Hello Hive friends!
We're in the countryside for the kids' summer break and will be staying for a few weeks. I love the fresh air and green views here. There are no tall buildings or extensive concrete pavements, just nature. Sometimes the power goes out for a bit, unlike in the city where it's always on. This morning, the lack of power and internet prompted me to go outside and see my mother's garden.
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She grows many vegetables that she eats almost every day. She planted them less than a month ago, and now they're starting to flower and bear small fruits. One advantage of having your own garden is the option not to use strong chemical fertilizers and pesticides. My mother uses natural materials like kitchen waste and animal manure as plant food. She also uses good soil. It rains a lot here, especially at night, so the plants and even the weeds grow very well and are thriving.
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Walking around, I saw a small baby okra. I took the liberty of picking the very first one from her plants! Yes, I did the honor, lol! Farmers don't usually harvest okra this small, but I like it best at this stage – young, fresh, and with tiny seeds. This fresh okra is perfect for steaming or boiling.
You know that one plant in your garden that you can always count on? For us, that's our calamansi tree. It's a constant producer, giving us those little bursts of citrus goodness no matter the time of year. Seriously, whenever we need a bit of zing for a marinade or a tasty dip, that tree always comes through. It's a real champion in our little green space. We also have the same tree back in the city, but mine is just potted.
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While looking around, I decided to help my mother pull out the weeds in her garden soon, when the sun isn't too hot in the early morning. I also plan to buy some seeds online for her to plant so her garden will have more varieties of vegetables and fruits.
This vine is really starting to climb all over the orchid pole! It definitely needs its own trellis soon, otherwise, it'll completely overwhelm the orchids and they won't be able to thrive. We need to get that sorted out quickly!
Beyond the okra, eggplant, and the native kalamansi lime, she also has bitter melon, or ampalaya as we call it, just starting to climb. It doesn't have a trellis yet, so I've added building one to my to-do list – got to help those climbing plants out! She also has some pechay, a kind of bok choy, growing happily in recycled water containers. She was so proud that these leafy greens are completely chemical-free.
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Aside from her vegetable garden, my mom also has a beautiful collection of ornamental plants, many of which I've already featured in my previous posts. Most of them are orchids and daisies, and one of those orchids is proudly displayed in my banner below. I'm planning to take some new photos of the beautiful flowers in the coming days, but right now I'm busy putting some cream on my leg. I accidentally stepped on a colony of red ants while exploring the plants and taking pictures. This always happens whenever I'm here; getting bitten by red ants isn't an extraordinary event, just extra itchy!
That's all for now, Hive friends!
See you in my next post!
❤️❤️❤️
All photos are my own, unless stated otherwise.
The lead image was edited using Canva.