Hello Hive Gardeners!
I'm munching on grapes that a french family en route to the airport left us while typing this. When I bit on the succulently sweet vine fruit, I felt grateful for the family's gesture of kindness. My thoughts then lingered and imagined the gardener who pruned the vines and the patience that took to grow them.
Grapes rarely grow on the island. I have a friend who succeeded and managed to grow them after years of love and care in Argao. They tasted sweet as I could recall despite living next to the sea. Reactions of visitors seeing the healthy grapevine often resulted in disbelief because it is that rare. No, I don't have grapes in the yard but anything is possible after all.
This month is all about kindness and generosity.
The month of March had been fiery hot and humid. The dry season started earlier than expected. For the last several days, we were thankful for the rain. We welcomed it and so did the plants. Right now, the rain descended on cue, and a second cup of coffee I find delectable.
The growth spurt of ornamentals, outgrowing their containers called for repotting. A task I had been postponing for quite a while because I was waiting for a good bargain on bigger pots. Budget-conscious, I abstained from buying new ones.
Swapping plants with neighbors became the norm. We happily exchanged extra seedlings to grow our gardens.
I surprised a stay-at-home Mom named Rachel who I rarely saw with a few herbs one morning. Without mentioning anything, she suddenly handed me several pots she doesn't use anymore. Guess what, they were the exact size I was looking for.
Giddy one cloudy morning, the* Secret Pocket Plant* or Mickey Mouse Taro, a variegated caladium got transferred to one of the pots.
Blue Ternate
After @laviesm suggested growing Blue Butterfly Pea, I secretly wished for one.
Unbeknownst to me, when a neighbor named Mrs. J went to the adjacent island of Dumaguete after the typhoon, she returned with a few smuggled plants haha. She unexpectedly gave me two Blue Ternate when I dropped off some string beans, mint, and chili plants.
She propagated the butterfly pea and managed to grow cuttings in upcycled soft drink bottles. After a week or two, they were in dire need of a transfer with vines itching to spread. I needed to build something for them to climb on.
I asked my daughter's tutor and her friend whether they have leftover bamboo poles that fell from the typhoon. The next day, they delivered these already-made ladder bamboo trellis. I was blown away, it was completely unexpected! They built the bamboo trellis for the string beans seedlings I gave them a month ago and these were the extra trellis.
I was so elated I gave them mint and sweet basil plants in return which turned out they didn't have in their garden.
I placed one blue ternate on either side of the smaller raised bed. The same way they crawled, so did the String Beans.
String Beans
String beans are one of my favorite vegetables. I use it for many dishes and the length of one-string beans can easily fill up a bowl of cut-sized pieces.
I was flabbergasted by the length of the first string beans that grew. It was more than 80 cm in length (31.5 inches). Here's a #gardenselfie of the first harvest to show how long they were.
The second and third harvests followed averaging to about 72 cm (28.3 inches). I used the first one to make eggplant and tuna sisig. The second one was added to pinakbet, a Filipino all-veggie dish along with Alugbati (local spinach) also from the garden, and the third to a Massaman Curry.
Other Updates
The plants in the smaller raised bed grew bigger as well.
Around the left-hand side of the planting bed, I was surprised to see American Basil growing in between two unidentified plants. I just threw old seeds in there sometime back and I had forgotten about them. Surprise!
The explosive plastic canisters of homemade foliar fertilizer in the toilet are now more than ready to be used. After research, 10ml of FFJ per liter of water in a spray bottle is enough to give plants a boost.
The FFJ organic fertilizer I used is made of 1 apple, 1 banana with peel, and 1 cucumber in equal ratio to the weight of the brown sugar. I stored the canisters in a dry and dark place for more than 6 weeks.
It was a lovely fruity scent when I squeezed them using a canvas cloth to segregate the residue while I threw the solids into the compost. The fruity foliar fertilizer can last for 6-12 months. I happily sprayed FFJ yesterday so let's see.
Thank you Hive Garden Creators and Admin for organizing this and @luckylaica for tagging me for this month's challenge. I'd like to invite @oniemaniego and @youngyang to share their gardens.
Thank you for reading! How's your garden doing? Have you used FFJ before? Was there a massive difference using them?
In case you're interested to backtrack previous posts, here they are:
Hive Garden Journal #3: Bamboo Trellis and Turmeric Spray
I was woken up from the memory of pushing the tables away in a quiet tapas bar that we transformed into a dancing hub by succeeding painful fire ant bites. The fire ants have created a massive nest within the rocky structure of the raised bed.
Hive Garden Journal #2: Sowing Seeds & How to Make Tissue Paper Roll Seed Starter Pots
For my second garden journal in the Hive Garden Community, I'd be sharing with you the status of the stone and concrete plant boxes, recent additions to the garden, sowing seeds in various containers, and making use of tissue paper rolls in gardening.
Hive Garden Journal #1: A Garden Tour and Building Plant Boxes
We moved to a small rental home inside a resort in Moalboal, Cebu, Philippines back in 2021 as part of a minimalism exercise when we downsized and moved from a two-story seaside rental home several blocks away to a two-bedroom 70 square meter bungalow. The first entry features a garden tour and the construction of stone and concrete planters and a gravel patch in the front yard.
Cover image edited with Canva
"I am an old soul who simply loves coffee, who finds joy and beauty in both tangible and the unseen."
Curiosity and imagination lead to unexpected experiences. Interested in Nature, Places, Roads Less Traveled, Minimalism, Authentic Living, Anything French, and International Cuisine. Feel free to follow her, re-blog, and upvote if you enjoy her content.