For many of us and and our loved ones, March has been punctuated by international conflicts and frightful world news. Thankfully, nature is respite. Despite humanity’s conflicts, this month, in our forests and gardens, nature continues to bring warm yellow sunrises, flowering fruit trees in the afternoon, and moonlit evenings. The gardens momentarily shield us from the chatter of work pressure and overwhelming world events. I’m grateful for the ever-flowing peace plants offer in times of grief, anxiety, and confusion. Even neuroscience studies confirm our brains relax when we gaze at grand tree canopies overhead, slowly walk barefoot through a garden, or breathe in sweet floral aromas.
In this article, I also share excerpts from the Serene Garden from my book,Inflourish: Cebu Garden Designs. I hope this inspires you to briefly escape your phone apps. March in the garden to mellow out. Spend a peaceful day in nature or go build your own version of the Serene Garden.
In the Serene Garden design below, you can lounge amongst raised beds filled with bountiful Citrus trees, flowering Kamuning, Orchids, and other gorgeous greenery. This design can be installed on a backyard deck, roof space or patio. Beyond the greenery, a small relaxing pond is adorned with horsetail reeds and gabi. This garden elegantly combines edible vegetation with living décor. Apart from lounging, you can harvest of seasonal Limes and Limonsito. Or pick a romantic bouquet of Saging-saging flowers, fern leaves, and Kamuning blossoms to brighten someone’s day.
Serene Garden design with detailed plant maps below.
How is the start of 2026 so far? I hope it’s been joyous and full of growth. I’m happy to return after taking a little pause from blogging. The past two months were full of rest, infrastructural rebuilding, and recovery from the 2025 storms and earthquakes.
In this month’s article, let’s take a fun tour of the multi-beneficial and ultra-resilient edible trees in Healing Present. Balimbing, Gumamela, Kamunggay, Mulberry, and Curry Leaf trees and shrubs produce tasty leaves through out the year. These evergreen trees and shrubs can produce low-growing limbs short enough for me to easily harvest their leaves. Plus, the readily available tree leaves are delicious substitutes when ordinary vegetables are unavailable, too expensive, or low-quality at the local market.
During the earthquakes, landslides, and typhoon, we temporarily lost road access to markets. Luckily, we could turn to our hardy, nutritious edible trees for an emergency food supply. Yes, we had emergency packaged snacks. Unfortunately, they are vitamin-deficient. They’re also consumed quickly when people are stressed, waiting for electricity, emergency services, or road access.
All of the these tree leafy treasures are somewhat mild in flavor and easily absorb a recipe’s sauces and spices. I usually steam, airfry, or boil them. Around the world, they are featured in stews, soups, seafood, roasted meat dishes, and even desserts. With or without a disaster, I love adding the yummy foliage to my meals. They are essential for flavor, fiber, and for my meal sequencing practice.
Everyday, I practice meal sequencing to stop any blood sugar spikes. Tree leaves and vegetables are my daily appetizer. Meal sequencing just means eating an all-vegetable appetizer, then munching on proteins and fats second, and then completing the meal with starchy foods, carbs, or desserts. So basically I’ve stopped eating starches like bread and rice at the beginning of my meals. If you’re interested in learning about meal sequencing, here are a few recent articles on the how it regulates blood sugar and natural hunger hormones: 1, 2, 3.
Conceptual layout of a seated area with potted shrubs and a lush garden border of edible trees and wild groundcovers.
Here I’ll focus on the delicious trees and shrubs at Healing Present that
produce fast-growing leaves,
form tall trees or low-growing shrubs for an easy harvest,
adapt to most soils
enhance wildlife and bird habitat, and
can resist floods and storm winds when planted properly.
Apart from the obvious nutrition and ecological functions, all the trees below are integral to ancient traditional medicine and present-day pharmaceutical research. They are truly beneficial for our health and environment.
