This past August and most of September, we experienced a terrible heatwave and extended drought. Fortunately, the rains have returned. The recent drought reminds us of Cebu’s vulnerable, declining groundwater reserves. Excessive groundwater extraction, river pollution, and intensive irrigation historically threaten our water supply. Additionally, the continued construction of impervious surfaces worsens our groundwater crisis. Pouring cement over every urban surface stops rain from naturally seeping into our soils and refilling groundwater.
During August, Healing Present’s forest shrubs and gardens suffered from dehydration. Luckily, our long-standing water conservation methods delayed plant root death and irreversible dehydration. Our water reserves helped plants recover. Water conservation also maintains supplies for daily cooking, bathroom, and property maintenance. Our water-saving and storage methods include aboveground rainwater tanks, retention ponds, mulching, and groundcover. We plan to add percolation pits, recharge ponds, and drought-resistant groundcover.
Below are some of the main features of our water management techniques. Perhaps you want to protect your land, family, or community from seasonal water shortages. This may inspire you to integrate methods that maximize rainwater storage and groundwater recharge during wet/typhoon seasons.
Groundcover & Vegetation
Groundcovers are low-growing plants that can spread quickly and cover bare soil. Vegetation like shrubs and trees soften the impact of heavy rainfall and replenish natural water reserves. As their leaves and root networks increase, they hold soil together. Groundcover and vegetation help soil absorb stormwater and refill groundwater. During torrential downpours, that means less water erosion and no landslides. Groundcover can also keep the soil moist. This essential reservoir of moisture helps plant roots survive droughts and recover when rain returns. Here are some examples of groundcover we install in our gardens and forest pockets:
Common native groundcover species in the Philippines.
Retention and Recharge Ponds
Retention ponds collect rainwater throughout the year. They are typically constructed with a cement or plastic pond liner. The liner blocks water from flowing into the soil. If our aboveground rainwater tank supply or groundwater levels were low, we could pump water from these ponds for activities like plant irrigation. In contrast, recharge ponds do not have a liner. They are seasonal dug-out ponds that store stormwater during the wet season. In Healing Present, these ponds can feed forest roots, springs in underground caverns, and groundwater. Inspired by water management in South Asia, recharge ponds are built in sloping or low-lying areas. Like the groundcover technique, they protect us from unstable soils and landslide damage. The ponds are surrounded by groundcover, shrubs, and trees to increase rainwater absorption. Combing techniques ensure rainwater is not wasted, flowing off the property and causing flood damage. Below is an example of a standard recharge pond:
This Recharge Pond is circular with a diameter of 3 meters and a depth of 1 meter. The pond walls should be no more than 45-degree angles to prevent collapse. You can add native aquatic plants inside the pond to increase rainwater aeration and filtration. Aquatic plant species include Typha spp., Nelumbo spp., and Cyperus spp.
Percolation Pits
Percolation pits are special rainwater drainage basins. They filter surface runoff and stormwater before it refills groundwater. Percolation pits are built in areas with high rainfall absorption and permeable soil. You can install percolation pits next to buildings so they receive water from roof gutters and rainwater drainage pipes. Or you can place them in the middle of gardens and forests on sloping areas with high rainfall. Percolation pits should be built in soils with high water infiltration and percolation rates. Simple soil tests determine if rain would easily travel through the percolation pit layers, into surrounding soil, and towards groundwater. Below is a diagram of a percolation pit:
The percolation pit can have layers of sand, stone, and rocks to filter rain before it reaches the groundwater.
I hope this inspires you to find stormwater solutions and water-saving methods. Positive changes can preserve water supplies and divert pressure off our finite groundwater reserves.
In previous articles like, Forests Upwards & Outwards and November Blessings & Lessons, I introduced Healing Present’s reforestation projects. I emphasize the need for habitat restoration and native species revegetation. In this article, I’ll describe some of our reforestation planting methods and offer strategies you can try in your personal or community planting activities.
