Patch of Green

This is gonna be a short post because I'm just typing on my phone screen. I've been whiling away time, seated in a rocking chair on the porch, gazing at the grass in my garden. This vantage point envelopes me with gratefulness amidst some pangs of depression while waiting every day for news that doesn't come.

The rains have given our newly planted grass and ornamentals some good headway. It's been just a week since we had frog grass installed, and it's all looking green and thriving. Fingers crossed that not another typhoon as strong as Glenda would unfurl, this patch of land is looking good. 

I wonder why I waited so long to take up gardening. It was difficult having three dogs before but when we recently lost one, a Rottweiler, gardening kind of made up for losing Weiler (our dog's name). Also, maybe at the back of my mind, if I wanted the garden done, I would have to get a landscaper. And that's expensive. And so years passed and I just kind of resigned myself to how it was like before, with the mango and guyabano trees, palms, and some plants we've inherited from the first owner of the house. 

A week before typhoon Glenda hit many parts of Luzon including our place, I had just started shopping for plants and pots. I had already some planted out on the front yard and some inside. I like buying them small, not only because they're cheaper but more because I want to see them grow right before my eyes. This was a good decision I realized later as they survived the typhoon's strong winds and heavy rains. 

I didn't know that plants can be so expensive. Not to discourage those who are planning to start or spruce up their gardens, the cheapest I bought from Taytay (Rizal) market were three small plants for a hundred pesos. So if you have a big area, you'd need to invest a bit to start a garden. If you want to have an idea, here's a tally of the expenses I incurred: 

Soil - P3,500 - one elf truck
Garden soil - P50/sack

Frog grass - P80/square meter (sourced from Malolos, Bulacan)

Plants - P10 to P300 (very variable)

Clay or terracota pots - small: P50; medium: P125-200; big: P350-400

Labor - P500 per person per day

In Bulacan, you can get some small plants for only 10 pesos. At the popular gardens in White Plains, Quezon City, the cheapest you can get is 50 pesos. The hanging plants I bought from Taytay market were only priced at 3 for 100, in White Plains, it was sold at P80 per piece. Frog grass there is a whopping 300 pesos per square meter. Better to travel to Bulacan if you're buying in bulk. 

So far, my expenses haven't reached 20,000, but that excludes the expenses going to Bulacan because I'm lucky my in-laws are from there. :) 

Had I hired landscapers, it would have easily cost me 50k, maybe more.

Hope for the Flowers (borrowing from T. Paulus)

Day 2 sans my kiddos. Like yesterday, I busied myself with routine housework - cleaned the yard, swept dried leaves and the dogs' poop (yikes), and watered the plants, vines and trees. I went out the street in my usual (favorite) ratty shirt and decent 'snooze' shorts (that's the brand, btw), cleared the debris from yesterday's passersby mindlessly throwing wrappers and cigarette butts, and dried leaves falling from our mango and guyabano trees. I liked that when we bought the house, its fence was richly covered by a green plant that creeps, I don't know what it's called. We have kept it as we had found it, but removed the old santan that lined the house fence from the outside. In its place now are camote, alugbati, sili, and at times tomatoes - to the credit of our yaya. 

A neighbor came up to me once as I was watering the plants and said that she and many other neighbors appreciate that they can freely harvest camote leaves from our little garden. I've been for years meaning to get someone to do the landscape. That hasn't happened because it is expensive and I always wonder if passersby would not uproot newly planted ornamentals. I'm sure they won't be our immediate neighbors, but since access to the subdivision is not restricted, I have my doubts whether it's worth it. 

My mother-in-law has been discretely bringing plants on her recent visits, giving them to the yaya. The gardener that she is, the patch of land -- greeting her as she enters the house, with sparse plants and largely exposed topsoil -- must look like untended to her. Last time she visited, she brought carabao grass and taught Yaya how to plant and propagate it. Who doesn't want a nice garden? I do. I like plants especially those that give bright, dainty flowers, and I'd like to see more flowers other than the kalachuchi we have, which happens to be from mom-in-law as well. And I dream of picking flowers and putting them in vases or used ketchup bottles, to decorate the dining and living areas of the house. That would be lovely! 

I thought I'd take up gardening when I quit work about a year ago. Failure. It's daunting for me to get down to the job, research about suitable plants, ones which can grow under a big canopy of a mango tree, and ones which are sturdy or deep-rooted enough to be able to cohabit with active dogs, one is a Jack Russell terrier, the hunting type that digs the soil to find a prey. Daunting. I actually have plastic pots and seeds waiting to be used, and sitting some place in the house for almost a year now.

The last two days I've been tending the garden (haha, watering is all that I do actually), I have resolved to at least try and spruce up the open space my family is blessed to have. I'm keen on buying flowering plants. I'm thinking bougainvillea, the ones whose colors I seldom see - lavender, orange, white, and, maybe, see if I can find the pink version of yellow bells. On a recent family outing, Garrett took nice photos of the flowers I have in mind (see the two photos at the bottom).

It's therapeutic to water plants. Thoughts of life, health, blessings came to me yesterday as water sprinkled from the hose I was holding, aiming it not only at the ground where water would be taken up, but also unto the leaves and branches. It's a delight to the senses to smell the drenched soil and plants, and see the glistening water droplets that form on the leaves. It's nature talking. Or maybe it's God, reminding me to stay grounded, appreciative, grateful, and to live healthy and happy as the radiant day He has so kindly given. 

Big, red ants feast on our guyabano tree.