It was a fine morning, the sky is cloudy yet the sun still shines so brightly. I am standing on our rooftop where our vegetable crops are planted taking my time to appreciate the majestic view of the green landscape in front of me as the warm wind hits my face. Waking up in the morning with this scenery encourages me to start my day creatively and productively.
As soon as I finished admiring the view, I turned my back and glanced at our crops. The mosses can be found everywhere, some covers bare wall, and the majority of them grow in the soil where the crops are planted on. That may be the reason why our crops are having a hard time bearing fruit these days. Because mosses are stealing the nutrients coming from the soil. Just like a parasite that acquires benefits without paying the rent.
With that, an idea popped into my mind. Maybe this is the best time for me to have some vigorous activity and stretch my resting muscles. I asked my father's permission first if it was okay to remove the growing mosses from the garden. He agreed and at the same time asked me to harvest fruits if there are any and remove the plants from the soil because we are going to replace them with new ones. Additional tasks assigned to me, I'm so lucky. This will be a sweaty morning for us.
The first thing that I did is to pull the moss and grasses from the soil using my bare hands making sure that their roots are also removed. In that way, it will take time for them to grow back. Surprisingly, it never bore me but rather it satisfy my well-being urging me to do more. I find it pleasing whenever I pulled them off one-by-one. I don't know why either but that's how I feel. I spent around an hour removing the moss and grasses and looking at those piled-up wastes, it is obvious that I enjoyed what I did. But it's not all, it's just half of the planted crops, there is more to go and it will take a lot of time to finish them all.
After that, I started sweeping the floor using a wooden broom. The floor is full of removed mosses, wild grasses, dirt, dried leaves from the mango and malunggay trees, as well as dried waste that came from our dog, Abby. It's pretty messy but it's manageable. I just need to make a little push and pile them all together for easy retrieval before putting them in a trash bag.
Once I'm done, I rearrange the plastic pots and put them in the corner. As you can see, most of the pots we used and are currently using are the Wilkins empty bottles. This will not just save us money but teach us also to utilize and recycle things available in the environment. If you don't have any containers available and you want to establish your home garden, you can use other alternatives such as rice sacks, unused containers, or wheels. That's a nice idea, don't you think? But remember to use things based on their availability. Don't spend too much, recycling is the key.
Moving on, when I'm done piling up the waste, I immediately put it in a trash bag. I don't think one plastic bag is sufficient for all the waste that we are going to gather since I only accomplish half of our garden and I must say that it is so exhausting. The sun is starting to rise and I'm now covered with sweat. Ugh! I need a cold bath after this.
Do you know what this is? For me, it looks like a small greenhouse but not covered with anything. This is the section of our garden where we store plants that crawls such as bitter gourd and cucumber. My father used this tent-like metal that was given to us by our neighbor as the foundation and used some wood such as bamboo that will serve as the support. Did you know that I can't help myself but imagine it covered with leaves? In my mind, it looks like a small greeny plant house where I can rest inside but sadly it didn't work maybe next time I will make it happen.
I also cleaned this section, remove all the plants nearby, and sweep the floor. We decided that we will let the soil rest first before replanting crops again. We will also compile each soil in one place and put some decomposing materials to prepare it next time just like what we did last time. If I'm not mistaken, it is like making our compost pit.
When I finished half of my task, I decided to stop and rest for the day. I am not finished with what I'm doing but I manage to do a lot. The other half section will be my father's responsibility, and he will do it probably at noon since the heat of the sun is scorching hot. We don't want to be naturally fried. Looking at my finished task, it is worth it. Right now, I need some relaxation and stretching to do.