Close to 50 different fruit trees as well as herbs and spices share a muddy piece of land along Msgr. Guerrero Road in Chalan Kiya.
From outside, the property appears like a jungle. There is no trail or any passage visible from the road.
The only people who know there is access to the fruit paradise are, of course, the owners and their farmer.
Aside from fruits that are popular on island, this jungle teems with other fruit-bearing trees from Asian countries.
Rose Diaz, who also runs Camia Garden and Africa Fine Dining located across from the street, said the sprawling wilderness of tangan-tangan was turned into a nursery of fruit-bearing trees back in the early 1990s.
“When you a see an idle piece of land, you tend to think of how to make the best use of it,” Diaz said as she recalled the time she first set foot in the area.
At the time, she had already started her exotic Camia Garden that surrounded her residence.
The fast cars along Msgr. Guerrero Road did not deter Diaz from looking after the property. There is still no pedestrian lane and the only way to the fruit haven is to wait until the road is clear and to cross it quickly.
Diaz was determined to make the small property productive.
“It’s not the size and the location. If you know how to make the land productive, it will be productive,” Diaz said.
What she basically did was a form of multi-cropping: she planted a variety of trees in the area.
Diaz cannot tell how big the property is, but right now she and her family are reaping the fruits of their labor whole year round.
In the jungle are avocado, atis, banana, bilimbines or star fruit, bread fruit, jack fruit, coconut, sugar plum, guava, mabolo or mountain apple, soursop, Granada, santol, calamansi, caimito or star apple, grape fruit, iba, pili nuts, tangerine and more.
She also has a 17-year-old bay leaf or laurel tree that stands about seven feet high.
Diaz calls it the “money tree” because its every leaf is worth a cent.
From the very beginning, she knew she had a sustainable micro-economic project. She spent a considerable amount of money and time on it.
“I came up with a business plan. I really planned to make it sustainable,” Diaz said.
When the trees were still too young, she added, they needed extra care. When they grew up they became strong enough to take care of themselves. And this allowed her to gradually reduce the need for manpower until she could do without it.
That’s the time you start getting a return on your investment, she said.
Diaz no longer has to spend a single cent on her trees whose fruits she now sells to stores and individuals customers every day.
For more information about Camia Garden please call 234-3589.
