You might recall a month or so ago, Feyma had an article here on LiP where she told about an Organic Garden/Farm here in Davao City. We found the place back around the end of March or so based on the suggestion from a couple of friends. When we went there, we were really shocked at the selection of items the have, and also the freshness. If you want any kind of vegetables, salad greens or whatever, they will pick it for you while you wait, or you can even pick it yourself. It just doesn’t get much fresher than that!
After I got very sick in February/March of this year, and spent some time in the hospital during March, I decided it was time to get my diabetes under control once and for all. My sickness was not exactly connected or due to diabetes, but being diabetic made it worse, and made it harder to get better. So, I made two big changes. First, I changed my diet drastically. After I felt well enough, I started getting more regular exercise. Doing the kind of work I do at the computer, it can be too easy to just sit here at the keyboard hour after hour. That just is not healthy, so I decided to change it.
In terms of changing my diet, I started eating a lot of fish, a bit of chicken and almost zero beef or pork. I also increased my intake of vegetables. Part of that increased intake of veggies involved buying high quality vegetables from vendors like Wynward Valley Organic Vegetable Garden. I went there just once, but after that Feyma made regular trips to Wynward to buy different types of vegetables. Mostly, we purchased salad greens, tomatoes and such – things for making great salads at home. Only problem was, Wynward is quite a distance from where we live.
What was the solution?
Start our own Urban Garden!
Yes, that’s right, we started our own Urban Organic Garden, right in our back yard. Feyma’s sister, Sally, and her husband, Jun, came up to Davao for the past week or so and helped us put our garden together.
We copied many of the things that Wynward is doing with their Organic Garden. Actually, Rodelio, the owner of Wynward was very helpful to us in doing this, and we appreciate his assistance. We bought a lot of plants and other supplies from him. One of the main features that Wynward does and we are doing is using “vertical” gardening, see the picture with the bottles all hooked together on the wall. You can really plant a lot in a small space using this technique. It works great, and is inexpensive to do as well.
We have so many different things growing.
Some of our “crops” in the garden include:
- 4 different types of lettuce
- cherry tomatoes
- arugula
- chives
- several different types of mint
- lemon grass
- kang kong (a local crop similar to spinach)
- Okra
- Basil – several varieties
- Pandan
- chili peppers
- garlic
- green onions
- many other things that I can’t remember! 🙂
So far, so good. It’s all looking good, and getting bigger each day. I think by 2 weeks from now we will be able to eat salads daily from our urban garden! I can’t wait!
Growing a nice garden right in the city. It’s fun, exciting and healthy! Thanks to Rodelio for his assistance, and to Sally and Jun for the help they gave us too!
Great idea Bob looking forward to blogs on your progression with organic garden,and health.
I was wondering how I was going to get more food from my small lot in cebu. After my wife and I build our house on it. thought about making terraces. But maybe that and your idea would work good together.
Oh Bob last week I had a friend gave me a stand up desk I have been using. I have been worrying that sitting 8-12 hours a day isn’t good for anyone. I read a report that said sitting at a desk all day then going to the gym after work. Helps as much as running after a days worth of smoking. The burst of activity cant over come the whole day of inactivity. But I am so glad you are more active.
Hi James – Yeah, if you have limited space available, I think the tower gardens are a perfect solution for you! We really like them, and they are working well for us.
Thankfully, I don’t smoke, never have. I do try to get various exercise throughout the day too. My doctor says that my health is very good too, and that makes me happy!
Hi Tim – Thanks, glad you enjoyed the article, and I will keep the information flowing…
Thank you Bob Martin for this article.
You are welcome, Rodelio, and thank you so much for the help you have given us in getting this set up! You will still be seeing us at Wynward, don’t worry! 🙂 Maybe not me as much, as my time is fairly limited, but Feyma will be dropping by!
Not a problem at all Bob Martin. You and your family are most welcome to drop by at the garden anytime.
