Gardening with Herbs

Parsley

Sweet basil

Rosemary

 

Purple basil and Oregano in the pot at the bottom of the red salvia flowers.

My husband and I sometimes go to the City Orchidarium, this is a plant nursery here in Baguio City, just to look at the flowers and the many different plants that are on display. We both love having flowers around the house and we would sometimes buy them in bulk together with some pots for to be used for re-planting them. Then we would display all the flowers in strategic locations around the house so we could admire them. That particular day that we went to the Orchidarium, I wanted to buy some herbs so I could start my herb garden because I wanted to have some fresh herbs that I could use in my cooking. So we bought one pot for each kind of herbs such as thyme, sage, lavender, mint, sweet marjoram, sweet basil, parsley, oregano, rosemary, fennel, lemon balm, onion leeks or what we call spring onions and pandan.  When we got home, I re-planted them in one of the garden beds and then watered them.

The herbs grew well in the garden bed. My husband bought some name plate and wrote the herbs name on each of them and covered these with plastic then he stuck these to the ground to identify each plant. He made a really good job and it was a pretty sight to see that anyone who comes over for a visit always had something nice to say about our small garden. Then one day, we had a really bad storm and it wiped everything away in the garden. It just kept on raining for days that it saturated the garden beds and caused the herbs to rot. So we decided that the next time we plant some herbs, we will plant them in pots so we could move them around or bring them in under the awning to protect them from the rain.

Broccoli Rabe and Arugula

Broccoli Rabe

Pronunciation: [RAHB]

A vegetable related to both the cabbage and turnip family, the leafy green broccoli rabe has 6- to 9-inch stalks and scattered clusters of tiny broccoli like buds.

I had to look that up because there is a story behind this broccoli. The dark colored leaves in the picture above is called broccoli rabe. The lighter colored leaves are aragula plants, very tasty and good for stir fry recipes. Anyway, my husband bought a packet of seedling material from the gardening section at SM mall here in Baguio City. This one packet contained several different kinds of vegetables and were wrapped in their own individual foil pouch. One of the pouch is that of the broccoli and the other is aragula and we planted these side by side in one of the garden beds. They both grew well and when it was time to gather, the aragula plants were harvested first and we left the broccoli behind. We thought that the broccoli needed more time to form into a ball-like cluster, just like the ones that we normally buy in the market.

Then one day, my sister-in-law Emy asked me why we were not gathering the broccoli plants. She said that the vegetables have been ready for harvest a week ago, in which I replied that no, they're not matured enough yet. My husband and I were waiting for the plants to form into a ball-like cluster and since they're not in that stage yet, so they're still young. So then she explained to us that what we had planted was a different kind of broccoli. In fact, they used to grow these in her hometown in Kapangan Benguet and they were sold at a higher price than the regular broccoli that we know of. Ha-ha, that was really something new to us. So anyway, we both gathered the broccoli and divided the produce between us. I cooked my share in a stir fry recipe and it tasted good but I found it a little tough. Had we known that this kind will not form into a ball-like cluster, we would have gathered them earlier while they were younger and they would have been more tender. It's a lesson learned in gardening with vegetables for newbies like us.

Tomato Gardening

These tomatoes are our very own produce from the small garden in the backyard. When we first started planting tomatoes in the garden, we were so happy to see the flowers when they came out. We used to count the number of flowers on each vine everyday and we could hardly wait for them to grow up fast enough so we could gather them. The plants grew thick and healthy and they were about 5 feet tall with plenty of fruits on the vine. Then one day, they all got attacked by something that we don't know of and the stems started to turn brown. The fruits were not spared and they got some brown spots on them too until they all died. That was really very very frustrating for us. 

We tried planting again the second time. This time, we planted them in pots and kept them away from the garden thinking that there might be a lot of pests that are affecting them in the garden. Since we didn't want to use any pesticides, so what we did is to place some of them on the stairs away from the garden and some at the back porch. They grew well but not as tall as the ones that we had in the past when we planted them in the garden. We were able to get some small tomatoes but most of them ended up with the same  brown spots on the stems and fruits. So we gave up, said that we're done, no more planting of tomatoes! 