The forest pockets we privately developed in Healing Present are part of a wider public watershed forest system in Balamban. Although these pockets are less complex, fragmented remnants of the precolonial and prehistoric forests of upland Cebu, we still reap tremendous environmental benefits. Even in simpler forest patches, plants give us:
clean air
critical freshwater supplies
stable soils that reduce landslides
flood mitigation
The re-forested areas can never be complete replicates of its healthy precolonial or prehistoric state. They are still a healthy improvement from the damage suffered from the 1970s through to the 1990s. From the 70s through to the 90s, Balamban was deforested for lumber, excessively burnt for agricultural production, and mountains were exploded to construct roads. In the 90s, the property where Healing Present site resides was cut for lumber, burnt and depleted by corn plots and charcoal harvests. There were small disconnected clumps of trees dominated by local palm species like lubi-lubi. The plant diversity was incredibly low. However, in the early 2000s, after the land was purchased by Healing Present, the staff and founder fenced off the land. They allowed the land to rest. They stopped excessive agricultural extraction, returned nutrients to the soil, and started planting native vegetation.
Lower layers of forest patches after multiple years of tree and shrub enrichment planting. (Photo: K. Cea)
In the mid 2000s, the tree planting strategies became more refined and more effective. More area was covered in multiple species of native trees, shrubs, and beneficial groundcovers. Till now, these plants were maturing, reproducing and remain undisturbed. They are not chopped down or harvested. Tree and shrub species diversity was growing into the 100s. More varieties of birds, bats, lizards, and other reptiles were visiting our maturing forest communities. Our freshwater supply is more stable and the expansive network of plant roots shield us from massive erosion, landslides, and unmanageable flooding. Nothing like powerful forest roots, leaves, and soil to absorb the impact of natural disasters.
So how do we maintain our forest pockets and what technique can you adopt? How do we determine which techniques are most appropriate for the site’s limitations and qualities. Some of our more refined reforestation and revegetation methods included adapted versions of:
Medium Diversity Planting
Tree Island Planting
Successional Agroforestry
Enrichment Planting
Seedball Planting
Mature reforestation native trees and edible fruit trees in growing agroforest (Photo: K. Cea)
Medium Diversity Planting. Before we start to plant trees, vines, shrubs, and groundcovers, we built, fortified and regularly repaired property fences. We additionally monitor the fences regularly. In our sites, fences eliminate damage from trespassing, vandalism, and fire hazards. Sometimes barangay environmental officials would help us enforce trespassing laws and anti-trash or agricultural burning practices (pagdaob ug kaingin) near our sites. We made sure neighbors respected the property line because, prior to Healing Present ownership, people regularly walked and harvested through the sites without permission. Early in our reforestation efforts we implemented a version of medium diversity plantation. We planted large saplings and small nursery seedlings of shrubs and trees.
Depending on the reforestation sites in Healing Present, we would plant 15 to 30 fast-growing tree species. Before we planted, we chose sites that had seed-dispersing animals like birds and bats. We made sure there were a few groups of mature palms or native shrubs and source of water. These conditions indicated our tree plantings would have higher chance of survival. Resident birds and bats also increase the ability for trees to naturally expand and form a forest structure. Some sites had a higher potential of regeneration because they were close to older intact forest patches. From the start of the reforestation until now, the sites are monitored. In the beginning project phases, we made sure they were well-watered, increasing in height, and producing wildlings. If they were slow to grow or the saplings died in drought periods, we would use enrichment planting or seedball planting to fill in open areas of the site. By 2018, many of these sites developed mature tree canopies, wildlings, seeds, fruits, and habitat for local wildlife. In future plantings’ we’ll add slower growing native and more native shade-tolerant species. Thankfully, these forest remnants continue to protect Healing Present residents from high winds and floodwaters during typhoon seasons.
