"Some people look for a beautiful place, others make the place BEAUTIFUL." - Hazrat Inayat Khan
Hello Hive friends! You see, gardening and landscaping have been my addiction since childhood. I used to grow up in a place where agriculture was the main source of living. We planted a variety of vegetables, root crops, and corn back then. It saved us from hunger when most of the time we had no rice to cook or viand to serve on the table. A boiled banana or a boiled sweet potato could go a long way. What was important was that we did not go to bed with an empty stomach.
So, I grew up with a mutual and strong connection with cultivating the soil. Much more when I became a teacher. I find relaxation while cleaning, planting, landscaping, and cultivating. When I feel the need to recharge, it is my source of energy and my stress-relieving outlet.
I humbly present to you my simple area in school. This is the area assigned to me and for my class. This is my eye-relaxing place where I spent most of my time after a tiring day. This is also the place where I never had second thoughts about sparing a small amount from what's left of my salary to buy the materials needed for the landscape.
This was how it looked after a strong typhoon in our country. A lot different from what it is now, and that is why looking at it made me feel relieved and still could not believe that I had done something BEAUTIFUL in my eyes.
I am proud to say that I am a hands-on teacher-gardener. Despite the busy class schedule (from 8 am - 4 pm straight) and school papers works and reports, I could still share time for my ornamental plants, garden, and landscape (at least 1 hour a day). I would even love to spend weekends with family in school😂 (Thanks to my supportive husband😍).
It is also with extreme gratitude that I give credit to my adorable and cooperative students for always supporting me and helping me during their free time. They were all indeed very thoughtful. They were always ready to help. They were the ones who brought me stones for our heart-shaped planting area.
These students of mine were from poor families too, so I am very connected to them because I can relate to them, we came from a humble beginning. That's why I gave them rewards (monetary or goods) sometimes for their hard work (how I wish to give more if only I had more 😥). I also supported some of them with their school fees (the least I can do). I have had 10 students on my sponsorship list and I planned to make it double next year. I hope God will bless our family's finances to even sponsor more.😇 I felt sad because I planned to give them this year school supplies but I have had tighter finances lately because of the pandemic. I only hope and pray that I could make it next year. Amen.
One thing that I can be proud of with my ornamental garden and landscape was the recycled materials we used (to minimize expenses, of course). If you looked back at the photos, you will notice the following: old tires (I used as footsteps' frame then small stones and cement), an empty glass (I used as a plant pot), plastic bottles (I used as pots for my hanging plants), used containers, stones, plastic galloons (I also used for the flower design), coconut husks, coconut shells, and old logs.
Our school is also very supportive of our efforts of beautifying our area by providing paints to make it more attractive to the eyes. I did the painting and designing myself. It was simple like me, haha, the way I like it!🥰
Recently, my husband helped me in putting some cement on the heart-shaped stones that we and my students created to make them stronger. Good thing that the school provided a few sacks of sand and I only bought a sack of cement. We did it on Saturday, and no water was available (water supply has always been a problem) so I ended up fetching water from our school fish pond😂 (I only took a few gallons of water, there was a lot left for the fish, don't worry!😂)
Although it's not finished yet, my heart is very happy looking at it. It still needs finishing touches, paint, soil, and vegetable plant (I planned to plant spinach in there). I am waiting for my savings to increase to be able to afford the materials. I hope I can save enough by next month, to finally finish it🙏.
Aside from ornamentals, I also planted vegetables and spices. I used to plant okra, eggplant, spinach, horse radish, pepper, lemongrass, and more.
I am also blessed and grateful to my students' parents for always extending a helping hand in cutting off weeds and cultivating our school garden. They were our partners in preparing the soil, and the organic fertilizers.
We also have this program in the school, the "Gulayan sa Paaralan" (Garden in School Program). The school actively participated in and implemented this program. This is also for me a BEAUTIFUL place within the campus. The school was recognized and received various awards for this. Something that the school, teachers, parents, stakeholders, and students could be proud of.
I can't thank you enough for reading this far. I would love to hear some comments from you and please hit reblog if you find this post shareable☺ and somehow interesting 🥰. Bye beautiful people. See you on my next blog!
Sending big hugs!