A year ago this month, my family started our very own small vegetable garden in our home. We did not have a front yard or a backyard. What we got is our second floor unfinished balcony. But first I will tell you what motivated us, specially to start to grow our our food.
Two of the many cinnamon basil plants in our garden. The vine-like plant is Bittermelon
Last year, March 16 to be exact, our country, Philippines, declared for an Enhanced Community Quarantine because of Covid19. People were instructed to stay at home. The same with the rest of the world. With this time staying at home, people in the country got interested in gardening. Our family was one of them.
Since we didn't have a lot of garden space, we turned our second floor balcony into a vegetable garden using recycled materials like cans and plastic water bottles as pots. We collected used cans and plastic bottles from our neighbors. This is in a way helping Mother Earth by recycling.
We started with few plants. The first vegetable that we planted was Choy Sum then eventually added more. Since then we had harvests like pechay, okra, mustard greens and more.
Okra. One of our past harvest.
Some of the plants in our garden were from the seeds of our kitchen scraps. Like this bitter melon. From the store bought bitter melon, we got the seeds and planted it in our own garden. I hope this will continue to grow big and be ready for harvest.
Bitter melon.
Other plants from kitchen scraps ; Lemon, Kalamansi and Kamote Tops.
Kalamansi plants, almost a year old. No fruits yet.
Eggplants and Lemon plants. Lemon also almost a year old. No fruits yet.
Kamote Tops and some spinach
Other plants and herbs in our garden.
Eggplants.
Sweet Basil
Parsley.
Chives
Mint
I don't know a lot of recipes that uses the herbs that I have in our garden but I am looking forward in posting food recipes with it. Or do you have a recipe to share? I will truly appreciate it.
I am glad that we were able to start this home garden and it has provided us food. Harvest may not be that much but in a way it made us self-reliant and self-sufficient. It also gives me a happy feeling watching the green view. I am amazed every time I see the plants . How wonderful nature is.
This post is in response to the Garden Journal challenge, hosted by 
@riverflows/garden-journal-early-april-2021
I hope you enjoyed reading and looking at the photos of our plants. Until next time!
Keep safe everyone and stay healthy!
Love,
