Bio-Aero gardens: Source of Foods and Learning

By: Kyle David Paraiso

Every Trecean student may sing “Bahay-Kubo” by heart, but not by soul. It’s a fact,
nowadays, millennial students can hardly identify the vegetables mentioned in the
folksong until those will be gone like a song of the wind.

The declining interest of the youth in agriculture and malnutrition among students lead
Trece Martires City National High School to introduce again the ‘Bio-Aero Gardening’ to
reintroduce the “Bahay Kubo” vegetables to the students.

This gardening project is inclined with the Department of Education (DepEd)’s purpose to
promote sustainability, healthy eating and camaraderie among children. This gardening
is also another method of cultivation where the agricultural plants are planted in small
cans and plastic bottles hanging at the walls.

“What Treceans are forgetting is the vegetables which are disease-resistant and
sustainable,” said Merlinda Torres, agriculture teacher who spearheaded the enactment
of the project.

Torres also shared her insights for ‘Bio-Aero’ gardening, as she strongly believes that the
project will also help to reduce the high-malnutrition incidence in the school.

“In the past, we might not have taken any actions, so we tried searching any scheme to
reduce or eliminate the malnutrition incidence in our school,” she said while expressing
her strong desire to implement the gardening successfully.

Torres, moreover, said that they discouraged students to use metal cans in bio-aero
because of their ability to conduct heat and well and don’t provide much insulation to the
soil or plant roots.

“Metal can place under the sun heats up quickly, and that heat is transferred to the soil
and causes soil and roots to dry out more quickly. While on freezing temperatures, chill
of the metal can cause the soil to freeze more quickly as compared to a wood or thick
polyurethane container,” the agriculture teacher said.

Going organic

In addition to this, Torres highlighted that the ‘Bio-Aero’ gardening will be crucial since the
simplified composting process and plant beds has higher percentage to keep plants safe
from floods, store more water and help roots grow deep.

“Only a small portion of land is used for Bio-Aero gardening while the school can produce
its own fertilizer for its plants,” the she added.
Furthermore, Torres emphasized that this gardening will help to conserve soil moisture
and prevent weeds from taking over the garden.

“I am very sure that the implementation of the new garden scheme will be successful in
no time,” the agriculture educator said.

Where It All Started

Meanwhile, Famie C. Apay, the school principal, underscored the gardening will surely
help for sustainability of ‘Gulayan sa paaralan’-a project which is implemented before by
DepEd.

“The ‘Bio-Aero’ gardening, as part of ‘Gulayan sa paaralan’ project, will ensure terrific
outdoor learning spaces and integration of its modules to Science at the same time,” said
Apay, “It’s a win-win-win for schools, parents and kids.”

She further said the new gardening scheme will help the children to view the indigenous
plants in new holistic outlook.

For Young Juan, By Young Juan

“Makatitipid talaga kami lalo na at mga lumang lata at boteng ginagamit para sa Bio-Aero
gardening,” said Ryan Cristi, a G10 student.

Cristi also stressed that the plastics and old cans in the school will be lessen as it will be
recycled as ‘gardening pots’.

“Hindi lang makatutulong sa kalikasan, mabibigyang-halaga rin ang mga kapwa-

esyudyante ko ang kahalagahan ng gulay,” he added.