Grow Your Own || Teaching my Niblings the Importance of Gardening

I grow up in a financially challenged family. I belong to a big family where my parent's can hardly provide our needs. At an early age I learn carpentry to help my father. Luckily my mother is equally a very hard working person, doing her best to be able to provide food in the table. My mother took advantage of the big vacant lot behind our house. The vacant lot is not ours but no one is tending it so she managed to clean the lot of weeds and started tilling the soil. She planted sweet potatoes, corn, cassava and several other vegetables. Life is hard financially at that time but we are blessed with abundant crops that serves as our primary source of food three times a day. My mother's garden is a lush green sight to behold, until my mother got sick and her garden also started to wither. The big vacant lot that used to be my mother's garden is now a subdivision.

I always believe in gardening as sustainable food source. I am a living testimony of how it can provide meals specially for a financially challenged family. All it takes is sweat and time to till the soil and taking care of your crops. But this is not an easy task specially in this fast moving world nowadays. More people are choosing to buy vegetables from the market instead of growing their own because this is the easiest to do.

With the high demand of vegetables we can never be sure the kind of chemicals we can get out from these commercialize vegetables. It is still best to grow your own food and eat your own food.

The rainy season is about to start in the Philippines and this is a sign of a planting season. At the back of our house is a little vacant lot that we clean for our garden.

This is not our lot but while it is still vacant we can use it as our garden. My nephew and nieces are my helpers in setting up this garden.

We planted spinach, squash, peppers which seedlings I bought from local department store.

These kids are the caretaker of this garden and they are doing their job really well.

I also set-up a plant box at the side of our house where I planted malunggay, spinach and sweet potatoes.

These green leafy vegetables are the main ingredients of our favorite "Utan Bisaya".

It is last year that we started this mini garden of ours and on that year we are able to harvest several squash and enough supply of spinach and malunggay leaves for our favorite vegetable dish.

I am proud to say that we are eating what we grow. Our food is 100% no chemical, safe and nutritious. If you do not have any area for planting, you can try vertical gardening. Vertical gardening is a very clever way to plant leafy vegetables without the need of a big vacant area.

Best regard to @steem.amal, @steem.sea, @steemseacurator, @anroja, @nazarul and @el-nailul. Thank you for the better life program. Always grateful for the endless support of steemcurator01 of this block chain.

Lets us Grow Our Own!

Yours Truly,

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