How to make compost tea
In keeping with being green, we chose to use compost tea. Unlike commercial fertilizers where they're pretty much ready to use, there's a bit of prepwork that goes with Compost tea. Now, don't let this turn you off. Aside from using all-natural beneficial bacteria, compost tea won't harm the environment.
Planting Map
I promised to show you guys the final planting map for the 2000sqm land. This is a pdf file that contains the mapping of the Nam Doc Mai mangoes, Longkong Lanzones and the "Tomboy" Calamansi. All these plants costs about Php17250 or (~$370) . Additional expenses include shipping them from Davao Php5000 (~$110) and trucking Php10000 ($215).
Low Bark Nam Doc Mai
We're crazy for mangoes. They're golden, they're sweet and aromatic. Before all this, the only mangoes I knew were the "piko", "kalabaw", "supsupin" and "indian" mangoes. After researching which mango variety would work, we opted for the Thai-variety, Nam Doc Mai.
Sidetrack to Dalaguete
This is a little off-topic from all the planning and farming that we talked about earlier. I wanted to show you guys the things to see and places to be in Dalaguete, Cebu. Maybe you'll understand why we want to move there. I'm planning to put these "Sidetrack to Dalaguete" blogs every now and then just so we know where we're heading =)
Here's a bunch of pictures of Mantalongon which is a suburb of Dalaguete. This is also known as the Vegetable Basket of Cebu.
As I said in my earlier blog, Dalaguete is a very good place to start farming. I guess you can just throw a seed anywhere in that place and, for sure, it will grow.
Planning the farm
One major step done. We got land. It's small compared to other farmlands, i know, but it's a start. I guess I need to backtrack a little bit to discuss the planning stage of the farm. You might have the impression that there was no planning done and we were just two people diving into totally unchartered waters. Hopefully we did enough research and planning before we took the plunge. Here's some of the things we did:
Do’s and Don’ts when buying property in the Philippines
In our excitement to buy our first property in Casay, we skipped some wise and important steps in doing the purchase. Like all things in life, there will always be snags so if you're already planning to buy, don't let this list hinder your plans.
First View of Casay
First thing to worry is money. How can we earn a living there? Business? What are we good at? For 8 years, my husband and I worked as Engineers for the same company. Honestly, I don't imagine there would be any jobs waiting for us when we go back. Plus, one of the reasons we're moving away from engineering is the stress! The answer to these questions actually walked right in front of us, literally. While he was looking for a beach front property in Dalaguete, someone approached him to convince him to buy this land in Casay. She mentioned that the property has full grown mangoes and coconut trees. Farming. We got real excited about this, this is something we can see ourselves in. With everybody wanting to help the current state of the environment, I think this is also one noble thing to do. Farming, the natural way. Yep, we were sold with the idea.
With the tax return we got this year, we bought our first land in Casay. It's a 2000 sqm lot located along Cebu's national highway and about a quarter of a mile from Argao Beach Club.
Big Decision
- Obong Spring out to sea
My husband and I just had a one month vacation in the Philippines. We were working pretty hard in 2008 and we figured we needed to unwind from the stress of working in an extremely results-oriented company. We visited friends and family in Manila then went to visit his side in Dalaguete, Cebu.
Recent Posts
- I’m Back!
- 10 Must Have Garden Tools
- Ingredient and Tool Must-Haves!
- Bahay Kubo in Casay
- How to plant Tomboy Calamansi
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