Our first water garden

Our tubs, buckets and pails of Lotus plants are getting to be like cry babies, always looking for attention. Not that they make shrieking noises when they need something, they just look sad and limp when they need more water.

Since their roots are confined to small and shallow containers, their water requirements need to be checked often especially during hot and sunny days. This situation was brought to my attention months ago and we had to come up with a quick solution if our Lotuses are to survive in the garden.

Ideally I would have opted for a ground level pond complete with water features and landscaping for a more  natural look. Eventually this is what I'll shoot for, but for now the well-being of the Lotus plants must be addressed as soon as possible.

Thus, we decided to build a bigger container in the form of an above ground pond. This is cheaper, easier to build and easier to maintain than an elaborate, natural-looking pond. So, Dad and his crew went to work and built the pond adjacent to the "mother" garden.

The Lotuses are now happily residing in the pond. Since there are room for more aquatic plants, a Horsetail (Equisetum hyemale) and another yet unidentified plant were added. There are also Duckweeds (Lemna minor) which hitchhiked with Lotuses and began to float only after the Lotus containers were submerged in the pond.

We have Umbrella Papyrus (Cyperus involucratus) growing in a place where they don't get any attention so I asked Mom to put some in the pond too, but that's after they've been quarantined to make sure they don't harbor snail eggs. Currently they're in isolation at the back porch. It will be a disaster if aquatic snails get into the pond as I mentioned in my older post "What lies beneath..."

To solve the potential problem of the pond becoming a breeding ground for blood-sucking, virus-carrying mosquitoes, we added some fishes as well. There are a few Tilapias, young Kois and Comets contently living in the pond.

To keep the color of the pond from turning completely green due to algal bloom and the water healthy for the fishes, fresh water is added daily delivered by a hose connected to a spring-fed source.

A pond can be classified as a fishpond, koi pond, wildlife pond or a water garden. So, is this structure a fishpond or a water garden? Definitely a water garden. Although fishes can be added in a water garden they are not the main attraction of the pond but rather the various species of aquatic plants. The plants take the center stage while the fishes are just extras.

Someday, if the forces from above are willing, there will be more ponds and water gardens in different parts of the farm.

A 7-foot tall statue of me?

friend: Are you serious, you really want a 7-foot statue of you?

me: I'm dead serious, standing with my right arm extended upward and my hand pointing to the sky and my left arm folded on my chest with a clenched fist, like a dictator in the middle of a pompous and lengthy speech.

friend: And where do you intend to put it?

me: At the highest point in the farm so everyone passing by can see it.

One day, while flipping through the pages of a magazine I received from the Columban Fathers I saw a picture of a statue of Christ the Good Shepherd. I was so enamored by the serenity and kindness of his face. From this encounter I had another aha moment --- since we have a small flock of grazing sheep why not build an open air chapel dedicated to the Good Shepherd near where they graze.

I thought a 7-foot tall cement statue standing on a 2-foot tall base would be tall enough. I mentioned this idea to my parents and they could not agree more. Without my knowledge, they erected a 9-foot wooden board where I said I plan to put the statue. They covered it with white sacks just to see how it will look from afar. Although thousands of miles away, I think I could feel their muted excitement.

The wooden plank around the area where a religious statue will stand as seen from afar.

And so the hunt was on to find a good sculptor who can create a custom-made image of the Good Shepherd based on a magazine picture. I asked some friends if they could recommend one. Then I enlisted the help of a good friend to do the legwork for me. He even went all the way to Paete, Laguna (known for its locals' great carving craftsmanship) in search of an artist to take on this project. But the project stalled for several months because my friend had to concentrate full time to some important family matters.

I thought maybe the time is not yet ripe for this project to commence.

The wooden plank still visible from the driveway near the entrance to the farm.

While this project was floating in limbo, another good friend was under the impression that my search for a sculptor was just a joke because when I was asking around, I jokingly said I would like to have a 7-foot statue of me. Eventually, when he learned of my true (and noble?) purpose he mentioned his colleague, a fellow art instructor at the University of Santo Tomas, College of Fine Arts and Design. He came highly recommended by my friend who is also a talented painter. Since I trust my friend, I commissioned his colleague to create an image of the Good Shepherd based on the picture that I saw in a magazine.

