Gardening for Wellbeing while on GCQ
[By Ma. Suzette Defensor]
The wonders of gardening never cease. To break away from stay-at-home restrictions, people binged on Netflix, online shopping, gaming, and gardening. In our street, there are Plants for Sale signs when before there were none, not even plants. Plantitos and plantitas VS the pandemic.
On a wider scale, LGU’s in Laguna have intensified their greening campaigns for ecology, food production, and livelihood. Regularly, tree planting, free seedlings, farm tools support. technical training are conducted . In every backyard, idle lot, pet bottle, recycled pot; a plant must grow.
It is a tough job for head agriculturist Engr Enrique Layola because subdivisions and condominiums have taken over what used to be a vast riceland. On two fronts, the city has to meet the challenge of reviving or assigning space for sampaguita farms. It is ironic that sampaguitas in the Sampaguita capital of the Philippines are sadly, almost gone, Organic vegetable gardening is the other top priority.
Free seedlings, training on sustainable mushroom production and processing, and the annual gardening contest have kept the agri momentum at top speed. Cash prizes to the winners in three categories; barangay, organization, and household. The major incentive is, of course, contestants are pure plantitos and plantitas at heart. #DM
