Simple Life Matters

 CALLING FOR MORE BakaJuan VOLUNTEERS!  With your help, we have accomplished 81% of our soft target, which is equal to 4,955 out of the 6,110 validation points as of today, May 22, 2024. Let us continue the work we've started, and complete the Philippine Mangrove Map today! According to Florida Department of Environmental protection the importance of Mangrove are: » Mangrove forests stabilize the coastline by reducing erosion caused by storm FAST FACTS surges, currents, waves and tides.  » Mangroves protect water quality by removing nutrients and pollutants from stormwater runoff before they reach seagrass habitats and coral reefs.   » Mangrove peat absorbs water during heavy rains and storm surge, reducing the chances of coastal flooding.   » Mangroves provide nursery habitat for many commercial fish and shellfish, and thus contribute to the local abundance of seafood.   » Mangroves protect species that are the basis of a $7.6 billion seafoo...

Before I was hesitant to buy the tree from the supplier from Nueva Ecija since I am not sure if Palm Date can actually grow here although it should because the Philippines is a tropical country. I have seen a lot of Date palm trees in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and in United Arab Emirates and the fruit when ripe has a great sweet taste. I need to buy two plants since the date palm is dioecious, having separate male and female plants. They can be easily grown from seed, but only 50% of seedlings will be female and hence fruit-bearing, and dates from seedling plants are often smaller and of poorer quality. Most commercial plantations thus use cuttings of heavily cropping cultivars. Plants grown from cuttings will fruit 2–3 years earlier than seedling plants.  Now as you can see in the photos below, my Date palm is only 3 ft in height but it already bears fruits. This is a grafted tree (draft version) which I bought for Php 1500 for each plant. Date trees reach up to 30 meters (100...

Backyard farming becomes popular during the COVID pandemic. People have learned to plant fruit-bearing trees and crops even in small spaces. Urban Gardening has been a fad in the Metro since there is limited space for gardening. Vertical gardening using pet bottles is one of the methods you can apply when residing in an apartment or condominium. You can have a DIY self-watering pot out of plastic bottles from empty Soft drink bottles. Okra just like eggplant is easy to grow whether on pots or planted directly in the soil. Since I have ample space in my backyard, I plant my Okra seedlings direct into the soil as you can see in the actual photo of my grown-up Okra plant below. The plant needs direct sunlight to grow faster and produce crops faster. You need to water the plant twice daily and you can use "Abono", Urea as a fertilizer or an organic fertilizer such as vermicast is much better if the vegetable is for personal consumption.

Growing Cucumber in our backyard is very easy. You can buy from Pant Garden which also sells vegetable seedlings for only four to five pesos depending on the size of the seedlings. You can also grow cucumber from seeds which you can buy from Puregold and SM Groceries. Preparing the soil:  Cultivate the soil to get it ready for the seedlings. Mostly, the existing backyard soil in the Philippines is almost ready to receive seedlings. If the soil is composed mostly of clay components, you can put garden soil and put on the toppings before planting the seedlings. Water and Sunlight: You need to water the seedling twice a day, before sunrise and after sunrise. The seedling needs enough sunlight to thrive faster. Trellis for Crawling: After two weeks from planting, you will need a trellis for the plant to crawl. After only one and a half months, we have already harvested the actual cucumber fruits. We used an improvised trellis made from bamboo and plastic straw. Please see the actual pi...