The scaled down clay model of the Good Shepherd in its early stage of carving.

After a brief chat with the artist over the phone, he accepted the project. The steps to take in making the concrete statue are as follows:

• Create a scaled down model made of clay.
• Upon my approval of the scaled down model, a 7-foot tall model will be created based on the smaller model.
• The 7-foot tall model will be used to create a mold.
• From the mold, a cast will take shape using wet cement reinforced with iron rods and chicken wires where needed.

From the steps I mentioned above, we're still in the first step, create a scaled model. I was told it will take a month to finish the project once I give my approval to the scaled model and pay the 50% down payment. Upon completion, the remainder of the balance must then be settled. The finished product will then be delivered to the farm, a travel by land of about 200+ miles.

A 7-foot tall statue of me? Nah, I'm much too insignificant to be glorified with a statue plus nowadays only martyrs deserve a statue and I don't intend to be one.

to be continued... (click here for the continuation)
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Hideous monstrosity

BE ADVISED

This post may contain words that some may find too strong and harsh. Please bear with the author as, even after three agonizing days now, at the time of this writing he is still fuming.

Monsters are supposed to be hideous but the title of this post simply states in a superlative degree that it's very, very ugly and repulsive. To be blatant and direct, I really hate it.

The retaining wall is one urgent project that must be completed before the wet season begins. After funding the first part of this three part project the work began but curiously I was not informed of any developments. Then after leaving me in the dark, finally I received a text message saying that the first and second parts of the project are finished.

What?

This cold structure will greet anyone who follows the dirt path that leads to the 'upper garden'.

Before we started this project I made it clear to my father that I want the wall to follow the curvature of the road. If one follows this logic then it is clear that there will be no straight lines and no corners except where the upper and lower walls meet.

So imagine my anger and dismay when I received pictures of the project and looking at these straight and solid walls arrogantly staring at me with an 'in your face' look. Where is the soft and subtle curved wall that I was eagerly expecting to see?

Left view.

I let a day silently pass by without uttering a word because knowing myself I might spit expletives all over the place.

On my second day of silence I received a text message from my mother asking me how I felt about the outcome of the project. She then mentioned that she didn't like it and my niece who was there on vacation finds it an eye sore. With that single text message, mother unwittingly opened Pandora's box.

As seen from the right side.

A long-distance phone call is once again made. Suffice to say that words not meant to be said were spoken with a raised voice loud enough to pierce an eardrum.

I am yet to blindly accept this structure but until now I'm still repulsed by it. The only option I have in mind is to tear it down and rebuild. But with a very tight budget it will be a waste of resource. But then if I keep it, it will be a constant thorn in my side.
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Hold your ground

"Summer" is officially here. It's when the north-easterly winds cease to bring cool air from the north. And "summer" ends around late May when the wet season officially begins.

While the succeeding days are still dry there is one project that must be completed before the arrival of the rainy season. There's an area along the dirt road that needs a retaining wall to hold the ground on one side and keep it from eroding into the road.

This path along the row of black bamboos need a retaining wall to prevent the soil from sliding.

My original plan was to use stones for the retaining wall. But as I found out while on a visit to the farm last February, it's impractical to use stones as they turn out to be very expensive. In our place, how stones are sold depend on the size. The big ones are sold by piece, smaller ones are sold in bulk and priced per square meter. Unfortunately, the stones we need do not fit in the "small" category so they are sold by piece and the price per piece is not cheap.

The area getting prepared for the installation of the wall.

Budget, the number one factor in any of our projects, prompted me to think of other options. Thus I decided to choose reinforced hollow (cinder) blocks instead. It may not be as good looking as natural stones but the price difference is very significant. Stone veneer could be used later on to cover the surface of the wall.

For height comparison, our garden helper working near the edge of the area that needs a retaining wall.

Since part of the area that needs a wall is over seven feet tall, Dad said that it would be better and safer to build a two-tiered wall, in a terraced-like form. This will stabilize the soil better and reduce the pressure exerted by the ground on the wall, minimizing any possibility of damage.

