Poor Nicolo, has had to listen to me blabber all these years about so many random things but I’m really glad the wreaths took root. That first year, he had to strip his neighbor’s tree just to get enough cinnamon bark, haha. I’m still hoping he will grow lacquer fern and fresh peas, but reading your latest posts, I think his next project should be poinsettias :D

Thanks for the tip, MM. I ordered some this morning to give away.

Nico: Yeah, I miss the good old days when CDO was tiny and heavy vehicular traffic was non-existent. Maybe we were neighbors at some point in the 80’s to early 90’s! Bukingan ng edad! :P

HI Kasseopeia, yes we use to have a cattle yard in our house when Cagayan de Oro was still a small city and most folks had backyard gardens back then. Cagayan has grown and we moved the yard to our farm in Bukidnon .

Nico is an Aberasturi, right? Funny, because I grew up next door to an Aberasturi family…and up until I was 9 or 10, they kept cows in pens right on the property. My dad (an avid gardener) would sometimes go over next door and come back with a few handfuls of “Aberasturi’s gold” for his garden. Needless to say, our vegetable garden was very productive.