When I was a kid, I never liked playing with soil. I can still remember that during my elementary years, we were assigned little gardens at the back of our school to plant several veggies on. I was not very cooperative then as I hated getting my hands dirty. If I’m not mistaken, we grew mongo, string beans and pechay. Whenever harvest season came, we would send the produce to Divisoria through the farmer friend of our teacher. The earnings of that we would use in buying new seeds for our gardens and the rest of the money in getting snacks for the entire class.

As I grew up, I learned to appreciate the life of farmers and their noble work of tilling the land to supply us with fresh food. My first serious attempt at gardening was in our new house in Cavite. We have a small space in front of the house that is now growing several kinds of veggies. It was me who brought up the idea of starting a garden but it was my dad who did most of the manual work. Now we have a small garden that does not only keep my father busy but also supplies my parents with fresh, organic veggies.

Here are some photos of our dear garden:

string beans

malunggay (moringo)

kangkong

camote tops (leaves of sweet potato)

my dad beside our little garden

Not in the photos are squash, cassava, eggplant, okra, bell pepper and ginger which we also have at the vacant lot beside our house. It’s amazing how little spaces can turn into something that we can benefit from. I am also amazed by the fact that we have influenced our other neighbors to start a garden of their own. Not only is gardening supplying us with fresh produce, it’s also a great bonding activity (therapeutic, too!) for our families.

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