Well, easier said than done, we did try planting tomatoes again the 3rd time. What did we do this time that's different from the previous experiments? Well, we planted them at the right time, just after the rains. Whenever we water the plants, we try and avoid getting the leaves to get wet so they will not get easily attacked by pests. We also planted them apart at some distance from each other so if one should get attacked, it will not transfer to the rest. The plants made it this time and they produced plenty of big beefy tomatoes as shown in the pictures above.  I processed some of the produce into green tomato relish and it has served us for many months. I also gave some bottled green tomato relish to some of our friends who were delighted, knowing that our produce came from an organic garden. We used some in our salads and sandwiches after ripening them on the window sill in the picture window. It was really a very rewarding experience for us.

Composting in the Backyard

When it comes to wastes collection, the local city government of Baguio City strictly imposes the "No Segregation, No Collection" policy. Segregation of biodegradable materials from non biodegradable are to be done by everybody in every household in all the 125 barangays in the city. Before anyone can bring their trash bag into the collection area, they have to make sure that they did a proper segregation of biodegradable materials from other kinds of wastes or else the barangay council who are manning the disposal area in the barangay will not accept the trash bag. This policy has prompted us to make our own compost pile in the backyard. Before we converted the old pigsty into a rabbitry, we were using one corner of the last compartment in the pigsty as a composting area. What we did to hasten the decomposition process of the compost pile is to put a black plastic tarp over it and this heats up the compost pile faster. Then twice a week, we would turn the compost pile over and spray it with a little water, just enough to make the compost material moist. Once the compost is ready, then we bury it in the soil in the garden beds. We water the garden beds lightly and then wait for a week before we start planting the vegetables. We do not use chemical fertilizers in our garden, which makes our vegetables organically produced. This is our goal in having a vegetable garden in the backyard, to produce organic vegetables for our own consumption.

 

Chopped leaves and kitchen wastes for the compost bin.

Big plastic compost bin with shredded and soaked newspapers.

The shredded and soaked newspapers with about 3-4 inches thickness goes in the bottom first.

Then the rest of the chopped up leaves and kitchen wastes goes in as well. When the bin is about half-way full, then we put in the earthworms.

After we converted the old pigsty into a rabbitry, we didn't have the space anymore for a composting area so I bought two bins for composting purposes. We drilled some holes at the bottom and near the top for ventilation purposes because we were going to use earthworms to convert the wastes into a rich organic fertilizer. We have plenty of gumamela bushes around our property that serves as a fence. My husband trims these gumamela bushes regularly and we give the tender shoots and leaves of the plants to our rabbits. The rest of the trimmings are cut into smaller pieces and thrown into the compost bin together with some vegetables and fruit peelings from the two kitchens. Between my own kitchen and that of my sister-in-law's kitchen, we generate a lot of kitchen scrap for the compost. 

  

Converting a Rock Garden into a Vegetable Garden.

This area used to be a small rock garden in the backyard. It was filled with  different kinds of ornamental plants and flowers that we have collected over the years. There were too many plants of different varieties that I could not even name them all. So anyway, one day, my husband and I were talking about the idea of having a small garden in the backyard. The more that we talked about it, the more that we liked the idea of raising our own organic vegetables. The problem is, we did not have the space to make a garden in the backyard but we had a small rock garden. So we talked about the possibility of converting our small rock garden into a vegetable garden. We both agreed that we could put all the flowers that we like into pots so we could move them around the property or wherever we wanted them to be and make use of the space for a vegetable garden.

Well, it's easier said than done.  It took us about two weeks just to clear out the area of small stones and gravel, it was hard work but it was worth it. Because of space constraints, we were able to make three small plots only. Well, three plots is actually better than nothing. We used stones of various shapes and sizes just to make a retaining wall along the sides of the garden plots to contain the soil in the raised beds.  Then my husband made a one-foot walkway in between the two rows of raised beds and he laid some flat stones over this walkway so it will not have to be muddy specially when it rains. We bought a roll of three feet tall 1 x 1 hole wire mesh material and used this as a fence to enclose the perimeter of the garden. Now that we have some native chickens in the backyard, I'm glad that we decided to put up this fence in the garden. This fence keeps the chickens out and deters them from messing with the vegetable garden. There is a runt among the chickens who is an escape artist and we always find her scratching near the garden fence.