The Business of Beautification

In Bacolod City, the name Guerrero is, more often than not, associated with Guerrero Surveying Office by Vicente "Boy" Guerrero, a prominent office located along one of the main roads of the city. But his better half, Hazelyn, is also fast making a name for herself in the beautification business-that is, beautifying one's garden with ornamental plants.

With a flair for flower arrangements and garden design, Hazelyn has long been fascinated with flowers and plants of any kind. She goes to great lengths in the acquisition, propagation, and rearing of her plants. But Hazelyn says that much of her dream to put up her own garden or flower farm may be attributed to the support of her husband Boy, who is also a nature lover himself. This long-time dream was put into writing during a marriage seminar that the Guerrero couple attended. Hazelyn recalls that they were asked to write down 10 dreams that they would like to become reality someday. And she personally wrote, "to have a big garden." In short span of time, her wish came true.

Hazelyn transformed one hectare of her husband's property in Sitio Mambucano, Brgy. Cabatangan, Talisay City, Negros Occidental into a sprawling hobby farm filled with flowers, ornamental plants, fruit trees, vegetables, and pine trees. The farm was started around five years ago with some vegetable varieties.

The original plan was that the place would become the Guerrero family's hobby farm, so they first put their rest house on a small hill in the middle of the land, whose terrace overlooks surrounding farms and the barrio down below. This humble abode is their respite from city life, a sanctuary amidst the chaos of modernity. It is here where they can breathe fresh air, unwind, and just tend the plants without any care in the world. Hazelyn says, "When I'm here, I don't want to go down anymore." It is here where the children can play in a vast piece of land among trees, and flowers, and bushes, and bathe in the river situated inside the property. And most especially, it is here where they can share their native meals and enjoy the company of each other without pressure.

What followed was the cultivation of the land. Hazelyn disclosed that the fertile part is only a few inches of topsoil. So they dug up holes around the area and plowed in organic wastes taken from around the area and from their garbage back in Bacolod. "Nothing is wasted around here. We just bury whatever is available and now the soil is made richer by the decomposed bio-degradable garbage," she tells.

The plants came one by one and were amassed from Hazelyn's many travels around the country and abroad. Now, she has hundreds of plant species in her farm. Among her bestsellers are the begonia at P50/pot, the pine trees at P75/six-inch seedlings, miniature horsetails at P40/pot, the amaryllis, locally known as lirio, with the red variety selling at P250/pot, and her cacti. She has about seven colors of the lirio family and 17 varieties of pine trees. She also sells the green grass, which is usually used as ground cover, for 40/pot.

Aside from the potted plants, Hazelyn also supplies cutflowers and accents to florists in Bacolod, such as the lirio, baby's breath, and hydrangea (million flowers), as well as leaves of rosal and the mini papyrus. Rosal leaves sells at P10/dozen while the mini papyrus leaves are P1 each.

Hazelyn makes her own vermi-compost to fertilize her soil. At the same time, she is breeding guinea pigs and sells them at P150 per pair. "These pets need very low maintenance. They even maintain the weeding in some parts of our yard," Hazelyn chuckles as she explains that the guinea pigs are placed in mobile cages. These small, furry animals feed on plant material so they simply chew on the grass where they are stationed. The area gets free weeding while at the same time the animal droppings become fertilizer. "When they have consumed the grass in their contained area, we move them to another part," she adds.

Aside from garden shows and exhibits, Hazelyn's main outlet is the Garden Center in Bacolod-a showcase of different plant propagators in the city. Whatever income Hazelyn earns from her garden, she says, all goes back to the improvement of the farm.

Hazelyn admits that she has not really seen the return of investment for the farm after five years because they also continue to add new things. However, she said that the greatest satisfaction she received is the many people that she meets in this business. She never fails to pick up a thing or two to add to her stock knowledge as she goes along. At the same time, she has inspired many to set up their own garden and plant, "and now they're happy. So I'm happy for them, too. I guess that's my real profit," she closes.