I could use a lot from this article. The vertical garden would be perfect to keep those nasty snails from attacking my veggies. Crushed eggshell could deter a few, but If I stack my pots up like yours and put a water dish under the bottom pot, then it should eliminate those pesky snails. Thank you Bob Martin & Rodello Dalisay
You are welcome, Edgardo Blancaflor Dominguez! Good luck with your garden.
Bob Martin, my wife is diabetic, too. Diet & exercise kept sugar level in check for a couple of years, She’s on a medication regiment now, She rarely eats meat.
Good for her, Edgardo! I am glad that she has her sugar level under control! I know I feel a lot better since I do!
I had marginal cholesterol, with our age diet should make our lives better, cut down on white rice (glucose). I love brown rice, less salt, no soda, more veggies, fish & fruits, but i gotta have my coffee. If I could only ride my bike or use my treadmill I’ll be super, but that’s too much work.
Ha ha.. you gotta do it, Edgardo! 🙂
Hi Bob – I think you are doing a great thing to improve your health. I had a heart operation a few years ago, and had to change my diet and it is just what you are starting to do. Lots of fish and chicken, and fresh vegetables. Avoid eating too much red meat. That is what the doctor suggested. This diet is also good for controlling diabetes and losing weight so I hope you will stick with it, and find that your health improves. I know that mine improved after I went on this type of diet so I hope you have the same results. I may be visiting Davao in the fall this year, so it is great to know that there is a good place to find good quality fresh vegetables. Thank you for your articles on this topic and the good information about living in the Philippines, I really appreciate them.
Hi Richard – Yeah, I eat very little red meat these days. This month, May, I can only recall eating red meat once, that was a pork steak I had one night, and a small one at that. I have gotten to the point where if I don’t eat fish, I find myself craving for it! 😉
Thank you for your kind words, Richard!
WOW Bob! branching out with your many talents? Nothing better than fresh veggies picked from your own garden. My cherry tomatoes don’t even make it into the house, lol!
Hi Neinz – Thanks for stopping by! You know, there was a time when I would hardly touch a vegetable. I never ate a salad in my life until about 8 years ago when a friend convinced me to give one a try when we were at a restaurant. I was surprised that I actually liked it. These days, I eat a salad almost every day, and many days I have two in a day. I really like it. In fact, like you, cherry tomatoes are one of my favorites!
A health advisor recently told a group of us to make it a point to get up from our desks and be active for five minutes every hour.
Hi Jamie – I have heard that same advice before, and I think it is good advice. I notice that if I sit at the desk too long, when I get up my legs and other parts of my body are sore. It just shows that it is good to stay mobile and move around often.
Good luck with the garden. You’ve got a nice selection going. Having seen Wynward’s garden first hand I know you’ll be successful. I look forward to seeing it sometime.
Rodelio has been very accommodating to me as well, though I’m not doing any gardening myself.
Hi Randy – Thanks for stopping by, and thank you so much for pointing me toward Wynward, they really have a nice operation there. Rodelio is such a nice man, and a great resource! Once everything gets growing well, I’ll give you some pickings from the garden from time to time! 😉
I should get by here a little more often. My friend turned me on to FeedSpot, an RSS reader very similar to Google Reader. I realized that is why I haven’t been reading articles for a long time.
Yes, Rodelio is really great. He’s really helped me with some special products that are outside of the garden vegetables. I appreciate it very much. I’ll be seeing him about once a week now.
I am not sure what browser you use, Randy, probably one of the ones that is special for Mac. I normally use Chrome, but I also use Firefox a bit. Firefox has a built in feed reader, which is why I keep it on my system. 🙂
Never saw vertical gardening before like that, someone was very clever in thinking that up and the watering system. Filipinos amaze me with some of there ingenuity I have seen. With the rich soil there this probably isnt used , but you have any idea if hydroponics or growpoincs (brand name) is done there.
We gave up on having a garden here, or most flowers also, the only ones getting any enjoyment of eating what we tried to grow, were the darn deer.
