Our Backyard Harvest

Like most average Filipino income earner whose means of living relies mainly on an 8-hour job 5 to 6 days a week, every money and cent spent is thought of wisely. Especially if you have a family with 3 to 4 members, you would rather spend on a need rather than a want. In our case, in order to make efficient spending and to cut cost on certain expenses, my hubby and I thought of putting up a small vegetable garden right at the premise of our home. We have a tiny lot, so we have to sacrifice some of my husband's ornamental plants that he painstakingly labored to beautify our humble abode. For your information, my hubby has a green thumb and he loves planting and farming (lucky me!). As a matter of fact, he together with my brother-in-law is making productively a 5-hectare family-owned land full of banana, coconut, cacao, rubber, durian and some fruit bearing trees in an area where for a few years it has been idle. And since, we regularly cook vegetable food dish at home, hence the idea of putting up a vegetable garden.

At first, I told him of the idea that I just want a planter box to plant Parsley. Why Parsley because I read somewhere that it helps in the cleansing of our kidneys. Chop parsley leaves then let it boil in water. Let the water cool down and drain the chopped leaves. The water that has been boiled by the Parsley is the one that we have to drink 1 to 2 glasses a day. You may store the water in the fridge for you to drink. You would notice a different color in your urine. And that they say are the toxins inside your body.

Anyways, some of the vegetables my husband planted are eggplant, cucumber, tomatoes, spring onions, pechay (a type of cabbage or gourd) to name a few. Sadly, the tomatoes did not manage to live (hehehe). It was way too cool on how my husband planted it sana. He planted it in an upside-down method as what he saw in the YouTube website. But I wouldn't post it here because it's not successful (Teehee). However, I would gladly show off the fruits of my husband's labor on the following photos below.

The second cucumber that is so big. The first one I forgot to take a photo.
We already ate it. I tell you it is very juicy and crispy.

My officemate that is also a green thumb told me that we should cover the cucumber with a cellophane to prevent from "injury" (see the brown patch on the cucumber?). I haven't asked her what caused that.

This is the third cucumber ready to be harvested too.
But my hubby told me that he will harvest it by himself tomorrow. (he's happy)

Three more to go. Grow faster. And mind you they grow faster in a matter of days.
I was surprised how fast that can be.

This is another one awaiting for the right maturity.

This is okra (lady's fingers, bhindi or gumbo in English). This is plant 1.
Look how many are now sprouting. We already harvested twice.

Plant 2. More to come. My Green thumb officemate told me a trivia.
Okra is prone of having aphids. Hope ours would not have.

Plant 3. See how plenty are flowering and sprouting.
We are very happy with our small vegetable garden.

We already harvested our spring onions and pechay, but that I haven't taken photos of it. But, I was amazed how juicy and crisp our pechay when we cooked it. It was my first time and didn't expect to taste it that good. As a matter of fact, I don't like the taste of it. But now I realize when its freshly picked, the veggie is more crisp, juicer and tastier even if our homegrown pechay is thin and not as big as the one sold in supermarkets.

I now encourage you to have one in your own yard. It's more healthier and cheaper to have your own vegetable garden at home. And as to the Parsley, we planted it there too together with the vegetables, but we cannot identify it anymore if it's the Parsley or a weed ;))