BACKYARD GARDENING
by: Felix B. Daray
Backyard gardening relieves me of some stress and there is also joy and fun “harvesting†the fruits from your extra time. I am experimenting with organic farming meaning. I don’t use pesticides and fertilizers.Select a space near your kitchen where it has direct sunlight anytime during the day. Make a stand and elevate a little higher. Fill the pots with humus soil or any soil from your compost pit. Plants two pechay seeds for bigger pots and one seed for smaller pots by direct seeding. When the seeds starts sprouting, start watering the rice washed , (kinilis) and fish and meat washed, (hinugas) from your from kitchen. They contain nutrients and minerals good for the plants.
Early in the morning, I inspect if there are tiny holes or scratches on the leaves. If there are, your leaves are infested with small pin worms or cutworms. With the use of a stick and a puller, I removed all the worms. Their greenish black color is so visible with our eyes. It is so fun looking, then killing the crawling worms. I inspect all the pechay plants to avoid serious infestation.
After 30 days, I start harvesting my pechay. I harvest two to three leaves per plants or depends on the kitchen needs. Do not uproot the plants. Pechay will grow up to four months. When you see flowers in the bud, its time to uproot the pechay and replace the pot with new humus soil. Replant it again. This is called soil disposable method of farming.
My potted pechay plants are placed near the kitchen so that easy to water the rice washed , the fish and meat washed . It is so accessible to other members of the family to see if there are worms infesting the leaves. They also enjoy removing the worms. They say, “ hi. .hi…hi. .hi…†and giggle as they pull the worms. Pechay plants are not infested with virus diseases.
With my fifteen potted pechay , I can harvest fresh leaves free from pesticide contamination all the year round. Sometimes, I share my harvest to the friends and neighbor.
We never grew tired of eating “pechay†during meals for about a week - pechay with corned beef, pechay with sardines, pechay with ground meat, tinulang isda with pechay and etc.
Backyard gardening is now my pastime, early in the morning and the late afternoon. It is pesticide and fertilizer free. Generally, it’s environmental.
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