A two-tiered retaining wall will also create a planting area between the walls. And I already know which plants to put there. This will be a two part project, the lower and upper walls. The lower wall project has already been funded so now it's a go.
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Garden Structures: First Pergola

Several months ago in my "Gimme Shelter" post, I mentioned about my plans to resurrect an old gazebo long gone, but with a new twist. As it turned out, this project became more complicated after the passing of the October storm that brought devastation to the farm. I will delve on this topic deeper in one of my future posts.

All is not lost though. Somewhere near the shore of another fishpond was a remnant of another long gone gazebo. Since we could not build on the original planned site, I decided to build on this site instead. And on this location will rise a pergola.

Where the pergola will be located.

In my long distance phone conversation with my dear father, he suggested that we use a sturdy material for the pergola so that it won't easily rot and even a strong storm cannot blow it away. So instead of wood, we settled for steel pipes. The project was funded and the construction commenced.

Construction of the latticework.

Assembling the pergola.

Assembling the pergola as seen from another angle.

With the pergola complete, all it needs now is a plant to climb up and fill the spaces on top. For this, I decided to use the Blue Passion Flower (Passiflora caerulea) vine which was growing passionately in the nursery. Then I was told that it was one of the storm casualties. The vine's main trunk broke at the very base and it never grew back.

Installing concrete pillars.

For now the pergola will have to wait for its permanent occupant. We ordered four pots of the Blue Passion from my mother's favorite garden store, which should be available by the latter part of this month.

But we are not done yet with this project. As you can see, the concrete floor of the old gazebo has cracked in several places. It needs a new coat of concrete to level the floor. I'm thinking of laying terracotta tiles on top of this concrete to lend a rustic look. Then we need to landscape the surrounding areas. So it means more plants are needed. Whew, and I thought this endeavor was supposedly simple.

It looks like one of the projects I mentioned in my "What's in store for 2011" entry on Fer's Garden Carnival is on its way to fruition.

Let's have a quickie

Nope, this is definitely not about the secret tryst that goes on inside some establishments of ill-repute.

This is just a quick update of a mishmash of activities in the farm.

The temporary pens for the goats and sheep are almost done. In a few more days, the animals will no longer roam freely around the farm. And free from foragers, it will be safe to transplant some of the landscape plants to their new location alongside the dirt road.

In the meantime, they are waiting for another pregnant doe to give birth to an upgraded kid. The five upgrade baby goats I mentioned in my older post are now a rambunctious bunch of young kids.

The plants for landscaping are also doing well and growing in number through cuttings and divisions. In fact, for the first time in the garden, a few of the lobster claw heliconias are in bloom. As for bought plants, there are no new purchases to report of at the moment.

The drained ponds are getting filled with water and restocked with fish. The two leftmost ponds have been drained next for fortification and to remove the silt that accumulated through the years. They will then be combined into one bigger pond.

Lastly the little mango orchard has been sprayed with bloom inducer by a third party under a contract agreement with the farm. Hopefully the yield this year will far exceed the yields of the previous years, which were dismal!

There you go, the quick update just went by so quickly.

Construction update #9 --- the access road (cont.)

Last Monday morning an engineer came to inspect the farm and he concluded that a bulldozer rather than a grader is better equipped to tackle the obstacles presented by the farm's irregular terrain. So later that day a bulldozer was delivered and for the rest of the week has been busy breaking, moving, hauling and compacting the ground. Slowly the outline of the dirt road began to materialize.

They tested the dirt road by driving the van all the way to the end, which terminates at the highest point of the farm. Success! The van navigated the new dirt road with ease. This is another milestone in itself since before only an ATV or a hardy 4x4 truck could manage to get through the uneven terrain.

The next task is to haul gravel in and lay them down the road. A thick layer of gravel must be laid down, else weeds and wild grasses will grow, cover and reclaim the road in no time. This part of the project requires a hefty sum of money so we'll have to tackle this project gradually. Ah, the bane of limited financing has manifested itself again.

Since it's the early dry season the urgency to lay down gravel is lessened. But before the rainy season comes, at least a thin layer must already be in place to check the growth of weeds and wild grasses. Later on, as the layer of gravel settles, a fresh layer will be laid down on top of the old. This process must be repeated several times until the dirt road stabilizes.

