Release

After a derailed long-awaited vacation somewhere, I am now finding release of my frustration to start fulfilling a labyrinthine derive-scape... or something that looks like it. A puzzle garden under works... It's a long process...

Tree-planting is so unlike the press release and photo opportunities that tree-planting government celebrities like to portray -posing beside a seedling planted by somebody else for the newspapers while holding the plant's stem... Here in the Cordilleras in northern Luzon, we wait for the rainy season. Top photo shows transporting seedlings that were nurtured near our kubo (hut) during the dry season. These were gathered after the rainy season, transplanted in black seedling bags, and watered daily. You don't know when you'll make a mistake or two and kill one plant, or ten or twenty... 

It's a disappointment, but planting and gardening has come second to my crafting for relaxation, so, it has only been the watering part that remained the challenge.

Now that it's raining again, like the grass that waited with bated breath, we planters in northern Philippines are refreshed and our hopes revived... So, we take this as the opportunity to spread more green in our balding hills (mountains). 

 

This plant sprouts as a big flower. Says my manong Baldo, it causes itchy skin. When not in bloom, it looks like a bamboo shoot below.

Here is the foundation of the labyrinth garden I am going to nurture... we have not made a plan yet... we're going guerilla. This means, we're going to work from what's existing, available, what's there, and que sera... These are native or carabao mangoes... planted by my father. There are also some mahogany trees already, so, it's not like gonna be a huge work and a long wait. The mangoes are already fruit-bearing... Hopefully, we will be adopting organic method to even stop using flowering sprays... 

One of the trees I'd like to maximize using is the aludig tree (behind the cactus below). Aludig is like a tea tree or what other Ilocanos call itsa. Itsa is often used in topiary or sculpture gardening, but I have yet to see an aludig being groomed... 

What I like most about aludig aside from its green tiny leaves, is its corn-like fruit. It is yellow when ripe, much smaller than the tiny leaves, and mildly sweet. They are quite rare, and hardly ever sold even in rural markets. You pick and eat. 

Aside from the perimeter bougainvilleas we planted, we also re-planted some dead mahogany seedlings. We call it sugutan in Ilocano.  We're going again tomorrow but I'd have to present an illustrated plan already, or else, miscommunication and third world war will ensue...Next on line - source of spring water... earlier attempts at finding a well failed despite the deep diggings done...
Gardening / nurturing trees is one of the most challenging activities on earth. You just don't plan and plant, and then, it's there. It is even more difficult than building a complex because of the wait and maintenance... And it takes more than dedication to finally enjoy doing this because it cannot be just work - you have to actually love it.