Kamunggay(Moringa olifera)
Kamunggay is a versatile vegetable in soups like Utan Bisaya and other Filipino stews. The feathery leaves and flowers flavor my soups, juices, steamed dishes, sauces, and pestos. When I drank my first kamunggay smoothie, I learned the raw leaves become sweeter when blended. What a delight! Without blending, the taste remains mild or peppery.
Kamunggay leaves are widely used for water purification, beverages, savory meals, desserts, and packaged health snacks. If you’re unfamiliar with Kamunggay, use it like spinach. Outside of my kitchen, people in Latin America and other parts of Asia eat it raw or powdered. Different countries prefer to consume the leaf, flower, root, bark or the seed depending on the desired flavor and recipes.
Balimbing (Averrhoa carambola)
Balimbing leaves tend to live in the shadow of their popular golden yellow star-shaped fruit. I never underestimate the bright-green leaflets. They are thick, crisp leaves that flourish throughout the year at Healing Present. I also like to stir-fry them with garlic, ginger, spring onions and pepper. The leaflets can season steamed fish and roasted chicken dishes. And, of course, the fruit is enjoyed in desserts and drinks. Beyond my dinner plate, the leaves are commonly used in traditional medicine in Brazil, Malaysia and China.
Gumamela (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)
Gumamela leaves are one of my favorite leafy greens. In Healing Present, the tooth-edged, glossy leaves regularly grow to 10-inches in width. I prefer to chop them before adding them to a bit of boiling water. As you stir the leaves, a natural thickening gel appears. The gel is a natural version of adding corn starch to thicken soup or chop suey. I also consume the flowers for added color and texture. Marveled for their beauty and medicinal properties, Gumamela was also consumed in ancient African herbal treatments, Ayurvedic teas, and traditional Chinese medicine.
Curry leaf (Murraya koenigii)
In Healing Present, curry shrubs grow around the greenhouse, on our terraced gardens, and in our raised beds. Many of them multiply and grow without our initiative. Curry leaves are make delicious air fried vegetable chips. Add a spice mix, sauce, or oil when frying or roasting the curry leaf chips. I also add them to vegetable stews, lentil dishes, rice, and fish. Around Southern and Southeastern Asia, curry leaves are featured in raw or cooked recipes. Apart from their culinary roles, they are integrated in chronic illness treatments, religious ceremonies, and cultural traditions.
Mulberry (Morus spp.)
Mulberry leaves are appetizing greens for my daily soups and sauté vegetables. I also like to grill chicken or beef cuts wrapped in glossy mulberry leaves. You can add the young leaves to vegetable platters, sandwiches, stir fries, meat stews, and seafood dishes. While, older leaves can be air fried for chips and dried for teas. At the farm we enjoy a mix of red and black mulberry varieties.
In traditional Chinese medicine, the mulberry root, leaf, seed, and leaf are used to treat conditions.
So if you’re looking for multi-beneficial trees that easily adaptable and serve an emergency or year-round food reserve, consider growing these 5 tree/shrub species. Find nurseries that sell them as mature saplings so you don’t have to wait too long for your regular supply of life-giving leafy greens.
The severe storms in early November hit Healing Present buildings and forests with little damage. Thanks to the dense forests and gardens that surround the buildings, we had light property damage and staff remained safe. All the buildings and water systems were well-protected. Our fencing was partially damaged because bordering neighbors remove their trees or they don’t plant trees. When neighbors remove thick vegetation and mature 100+ year-old trees, they lose effective protection from lethal typhoon winds. They also lose massive roots and healthy soil that easily absorb floodwaters.
In Healing Present, we take additional measures for disaster prevention and disaster recovery. Here are some major safety moves we make in Healing Present:
1. Fortified forests.We take care of hectares of dense, continuous forest with giant bamboos and mature trees. These surround each building and naturally protect us from storms. We cultivate and plant young trees in bare areas around the gardens and forest fragments. We only have a minimal amount of cement paths and steps that cover the soil. We also strengthen our soil with groundcovers, shrubs, and amendments to improve its structure. The soil dependably absorbs heavy rains so floods are not common. Our dense, diverse forest slows down storm winds. A tropical storm can possess wind as fast as 80+ kilometers per hour. A typhoon destroys with winds up to 180+ kilometers per hour. With that colossal force, we want our multi-hectare forest of massive branches and trunks to block and break up that wind.
