Hi, I am a newbie here, not only on the site, but a relative newbie to gardening. Back in the early 70's I had a 5 gallon bucket with a tomato plant, when I lived outside Atlanta GA. The one and only attempt while I lived there 15 years. I traveled for work, across the world (lucky, huh?) for some 20 plus years, so not only couldn't have a garden, I also couldn't have animals. I left the career in 2003, returned to the US and settled in Tucson AZ, having never lived there, and only visited for 3 hours some years before. I decided to plant a garden, after more than 30 years of not attempting my tomato adventure (by the way, it was successful beyond comprehension). I had read somewhere that earthworms like coffee and tea grounds. I managed to get the local Starbucks to give me quite a lot of that, and, within 6 months of starting my garden in the desert sand (against advise of my long-term neighbors) I had vegetables. Surprised me as much as them.
I did come from a farming family, but the last land owning folks died long before me. My grandmother taught me which flowers I had pulled out of her garden instead of weeds.
I moved to The Philippines in late 2008. In late 2009 I moved to another village, and have resided there since. I ended up marrying after more than 20 years of being single (was married more than 20 years). Her father was born on the other side of a ridge, in a valley between 2 ridges. The mountains reach beyond that second ridge. We visited the valley in December 0f 2009, and I was intrigued by the 1st ridge above the valley. I was told that her father had been up there, but to his knowledge no one had ever done anything as it was jungle, and was inhabited by lots of wok woks (spirits). Her mother had been up there once, when she was 17. She was then 67.
Being naturally stubborn, I came back a few days later and kept looking up at that ridge. I took my bolo (machete) and started to chop my way up the hill. I had never used a bolo before. About 6 days later, I was half way up the hill. I was getting discouraged, and sat down in a small clearing to rethink. My wife joined me and just before I started to tell her I was giving up, through a rather large space in the trees, I saw 8 teenagers walking across the opposite ridge, at the river level. No one saw me until the last one, and I could clearly hear him, although he was at least 200 feet away. He called out to the others saying "Long nose in the mountain." They all came back to see the sight. Long noses, as we are known here, do not work in the jungle, in fact, long noses may drive through the jungle in their luxury cars, but they do not get out of their cars. As there was no road here, I had no choice. That visitation changed my mind, and within a day (although I had spent 6 days chopping, and only got half-way) I was at the top. I called my wife, so she could be the first of her siblings (6 others) to touch the land.
I then spent a year clearing the jungle on the ridge. Except for 2 months. I had hired a chainsaw man to drop a couple dead trees, and remove an offending branch from a neighbor's tree (no one lives there, in fact no one lives on the entire ridge - I asked for permission to remove the branch, no one in his living memory had been up on his property). The helper climbed up the tree with his bolo and, standing on the limb we wanted to remove, he chopped down the rest of the tree. His chopping, with apparently no experience, dropped straight down, with the branches knocking him out, and fortunately the vines in kept him from dropping the remaining 20 feet. His boss and I manhandled him down (he was unconscious) and during that time my wife called on her cell phone for help. Four neighbors arrived, and taking my hammock, they carried him down to the ambulance, which arrived 15 minutes later. It takes me 20 minutes to climb up the ridge from the nearest road, and 12 minutes to walk down. The ambulance took him to the nearest town with a hospital, but they could not help him as they don't stock medicines (if you need help you need to go to the pharmacy first, then go to the hospital, but, the pharmacy did not handle the pain killers). The ambulance then went another 2 hours to the nearest (and only) city. He had broken his jaw. A week later, a quack doctor (yes, they call them that here - the only teachings they have received is most likely from a family member, there is no such thing as college or university training for these types of doctors) arrived and went up the ridge to see the tree this fellow had been working on. He determined that the 'Big Man' lived in that tree, and that the area showed the presence of the 'White Lady', which explains the absence of visitors to the ridge. He collected leaves, bark, twigs and some dirt, and left. Later that night, at closing time at the hospital, he visited the patient. The patient's jaw was healing nicely, he had no other injuries, and was waiting only for the swelling to go down before a metal piece would be inserted in his jaw. The quack doctor did what he had to do, burning and chanting, then left. One hour later the patient died.
My wife would not allow me on the ridge for 2 months. I finally stomped my foot and went up, and proceeded (cautiously) to chop that tree down as the entire village was now frightened. I took my time, almost 2 weeks (I was a bit frightened, not of wok woks but of the tree falling on me - Paul Bunyon I ain't) and finally the tree was down.
To make a long story short, I had no visitors (including my wife) for the next 6 months. After my wife ventured up, it took another 4 months before the first visitor showed up. It was an old friend of her father's, and that fellow had never been up there, it was always too much jungle, he wouldn't go. He asked my wife who cleared the land, she said it was me. He said, no really, who did it. After a couple times, she said we hired a local for one day to help (which we didn't), then he was satisfied.
That was the first year. We started the second year by ordering all kinds of seeds from America. We had no idea what would work. The land was not flat like farms back home in Wisconsin, in fact, there was no flat land. I took a hint from the rice fields and developed terraces that are roughly 4 feet wide and a path on each that was 1 foot wide, and blocked the dirt above each terrace using wood from saplings I had removed. The total area I worked on is roughly 100 feet wide by 200 feet long. The earth had never been tilled, only forest/jungle material for several thousand years. At one point the ridge had been part of the second ridge, which had been part of the mountains. Whether it was earthquakes (some 20 per day in the Philippines - most are quite small, virtually no feeling at all if any) or the sea backing off is a matter of speculation by the natives, as it appears no one has done the studies. I was amazed to see the blackest dirt I have ever seen, and while my original intent was to picnic there on the odd Sunday, I changed my mind. Under the black dirt (from 6 inches to 3 feet) is coral. Under the coral, about another 3 to 5 feet, is rock. I would guess that the ridge is about 300 feet above sea level.
I have a beautiful ocean view to the east, and in all other directions I have mountains soaring above me, so much so that if you are susceptible to vertigo, it will happen. Last month I dug a hole in the valley between the ridges, and 5 feet down I hit water. Our land (which includes another 4500 square meters) is about 1km from the nearest road. There is no electricity. I have right-a-way agreements from all land owners, but I am actively pursuing the purchase of other lands. I have already an agreement to purchase 7500 square meters and a further 5000 square meters I have an agreement for a 25 year lease. The driveway will begin construction in the next 2 months.
I said I was a newbie, and I am. I am a member of another site, not at all connected with this one, and one of your members on that site suggested I check you folks out. Lolly is her name, and I thank her immensely for the tip. I can see already that it will take me months to go through everything that has been posted so far, and it may take me years to digest the information before I can take advantage of it.
For those who might be interested, other than a couple dogs, and eventually some cats, we will not have animals on the main properties, and whether or not on the extremities, still has to be decided. We presently grow beefsteak tomatoes (but the size of cherry tomatoes), okra, cucumbers, peanuts, mungos (a native bean) and we have 160 lacatan bananas (a slightly smaller banana when compared to a Chiquita, but a much sweeter banana, and the most popular one on this island - there are some 200 varieties). I planted 90 bananas March 1 last year, and already have harvested quite a few, but have increased our count, and have another, roughly, 80 sprouts to transplant. Corn went in yesterday, and we have some native vegetables growing as well.
Once I get to figure out the postings here that explain how to load a photo, I will do so (I will try not to be the proverbial photo bore, but, I cannot promise that).
Lon