Visiting Our Backyard Garden

Every time we go for summer vacation in the Philippines, I look forward to seeing my parent's backyard garden again. Not only because it brings back a lot of memories of my childhood days, but also because of the fruits that we reap from it.

When we were young, we planted all sorts of different plants there. We grew cotton, monggo, okra, chili pepper, pechay, ampalaya, cassava and other flowering plants like rose, santan, gumamela, orchids and four o'clock (my favorite flower which blooms beautifully every 4:00 in the afternoon).

We also have fruit trees, most of which are still alive today and giving us fruits to enjoy. Just look at our Langka (Jackfruit) and our Mangga (mango tree).  It's only when we're on vacation that we can eat these tropical fruits fresh from the tree. We also have two coconut trees from which my parents usually get the coconut milk they use for cooking. Being Bicolanos, we are fond of dishes with coconut milk like Laing (Taro leaves with coconut milk) and Ginataang Langka (Jackfruit with coconut milk). Guess where they get the Langka.

Lanka or Jackfruit tree

Mango Tree

Our backyard garden no longer have as much plants as before since nobody is taking care of our garden anymore except for a little weeding and watering by our parents. But there are a few surprise plants for me to see this vacation. Below is the picture of Lagundi (Vitex negundo L.). It is a herbal plant that is used as a cough remedy and anti-asthma medicine. I think the reason why my mom had this planted in our backyard is because I often ask her to send us dried leaves of Lagundi. When my children have cough or asthma, I boil a pinch of the dried leaves in water for a few minutes, then I ask them to drink it like tea. Sometimes, I add powdered juice or sugar to make the taste more pleasant. It is quite effective I must say.

Lagundi

Another surprise plant which just grew out of a crevice in our stony stairs is the sambong. I actually have not used this herbal plant but I think it is also good for cough.  A friend told me that what they do is boil the leaves then squeeze the juice from it into a spoon and drink it.

Sambong

Birds of Paradise

The last plant that I really enjoyed seeing is the Birds of Paradise. It is one of the plants that I consider really unique among what we have in the garden. When we have our own house in the Philippines, I would like to have a small backyard garden and have the Birds of Paradise planted in it as well. God willing, I would also like to do bio-intensive gardening. What is bio-intensive gardening? Well, I'll reserve the answer to that question for my next post.

What do you have in your backyard? fruit trees garden? vegetable garden? flower garden? or herbal plant garden?