Category: School Gardens

April & May, Explore & Play

Featured by Healing Present Nature & Wellness Center, posted in Color Combo & Design, Container Garden, Food Garden, Gardening and Landscape Design, Herbs, Outdoor Classrooms, Raised Beds, School Gardens

By Michelle Domocol @inflourish_

Back to Inflourish: Cebu

April and May are wonderful months to plan fun garden activities for upcoming school breaks. If you have summer school students, children, nieces and/or nephews, plan a garden. Or arrange a fieldtrip to child-friendly gardens, parks and/or playgrounds. These landscapes are excellent venues for playtime, nature exploration, and family bonding. Here are some fun ideas to inspire some fun kid-centric adventures in a garden, park, or playground.

  1. SENSORY GARDENS: Build a sensory garden or add sensory plants to an existing gardens. Sensory gardens feature plants that stimulate children’s observation skills and imagination. Together, you can choose plants that possess leaves with vibrant colors or leaves with unique shapes. Greenery with notable textures, amazing aromas, delicious fruits, and/or extreme sizes. To stimulate a garden visitor’s auditory senses, choose plants that attract local songbirds or chirping geckos. Some examples are these sensory-stimulating flora are multi-colored San Francisco, 30-meter tall Tipo trees with their unique, lobed leaf shapes, or Ilang-Ilang with fruity fragrance that travels throughout the afternoon. Other examples are native sensory marvels are trees like Bangkal (Nauclea orientalis), Katmon (Dillenia philippinensis), and Almaciga (Agathis philippinensis). For more kid-centric plant combinations and sensory garden design suggestions, check out:
The sensory garden design above features plants like colorful ornamental gingers, duwaw, trellised passionfruit vines, potted native berries, and potted ilang-ilang.

2. EDIBLE APRIL & MAY: With your enthusiastic students and youth gardeners, you can plant herbs, berries and vegetables. They can use my planting calendar to choose what seeds to plant and add to the garden. If you want to learn more about April berries to plant, check out April’s Dessert Garden. During these hot and dry months, be sure to smart water conservation techniques like mulching, drip irrigation, and if you saved water during the rainy season, it’s time to use your rainwater storage tanks. You can also check out your local children’s gardening events through facebook groups, churches, or barangay hall events.

>>>>Download planting calendar
>>>>Download cebu pollinator plants

3. COOL, STARRY NIGHT GARDENS: Plan a garden that you and the kids can enjoy at night. Sometimes summer days can be too hot. Evenings in the garden, under the stars, are much more enjoyable. Add fragrant, night-blooming water lilies, vines and shrubs to your garden. Choose shrubs that emit strong evening fragrances. Night fragrant orchids, cacao flowers and Dama de Noche jasmine are excellent examples. Or plant a raised bed with night-blooming cacti and flowers that attract the often-overlooked nocturnal pollinators. Flowers like night-blooming phlox, angel’s trumpet, Queen of the Night cactus, honeysuckle, and evening primrose invite amazing local bats and moths. These nighttime gardens are great spots for children to run around and explore. They are also beautiful venues for outdoor parties with the whole family.

Enjoy the rest of April and hope you have a blooming start to May!

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Genuinely Ginger Gardens

Featured by Healing Present Nature & Wellness Center, posted in Color Combo & Design, Container Garden, Food Garden, Gardening and Landscape Design, Raised Beds, School Gardens, Therapeutic Garden, wildlife garden

By Michelle Domocol @inflourish_

Back to Inflourish: Cebu

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.

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Treetop Adventures

Featured by Healing Present Nature & Wellness Center, posted in Color Combo & Design, Food Garden, Gardening and Landscape Design, Raised Beds, School Gardens, Therapeutic Garden, wildlife garden

By Michelle Domocol @inflourish_

Back to Inflourish: Cebu

As a child, it felt magical to play in a treehouse, feel closer to the sky, and capture a bird’s eye view. I was overjoyed and curious. Treehouses and tree decks are some of the best settings for imaginative play, relaxation, and daily connection with nature. Today, I’ll share some fun ideas for gardens that enhance treehouses and tree decks. The inspiration can enrich a treehouse or deck in a backyard, community garden, or a local school. Feel free to incorporate these planting combinations into personal projects or share them with community members looking to improve a treetop design.

A treehouse adorned with a succulent greenroof above borders of floral shrubs, colorful foliage, and aromatic groundcovers.

