Vegetable Planting

Planting Inspirations usually sprout from nowhere, but for the BNP staff, we seem to be more inclined to find inspiration while in the middle of filling our stomachs with food. First, there was that paint-a-mural challenge that we came up after noticing how bare our wall was while we were eating lunch, second was a sudden cosplay skit that we decided to put together while watching an animated series during lunch, and more recently, the planting activity that we decided to do after looking catching a glimpse of our backyard while — you guess it — while having lunch. Yep. From being painters to cosplayers to gardeners – that’s how we break monotony the BNP way. Anyway, one of our artists has a little background on gardening so she volunteered to provide the seedlings and teach the basics to us, and since it was our stomachs that inspired us to do this activity, we decided to plant some vegetables for “future use.” Armed with mustard, okra, chili pepper, horse radish, and eggplant seeds, we headed to the backyard carrying gardening tools and a pair of seedling trays. After finding a good spot, we started digging for soil that we will be transferring to the seedling tray which we then proceeded to fill halfway through its brim. After the seedling trays were ready, we started to sprinkle chilli pepper and mustard seeds all over it, keeping a gap of at least three inches between each seed. We then set the seedling trays aside and started working on the seed beds. For the seedbeds, we prepared two rectangular plots of soil which we dug and cultivated with trowels and garden forks. After they were ready, we then sprinkled mustard and horse radish seeds over it, also maintaining a three-inch gap in between seeds. Still left with okra and eggplant seeds, we thought the seedbeds might get a little too crowded so we decided to plant the remaining seeds in a row around the seedbeds which we did by digging burrows of about two-three inches deep and burying the seeds in them. With no more seeds left to plant, we decided to wrap things up by taking a bucket of water and sprinkling it over the now covered soil. This is what our mini vegetable garden looked like after we finished planting. And this is what it looks like 2 weeks later. Not bad, right? Anyone wants some pakbet or sinigang?...

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