We moved to a small rental home inside a resort in Moalboal, Cebu, Philippines in March 2021. It was part of a minimalism exercise when we downsized and moved from a two-story seaside rental home several blocks away to a two-bedroom 70 square meter bungalow. The new rental home came with potential garden spaces around the three sides of the house. Each open space varied in size.
Would you like a quick garden tour?
One of the perks of living here is that it was cheaper than our previous rental, a better social atmosphere felt less isolated and the resort came with gardeners and cleaners who regularly maintain the landscape and housekeeping to clean the interior. If the tenants are interested to suggest garden improvements, it is possible after notifying and obtaining permission from the management.
Left Side Garden
The fenced area is irregular in shape. This was how it looked like before we moved in. It was apparent that the previous tenant was not into gardening because the yard remained unchanged.
The garden has existing banana trees and in between, I placed two of our dwarf calamansi or Philippine lime.
This is mostly used as a carport and the small roofed area has an underground water reserve tank and pumps that were very useful for the entire resort village after Typhoon Odette. There is still a lot of potential for improvement. We haven't done anything in this area much except regular cleaning of fallen leaves.
South West Facing Front Yard
The minuscule front yard was quite tricky. It faces the southwest so we get a lot of sun exposure, especially at the end where it's open to the south and the east. The sun is strong there in the afternoon, but the roof overhang creates a shadow. Because of this, the grass is unable to spread in some spaces. Hence, the grass was sparse so it got muddy when it rained.
There used to be a barbeque grill here just next to the main door. Being a believer and avid learner of feng shui, I had the grill removed. My husband and I rarely do barbecue anyway and it was just taking space. Our main entrance door faces the water (the community pool) so I wanted the element in front of the house to be more water and earth-driven.
Once the grill was removed, the feeling in the front yard shifted already with better energy.
To avoid the space getting muddy, we brought in gravel from the hangar to cover more than half of the front yard. We created a concrete termination so it's neater. This gravel area is seen in most of my recipe cover images by the way.
It also prevented our neighbor's cat from burying her business in the soil. We noticed that when we covered it in gravel, the cats lounged in our area as usual but without the smelly souvenir 😂
Right Side Garden Close to the Kitchen
This garden is the closest to the kitchen door which makes it an ideal place for growing herbs and food. It faces the east and the south as well. I instantly placed our pots containing herbs here. Its proximity to cooking is perfect.
It was empty with just grass when we moved in. 
Construction of the Plant Box
One particularly sunny day last year, we had help from our resident maintenance duo and began the construction of the plant box. Instead of creating an L-shaped one as shown, we decided to create two instead.
One small one with a size of 100cm depth x 180cm length and the other a more elongated version than planned. The height of both planters is 40cm.
The 60cm gap in between was comfortable enough for anyone to be able to access the corners and the height.
The completion of these plant boxes took quite some time due to the existing roof downspout on the ground and where to purchase good gardening soil.
We still want to be able to use the water coming out of it but couldn't leave it buried underground vulnerable like that for a number of reasons; rodents, blockage from leaves, etc. We procrastinated while thinking of a solution and had dropped the project for several months. Both plant boxes became a dry compost pit during that time while vegetable peels were placed inside the black containers.
In the meanwhile, chayote and squash started growing in the compost pit.
Procrastination is not an ideal thing but finally this week, we found good garden soil.
With that came the inspiration from my father-in-law who is a plumber, electrician, and gardener to create a french drain for the downspout.
Gravel, PVC pipe with punctured holes, and PVC pipe end cap. We also placed a mesh at the roof gutter/downspout connection to prevent leaves from entering the pipe.
Yohann dug further and placed gravel under the attached french drain pipe to the existing downspout.
Once it was secure, he covered it with soil and mixed them with ready-to-use compost. Et voila!
Let's see how effective the french drain is and will report updates here. For now, I have no clue what to plant in there. I'm considering climbing vegetables such as chayote in the small plant box to make use of the wall.
On the other hand, the longer one will have tomatoes and other vegetables? Any suggestions?
Herb Garden
Here are the rest of the residents of our herb garden.
We're off to work on the longer plant box next and I look forward to sharing more here. Any suggestions on what might work here in the Philippines that is not so difficult to plant for a newbie? Thank you for reading and happy gardening!
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"I am an old soul who simply loves coffee, who finds joy and beauty in both tangible and the unseen."
Curiosity and imagination lead to unexpected experiences. Interested in Nature, Places, Roads Less Traveled, Minimalism, Authentic Living, Anything French, and International Cuisine. Feel free to follow her, re-blog, and upvote if you enjoy her content.