batch of Basil after a typhoon blew away my former batch

I would like to think I'm more open to fringe theories than most people I know. Even then, I thought electroculture gardening was farther left field than most topics. I've read and watched about it years ago but never got to try it until now. I had several Dragontail plants (Epipremnum pinnatum) that withstood my transfer to a new living space a year ago though one or two weren't really thriving. I found out the hard way that like rubber plants, they're rather sensitive to being moved around, preferring to be in their spaces. 

Urban Gardening Notes: The Wind, The Afternoon Sun, and Pressing On

Bitter gourd/melon

I got mixed results from sowing seeds a bit too late in the year.  Or is it?  It's El Niño season so I can be wrong. The wind funnel effect of living in a building sandwiched in between other buildings is proving to be tricky in trying to grow my own bitter gourd (ampalaya) which is a climbing vine. I'm still trying and the vines are still holding on so we'll see. The wind may just have an effect in making the surviving vines stronger and more resilient.

Basil getting bigger

I also moved some of the potted plants around, taking the basil and hot chili plants out of the longer western sun exposure (my balcony faces west though the ledge casts a shadow on one side of the balcony area) along with my dragontail plants (Epipremnum pinnatum) which thrives more on reflected light compared to its cousin, the Pothos plants I have in abundance (I use a few pots indoors for cleaning indoor air and letting a bit of nature inside).

The basil is thriving, growing larger leaves which in a few weeks' time, I can use in cooking or to make an aromatic olive oil mix since I would have to trim it anyway.  But I'm so happy it's doing well. The other time I tried growing some, the Eurasian sparrows who I used to feed in my former abode, would feed on the leaves when they ran out of birdseed.  I miss the birds and I wonder if they themselves wonder what happened to the human who used to feed them daily for almost two decades. In time, I would go back to feeding the birds and hopefully some of the sparrows can find my new location.  For the time being, I'm happy growing some of my own herbs and edibles.

Urban Gardening 30 Storeys Up and Lessons in Sowing & Growing

Growing Genovese Basil from seeds was worth it

It's not the first time I sowed seeds ever since I've moved abodes last year but this is the first time I did so with the earnestness of before when I had a thriving ledge garden patch. The weather's like scorching hot the past month or so but there has been some rains and a typhoon (Betty aka Mawar) lately. Judging from my experiences last year when I was sidelined for almost four months by Long COVID that the adjacent buildings create a funnel effect that make what can be somewhat innocuous winds be blustery and at times, a bit of a concern. 

Typhoon Betty may have missed making landfall but even then, we felt the effects of the windy conditions here in Metro Manila. My 20-year old hulking ZZ plant, the only survivor of my former ledge garden, got toppled by the wind. My insulin plant showed some signs of weariness. Even if my young basil plant tended to dance with the wind, it nearly dried out because of the windy, drying conditions. Even then, I sowed some seeds of hope -- upland kangkong (water spinach), ampalaya (bitter gourd), sage, lettuce, pepper, and even a narra (genus Pletocarpus) seed I found stashed in my cache. My weekends have turned into back to the earth episodes which I really miss.

Thyme After Thyme: Straightforward Info on Planting and Caring for Herbs

The temperature's hovering somewhere around 30-31 degrees on the night I'm writing this post.  Yeah, summer's here alright and probably, the only things that really relish the heat are my ledge/balcony plants.  I've sown some lettuces some weeks back but because of the heat and some soil problems, they bolted early and dried up.  Doesn't mean I won't try again.  I'm also trying to get started on a herb garden anew even with my location's limitations on available sunlight (trying is the word).  

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There's a trove of growing information on the internet for would-be hobbyists and gardeners but my main observation is, they're all over the place.  A lot are just copy-and-paste versions of the more substantial sites.  A lot of sites also try to rehash the same info, attempting to hide them with a lot of fluff (time wasters as far as I'm concerned) that I think deserve to go into the composting pile.

One time I got fed up with reading a lot of prose that I read through the info and sifted the pertinent data, came up with my own illustrations (yes, I do draw in my spare time), and compiled the information in an easier to read compendium I entitled "Thyme After Thyme".  Hopefully, this free resource helps other people get into the planting habit.  

Thyme After Thyme: A Free Herb Gardening Resource by Lagalog

Email me for your copy of this no-frills herb gardening eBook

A friend who recently visited me at home paid me the ultimate compliment upon seeing my window.  No, it's not the most picturesque window as my view opens to rows upon rows of neighbor windows and ledges, some neat, quite a lot in various stages of disorder.  It's not even the neatest window of the building.

"May gubat ka na sa bintana mo!" (Hey, you've got a forest by your window), my friend quipped.

It's not an overnight project as I've spent years doing some sort of ledge gardening.  And my window and ledge location is far from idea, receiving mostly deflected light for most parts of the day with some fleeting afternoon sun.  There are plants I want to grow for food that I couldn't.  A lot of herbs don't do well with limited direct sunlight I've read and learned about the hard way.   It hasn't stopped me from trying though.  I don't buy into the reasoning that because one has very limited space, you can't grow your greens whether they be for eating or for improving your life quality even a little bit.  I've even gone into a bit of composting without raising the neighbors' ire for the stink, mainly using banana peels, apple cores, crushed egg shells and discarded coffee grounds from the coffeepress.

The internet is a rich trove of information - from sourcing seeds/plants/seedlings to taking care of what you grow.  But having to keep hopping from one site to another in search of information made me yearn to assemble my very own ebook where straightforward information can be had and which can be stored in my tablet or iPhone for offline reading/reference.

Also wanting something to do with my hands, I married my love of gardening with my humble illustration skills to come up with a no-frills resource I entitled "Thyme After Thyme".  While I could probably try to sell the ebook, I thought of sharing this with readers and fellow gardeners.  I mean the more of us to get into this habit of growing greens, the better.  I know it has taught me some very precious things.  Patience, for one.  You can't always hasten the growing process especially if you want to do it sans the chemical help.  If you're going to eat what you grow, I've learned you have to pay real attention to what goes into it.  I know it's a dirty job literally but this connects me to the earth.

I've featured a collage of the 9 page ebook on this post.  If you want a copy, send me an email at [email protected] so I can verify where the copy is going.  Important note: It's free to share but not to pirate much less alter without express permission from me.  All illustrations, creatives and text © 2016 Oggie Ramos • Lush font by Carolina Meijia