The night of November 4, I watched silhouettes of trees shake, resist, and slow the rapid gusts of typhoon winds blow through Healing Present. Our oldest trees like mga Dakit, Nangka, Talisay, Siar, Narra, and Tipo were our best defenders. Yes, the next morning, we found hundreds of thin tips of branches broken on the ground. But the trees–leaves, trunks, and main branches–remained whole. After seeing the damaged property fences, we hope to fortify our fencing and make it resistant to damage. But that can be quite difficult when our neighbors do not plant any wind breakers like trees. Still, we plan mature fast growing bamboos near the fences.If you are interested in preserving typhoon-fighting species or growing them in your community, here are some heavy hitters:
Acacia (Acacia mangium)
Agoho (Casuarina equisetifolia)
Baguilumbang (Reutealis trisperma)
Bani (Pongamia pinnata)
Bagtikan (Parashorea malaanonan)
Bignay (Antidesma bunius)
Bitaog (Calophyllum inophyllum)
Dagang (Anisoptera thurifera),
Kamagong (Diospyros blancoi)
Katmon (Dillenia philippinensis)
Lauan (Shorea malibato)
Narra (Pterocarpus indicus)
Pili (Canarium ovatum)
Our neighbors were not as lucky. They haven’t maintained any forests or tree orchards around their houses. They regularly cut down their trees for charcoal and building material. As a result, annually, their homes are directly hit by heavy rains and rapid winds. Their roofs fly off –all because they live in open fields and valleys with less vegetation.
2. Water and Food storage. At Healing Present, we also add protocols and structures when electricity, water, and food supplies temporarily stop during a severe storm or natural disaster. We installed rainwater tanks for an extra supply of water. Every building has an emergency kit with extra food, drinking water, and first aid medical supplies. We installed fire hoses and fire extinguishers incase a fire occurs during a severe lighting storm or electrical accident. Each building also a set of solar radios, emergency solar flashlights, and solar phone chargers, and walkie-talkies. The equipment allows us with maintain our safety, health, cellphone communication, and ability to address emergency repairs during a disaster. We plan to also add solar cookers and solar panels so if our main electricity lines fail, we still have power for communication, food, and drinking water.
In alarming contrast, the open streets and damaged river systems of Cebu City are highly defenseless from typhoons or storms. Urban residents are told to call emergency agencies but those have no centralized phone numbers. They haphazardly have five or more cellphone numbers that are often not working. Dangerously inadequate and inaccessible. Storm winds can become destructively faster as they blow through the open cement roads and hit weak buildings. During storms, heavy rains continue to fill roads with no substantial drainage piping or absorption. In effect, the roads become disgusting cement slides or pools filled with sewage water, floating cars, and pollution. If you want to play a sad game while you’re driving in Cebu, try to count the amount of clean drainage vents, holes, or sewers on the roads. You’ll quickly see the new road widening projects don’t include upgraded drainage. You’ll see skinny rectangular drainage openings blocked with garbage. Every year we have a rainy season with increasing storms and yet every year we don’t see improved storm drainage or street cleaning.
Here are other techniques that can help stop the yearly destruction of urban housing, electricity, water infrastructure, and lives:
Gardens and Vegetated parks. A continuous network Cebu City street gardens and roofs with gardens of grass, groundcovers, vines and containerized plants could capture rainwater and absorb heavy rains. More large parks with trees and groundcovers in Cebu City would increase rain absorption and decrease flooding. Other types of natural parks could restore or construct wetlands and mangroves that act as defensive buffers against heavy storms and typhoons. As many Cebuanos know, we pay a very polluted and destabilizing price for the highways, malls, houses, and casinos built over Cebu’s original wetlands and mangroves.
