Seeds in the city

The seeds of urban gardening have been planted recently in the city and will soon grow in other population centers, too. If the Central Luzon State University in the Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija (CLSU) could have its way, proponents – from the agri-school – of urban gardening would like to see "a thousand containers bloom" in the backyards, dumpsites and empty lots. Even in facades, windows, high-rise balconies and rooftops where there are abundant sunlight for at least six hours a day.

Consider the almost limitless supply of containers from the city garbage. Countless designs and materials for pots and planters are all around: glazed ceramic pots, porcelain pots, plastic pots, gallons, bamboo poles and glass and ceramic wares of all shaped and sizes. Then, there are plastic containers of mineral water, cooking oil, milk, soy sauce, catsup, mayonnaise, among several other kitchen items.

You could even use old pots and pans, old colanders, used metals or plastic drums, broken plastic trashcans, styropor fruit cases and wooden crates. Too, voluminous trash that are better recycled can be made useful such as tires, barrels, drums, tin cans, damaged gutters and galvanized irons.

Think of the greening of the city’s eyesores, well laid-out gardens with fruit-bearing plants and vegetables. You do not only help in solving the obnoxious garbage problem of the city; you assure yourself, as well, of supply of garden-fresh fruits and vegetables. As a way of life for rural communities it could even be an income-generating enterprise.

Already practiced in many parts of the world, urban agriculture or container farming is popular among city dwellers and now feeds around 700 million worldwide. The concept is a garden tool out to transform food scarcity to food security.

Recently, CLSU launched the concept of rural gardening with the book, Urban Agriculture: A Step-By-Step Guide to Successful Container Farming in the City. The book is a collaboration among four farming lovers hereabouts:

Dr. Rodolfo Urban, A CLSU agricultural engineering graduate, is the president and program administrator of the Urban Agriculture Project of CLSU. He has been cited as one of the Asean Engineering Awardees 2000 and named "Most Outstanding Agricultural Engineer by the Philippine Society of Agricultural Engineers. He was also "Most Outstanding Professional in the Field of Engineering" to two award-giving organizations.

Dr. Pedrito Nitural, a CLSU alumnus, is the program coordinator of the CLSU Urban Agriculture Project. He is a professor at CLSU’s Department Society of Science, College of Agriculture and Institute of Graduate Studies.

Dr. Anselmo Roque, an educator/journalist and professor at the CLSU, is the assistant program administrator of the CLSU Urban Agriculture Project. He has been installed in the "Hall of Fame for Agricultural Journalism" by the Philippine Agricultural Journalists Inc.

Dante Liban, a three-term congressman representing the 2nd district of Quezon City has consistently supported the propagation of urban agriculture programs nationwide. He is a strong advocate of the development of the urban agricultural model of CLSU. He is currently the secretary general of TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority).

CLSU’s city greening program draws support and strength from several highly regarded organization, Couples for Christ, especially through their Gawad Kalinga Project. For tools and other needs you can go to any of the following suppliers: Harbest Agribusiness Corp., H. Ramos Plastic Manufacturing Corp., Manila Fertilizer Inc. and Sagrex Corp.

Container farming has many positive features aside from savings for the urban gardeners. It will help beautify the city with biodegradable refuse (from the kitchen specially) being turned into compost organic fertilizer to be mixed into the growing medium. And the non-biodegradable trash objects which are giving environment planners headaches can be turned into potting containers for vegetable.

In deciding which vegetables is advisable to plant, choose those which are commonly used in daily meal cooking. Those that are ready for harvest in two to three months are preferable. This will help build a knack for gardening for the whole family with the added incentive of garden-fresh delicious quality.

Some of the vegetables which will be fine in containers that hardly need a "green thumb" are:

• Leafy vegetables like pechay, mustard, lettuce, sweet potato, malabar, spinach, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower;

• Root and bulb crops such as sweet potato, onion, garlic, carrot, radish, sugar beets, turnips (singkamas);

• String beans, mung beans (mungo), lima beans, chicharo, red kidney beans;

• Fruit vegetables like tomatoes, eggplants, sweet pepper, okra;

• Vine fruits such as squash, cucumber, watermelon, muskmelon, ampalaya, upo, kundol, patola, sayote;

• Tree vegetables like malungay, katuray, kamansi, himbabaw;

•Herbal plants such as thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano, fennel;

• Mushroom species (oyster mushroom: pleutrotus and taingang-daga; black fungus).

The ideal growing medium for container farming is a mixture of one part loam soil, one part compost or composted manure and one part rice hull (or sawdust or coconut choir dust).