GARDENING Keeps Me Busy During Lockdown: My Garden Journal for MARCH 2020

I spend my early mornings and late afternoons, when the sun is at its friendliest, at our garden. This beautiful hobby keeps me busy during this lockdown. I am happy that time pass by so quickly when I am busy weeding, tilling the soil, and just enjoying the greens all around.

Our small city is in lockdown, with only one person per household is allowed to go out to buy essential things at the market or grocery. Each household was issued a quarantine pass. All other members of the family are required to stay at home. For persons who are below 12 years old and above 60 years old, they are under a 24/7 quarantine!!! They should strictly stay at home. For us, it is my husband who has the quarantine pass. So I am at home all day, everyday. (My husband said that at the market, there are people checking whether you have a quarantine pass. If you do not have and you're out from home, you will be detained and would be fined.)

There is one positive case in our city. So, it enforced an enhanced community quarantine. All borders are closed. Nobody can get in and out of the city except for those who are medical workers, government employees, those carrying food supplies, and those who are issued passes by the city.

We currently do not have testing kits in our city. The only way we can have it tested is by sending the specimen to Manila, the capital city, which unfortunately is also in lockdown. So, it is very difficult, almost impossible, to send specimen to have it tested. Now, military planes are used to transport the specimen.

Since we do not have testing kits, it is assumed that many have the virus, hence city imposed a community quarantine.

A week has passed and amazingly I am not bored. Gardening is one of the reasons.

NEW SPROUTS

Okra

Some time last week, I planted okra with my bear hands. I used to just assist my mom. But since we found out that her anular fissure is worsening because of bending in the garden, we decided that she is no longer allowed to do things that requires bending--weeding, planting, and all. But now, I have to do almost everything myself. Well, given this time with community quarantine, I am more than willing to indulged!

A week after, the okras are already sprouting!!! What a sight!!! Very vulnerable, yet a fighter!

I am happy beyond measure seeing a new life. This physical manifestation provides hope for me. I see God's love in action. I know He is there, providing for us, amidst this pandemic.

Onions

We bought a sack of onions for our canteen, which turned out to be closed because of the lockdown, so we brought the veggies that will decay back home.

While sorting the onions, we noticed that some of it are already starting to rot. But my husband said that it should be planted instead of throwing it away, especially the ones that have roots.

And plant we did! Before we knew it, the onions are already sprouting! Thanks to my husband's suggestion, we will soon benefit from it.

FLOWERS

Calamansi

I see the flowers smiling at me. Can you see it too?

These lovely dainty flowers are calamansi (Philippine lime). I am most thankful that this calamansi is constantly bearing flowers and fruits all year round.

I harvested a handful of mature calamansi fruits when I noticed that whilst there are still many small fruits, it is already blooming with flowers! It is indeed blessings after blessings! This small but terrible fruit is packed with vitamin c so it is very essential in this time period we live in.

Jamaican cherry

Actually, I don't know the English name of this tree-bearing fruit so I googled it. We call it mansanitas, which literally means, "small apples." It is a summer fruit in the Philippines, and because summer is fast approaching, I've seen our very own mansanitas blooming for the first time.

This fruit has many different names, so I guess it would be safe to state its scientific name: Rhamnus jujuba and Zizyphus mauritiana.

At this time of posting, there are very few small fruits. I would surely give an update of this in my next entry!

BLUE TERNATEA

The blue ternatea are still in bloom. Oftentimes we harvest more than 10 flowers each day. The peak we harvested this month was a staggering 28 flowers! Wow!

We use it daily as a blue water, and it is also rich in Vitamin C. And just recently we have been adding it to our vegetable salad.

SQUASH

Our squash is in full bloom too. We harvest two to three flowers everyday, to mix it in the vegetable medley.

Have you eaten squash flowers before? Or haven't heard of it? Hehehe. I know, it may be a remote idea to some, but here in the north of the country it is but a normal sight to see squash flowers at the wet market.

And yes, we let it climb in a leafless tree at the moment, hoping that in due time the fruits would dangle so sweetly in front of us!

HARVESTS

Winged beans

Our winged beans are up, up and away, that we need a ladder to harvest the veggies. Hahaha!

But lately, it stopped producing fruits, so in a couple of days, I will be planting a new one.

We intentionally saved a mature fruit so we can plant the seeds in due time. So, I will just prepare the soil, and plant it.

Sweet Potato

When I was preparing the plot to plant the okra seeds, I uprooted the sweet pototoes. Happily, I noticed that it has roots! What a beautiful coincidence.

This was not planned. It was pure blessings!

And lastly, can you see the heart-shaped foliage?

I don't know if it is only my imagination, but for me it is an expression of Jehovah God's love, visibly shown in his creation.

What do you have in your garden? Maybe you can share it with us too. Please feel welcome to join @simplymike's monthly challenge. Click here for the detailed instruction.

Thank you for joining me,
Ging

This post is an entry for #GardenJournal by @simplymike,

and this is also an entry to #QuarantineContest by @derangedvisions,

and also a post for #AlwaysAFlower by @dswigle.