Vegetated ParksRoof Gardens
Places like IT park have a strong network of drainage channels and densely planted gardens properly control storm winds and rains. They divert and slow down the flow of stormwater in the their streets. In Cebu City, Healing Present has an office in Lahug. In the back of the office is an old pool converted into a sunken garden full of containerized plants. These plants have the power to absorb heavy rains. For more than ten years, this simple sunken garden has prevented any flood damage in our office building. Our neighbors with the standard cemented landscapes can’t say the same.
Pool converted into sunken garden with absorbent plants
Hopefully we can fight for long-standing, private and public storm disaster prevention and recovery measures at all scales– for our homes, workplaces, urban centers and rural uplands.
In Healing Present’s (HP) farm and reforestation projects, we install different kinds of rainwater harvesting systems to:
Reduce the use of scarce groundwater supplies
Store water for upcoming droughts and dry seasons
Save electricity
Save money
In Cebu, reducing our use of groundwater can help our surrounding watershed renew its freshwater supply. In some areas, groundwater can be too saline or have pollution. Rainwater supplies can help you avoid using saline or contaminated groundwater. In general, Cebu residents, land managers, renters, and homeowners need to put less stress on our watershed and groundwater supply. Cebuanos, in uplands and urban areas, have experienced droughts and extreme dry seasons. Urban residents and farmers in Cebu’s mountains have seen decades of seasonal water scarcity, diminishing groundwater recharge, water quality deterioration, cost-prohibitive water treatment services, and failing drainage infrastructure from city water distribution lines. Rainwater systems offer an option to gain some relief from those water supply issues.
In one of HP’s gardens, a simple stand alone rainwater collection barrel is connected to drip irrigation tubing and sprayers that waters a garden with native trees, gingers, cannas, and other shrubby vegetation.
In Healing Present sites, we use the rainwater to minimize our reliance on deep well groundwater. When we do this, groundwater can:
flow to major rivers,
support wetland ecosystems,
prevents land subsidence, and
strengthen our watershed.
With simple rainwater harvesting devices like rainwater barrels and underground storage water tanks, HP spends less money and electricity on city-sourced water, external water treatment services, and water pumping stations. In our farm and forest projects, we attach rain barrels and tall rainwater water collection towers to plant irrigation tubing, garden hoses, plant nursery washing stations, sinks, showers, and toilet tanks.
Faucets, hoses, and irrigation tubing are directly attached to the barrel.
Drip irrigation tubing directed to individual pots.
Little sprayers attached to irrigation tubing so water is directed to plants’ soil.
Households can attach small rain barrels, above-ground tanks, or large rainwater towers to a filtration system so we have an independent supply of drinking water. Plus any pump system or filtration component can be powered with solar panels to reduce your electricity costs.
HP Rainwater Tank Tower
Underground Rainwater Collection Tank
Here are the general installation guidelines for HP’s rainwater storage tanks or rain barrels:
We identify a location for the rainwater collection device. We make sure the device can receive an ample amount of rain. Sometimes we add a platform or position the collection tank above the area we want to irrigate. Or if the rainwater is coming from a roof, we may improve the rain gutters and add pipes to direct the water straight into the collection device.
We add irrigation tubing or mainline pipes depending on where the water needs to go. For example if the water is intended for a garden then we attach irrigation tubing, valves, and sprayers to the rainwater collection system. We always add a faucet or valve to control the flow of water from the tank or barrel. Rainwater tanks can be cylindrical, boxy, customized to fit underground, or be decorated to blend in with your landscape.
You can add screens and nets to reduce the mosquito population and leaves that can enter your rainwater collection device.
If your storage tank is located underground, you may need to add a pump to direct water towards a particular garden, pipe system, or building.
Make sure to add pipes or extra storage devices to divert or store the overflow of rainwater.
