One of our listeners in our radio program wanted to know what plant he could plant in his Cabuyao property that does not need any care. Apparently, he is a busy person who does not have any time to attend to his farm.

To his question, we immediately advised him not to plant at all if he does not intend to take good care of whatever he plants. Many tree planting activities come to mind. We know of various groups undertaking the planting of forest trees, complete with photo coverage that are printed in newspapers. If is not unusual for these tree planting activities to be failures in the long term because no one has been assigned to attend to them after they are planted in the ground.

Plants have to be watered when necessary. They have to be fertilized and protected from insects and diseases and other predators. We remember an acquaintance who planted 120 Guimaras mangoes in his property in Batangas. His one mistake was that he didn’t bother to fence his property so that his neighbor’s goats feasted on his little mango trees before they could grow.

It is better to plant only the number of trees you can take care of properly. One rich acquaintance in the construction business was so excited when he was given the family’s property at the foot of Sierra Madre in Nueva Ecija. He spent millions to plant fruit and forest trees on 20 hectares all at the same time. The problem was that he was not able to take good care of the trees. One summer, fire razed his plantation and all his investment was gone. He now says he could have spent his millions in taking good care of just one or two hectares. That would have been much better. What he could have done is to add a few more hectares that he could manage properly year after year.