AVANT GARDENER Yvette Natalie Tan Food security has always been a serious issue for the Philippines, particularly because a nation that calls itself an agricultural country shouldn’t have citizens who go hungry. This was the case before the pandemic, and now it’s only gotten worse. The week has...
“If you want to be happy for a lifetime, be a gardener,” says Kenneth Joy Fuentes Gonzales, 43, an employee at the Municipal Planning and Development Office (MPDO) of Norala, South Cotabato. Aside from being employed, part of Gonzales’s daily routine is tending to her garden. ...
It is a beautiful thing when a career and a passion come together. It allows people to do what they love and eventually influence others’ lives for the better. Such is the case of Haydee Escobañez, 61, a retired elementary school teacher from Navotas City. When she retired, she began...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Natalie Tan Before humans had access to science’s ability to explain natural phenomena, they attributed everything they couldn’t understand to supernatural beings and rearranged their lives in such a way so as not to upset these powerful and invisible creatures. According...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Natalie Tan The Busa Mountain Range (BMR) straddles the provinces of Sarangani and South Cotabato in southern Mindanao. According to Kier Mitchel E. Pitogo, resident wildlife biologist and project development officer of the PASu AVPL, “it is one of the last remaining primary...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Natalie Tan Not all honey available in the market is pure. According to Wilfrido “Jonji” S. de Jesus Jr. of Two Bees Apiary in Iloilo City, so-called “fake” honey isn’t actually fake, but most probably either honey made by bees who have been fed sugar water...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan Agriculture is everywhere, even in films that have nothing to do with it. People went wild in 2019 when the end of Avengers Infinity War showed how big baddie Thanos, after making half the world’s population disappear with the literal snap of his fingers, didn’t gloat...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Natalie Tan I was in a meeting where someone joked that I have the ability to link anything to agriculture. I replied that this is because ultimately, everything that has to do with human civilization was made possible through farming. Agriculture isn’t just about planting...
The demands of life can sometimes be overwhelming. This is why Lucelitte “Celet” Retalla Galvez, an entrepreneur who runs a feed business in Surigao City, relieves stress by growing plants. Galvez, who also works as a part-time financial advisor, is a longtime plant hobbyist who eventually used...
Gardeners around the world have different methods of growing plants. Gardeners vary depending on their purpose, goals, and the approaches that they use. Here are some types of gardeners that you may find similar to yourself: Newbie. Novice gardeners who have zero to limited knowledge in...
Before the rise of modern medicine, people used traditional medicine to treat common ailments or administer first-aid. Plants are among the widely used ingredients in such treatments. In the Philippines, there are a plethora of medicinal plants that can even grow in one’s backyard for their...
Some things developed in childhood never change. For Dr. Julius Ignatius Barreto Uy, 54, a dentist, passion for plants is something that has always been with him despite taking a different career that’s a bit far from what he originally wanted. Uy shares this passion with his Mom since he...