In HP, we depend on rainwater tanks and reservoirs to support our growing reforestation projects. Young trees, shrubs, and potted plants need water to survive and develop strong root systems. After these young trees develop into a thick canopy, they can increase rainfall, absorb floodwaters, reduce storm damage, and stabilize our future water supplies.
In the coming months, we have plans to improve our rainwater harvesting systems. We want install more underground reservoir tanks to store freshwater for future droughts. We also want to add more tanks to store rainwater overflow. We will most likely use cement tanks and custom made corrugated metal tanks to store more rainwater. This helps us efficiently harvest during rainy seasons.
I hope this inspires you to assess your household, farm, or, apartment for rainwater collection opportunities. See if you would like to supplement or improve your household water supply with a rainwater collection system. It can start with one humble rainwater barrel and progress to larger rainwater harvesting systems.
Ginger is commonly known as a popular spice in delicious dishes like Kinilaw and drinks like Salabat. But for gardeners, landscape designers, and tropical plant enthusiasts, gingers encompass diverse plants from botanical families like Zingiberaceae and Costaceae. Gingers and their relatives can be striking features in Cebu’s potted gardens and footpath borders. You can grow gingers in lush, dense groups along a path. Gingers can grow from 3 to 6 feet. Depending on how you prune them, the swaying stems and plump green leaves can shade walkways and soften garden edges.
Gingers’ foliage are bejeweled with stunning floral displays. Their multi-colored blossoms resemble painted pine cones, graceful orchids, butterfly wings, bromeliad spikes, and many more marvelous configurations. In the image below, you’ll see a gorgeous sample of native and naturalized ginger flowers found in Philippine’s forests and gardens.
The flowers above belong to: A) a spiral ginger called Insulin plant (Helliana speciosa); B) Adelmeria alpina; C) Vanoverberghia rubrobracteata; D) Etlingera fimbriobractea ; E) Alpinia haenkei ; F) Zingiber zerumbet; G) Adelmeria gigantifolia; and H) Turmeric (Curcuma longa).
Growing Gingers. Gingers can be planted from small pieces of their roots. These pieces or rhizome segments must have buds to successfully grow. In Healing Present, we usually plant them during the rainy season. You can start them in individual pots or raised beds. Once the seedlings have strong stems, you can transfer them to different parts of your garden. Some gardeners, without many pests, press the ginger pieces directly into the soil. The pieces are planted about 3 inches deep and at least 7 inches apart. I like to grow them in dense clumps so they make a bold visual impact when they grow taller. In general, gingers prefer Cebu’s humidity, partial shade and indirect light. For the best results, grow them in soil that drains well.
Below are different locations we planted ginger. Some gingers are in a shaded balcony or thriving under the canopy of a native cinnamon tree. Others are next to a garden wall that blocks direct sunlight. Other ginger relatives are in pots next to ponds. All these locations receive frequent rain or irrigation. They also block constant heat and direct sun exposure.
With pruning, gingers are pretty low-maintenance. Just remove any dead or damaged stems during they year. Those dead brown canes or stems make great additions to your compost. Here are a few more design tips to help you integrate an abundance of gingers in your garden:
A stairway in Healing Present’s farm lined with a variety of ginger relatives like insulin plants, turmeric, and ginger lilies. The parallel islands of ginger are complemented with ferns and Saging-saging (canna lilies). Complement your ginger islands with moisture-loving accents like ferns, lilies, and ornamental bananas.
Don’t add a thin line or skinny row of plants along your walkway. Add wide bands or clusters of gingers. With regular, moist conditions gingers can grow to 4 feet or more in width. So it won’t take long to grow a wealth of ginger. Wider groups of gingers add verdant impact and visual harmony.
Since gingers love partial shade, consider adding them to a shaded path. In Healing Present’s farm, we frequently decorate a path with a passionfruit pergola overhead. Then, we plant gingers on both sides of the the stepping stones.
Hope this inspires you to beautify your garden paths with some gorgeous ginger additions!
First image of ginger flowers courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Co’s Digital Flora of the Philippines.
