our prolific garden


during our trip to Catanduanes 6 years ago

As of this moment, I am 36, errr 46 years old, and I look forward to my retirement days with great merriment and excitement. For a woman my age, what better thing is there to do than to plan and conceptualize what I intend to do with my future. There’s nothing we can do with our young and energetic past life as we can never bring it back. It is all history now. All we can do is recollect the happy moments and use them as an inspiration to tackle our life ahead, and at the same learn from the mistakes we made in the past, making sure that we avoid those errors as we move on.

I dream of nothing spectacular really, but something simple and practical. Currently, I live in a foreign land, but I don’t intend to live here in my retirement days full time. I want to go back where my heart is – my home sweet home, and to reside there 50% of the time. To realize this goal, I plan to buy a huge piece of property in the province that I can develop into a fruit plantation. Yes, I am fully aware that there are pros and cons in living in the province.

Pros: rain is a plenty which is a must for plantation, the weather is conducive for a year-round gardening, cheap labor, near relatives and friends, low cost of living, beaches abound, food is wholesome, etc.

Cons: the super typhoon that comes every 10 years that practically demolishes everything. the possibility of tsunami, earthquakes.

But Catanduanes and its people are resilient to all these calamities. They have the ability to bounce back from adversity, depression, or the likes. Look at Catanduanes now, who could tell that a little over 2 years ago, all living things were strewn all over the ground transforming the forest into a lifeless, brown landscape. It was like a nature’s way of pruning the vegetation. Everything came to a halt for a while until slowly, greens started cropping up, the trees sprouted new leaves, thereby filling the earth with verdant greens and luscious forest. It has been proven that Catanduanes has the ability to recover readily from all types of adversities, so why not go back to the province?

Going back to my dream, I also want to raise pigs and chickens, the organic way, for personal consumption. I understand that to have a good and healthy plantation, I would need plenty of manure from these animals. So, you see, animals and plants are like two different species that are interdependent but gains benefits from each other. Whatever vegetables scraps I have will come in handy for pigs.

So, when I have visitors, I don’t have to rush to Virac palengke to feed them. I will have fresh eggs readily available, or I will have someone slaughter a chicken/pig, and for side dishes, I will turn to whatever is in season from my vegetables—all guaranteed organic. Or I can always check with my fishermen for fresh catch of the day? Does fresh kusido sound appealing to you? Dessert? What better way of serving my guests with fresh and tree-ripened fruits from the farm than with a sugar laden cakes and ice-cream?

What sort of fruit tress do I intend to plant? Jackfruit, for one, if planted right, can be prolific, as it can produce anywhere from 50 to 250 fruits over a year. Avocado is a very healthy fruit that is almost extinct in the province as people seem to have lost interest in re-planting it. Pili – there is a big demand for pili nuts in the province to make delicious pili nut delicacies that are not only popular in the Philippines but in the foreign land, as well. Indian mango grows exceedingly well in the province. Papaya, Hawaiian pineapple, breadfruit, banana of all sorts, passion fruit, guava, guyabano, pumelo, duhat, balingbing, lemon, santol, star apple, kamias, and of course, coconut. All these fruits that I mentioned had been successfully grown in the province, but the typhoon eradicated some of them as no one cared to replace them. Just tell me where I can find them and I will grow them back in Bato.

In addition to the above, I also want to raise an organic vegetable garden all year round. My husband is an avid orchadist, and a gardener. He grows beautiful garden.

What I will do for fun? Well, for one thing, I don’t drink or smoke, and neither does my husband. Mababaw lang ang kaligayahan namin. My idea of fun is to swim in the Batalay beach in the early morning or evening, and take a walk along the beach to savor the fresh breeze of the ocean. Or ride on a tractor and navigate the farm – directionless.

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