Here’s a sample design and planting timeline showcasing the Medium Diversity Planting that may inspire your new planting project:
15m x 15m tree island with a mix of Shorea species, Acacias, and locally native Parkia and fig species
Before planting, the planting site is fenced and free of all fire hazards. As illustrated below, multiple 15 meter by 15 meter tree islands planted in a 75 meter by 75 meter site. By the first project year, 30% of the site is planted. Then, by the fifth year, 75% of the parcel is planted. Eventually the gaps between the islands of vegetation may fill up with plants from fallen tree seeds and seed disperser animals like birds. Choose at least thirty-five species of trees. They can include: Shorea species, Acacias, Casuarina species, Alstonia species, and Parkia species, locally native to Balamban are planted throughout the tree islands. Saplings are high quality and at least 1m tall and seedballs for native shrubs. Other species are fast-growing Legume trees that are tolerant of harsh sun and open sites, and variable soil.
Bird’s eye view of possible tree island planting arrangement
Seedballs. Seedballs are a planting technique to fill in open sites or in gaps between sites with mature trees. Seedballs are small dry balls composed of soil, compost and seeds. They are distributed throughout an open area and germinate when the seeds are ready. In Healing Present, we throw the dried seedballs in open areas that need revegetation. Sometimes the seedballs have shade-tolerant plant seeds so they are thrown in forest gaps that need a thicker understory. Most of our seeds are collected from local forests, our own property, or from fruits or pods from friends in Cebu. We usually throw the seedballs during the rainy season or when the site soil has moisture. Worldwide, seedballs are either hand-thrown, lowered by drones, or dropped from helicopters to planting project sites.
Here is a recipe we use for seedballs.Other projects throughout Africa and Asia use a variation of this recipe.
Seedball, Baking Tray, and Silica Gel Packs
Seedball Recipe
Materials ◉10 cups of native soil ◉5 cups of compost (e.g., vermicompost, leaf mulch or kitchen waste compost) ◉2 cups rain water ◉Plastic tub ◉Baking cooling tray with mesh holes
◉Optional: Silica gel packs and Large mesh net bag
Mix the soil and compost in the plastic tub. Add water to the mix. Form 3 to 7cm wide balls, depending on the size of the seed. Gently push the seed into the middle of the sphere. Sometimes we put 3 or more seeds if you want to increase the chance of seed germination. Close the ball so the seed is not exposed. Place the balls on a cooling tray with mesh holes.
Dry them for 2 hours or 24 hours, depending on the moisture of the balls. We dry them in indirect light with a fan or well-ventilated area. We don’t dry them in direct sunlight. We’re in a humid climate so I add silica gel packs around the seedballs to hasten the drying process. We put the tray of balls in a large mesh bag so they are protected from any insects who might disturb the seedballs.
When they are completely dry, distribute the balls. Throw them or drop them onto a planting site. No need to water or bury them. If you don’t want to use them right away, store them in a dry, cool, and dark place.
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Successional Agroforestry.Some reforestation plots in Healing Present have a mix of forest species we don’t touch and crop species we harvest. These plots are densely planted with 20 to 30 native species. The agroforest has native trees interplanted with perennial crop species like passionfruit vine, dragonfruit, legume groundcovers, leafy vegetables, fruit trees, and/or nut trees. In the mid 2000s, we phased out the edible perennial crops in a few of the agroforest sites. We planted container beds close to the staff houses instead. Currently there are still 2 main agroforest sites with a a combination of forest species we do not disturb and jackfruit, cacao, and coconut we occasionally harvest.
Here is a sample design for Successional Agroforestry:
This sample agroforest features varying plant heights, native species diversity, and moderate crop productivity. The native trees can be fast-growing legumes and native fig tree species. They are intercropped with moringa, jackfruit, and coconut. The crop shrubs could be varieties of hibiscus, taro, ginger, and leafy vegetables. After 5 years, the crops will no longer be grown in the agroforest. As a result, non-edible native trees, shrubs, and vines will dominate the area.
Lessons Learned. Through all our reforestation challenges, here are some lessons you might find useful in your personal or community planting.
Learn to Adapt. More often than not, a tree planting project will lack the propagation material in the commercial nursery. Sometimes the species you intended to plant are not easily found in your local nurseries. Sometimes the stock you do find is low quality. Often, you might use fewer species than planted or using different species than planned. So be patient. Adapt your techniques and keep persisting. If the first two years of a project require species substitutions, make sure the substitutions can survive in your site and that they won’t become invasive. Or set up planting trials. Or grow them by seed and wait for them to develop in the nursery. Keep researching and interviewing local experts so you go back to the site and enrich it with the proper selection and variety of plants. Don’t abandon it and aim for your project targets.