Hi Bill – I am not sure if the hydroponics are done here or not, but I think they are, in some areas.
Yeah, those vertical gardens are quite a good idea, and I give all of the credit to Rodelio at Wynward! Nice man, and a real genius when it comes to this kind of thing!
Hello Bill S.
I’m subscribed to a yahoo group called philventures, which focuses on expats farming in the Philippines. I have seen mention of hydroponics there, but don’t know how extensive it is. You may be able to find out from them about availability of equipment and such. One of the State universities here in Virginia is conducting research on combining hydroponics with fish farm operations. Not sure if it is a fully symbiotic system, but the plants certainly benefit from the fish waste products. They started a year or two ago. I’ll have to dig into it to see what the results have been.
Take care,
Pete
Hi Mr. Cowboy,
I too am from Va. a very small town close to Fredericksburg. I dont know very much about hydroponics myself, I just took a job many years ago, supplying a few thousand ft. of pvc. pipe to a company that did it. All we did was slit the pipe in half, and then routed 3/4″ square holes in it every 2 1/2 “, I learned a little bit about how it worked, after seeing it all hooked up. They grew lettuce, spinach, salad greens and green onions mainly in it, but were experimenting with tomatoes also, in a different kind of system. I was amazed at the size of the plants and the amount of tomatoes off of just one plant. They were 14-15ft tall, with huge amounts of clusters of tomatoes, it looked like some sort of tomato jungle in there. I had seen some hydroponic equipment for sale there on either Sulit or Craigslist before, and was curious if it was done there on a big scale or not.
My wife wants to have a mango farm there, not too sure about that one though, since I dont grow mango’s here in Va. much these days, lol. I would be quite content with just a nice vegetable garden, with no deer eating it.
Hello again, Bill S.
We’re not too far from each other (at least for the time being). We live below Richmond. Before you invest in a mango grove, I’d suggest reading through some of the articles here by Dave Starr and others concerning generating income in the Philippines. Agricultural pursuits are one of the potential winners. It does take a LOT of market research, as well as coordination of labor and transportation. Profit from mangoes seems to vary drastically by location, and even variety of fruit. Some folks seem to do well. Especially those with well established connections for labor, transportation, and market. Others say they can’t give away their mangoes. You can contact me through LiP if you’d like to talk more about it off line.
More in line with the topic of this article, One of these vertical style gardens could possibly reduce the space needed for your garden in Virginia. That could make it easier to screen it off from the deer.
Take care,
Pete
Pete, Bill S.,
Prices of mangoes very from place to place. We pay about 30p per kilo here in Batangas in season. In Guimaras Province, which is the mango capital of the Philippines, they were 60p per kilo in season. We were there during season a couple of weeks ago and couldn’t believe the price of them. During off season they are double. We were told because Guimaras”s mangos are shipped worldwide including the Whitehouse.
Sorry for the late post but work and family came first. Here in Indiana I experimented with aqua culture in my greenhouse circulating the water from the tilapia tanks through the plant system and back. It worked extremely well.
Because the greenhouse was only 14′ x 24′ I did not have enough of the usual hydroponic plants to filter all the waste out so added sweet corn because it is a heavy feeder and that took care of the problem.
Next time I am in Mindanao, I want to try the same thing using one of the ponds on the farm for the fish and circulating the water through the vegetable plantings. Will let you know how it works.
this s very nice. ill show this to mama
Hi Joffy Bredes, thanks! Yeah, it’s a real nice and functional garden. Probably your mom and dad will get a kick out of it. We don’t have a lot of space for a garden like your parents do! City dwellers vs. Provincial folks! 😉
nice idea , somehow it could make you free from GMO veggies in the commercial markets
Our main purpose, Oliver, is the convenience of having the vegetables that we want available right here at the house!
correct… Some farmers here in Wao even having vacant backyards still buy some stuff during market day which are coming from cagayan de oro or nearby provinces
very nice Bob! Have to try this one!
