Landscaping for a living

Lilo-an Vice Mayor Merelito Surita had been in show business — as a dancer and a part time actor — since he was 17 until he met an accident in March 1979 (a few years after his mother died in a vehicular accident) and he had no choice but to have his left foot severed. He knew he couldn’t dance again so he thought of another career option. Then he remembered his deep liking for landscaping, which he pursued.

While still in the hospital, Surita kept himself by running for barangay captain. He won by landslide for three terms without campaigning. After the third term, he ran for councilor and won by landslide again but was elevated to vice mayor (being the topnotcher) when then Vice Mayor Panphil B. Frasco died in the United States due to a heart attack on May 25, 2003. He finally ran for vice mayor in May 2004 and won handily.

Politics turned out to be both good and bad for his business — good because he could charge more with his position but bad because his closest friends and neighbors became wary about employing his landscaping services for fear that his charges might be stiff.

He started his landscaping business in 1987 with P20,000 and he relied mainly on plants and flowers supplied by his neighbors in Lilo-an while he honed his knowledge on landscaping by attending a lot of seminars that he felt would be useful to his practice.

Later on, he raised his own ornamentals and studied various topics on landscaping, rocks and making your own fountains and ponds from all natural materials, which most clients prefer over those of plastic or artificial materials.

His own sister had a lush garden, which he landscaped himself as a techno model for potential clients.

His clients are not just his friends, relatives and neighbors from various parts of Cebu City but he also gets bookings for projects in Mandaue, Mactan and other island provinces of the Visayas and Mindanao. He never used any advertising material because he could not afford it. Instead he relied heavily on word of mouth from his satisfied patrons.

His smallest project costs P20,000 to P180,000 involving 3,000 square meters, with the client supplying most of the planting materials and special rocks to be used in the project. It also took longer to finish. He also did the landscaping for a private family estate that doubled up as a resort hotel in Surigao.

"Often, my clients have their choices of plants and flowers to get into their landscapes and they supply me with such materials. But I also have rare collections and I can source most of them from my valued suki in Metro Manila and other parts of the country," he said.

He normally has six people to do the garden and spade work. But with big projects, he has to hire more contractual workers to help him out, especially if the client wants the job done fast.

When his job as vice mayor gets very hectic he shares his project with his relatives. One such project was in a subdivision in Consolacion, Cebu City which he turned over to his cousin who is also into landscaping.

Surita said people in the provinces are as conscious about beautifying their front yards as those from exclusive villages of Metro Manila because "art knows no boundaries."

"Even those with very little savings have their homes landscaped because it gives them ultimate pleasure in seeing order and aesthetics come into play in their daily lives," Surita said.