Secure the fence line. Please note the property relationships with neighbors may be different when you have a public reforestation project. I write from the perspective of private reforestation project management. I don’t live in a utopia where people don’t trespass and steal resources. Fences are necessary to protect your forest project. Congratulations to you if your project is respected and nobody vandalizes it. In the 3 continents I’ve initiated reforestation and gardening efforts, fences were necessary. They reduce neighbors using your water supply for their laundry washing. They stopped neighbors from illegally dumping agricultural chemicals on Healing Present’s sites. Fences keep forest stock and tools in tact. They reduce threats like human-initiated burning, plant damage, and plant extraction. In addition to fences, you may need regular security such as cameras, drones, flood lights, and/or employed guards to monitor and ensure people don’t trespass and damage the forest project. Regularly assess the feasibility of your project during ongoing threats. If you face ongoing property damage or trespassing, after you’ve built fences and asked local enforcement for assistance, you may need to concede. If you have the resources you can continue to replace damaged property and fight the ongoing disturbances. Or you may want to find another site for your reforestation project.
Project Monitoring. Monitoring and post-planting management ensure plant survival and natural forest regeneration. Your site may require monthly or yearly reviews of tree height, shrub diversity, tree diversity, rate survival, and reproduction of wildlings. Depending on the species and the developing forest structure, pruning, fertilizing, mulching and fence surveillance may be necessary. If your project goal is to ensure wildlife benefits from the forest, you may want to monitor the amount of wildlife individuals, the species richness, species diversity, and their behavior. You may need to regularly patrol property and perform yearly assessments of threats around your property. This requires you and and a team investigate any new sources of pollution, fire hazards, or natural disasters that are compromising the integrity of your project. Remember fire hazards can include neighbors burning trash, faulty electrical lines, and local arsonists.
From decades of using these techniques we have successfully planted healthy forest pockets. Currently, we are designing more reforestation projects with more tree-lined living fences, windbreaks, and diverse agroforest systems. We are also preparing for a Bat Corridor Enrichment planting project. I’ll describe more of these plants and designs later in the year. So keep reading to learn more. Visit previous articles or watch out for my upcoming book for specific species, technical drawings, and conceptual designs.
In previous articles like Lola’s Bam-i Garden and Binignit Garden, I showed gardens that grow ingredients from a favorite family recipe or beloved holiday delicacy. Yes, the gardens were a convenient supply of useful herbs, spices and vegetables. There were also window into your personal history and culture. These same recipe gardens can transform into meaningful food heritage gardens in schools and communities. They can become outdoor classrooms or community gathering spaces. You can grow plants that represent monumental events from culture and food history.
Since plants are the basis of our life, history, and culture, garden can house a collection of edible ingredients, building materials, textiles, medicines, fuels, technologies, and more. In the a backyard, a school site, or community venue, people can showcase plants’ ancient functions and enduring roles. Through themed tours, oral history projects, student group activities, speaker presentations, or well-researched plant placards. Together, communities can use these heritage gardens to protect cultural traditions and foster curiosity about our environmental and cultural histories.
A well-designed history garden can transport you. Here are some possible activities to bring history lessons and collective memories to life:
Harvest garden ingredients and prepare cuisine such as local SuTuKil dishes with your community or students. During the meal, students can highlight how contemporary vinegar recipes, fermentation methods, and grilling techniques come from centuries-old Indigenous culinary preservation techniques.
During the holidays or the Christmas season, organize historical reenactments, community dances, singing events, community history tours in the garden. Tours will spotlight plants’ significant roles in the past.
Make garden murals and garden sculptures to illustrate significant people and events relevant to your socio-historical themes.
Share stories relevant about a particular history topic while gardening. Invite community members, relevant experts, elders, and grandparents.