Yes, Remo Aguilar, give it a try! If I can help you, let me know. I’m not an expert, but will help if I can! Well.. except I’m not going to do the physical labor! ha ha… just joking, my friend.
Bob,
Your garden looks really neat and practical. We want to put a garden in when we build our house. I only eat red meat maybe a couple of times a month. A good substitute I like is veggie burgers. I try to eat as much whole grain products as possible. Salads are really good, especially during this hot weather. Alot of times i’ll just eat a salad for a meal. Do You guys have a recipe for dressing for your salad. Is it possible to get it. It would be much appreciated. Keep up the good work with your diet and exercise so you can live a long life. I know thats my plan. Also does Wynward Farm have a website? One more thing have you heard from Scott Fortune. I was just wondering. Haven’t seen him online for quite awhile. Thanks so much for the helpful info. It will come in handy in the future.
Hi PapaDuck – I like Italian Salad dressing… we buy it at S & R or other grocery stores in the area. We tried making our own, but never was able to make it taste the way I wanted! 😉
Wynward Farms is on Facebook. I included a link in the article. Or, you could check out the owner of Wynward on FB, his name is Rodelio Dalisay. The Wynward page is under “Organic Vegetables”.
Scott Fortune – Since Scott moved to the Philippines, it has been very hard for me to get in touch with him. His articles just stopped coming in. I have written and asked him about writing, but can’t get a response. I think he is just busy with move related things, but I am not certain. If Scott reads this, I want to say, a lot of people are asking about his articles, and want him to come back and write on the site. Scott is always welcome.
That is a really nice garden Bob! I’m happy to see that salad greens do well there. We were a bit worried that they would not grow well because of the heat.
Take care,
Pete
HI Pete – Can’t say how the greens would do up in your neck of the woods, but they do pretty well down here in our area! 🙂
Interesting way to garden, good article. I have been wondering about Scott Fortune also. Hope he is OK.
Thanks, Loren, good to hear from you.
Garden looks great. Now you are living the song…Bahay kubo, kahi munti ang halaman doon ay sari-sari!
Stay healthy!
Garden looks great. Now you are living the song…Bahay kubo, kahi munti ang halaman doon ay sari-sari!
Stay healthy!
I can assure you, we’re not living a bahay kubo lifestyle.. ha ha.. sometimes I wish we were! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by, Tom.
Bob,
That’s an awesome idea. It kind of reminds me how the Japanese build ‘up’ because of lack of space. I can actually pass this info on to my Brother-in-law here in the states because he doesn’t have much yard space and he loves to grow things.
Thanks for the idea!
Bill
Hi Bill – Feel free to share with your B-I-L – if he can use the info, we are happy to share with him!
Awesome idea! Passing it on to my Bro in law. 🙂
Hi Bob – An organic garden makes for a good healthy hobby. My children started growing a few things in our court yard a bit over a week ago. It’s amazing how fast they grow. Good on you for exercising more, I did a deal to get an all in one package at a local gym with PT for myself and my wife. We only pay an extra 500 php each per month on top of membership to get 2 sessions of PT a week. Gee it makes a different to health and strength exercising. I have to resort to PT as I’m a tad lazy on my own!
Hi Brenton, I can’t make the garden a hobby, I have to leave that to others. The reason? I have a black thumb, anything I go near will die! 🙂
This is pretty cool Bob. Where in Davao did you buy the seeds or stems and what not?
What are the pepsi bottles at the top? Do the drip down water or something else is growing in them?
dc
Hi Daniel – The seeds were bought at Wynward Farms, actually, mostly he sold us seedlings, small plants that are already started.
The pepsi bottles are where they drip irrigation comes from. 😉
Just FYI Echo Farms (google it) has whole section of urban gardens using such things as old tires, vinyl shoe holders, bamboo teepees over carpet and other innovative ideas. They go to places like India the Philippines Africa and teach how to grow in small spaces. I take guests from Canada, Northern States, to there farm and all are fascinated.
Interesting, thanks for sharing that. I will google them and check it out.