Turning Wasteland into Paradise

Turning Wasteland into Parasise

A project to turn a wasteland into a profitable land

We have this ancestral land somewhere in Pampanga near the river. Yearly during the rainy season, it gets flooded waste deep as the Pampanga river overflow. So basically its a useless land not unless you sell it, but its condition makes it a cheap land value so selling it would be a waste.

So a lot of our relatives has little interest on that land since its not even habitable because of yearly flooding. I have been thinking of making that wasteland into something useful, that could benefit our relatives.

My relative is split in half, those who are well off and lived abroad and those who are struggling financially, making that land profitable by not selling it would be a great help to those in need.

What is my interest? Why would I bother? Even though we have rights of share on the land, I am not interested on it because we have our own family farm land already in another place that I am focusing to make it profitable itself in the future. Making this ancestral wasteland into profitable land is just my hobby and to help my relatives. Empowering our relatives would prevent them from asking money on us during their time of need because they have their own additional income.

So how can you make a wasteland into a profitable land then? even though its inhabitable, I noticed that the land is very fertile, fruit trees would just bear fruits easily as compared to our own family farm land. So you get the idea what to do, Plant fruit bearing trees.

Those fruit bearing can turn into profit by selling the fruits after 10 to 15 years, that's far off but better start now while its early. You can read my other article regarding profits on fruit trees titled; Money do grow on Trees.

Problems to Solve:

1. Flooding; the flood can kill your small fruit tree seedlings, being soaked all day long can have a toll on the plant. So what we do here is grow the fruit tree seedlings into a seedling bag for the first 2 to 3 years, once its 5 foot tall, we can already transplant it by the month of December to the ancestral land to avoid the rainy season and have time for the fruit tree to entrench its roots deeply before the rainy season starting as early as May or late as August. Once it has entrenched its roots and is 5 foot tall, it can survive the flooding that occurs every year. Also taking into consideration that there are trees that is very resistant to floods even if it got soak for weeks during its early stages of growth, like Mango trees, other are Duhat, Guyabano then some fruit trees as long as its already an adult tree.

2. Goats and Livestock; Some of the neighbors goats, carabao and horses might stray on the ancestral farm and eat the 5 foot tall fruit tree. The tree is not safe against livestocks until its 8 foot tall, those grass and leaf eating loaf will feast on that tree and chew it dry. So by placing a perimeter fence is a must. Avoiding using metal or tin fences or even nets as this type of materials gets stolen, the ancestral land does not have a caretaker, having one could put a cost in operation. Probably a plastic mesh could do.

3. Public Road; There is an old road in the middle of the ancestral farm, that after sometime, years has passed by it became a public right of way road where people pass through there. Fencing a place like that would be hard because you are going to fence both side of the road for the sake of other people?, so the idea is to just move the road in the middle and place it on the far edge side of the property for public use, this way you only have to fence one side only and you don't interfere with the right of way of the people, even though its private property, in the province, its not nice to just close down a road after years of use. That public road could also be used in other purposes in the future, such as temporary business shops.

So that's it, eventually after 10 years, when the trees is starting to bear fruit, it would be fenced and guarded properly so thieves won't be stealing the fruits of labor. Selling the fruit trees would be the benefits of my relatives, at least it would add income especially when they got sick, they would have financial assistance through a profitable land which if not transform right now would just be a piece of wasteland with low zoning value.

It also has a fishpond, a very fertile fishpond where fish just grow big, where it could be used for lease on some other time or probably use my system for Tilapia fish farming when I had the time for it.

I remember this place when I was a kid, we used to play here and climb the trees, we play with the farm animals and bath in the fishpond, then the whole clan would eat together under the mango tree during fiesta and watch the river floats parade on the side. Decades has passed by, geography change, the place sinks as the river grow larger. Well its not too late for our children to experience that same memories anyway.

Road in the middle which is I am talking about, some old trees, still there are lots of space for fruit trees, a fishpond in the far end, not visible in the picture, abandoned caretaker houses due to yearly floods, banana trees being planted for starters. So my dear cousins, let us start the project.