Create art, baskets, sculptures, and handicrafts with the gardens’ plants. Add art demos or workshops by local artists (e.g., carpenters, payag builders, banig weavers, and bamboo furniture makers).
In the Philippines, families, educators, community gardeners, tour guides, and food historians, can pass down a plethora of food-related histories. The vast diversity of regional cooking styles, barangay-specific recipes, holiday feasts, precolonial food traditions, and eras of botanical trade and global culinary exchanges offer a deep well of knowledge and history from which to draw. Below is a sample garden design:
This history garden features raised beds and a pond with native and naturalized plants with surrounding vegetation clusters. Each plant can represent historic Indigenous food traditions and ancient maritime trade networks. Students, teachers, and neighbors can illustrate historical plant connections through community events and educational activities.
Remember, the Philippines is over 7,100 islands with a multitude of cultural groups and ethnicities. From this we can learn and honor a rich, layered tapestry of food histories. Here are just 2 historical themes and plant combinations to inspire you.
Precolonial Visayas: Learn about from precolonial Visayas represents ancient food traditions we still practice today. Research the fascinating maritime trade routes that shaped the civilizations of the Visayas and the neighboring Southeast Asian islands. Students or communities can also use this garden to research precolonial communal planting methods and their ancestors’ adaptability to environmental conditions. Plants connected to these historical events are kamunggay, alugbati, gabi, sibuyas, banana, coconut, rice, and native herbs. You can choose to focus on popular ingredients from one of the several Precolonial Visayan islands.
Manila–Acapulco Galleon Trade Route: Explore the intercontinental trade route between Philippines to Mexico that spanned the 1500s through to the 1800s. Discover the tumultuous history that transformed both Mexico’s and Philippines’ culinary traditions, buildings, clothes, economies, customs and laws. Learn about the ships composed of precious Philippine hardwoods that made these colossal journeys possible. In this garden, you can grow commonplace vegetables in the Philippines originally from Mexico. Some examples are mani, sayote, kamote, kamatis, cacao, abukado, atsuwete, and pinya. Or you can grow plants traded from the Philippines like rice, coconut, tamarind, and mango. You can also include Ylang-Ylang, mulberry, cinnamon, and ginger to represent the Asian perfumes, silks, and other luxury goods transported through this fascinating trade route.
I hope this inspires you to grow your personal heritage garden or support garden-based history projects in your community or school.
The plant map above exhibits ingredients that represent prized precolonial trade commodities and precolonial food traditions. Below are photos of vines, fruit trees, shrubs, and groundcovers from the design.
Worldwide, climate scientists and urban planners know green landscapes make a city ecologically resilient. Urban forest pockets, vegetated parks, and a citywide network of greenspaces protect metropolitan residents, land, soil, air and water. Tropical cities integrated with significant swathes of greenery can:
provideresidents with recreational and relaxing community spaces
cool down and regulate high city temperatures
absorb stormwater and mitigate flood damage
improving air and soil quality
act as a sound buffer against urban noise pollution
Enveloped by Cebu’s urban air and land pollution, inadequate stormwater management, and seasonal flooding, how can individuals receive the life-saving benefits of citywide greenery? How can we expand ecological resilience and protect our fragile island? One method involves building multiple dense residential gardens. Imagine if every apartment complex, gated community, parking garage, and mall in Cebu City grew decorative islands of container gardens at least 4 meters wide. Or imagine if those structures had vertical gardens on at least 2 exterior walls. The collective impact of urban gardens would increase our environmental benefits and eco-resilience.
The photo below may look like a forest of trees and shrubs planted in rural property. But it isn’t. This is a collection of container plants in an urban residential property that grew over 10 years. Never underestimate the power of humble houseplants. This garden no special fertilizer or complicated pruning schedule. The container plants are simply watered 2-3 times a week, grow well in Cebu City’s weather, and withstand the urban air pollution. Below I’ll share how this container garden contribute to the urban network of greenspaces. Hopefully, you, your family, and friends are inspired to build more densely planted urban forest pockets and wildlife gardens.
