A 56-year-old housewife from barangay Paknaan in Mandaue City has found a better use for a vacant 800-square-meter space as a backyard vegetable garden.
Alma Rosell said she was encouraged three years ago by Paknaan barangay captain Malaquias Soco to plant vegetables.
Today it has produced 14 kinds of vegetables and 10 kinds of fruit trees.
Rosell wakes up as early as 5 a.m. to tend her garden.
“I never get tired of working in the garden because it makes my worries and problems go away,” said Rosell, who doesn’t use chemical pesticides.
She shares the produce with neighbors or sells it so as not to let it rot and go to waste.
Last month Rosell’s garden won second place in a national competition for urban gardening.
She received a plaque and cash prize of P25,000 in recognition of her endeavor.
She said she spent the money during the recent fiesta in the barangay.
“Akong intention kay ang mananum ra jud unta pero wala ko gadahom nga makadaog ang among garden (I only planned on planting and not to win anything with this garden),” she said.
green thumb
Rosell said it was her husband, Vicente, a 58-year-old seaman, who first started cultivating the backyard lot into a fruit and vegetable garden.
He has the green thumb, having grown up in Daanbantayan town where his family had a farm, she said.
Rosell said she was good at taking care of hogs but has learned to cultivate the garden while her her husband is working overseas.
When her husband is home, he would help out r in the garden.
5,000 households
Barangay captain Soco said that about 60 percent of the households in Paknaan or 5,000 households grow vegetables in their backyards or vacant lots.
He said this was one of the fruits of the barangay’s information drive on backyard gardening.