Need To Perk Up My Urban Garden

Lately I have been too busy with site development thus I slightly neglected another favorite pastime which is gardening.  If other people find comfort caring for their pet animals, I find solace tending to those emerald beauties.  I used to do gardening with the kids during weekend but since there were minor changes in my to-do list since the start of the year, I left my garden to the care of my house helper.   The other day, my eldest child called my attention because he noticed that I very seldom visit my garden the past days and he told me that some of my plants were already starting to wither despite diligent efforts of my maid to water the plants everyday. Obviously the intense heat is already causing damage to my beloved garden (due to El Nino) so I must act fast and take pre-emptive measures to save it from possible damage.          

From the time we moved in to this apartment, I asked my husband that I wanted to set up a garden.  Later I learned from Ms. Tita, one of my mentors, that it is now being referred to as “urban garden” based on the seminar that she attended. The term was coined to indicate a place for vegetation within the city, which most likely are collection of potted plants since most areas in the city are already paved.    

I told my dad and mom about my plan and asked for some help from them.  They have different kinds of flora back there in our ancestral home but I do not have the time to visit the place 36kms away to acquire some cuttings since my busy schedule wouldn’t permit me.  I called dad to request if he could bring me some cuttings for which he gladly accommodate. I bought gardening tools  and gardening book to satiate my needs for the hobby.  I also bought about 20 kilos of soil for $4 (P10/k) as there is no free soil available in the city.

Later on, my parent-in-law learned of my plan about the garden, at that time, my husband’s mother was replacing her own collection with red-flowering Euphorbia plant and she decided to give away those yellow-colored ones.  My father-in-law painstakingly brought me pots after pots of flora until it filled more than a square meter of the veranda.  Aside from that, friends also gave me some from their own collection.  With that I was more than ten pots of plants richer J  and more than a day happier as I was able to have my garden without much hassle.

 This garden has a sentimental value for me as this has been the result of collective efforts of caring people.  I just so loved these people for nurturing my leisure pursuit and I am thankful to them for lending a hand and encouraging me to keep doing what I love to do thus I cannot just let this garden be left to nothingness.

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