Vibrant Foliage & Flowers. Planting floral and foliar color are beautiful ways attract interest and highlight your treetop structure. You can concentrate on particular color combination, motif, floral scent, or educational theme to help determine your plant palette. Or you can select plants based on particular height and space requirements. With this criteria, floral groundcovers, shrubs, and a few trees may suit your site. With cozier spaces, potted plants, epiphytes, and vines are preferable.

Or get creative! Add add a shallow raised bed of flowering succulents on the rooftop of your treehouse. Or add a succulent border or raised boxes on the perimeter of your tree deck. If your site is larger it space, add additional flowering fruit trees. And don’t forget colorful shrubs as an option. San franciscos (Codiaeum spp.), Mais-mais (Dracaena spp.), cordyline lilies (Cordyline spp.), and Mayana (Coleus spp.) pop with deep maroons, golds, hot pinks, and other rich hues. Remember to observe your site’s soil conditions and sun exposure to further refine your plant selection. Here are some vibrant floral exemplars that grow well in my area:

  • Waling Waling orchid (Vanda sanderiana)
  • Philippine ground orchid (Spathoglottis plicata)
  • Rose Mallow shrub (Hibiscus moscheutos)
  • Sampaguita shrub (Jasminum sambac)
  • Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia spp.)
  • Heliconia spp.
  • Torch ginger (Etlingera elatior)
  • Ylang Ylang tree (Cananga odorata)
  • Siar tree (Peltophorum pterocarpum)
  • Narra tree (Pterocarpus indicus)
  • Malapapaya tree (Polyscias nodosa)
  • Bani tree (Milletia pinnata)
  • Binunga tree (Macaranga tanarius)
A tree deck supported by an old Acacia surrounded by big-leafed, shade-loving plants and ferns. The Acacia is also adorned with vines and fern epiphytes.

Trees with Shade-loving accents. Adding trees with shade accents can also enrich your tree house or tree deck. In time, this combination will turn into a shady, cool respite from the heat. Your shade-loving accent can be big-leaved gabi, palmettos, Colocosia spp., monsteras, and ferns while the native trees can have sprawling crowns, graceful palm leaves, compact treetops, and/or seasonally produce fruit. Other tree species could be Alibangbang (Bauhinia malabarica), native bamboos, Panalipan (Diospyros tenuipes), and Maritima (Vatica maritima). Alternatively, you can focus on adding compact fruit trees or larger fruit trees like native figs like Dakit, Lagnob, and other Ficus spp. Other suitable fruit-bearing choices could be Banana varieties, Avocado, Nangka, and Balimbing.

A field of heliconias and birds of paradise with a background of fruit tree accents leading to a treehouse.

Trees that can support Houses or Decks. Most of this article focusses on enhancing an existing treehouse or deck with a surrounding garden. If you need advice for the right tree to support a new treehouse or tree deck, ask an engineer, experienced builder, or treehouse designer.

There many ways to build a treehouse. Sometimes the entire structure is attached to the tree. Others build structures with no weight on the tree. Additionally, builders incorporate gaps in the platform and roof so the tree can grow through the house and deck. In my experience, treehouses are made with healthy, mature, multi-trunked hardwood trees. In Cebu, old Fig trees, old Mango trees, mature Yakal, Ipil, Lawaan, Narra, and Acacia are used in tree decks or treehouse projects.

Have fun creating and enjoy your future treetop adventures!

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Garden Journaling & Planning Tools

Featured by Healing Present Nature & Wellness Center, posted in agroforestry, Container Garden, Food Garden, Gardening and Landscape Design, Green Roofs, Outdoor Classrooms, School Gardens

By Michelle Domocol
Back to Inflourish: Cebu Blog

This month is a great time to start using planting calendars, garden journals, and other garden planning documents to explore/ study your garden’s progress. Below are my record-keeping, garden planning sheets, and fun gardening activities to track & improve your garden. They may inspire you to create your own custom documents.

And in 2023, check out our online store. I will launch my collection of garden journals, planting calendars, and gardening education books.

order new garden design Books & Cookbooks today!

download free garden guides below!

Gardening journal

>>>> Download

Planting Calendar

>>>> Download

garden planning sheets

Pollinator Planning & Garden Motif Planning

>>>>Download
>>>> Download

Garden Education Activities

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>>>>Download

For our Singing Feathered Friends

Featured by Healing Present Nature & Wellness Center, posted in Container Garden, Gardening and Landscape Design, School Gardens, wildlife garden

By Michelle Domocol
Back to Inflourish: Cebu

October in Cebu brings steady rainfall and a daily chorus of bird calls. Healing Present’s (HP) headquarters is located in the bustling, concrete landscape of Cebu City. It sits far below from the farm’s upland vegetation and pocket forests.