Whether you’re a homeowner, apartment dweller, or as part of a barangay community project, determine how you can build an eco-resilient urban landscape.
Re-Define your space and Re-Prioritize. The property below used to have a regular in-ground pool. The pool was enclosed by bare cement walls. The homeowners decided to convert the pool and build a garden for a few reasons. Nobody really used the pool. The pool required liters of chemicals and tedious labor to keep it clean and chlorinated. Also, the pool area was hot, lacked shade, and often flooded during the rainy season.
As a solution, I proposed they convert the pool into a sunken garden of container plants. It could be a calming venue rather than a waste of valuable growing space. I designed a series of connected, naturalistic container gardens. We chose fast-growing trees, shrubs, and groundcovers that flourish in containers. The pool was drained of its chlorinated water. Raised beds and container gardens were installed inside the empty pool and along the cement walls. Vines were trellised above the pool and vertical container gardens were attached to poles and tree trunks.
Over ten years later, the plants thrive and perform essential environmental functions. They absorb heavy rains and stormwater. The area never floods. Residents, visitors, and local wildlife frequently rest in the garden’s shade and cooler temperature. Year-round, the air temperature is much lower than roads and houses outside the property’s perimeter.
In your space, assess your site and its capacity to hold container gardens. If possible, explore if any space can be converted to display raised beds or groups of container gardens. Be Open to the eco-resilient benefits you can receive. Cleaner Air, Cooler Temperatures, Relaxation, and Less Stormwater Damage awaits you.
Steps lead to a converted pool full of lush raised beds and groups of containerized ornamental and native plants.
Containers can range from fishnet raised beds, recycled containers, ceramic and plastic pots, hanging coconut shell planters, and other container types available in your area.
Explore vertical spaces in your urban site. Vines and climbing plants are incredibly valuable and prolific growers in our urban tropical climate. As the vines mature, they absorb pollution, increase privacy, and improve air quality.
If you’re interested on more tips for container plant care, check out these articles. Enjoy and I hope you are encouraged to grow your own urban eco-resilient oasis or add to your surrounding network of greenspaces.
Local parklands in Cebu and Southeast Asia are cradles of botanic inspiration. Often, well-designedparks use regionally native or locally endemic trees and shrubs. Depending on the availability of their seedlings in public nurseries, you could use a few of these same trees or shrubs in your garden. They can be a spectacular eye-catching feature or hedge in your own gardens. Regionally native, indigenous, or locally endemic refers to a plant’s genetic origin and natural geographic distribution. In the scientific community, these terms have slight technical differences. Among some foresters, park managers, and horticulturists, these terms can be interchangeable. Native or Endemic can mean a plant originally grew in the coasts, forests, riverbanks, or other ecological niches in Cebu. Or maybe the plant was originally found throughout the mangroves or rainforests of the Philippines. Local, Native, or Endemic can also mean the plant naturally grows in Maritime Southeast Asian countries like Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
REMEMBER: make sure you have the time, water, and soil type to help your native plant thrive. For instance, you can buy the most locally native vine from Cebu’s uplands. But if it’s neglected and left unwatered on your concrete patio, the stressed vine may shrivel and die.
Be curious and inspired. Visit the lush splendor of local parks in Cebu and venture to the rest of Southeast Asia.
In general, choosing locally or regionally native trees and shrubs creates a strong, adaptable landscape. A combination of native plants function well with local climate and rain availability. As a result, they need less growing assistance from additional fertilizers or pesticides. When the trees or shrubs are well-established, local birds, bees, butterflies and beneficial pollinators can use these plants as a source of nectar and shelter. Often, the fallen leaves and roots of regionally endemic plants naturally mulch and enrich the soil’s health. Depending on the particularly adaptive species, they can have additional qualities like drought-resistance and wind-resilience. With a bit of research and a fun search through local parks, you can find extremely gifted trees and shrubs.
The examples below are popular regionally and locally endemic species suited to Cebu’s climate. They are best planted in the rainy season so they start out with a moderate amount of water and sun. Plants in this list also flourish in other islands of the Philippines and Southeast Asian countries.
