There’s a unique sense of fulfillment when you’re able to eat food you’ve grown yourself. Not only are you able to save money on groceries, but you’re also able to serve your family fresher and healthier food.
Forty-six-year-old Abdulgafur Umlah is a police officer stationed in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig. When the Covid-19 pandemic forced the country into lockdown, Umlah, a single father of two, took it upon himself to start growing his family’s own food.
As a father of two, Umlah makes sure to provide fresh and healthy food for his family. (Abdulgafur Umlah)
Umlah’s urban gardening journey had begun from finding something to do during the lockdown. “During the pandemic, of course we didn’t have much to do during the lockdown. We couldn’t really leave the house,” Umlah said in Tagalog. “So I thought, so that I had something to do to [handle my] anxiety, to start planting.”
Umlah started transforming the 35 square meter rooftop of his home in Taguig into a space where he could garden. He didn’t have any prior knowledge about farming or gardening, so he had to learn how to start from social media communities.
It wasn’t easy for Umlah. “When it comes to urban or rooftop gardening, there really are challenges,” he said. “At first, my plants would live but wouldn’t bear fruit. Then there would be plants that would just die.”
Despite the failures, Umlah didn’t lose heart. He continued to research online for tutorials and tips to keep his plants alive and healthy, and fortunately, his efforts paid off.
In the beginning, he just wanted to find something new to do, but now Umlah’s rooftop garden is flourishing with different vegetables and crops.
A healthy addiction
Umlah grows ampalaya, cabbages, carrots, labanos, mustasa, pechay, and other vegetables in his garden. “Everything needed for chopsuey and pakbet is here,” he said with a smile.
Most of the crops Umlah grows are vegetables, such as ampalaya. (Abdulgafur Umlah)
For Umlah, gardening has become an addiction, a healthy one at that. His day starts at four in the morning as he does his fatherly duties and gets his kids ready. An hour later, Umlah is up on his rooftop monitoring and tending to his plants before leaving for work. At night, Umlah can be found again in his garden watering the plants. “I really prioritize my garden,” he said.
As there isn’t a lot of soil on his rooftop, Umlah took old plastic bottles and buckets and upcycled them to become pots for his crops. Waste from the kitchen is directly used as compost, and fortunately, he doesn’t have any pest problems, it isn’t necessary for him to use pest control.
Umlah upcycled old bottles and buckets to use as pots for his garden. (Abdulgafur Umlah)
Umlah grows just enough for his family. “[In} the meantime, [my vegetables] are for home consumption. Here at home, when we need anything, we can just take and cook it,” he said. “From garden to kitchen, from kitchen to table.”
“It’s delicious to eat what you grow yourself,” he adds.
Growing their food has not only made Umlah realize the convenience, but also its importance for every family.
He recalls the recent situation in which the price of food, onions in particular, were ridiculously inflated and had become hard to find and “If every family started planting in their homes, we would have no problem with [finding] vegetables,” he said.
Mamang Pulis Garden
In order to spread the importance of home gardening, Umlah created a Facebook page named Mamang Pulis Garden's Umlah.
Like many others, Umlah uses his page to document his journey as an urban vegetable grower, but he also hopes to motivate others to take the same path.
Despite its small space, Umlah was able to turn his rooftop into a suitable space for gardening. (Abdulgafur Umlah)
“I share my plants and crops [online] so they can see and say, “Hey, it’s Mamang Pulis. He already has a source of income to buy vegetables instead, but why is he planting? What for? Why is he making this effort? He can buy it instead, but why is he growing it?” That’s what I hope to answer through my posts,” said Umlah.
There are plenty of farming and gardening communities online with hundreds of thousands of members, but compared to the total population of the Philippines, it could be said only a small percent of the population are growing their own food.
Gardening can be learned. From knowing next to nothing about urban gardening, Umlah has become a social media figure that gives his audience helpful gardening tips.
Umlah also had his fair share of failures, but he believes that those failures are the key to his growing (pun intended) success.
“There are no problems with no solutions,” he said. “My motto in gardening is to study your plan, know your plan, stick close to your plan. Plans will not fail you.”
He mentions the abundance of online resources and the importance in giving effort to study them, just as he did when he first started. “[Research] is what you should do. But it’s not that you just put a plant in the soil and let it be. It requires love and care.”
Calamansi plants that Umlah grows. (Abdulgafur Umlah)
It’s apparent Umlah takes food security seriously. As a single father, he has made it his mission to become a provider for all of his home’s needs, and that includes the fresh food they eat. “I just want to show our fellow Filipinos that every family, every home must learn to plant,” he said. “It truly is my advocacy.”
Being a police officer is a noble, but high-stress, job, and being a gardener has brought a good balance to Umlah’s life. “The garden is my comfort zone,” he said. “It’s my stress-reliever. When I think of my problems, it’s like it goes away as I tend to the garden.”
“It brings me happiness, and this is my investment,” he continues. “This [garden] is my investment in life, and it’s my life’s greatest achievement.”
Photos courtesy of Abdulgafur Umlah