Food Crisis Series 14: Home Gardening - buffer against spiraling prices of food and other commodities

Food Crisis Series 14:

 Home Gardening - buffer against spiraling prices of food and other commodities 

"When local tomato costs more than that of imported apple, when you can't find papaya in the market, pechay wilted exuding chemicals - there must be  something seriously wrong!  Go into home gardening."   

Plants every home garden must have

A home garden is beneficial for your cooking and dining, home beautification and sanitation, and most important of all, your health. And, why not initiate gardening in your school and community? (Visit avrotor'blogspot.com: Urban Gardening Models) 

Dr Abe V Rotor

It's gardening time! And gardening is beneficial for your kitchen, home beautification and sanitation, and most important of all, your health. And, why not initiate gardening in your school and community?

Saba banana (Musa sapientum): multipurpose - leaves for food wrapper (suman, tupig, bibingka, kanin), packaging material (baon, live or fresh fish and aquatic products), leaves as floorwax. Fruit, ripe or green, excellent source of energy and nutrients, so with the flowers (puso ng saging). Trunk as source of fiber and packing materials. Mushroom spawn under banana plants.

Coconut (Cocos nucifera): It's the most important plant in the world when it comes to productivity and variety of products. The nut is a complete food - young or mature. There is no part of the plant that has no value. Walis tingting, leaves for mat, wall, and sinambong basket. Trunk lumber outlasts most wood. Fiber from husk for cordage and net, coir dust for soil conditioner. Flower spadix for ties and rope. Nectar  for beverage and wine. All you need is, two to three trees at some years age interval. A coconut tree can live productively up to fifty years giving you at least a dozen nuts every month.

Malunggay, the miracle vegetable. In the province no home is without this small tree at the backyard or on a vacant lot. The leaves, flowers, juvenile pods and young fruits of Moringa oleifera (Family Moringaceae) go well with fish, meat, shrimp, mushroom, and the like. It is one plant that does not need agronomic attention, not even weeding and fertilization, much less chemical spraying. You simply plant an arms length cutting or two, in some corner or along the fence and there it grows into a tree that can give you a ready supply of vegetables year round. What nutrients do we get from malunggay?

Here is a comparison of the food value of the fresh leaves and young fruits, respectively, in percent. (Marañon and Hermano, Useful Plants of the Philippines)

• Proteins 7.30 7.29 

• Carbohydrates 11.04 2.61

• Fats 1.10 0.16

• Crude Fiber 1.75 0.76

• Phosphorus (P2 O 5) 0.24 0.19

• Calcium (CaO) 0.72 0.01

• Iron (Fe2O3) 0.108 0.0005

Kamias: Once in a while try sinigang with kamias, specially fish. It takes out the fish smell. Its sourness is distinct from that of vinegar, tamarind, and kalamansi. Just don't indulge too much because the sour taste is oxalic acid which is deficient in calcium. But oxalic acid is best for cleaning tiles and utensils. Its effective in cleaning the drain. Bees often visit its flowers.

Tanglad or lemon grass as food condiment for kuhol and lechon. As deodorizer, it imparts pleasant smell, absorbs or masks unpleasant odor in bathroom and kitchen. 

Alugbati is a climber, and lives for some years providing a continuous supply of shoots or tops cooked as vegetable, best with mungo. It is the cheapest and readily available source of iron for the family.

Pandan mabango: Aromatic, its leaves improve the taste of food. Put a leaf in a pot of  old rice (laon) before cooking to take out the moldy taste and smell. Pandan leaves make a refreshing drink with any fruit juice. Try sago, gulaman and pandan. Pandan cake? It breaks the monotony in bread products. First prepare a layer of pandan leaves like mat before cooking fish paksiw will taste. Clean kitchen utensils and tiles with crushed leaves. A unique volatile oil present only in pandan mabango make this plant a favorite of housewives .

These are also a must to have in the garden: 

1. Onion (shallot or bulb)
2. Papaya
3. Guava
4. Sorosoro (karimbuaya Ilk)
5. Oregano
6. Lagundi
7. Sambong
8. Lemon or kalamansi
9. Luya (ginger)
10. Sampaguita
    

Don't forget to build a garden pond and plant around it water-loving plants. Pond water becomes green with algae. It is the best natural fertilizer, specially if you are raising tilapia or hito or Pangasius catfish.

1. Kangkong
2. Gabi
3. Sugarcane for chewing

Here are some suggested plants to include.

1. Kutchai (photo, right)
2. Siling labuyo
3. Kamote
4. Yerba buena (mint)
5. Ampalaya
6. Tsaang Gubat or wild tea (photo, top)

Depending on the type of soil and climate of your place, you can add on to this list, substitute those that don't fit. Arrange plants into a multistory structure for in increase density and diversity. Arrange them according to a homestead pattern for functional and aesthetic reasons. Aim for functionality and practicality.
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NOTE: Don't replace any plant that is useful or have potential value. Allow those that spontaneously grow like saluyot, spinach, alugbati, talinum, gulasiman. They are wild and seasonal. Help them grow for your vegetable supply, herbal medicine, and animal feeds.
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Just don't overload your garden. And give yourself a break. Don't be a slave to your garden, so to speak. By the way even without our knowing it, annual plants simply sprout in the garden. Many of these are seasonal. While most are so-called weeds, there are food plants that grow spontaneously like saluyot, amaranth of kolitis, wild yam, wild ampalaya, talinum, and at least a dozen more if you are living in a fertile and well drained area.

What to plant often poses a problem.  Here's what you can do.  Go around your community and adjacent places where the environment is typical in your area, (topography, soil type, and the like) and survey the kinds of plants that successfully grow.  Interview farmers and gardeners. With this list you can design your garden, or add on to those you already have.  If you like to experiment with "foreign" plants, do it on research basis and learn more in the process.   

A home garden actually is a miniature representation of a large farm. It is typical in size for a family, as small as 10 square meters to one hectare, or larger. The garden is an integral part of the home. It aims at self-sufficiency, environmental friendliness, and health-promoting, and ultimately, at living in a Home, Sweet Home with Nature.~