This article is regularly updated. There is never a final one.

How it all started

I can’t actually remember the first plant I cared for. I can’t even remember how I started everything. All I know is that my family influenced me. My grandfather and two grandmothers have great interest in plants and trees—or the nature. My uncles and aunts own farms and like planting trees. Finally, my father—who I see everyday—plants almost everyday especially when I was a kid. Back then, he planted mostly vegetables like eggplant, tomato, lady finger (okra), and chili which would make us healthier. I can say that I was amazed with how flowers turned to fruits. It was like magic to me to see things getting bigger, so I helped my dad grow more kinds of vegetables. I grew touching living things everyday which kept our garden being green. We then got to sell our first product in our diner: ORGANIC eggplant for only ₱30.

ORGANIC. That is what my father always tells me. Use organic, plant organic, EAT ORGANIC! He said that the chemicals from fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, etc. will stay with the fruits which will eventually find their way to our bodies, and those are believed to abbreviate our life span!

Herb Evolution

One day I woke up seeing strangers in our garden. Daddy got just three plants from his friend; they were called “Basil”. At first it did not catch my attention that much. When I learned that they could multiply using only scissors, the specie dominated our garden. Three plants resulted to over thousand offsprings; the three are sure proud of themselves. It was breathtaking to see roots coming out of the stem! The time came when there were abundant plants in our garden so we tried planting Basil plants at a farm of ours in Pampanga. We just let them spend their lives until we came back and found this:

I never thought that they could grow that big! They were like dwarf trees. So I wondered what I could do with all those! Knowing that I Basil could be multiplied easily, I cut out a lot of stems! And guess what—my first major cuttings were successful! Aside from the giant basil plants in Pampanga, I had countless dwarfs in our house back in Bulacan. I had two spectacular sources of Basil and I asked myself—what am I going to do with all those treasure? We just gave leaves to my relatives, but we thought of continuing our organic plant business. We succeeded and finally got to sell Basil plants at our restobar called Lucky’s. Here are some pictures our plants:

Until now, I still water my plants before I go to school, but I don’t go to our diner anymore unlike during those days for we have ceased selling plants. For many months, I went there and asked the customers if they would like to buy plants. I told them how to take care of the plants and what benefits they could get. Knowing the benefits below, who would not want to own a beneficial pet that grows and makes you grow too?

Scientific studies show the following benefits of basil:(2)(https://draxe.com/benefits-of-basil/)
  • Anti-inflammatory
  • Antioxidant
  • Cancer-fighter
  • Pain-reducer (analgesic)
  • Fever-reducer (antipyretic)
  • Diabetes-preventer
  • Liver-protector (hepatoprotective)
  • Blood vessel-protector
  • Anti-stress solution
  • Immune-booster

Emerging Business

Time had passed, and I realized that there weren’t a lot of purchases for the regular customers had already bought and the Basil plants were becoming more common in our place. So I went to the Internet and posted advertisements of my plants in Olx.com. Happily, one customer from a different province that had seen my product and went to our place to get some of our plants. For months of being posted in the internet, there were still no purchases there. I then decided of expanding our business. I thought of selling our plants to different events like weddings, birthdays, etc. My family supported me all the way and we came up with these:

There were a lot of inquiries, but we did not have any client. We had so much supply but there was no demand! My father found a solution: We sold Basil plants to East-West Seeds Co. for them to resell at their plant booth in SM Baliwag! Well I could say that it was the peak of our business. Every week, we supplied 20 plants to them; however, after the 10th week, they asked us to stop supplying Basil plants. We did not know why. Months later, we were surprised to see Basil plants at their stall again, but they weren’t actually from us—they were from East-West themselves! The Baliwagenyos liked Basil so much that they always sold out the stock in SM Baliwag! I was just sad that we were replaced after we introduced the plants to their stall.

IMG_0452

Dying Business

After that peak, our business had lost its activeness. I got busy at school. There were so many things to do that I had forgotten planting for days and months. I am that person who always likes to plant and it made me a little sad knowing that the amount of plants were declining. I tried planting again some time, and I regained my enthusiasm. However, every time I was near to reselling at our restobar again, I ended up killing the plants because of too much activities in school. Whenever I try reviving and multiplying our plants again, I just kept on failing. Until now, I still haven’t sold any plants. I dream big for this business; however, there was something wrong about me. I was the person who would keep on planting until I reach abundant plants; however, I would not sell them yet. I would only sell them until my business was perfectly functioning—until my business had no faults. That caused me to lose a tremendous amount of money. Now I realized that I want to really be successful at something, I have to start small. One more thing is that I should make it a priority of mine, or else nothing would happen. Focus, enthusiasm, and positivity are required in doing business. After all those failures, I know that one day—I would just be thankful of my plants for not only giving me wealth in money but also wealth in family, friends, health, knowledge, environment, and more.

Emerging Business 2.0

Today, March 10, 2018, I am positive that my plant shop called “Alec’s Green Mind” will soon be what my family and I envision it to be.

Gallery of my Agriculture experiences: