A seed neither fears light nor darkness, but uses both to grow. — Matshona Dhliwayo
The month of May has been a time for transition, of acceptance and growth—since the first quarter of the year was undeniably chaotic.
At last, the dry season manifested itself, a month full of warmth and sun, I wouldn't whine at all! After the super storms, the sunny days were a blessing.
Rain, sunshine, a celebration in the sky!
Well, it is Leyte, and a day isn't complete without a random shower, after all, we have an evenly distributed rain throughout the year, it is what it is, and that's what i love about this place.
The occurrence has awarded its rightful place into a folk song, "Uyan, init, pasko sa langit!" Then kids would dance in the rain, it is really a wonderful sight of glistening rain in a sunny day.
Several weeks ago, I did a bit of grasscutting and with the help of the intense sunshine, the weeds were in control.
As an adult, whenever I'm visiting the orchards or the farm, I always wear shoes during sunny days or rubber boots during the wet season, because I'm afraid of creatures swoshing here and there.
Earlier this week, it showered and the ground was just moist. I was tempted to go barefoot and it was all worth it. I never practice grounding as a spiritual activity, but whenever I do, it just my courage to face my fears and enjoy the earth like kid again.
A few of my old crops bolted, and it was intentional. It was still a successful gardening experience, though short-live because of the super storms last April. So, I left some vegetables to mature and self-seed.
Most were from F1 seeds, but I hope to magically grow something to surprise me, who knows, I might get a new good cultivar, as if! Haha!
There's beans, radishes, and malabar spinach. For the other vegetables, herbs, and flowers, I needed to propagate it through cuttings or manual seed collection.
On each visit, I continue to transplant more fruit tree seedlings, vegetables, and flowers. Luckily, I have my father to offer seedlings from his nursery. For the vegetables, I collect seeds from our vegetable scraps in the kitchen. As for the flowers, I manually collect from the home garden.
I am still unsuccessful with alliums, but some sources said that it is a prolofic self-sowing plant and therefore should be taken care to prevent bolting, though I am open for that to happen in my garden.
What I also found some native and non-native tree saplings, such as guavas and citruses, that self-seeded probably from bat/bird droppings. I am planning to dig and transplant some to the orchard later this month.
The truth about building a food forest is that at the beginning there is mostly nothing, but just sweat and hope. That's undeniable, but with persistence and luck, abundance slowly creeps in like weeds they grow in the most unfavorable places and blooms in multitude therafter.
Unlike industrial farming, permacukture has the least assurance of beautiful and bountiful harvests in short-term, but the idea is to just keep on planting, failure after failure, and whatever grows, grows.
Months or years after, there will be always something that bears fruit for the family to share or to sell!
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@oniemaniego is a software developer, but outside work, he experiments in the kitchen, writes poetry and fiction, paints his heart out, or toils under the hot sun.
| Onie Maniego / Loy Bukid was born in Leyte, PH. He grew up in a rural area with a close-knit community and a simple lifestyle, he is often visiting his father's orchards during summer and weekends, which has a great impact on his works. |
© 2022 Onie Maniego and Loy Bukid
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