Photo 1. Features in Bird-friendly garden behind HP headquarters–A: Assorted foliage plants; B: Fruiting vines; C: Flowering ginger lilies; D: orchids attached to post

Although the headquarters are surrounded by cement homes and ragged roads, we manage to create an oasis for local birds (Photo 1). It’s truly awe-inspiring what a collection of potted plants, raised beds and vines can do (Photo 1). Without fail, every morning and afternoon, we are visited by local avians like black shamas, sunbirds, flowerpeckers, and more.

In general, adding plants that attract local birds benefits you and the local ecoystem. Birds visit urban gardens for food, water, and temporary protection from predators.

In turn, they grace us with relaxing songs. For some, birdsongs are reminders of our unique ecological heritage. These urban bird oases are also wonderful venues to teach children about nature without traveling too far from home.

Here are 3 strategies to create your own bird-friendly garden.

1. Offer a Fruit & Nectar Buffet. Add fruit-bearing and nectar-rich, flowering shrubs, vines and trees. If you live in a smaller space with a balcony or small courtyard, select dwarf fruit trees or shrubs that grow well in containers.

In urban Cebu’s humid, rainfall, and tropical climate, we can plant so many combinations of tropical fruit or berries. Try adding your favorite local fruit. I’ve seen birds flock to gardens with batwan, biasong, lomboy, or seryales.

If you have a larger space, add mature native trees and vines. As your fruit/flower garden matures, birds will appreciate the free food and nectar. You can add non-fruiting plants too. Birds like to protect themselves amongst large leafed plants (Photo 1) like elephant ear, ferns, crotons or other foliage.

2. Leave the fallen leaves. In Cebu, there’s a compulsion to constantly clean up old leaves. In a bird garden, fight this urge. You can sweep the leaves and debris under the plants. But please don’t throw them and worse yet, burn them. These precious leaves return nutrients to your plants. They also attract harmless insects birds love to eat.


3. Discourage cats. Cats can threaten and attack local birds regularly. In Cebu, sometimes it’s difficult to protect your garden from stray cats. If you have your own pet cat, try to keep it inside or away from your garden. You can also put a bell on your cat’s collar so birds are warned as it approaches.



Photos 2 to 5 are my sample designs to inspire your next bird-friendly garden.

Each design illustrates an outdoor space with bird-attracting flowering and fruiting plants. Native and endemic plant varieties are also highlighted.

“Tropical Lounge” (Photo 2)
Photo 2. “Tropical Lounge”

A: Outdoor seating area with cluster of native Phalaenopsis orchids, flowering Heliconia latispatha, and a local variety of Dwarf Lakatan bananas.
B: Bignay fruit tree (Antidesma bunius) and Kamagong (Diospyros blancoi)
C: Dwarf lakatan in container
D: Large-leafed foliage plants

○ ○ ○


“Relaxing Patio” (Photo 3)
Photo 3. “Relaxing Patio”


A: Kamuning shrubs (Murraya paniculata) around a pond
B: Talamisan Citrus tree (Citrus longispina) with Vanda orchids attached to trunk
C: Mix of Luy-a (Zingiber officinale), ginger lily (Zingiber spectabilis), and ferns
D: Reclining outdoor chairs to observe birds and rest

○ ○ ○


“Garden path” (Photo 4)
Photo 4. “Garden Path”


A: Walkway with bordering gardend. A mix of cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) and local Santan shrubs (Ixora philippinensis).
B: Native Dendrobium orchids growing on decorative boulder
C: Behind the flowering borders, you can add large-leafed foliage like taro. If you have more space, you can plant trees like Cebu Cinnamon (Cinnamomum cebuense) or Banaba (Lagerstroemia speciosa)

○ ○ ○


“Terrace” (Photo 5)
Photo 5. “Terrace”


A: Islands of Gumamela varieties (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)
B: Dwarf Limonsito (Calamondin spp.) tree in a large circular raised bed with attached circular seating
C: Group of dwarf papaya growing in containers
D: More hibiscus shrubs in front of a slightly raised terrace

I hope these designs inspire some enthusiastic brainstorming for our feathered friends. Till next post, enjoy the rest of October’s birdsongs.

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