Rich Gardens For The Rich At Tables & Rich In View

Ah, the science and sense of it all!

Yes, I fell in love at first sight – not with the ladies but what they are both working on: Gardens of Delight. I have never seen gardens like those in the Philippines on sight or online. I can count 6 crops on 6 garden plots. Greens & yellows & violets. Some biodiversity.

Santiago Obien shared the above image on Facebook, and the return and my comments were these:

Frank A Hilario: dayta ti kunak, multiple/intercropping, saan laeng nga simple garden! (That’s what I’d like to say, multiple/intercropping, not simply a simple garden!)

Santiago R Obien, SRO: agalistoca! (You’re behind, it’s time to plant! Literally:Hurry up!)

Frank A Hilario: awan met dagami apo, uray no 1 square foot koma. (Sir, we don’t have any piece of land, not even 1 square foot.)

Actually, SRO and I am both familiar with farms and gardens. We are both graduates of the University of the Philippines’ College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, 1958 and 1965. He, BSA major in Weed Science and I, BSA major in Ag Education. In our classes, multiple cropping may have been mentioned in a lecture in Agronomy (field crops), but I’m sure it was discussed in a lecture & lab work in Horticulture (garden crops). But not gardening like the girls are happily doing. Like the greens rich & richer!

The garden plot hidden partially by the body of the lady in front has the most number of crops: 5 that I can count. 5 different consumers, or 5 different leaves, stems & fruits to blend in so many dishes. Rich dishes, rich bodies.

I must say the ladies know, because their mentor does, if they have, what they ought to be doing in the matter of good gardening. There is a very good mix of crops, on one hand, to satisfy the demands of several types of human consumers, and on the other hand, to satisfy the food needs of insects & small animal predators that result in a balance of nature – the would-be pests become their breakfast, lunch or dinner!

This is a visual lesson in the growing of crops. The ladies show us that there is so much Agriculture and/or Horticulture that you can put in a single garden.

In the few Flower & Garden Shows at UP Los Baños that I have attended in the past, I do not remember a garden setup showing multiple cropping or intercropping in a demo plot or in a photograph. Multiple cropping gives you a balanced population of predators and pests – you don’t have attacks of harmful insects or disease organisms. The harmful organisms become food for the beneficial organisms. Additionally, flowers, which you can see in the above image, attract bees and therefore insure that your vegetable stands or fruit trees get pollinated.

SRO or the sharer of the scene does not say where this photograph was taken, and when. It must be the dry season, given so many pails of water.

Welcome Summer!@517