Construction update #8 --- the access road

The reinforcement of the embankment between two fishponds is almost complete. This procedure is a must to allow vehicles to pass through safely when access to the back side of the farm is needed.

Before:

Earthen embankment before fishponds were drained of water.

After:

Fortified earthen embankment after fishponds were drained of water.

Last thing to do is to backfill the embankment with soil up to the height of the retaining wall and spruce up the general area before it vanishes under water. After that they can let the ponds fill with water and then finally restock the ponds with tilapia fingerlings.

Eventually the embankment will be landscaped and footpaths will be installed on either side for people to walk on. But that will be, if the Lord wills it, in the (near) future.

Construction update #7 --- the access road

Our next project is the construction of an access road within the farm. The road will not be a real "road" per se, but rather just a narrow dirt road enough for one vehicle to pass through as needed.

It would be unwise to build an elaborate road system on a small property such as ours, when space is at a premium. But since our plan is to open the farm to the public someday, provisions must be made to allow a way to transport people within the compound; particular in mind are those who may need assistance like the elderly and the disabled.

Unlike the building of the fence, other sub-projects need to be completed first before they could even begin the initial laying out of the road.

• One sub-project is a concrete box culvert over a portion of the ditch which runs across the farm. It should be strong enough to support the weight of heavy equipments. This project has been completed just before they began building the fence.
  
  
  
  Ditch water flowing under the concrete box culvert.


• In some areas where the road will be built are steep slopes that must be leveled to a gradual incline. This also was finished before they began building the fence.
  


• Another mini-project is the strengthening and widening of the embankment that runs between two fishponds. Work is now in progress to reinforce the sides of the two fishponds bordering the embankment, which is an essential part of the road network.
  

So far these are the only mini-projects (that I know of) that had to be addressed first before they could bring in the grader to break the ground where the road will lie someday.

Construction update #6 --- front fence (the wall)

The building of the front fence is almost complete. They should be wrapping up work by the end of this week. All in all it took more than a month to finish this wall, the entire 560+ meters of it.

In my 5th construction update, I mentioned that the next project will be the permanent enclosures for the different farm animals. Well, this will be pushed back to a much later date.

Bumped up on top of the list is the widening and reinforcement of the embankment in between two ponds. It has been an unusually dry December so far and we want to take advantage of this good weather.

When the embankment fortification is done it should be able to allow a grader to pass through with ease. The grader will be used to build a dirt road within the farm. So I guess the building of the dirt road will be next.

Construction update #5 --- front fence (the wall)

Building of the wall fence is in full swing.

We hired two more workers to speed up the project. Work is currently concentrated on the left side of the gate (facing the farm) all the way to the leftmost edge of the property. In some areas, the fence is now about four feet high. They will temporarily stop at this height and then start working on the right side. The idea is to totally enclose the property first and after that continue building the fence up to the desired height of eight feet.

Erecting the fence on the front-left is quite laborious. There are areas where they have to build around the property of a couple of neighbors and sandwiched between their lots is still a part of the farm. Thanks to us our neighbors will have three sides of their properties fenced without spending a single peso... isn't that neat?

Work progress could have gone a little bit further had they not encounter a little setback early last week. They have just finished laying down concrete blocks and before the mortar could harden, heavy rain poured down. Due to the angled terrain of the farm, a strong and rapid river of water from the road and the surrounding fields rushed down, scoured the fresh mortar and damaged a little portion of the new wall.

The damage was minimal, requiring only a quick fix. But work had to stop for three days due to the heavy and continuous monsoon rain that battered the general area.

After the rain the weather has been generally sunny and the industrious folks are out working again.

Construction update #4 --- the wall fence

Just another quick update. Construction of the wall fence in front of the farm has begun.

Come early November, four more will be hired to speed up the completion this project. Once completed, the wall will shield from view the lower portion of the farm from anyone walking or driving by on the street. Also this will prevent the animals from roaming outside the perimeter of the farm and keep outside animals from coming in.

Next on the plate of things to do is to build permanent enclosures for the animals. When this is done, they will no longer be allowed to roam freely outside their pens. Only then can we begin with the initial greening of the garden, knowing that our vegetarian friends are safely corralled and won't be able to munch on the plants.

