SUMMER BLOOMS

In my backyard I have several ornamental plants. I got these shrubs from my past coverage in Basilan and Sulu. What I did was to cut some twigs, wrapped it with moist paper until I reached home and put it in a mini nursery (actually three little clay pots with garden soil and homemade compost). In a couple of weeks these little wilted shrubs turned into sturdy tiny little twigs. Now they are all bearing flowers.

In between breaks (beating deadlines for my editors) I make sure to get a snapshot of each blooms. Sometimes before I leave the house for coverage or attending workshops in the morning, I make sure to check my plants. Whenever I reach home, I will pay a brief visit to my little garden and find out how all my ornamental plants are doing, were they’ve been watered by my son’s Nanny and if not, after finishing my stories, I will do the watering myself. I usually bring my son to the garden, especially if some of the leaves became hosts to caterpillars. We took some shots from caterpillars down to cocooning itself then into a beautiful butterfly. My son Kenjo learns to appreciate the art of greening the surrounding. At this time he values the fallen dried leaves that could be use for compost and not to burn and add more carbon to the environment. Kenjo adores Al Gore after watching his presentation over the HBO about the global warming. My mother hated my mini garden which according to her I am creating a mini forest that houses snakes and other wild and creepy creatures. Sometimes we argued about cutting off my tree-likes Hibiscus and Bougainvillas. Some of its twigs are used by birds for nesting and its wonderful to see different birds using my plants as their homes.