WITH the different levels of difficulties experienced by many people following the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be practical to have our own garden at home which allows us to plant different varieties of vegetables.
For those residing in urban areas, adopting urban gardening will definitely be the answer – a doable solution for practicing agriculture in the metropolis.
For a friend of mine who has been practicing urban agriculture even before the corona virus pandemic, the concept is very possible with the use of discarded plastic bottles or containers.
Mer Layson says anyone can have a ready supply of fresh vegetables at the comfort of your homes.
Urban gardening can be done in most areas of our houses, like windows, terraces, or in a limited space of an apartment or high-rise condominium buildings.
Layson has been practicing urban gardening by utilizing the grills of his rented apartment building in Manila.
“All we need are discarded plastic bottles that are cut in halves, pierced with small holes on the side, and filled with a small amount of soil. These improvised containers will allow us to plant different varieties of vegetables,” he says.
For homemade and improvised receptacles which he calls the “self-watering plant containers,” he was able to plant easy-to-grow leafy vegetables like lettuce, mustard, pechay, including chilli pepper.
With the use of his improvised containers, the burden of regularly watering the plants can be minimized, where watering should only be done when water level in the containers becomes almost dry.
He shares that we can use any size of discarded plastic bottles, depending of course on the variety of vegetables which we want to cultivate.
For the planting the different varieties of lettuce, Layson uses the 330 milliliter plastic bottles, but for the taller varieties like mustard and pechay, he uses the 1-liter or 1.5-liter pet bottles.
Among the advantages of planting our own vegetables is that we can naturally grow them without the use of fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides.
Since the vegetables are just within reach, pest infestation will not be a problem.
Another advantage of planting vegetables in small containers is that it can help enhance the aesthetics of an area in your home, at the same time, provide fresh vegetables for our family.
Other benefits of urban or container gardening include improving the nutritional status of your family, ensuring food security, possible generation of additional income, and savings which could have been spent for buying vegetables.
With the stress and pressures of residing in urban areas, urban gardening can also serve as an effective relaxant.
Enthusiasts of urban gardening have already shared and testified that the wellness effect of the hobby is an ideal and leisurely activity.
“If I was able to practice urban gardening, everybody can do it too. Anybody can even become more productive than me in the near future,” Layson says.
For me, the most important aspect of having our own urban garden is “food safety” because we are the ones planting our own food./PN
