Growing Plants Sa Kabukiran

See how the plants  have grown after all these years. 

When I started the farm in 2010, I practically started from scratch. After excavating a portion of the land to carve out a lagoon, I started planting. I bought some seedlings and began planting them according to the plan I made from my permaculture seminar. It wasn't easy in the beginning. The land at first was soggy. I guess, that's what happens when you build on land that comes from landfillings. And since practically the land was bare, there was nothing to protect it from the elements - rain, sun and wind.

I had no electricity yet that time. I had to water the young plants using a water pump that runs on gasoline. So you could imagine how expensive it was at the beginning to water everything with a pump that runs with gasoline.

Here is Gina with a salakot. See how trees and plants have grown!

I didn't have any electricity for the first two years of the farm. It was only after two years when I decided to buy a transformer from the electric company so I could have my own electricity. Beginning a farm from scratch is a great act of faith and hope. All what you have at the start is a vision of what it could be at some future time. Believing in that vision and keeping your determination, despite  seeing nothing really concrete, is indeed a great act of faith and hope. But seeing all the plants around now, after three and a half years, I could not help giving myself a pat at the back, for having persevered and for having kept that vision alive all these years. What a lesson nature gives us! Nature assures us of its bounty especially when we keep pace with its cycle and seasons. It doesn't rush things. There is a rich harvest and bountiful reward for those who are able to wait and patiently go through the seasons of time.