For now we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of typhoon Lupit ("Ramil"). For the past couple of days it has been raining intermittently as the typhoon slowly inches closer toward northern Luzon. All we can do is hope and pray that this typhoon won't leave a path of devastation as it crosses land in the coming days.

Construction update #3 --- the fence

Invigorated by fresh infusion of funds, more needed materials were purchased to continue with the fencing project. They were ordered in Manila and had them delivered to the farm. They found out that these materials are cheaper in Manila and even if you add the delivery cost it would still come out cheaper than just buying them locally.

But for some "acts of men" reasons, it took over half a day longer for the construction materials to get delivered.

The delivery van left Manila early in the evening thinking that the night drive will be smooth. Indeed, everything went smooth until later on when they encountered some unexpected hurdles on their long journey to the farm.

First, they got stuck on a highway traffic. There was an accident involving a semi which caused traffic on both directions to back up for several kilometers.

After idling for several hours, they finally got moving until daytime arrived. And with the rising sun came a few more hurdles. This time they were stopped on three different occasions by some 'good' men of L.T.O. (Land Transportation Office) who were stationed on strategic sections of the highway. In all instances they concocted some bogus violations in an apparent attempt to extract some grease money. The threat equates to "either pay or have your van and deliveries impounded". Christmas must be drawing near. Oh well, may they burn in .... (you know where). Now!

After all these wild encounters with local vultures, snakes and crocodiles, at last all the materials for the fence have been delivered to the site. This should be enough to finally finish both the left and right sides.

After that, they will begin making hollow/concrete blocks (see "A penny for your thoughts"). This will take some time since by their estimate, it would need at least 20,000 blocks to construct the front fence. Yes, the front fence will not be made of cyclone wires this time. It will be a solid, 2.5 meter (8.2 feet) tall concrete block wall.

Construction update #2 --- the fence

After fixing the hassle of going under budget because of a misquoted pipe posts, all the materials have been ordered.

In a matter of few days, all fence materials are in except for the chain-link (interlink). But that can wait since they have to erect all the posts first. Then they need to let the concrete that holds the posts upright to cure for several days. It sounds easy right? Well, if you're a carabao then its not.

A truckful of gravel and sand was delivered but the truck had brake problems and since the driveway slopes downward, the driver was a little afraid of losing control and risk damaging the truck or any nearby structures. The easy solution was to unload the gravel and sand at the entrance by the gate of the farm. Now there's a huge mound of earth blocking the driveway which needed to be carted to the construction site.

They had to find a way to get the huge mound of earth out of the driveway as soon as possible since not only is it on the driveway but the gates could not be closed either. They had to look for mechanical equipments to do the hauling but it's the middle of the harvest season so they could not find available equipment to borrow much less rent.

The only quick solution was to manually put the gravel and sand in sacks and load the sacks on a cart to be pulled by a carabao to where they need to go. And this they did for almost the whole day, going back and forth until the mountain of gravel was moved out of the driveway.


NOTE: Topography of the farm.

Poor beast of burden, she had to pull a heavy load from one end of the farm all the way up to the other end and down to the ledge. Hopefully she's okay since she may be on the family way. We'll see in a couple of months of she is indeed carrying a baby.

Construction update #1

Speaking of the water lily posted on Aug. 3, 2009.

I do not know now about the fate of this lovely creature when the pond was drained of its waters the weekend of 8/01.

Two adjacent ponds (see image below) have been drained to widen, support and stabilize the soil embankment between them. The soil acts as bridge that connects the front and back of the farm which are separated by a series of seven fish ponds. Once fixed this will allow easy access by vehicles to the back side when heavy construction there begins.

NOTE: The water lily is missing on the image above because this is an older picture by a few months. When I cropped the image, the water lily got unintentionally excluded, it only had several leaves then.

Last time I talked to dear Mom, she said the ponds are filled up again by the incessant rain pouring down straight for two days now. So work has to stop for now until the ponds have been totally drained again.

Once the embankment has been fortified the ponds will be flooded again to allow the fishes to return to their merry old ways.

I'll tell you about the fate of the water lily on steriods when E.T. phone home...