Environmentalist encourages Cebuanos to do vegetable gardening while under home quarantine

Photo courtesy of Tony Galon

CEBU CITY, Philippines— What have you been doing while under home quarantine?

Tony Galon, a Cebuano environmentalist, told CDN Digital that he spent most of his time growing vegetables and other plants in his backyard in Minglanilla town.

He said that vegetable gardening was proven to be cost-efficient because you can use resources that are available in your respective homes.  This also you to saves you the burden of having to visit the market often to purchase supplies.

“Aside sa tipid, you’ll have fresh and chemical-free veggies at your table,” he said.

Shortly after the start of the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Cebu on March 30, Galon said he identified a space in their backyard which he used for vegetable gardening.

Galon, founder of the 5 pcs Daily Habit and Basura Run, said he also took inspiration from the photos of the spring onions mini garden owned by Ronald Villanueva on Boljoon town which he saw on Facebook.

He started his own vegetable garden on April 16 by planting spring onions on empty egg trays.

Galon said he used the hyrdoponic gardening technique which does not require the use of soil on plants.  Instead, he used a mineral nutrient solution in a water solvent.

A month later, Galon said that he already started to harvest from his vegetable garden.

“In just ten days we were able to harvest some spring onions. [Now] we plan to plant more like petchay, okra, chilli, tomatoes, and squash,” he told CDND.

Spring onions that were grown by Ronald Villanueva. | Photo courtesy of Ronald Villanueva

Galon said that his kangkong and calamansi plants are also beginning to show progress.

For those who wanted to try the hyrdoponic gardening technique in vegetable gardening, Galon has two simple tips for you:

• make sure that the roots of your plant touch the water and
• give plant your plant enough sunlight

But make sure that you do not drown the roots and overexpose your plants to the heat of the sun or else it will die, he said. / dcb