DON'T GIVE UP ON YOUR DYING PLANTS, SWEET NOURISHMENT AHEAD

Today, one of my pepper plants that I almost gave up on has almost 20 pepper fruits.  It gave me the inspiration to make akara (bean balls or is it bean cakes?😂 whichever it's so delicious!). 

Why? I noticed sometimes ago that my garden peppers especially  goes very well with beans. You see I am suspicious of beans sold  in the market - it usually gives me heartburn after eating maybe due to the chemicals used in growing and/or preserving the beans. But I cannot grow considerable amount of beans now in my little garden.

 But I noticed that  if I prepare the meal with my garden peppers, the heartburn is not much or non-existent.

 But that is not the even the icing on the cake - the real deal is the remarkable taste-   spiciness  combined with healthy goodness of my garden peppers which makes any bean meal I cook more palatable and of course healthier for me. 

So if you notice any plant dying in your garden, don't just give it up, do some investigation to find out what may have happened to it - like this pepper plant withered because I was manuring it with fresh onion peels and fresh ginger peels. 

When I realised and stopped and use dried food wastes and soya bean chaff, the almost-dead pepper plant bounced back to life and not long after started fruiting. 

Then you know what? The peppers are so very nicely spicy  because it no doubt has a whole lot of onion goodness In it. 

For someone as busy as I am, making akara on  a Monday morning is a real deal - but I was motivated by the spiciness of the returned-to-life pepper plant fruits - see me enjoying my akara- seems it even stimulated my brain when I put on the computer to read and write my findings for onward practical to be conducted. 

Actually I have been feeling very tired  because during the weekend I needed to work with the shovel again to do some gardening work.

 So I was so tired this Monday morning  but after akara(bean balls) breakfast  my brain  seemed to become revitalised.

I really need my  brain cells very active -  I am still researching on the use of agricultural raw materials to beautify the body -  lotion, soap, powder - commercialisation of these products still coming. 

If not that I have clocked 50 years,, I would have started applying for modelling jobs as my body is feeling so revitalised  by using this agricultural raw materials  for  beauty therapy.  

Sometimes simple solutions bring about remarkable results....

PLANT SOME OF THAT EXPENSIVE FOODSTUFF YOU BUY TO GET MORE VALUE

In my mini-garden I have Cocoyam and water yam growing- planted from remnants of the ones bought for eating.

But I don't have the normal sweet white yam   (Dioscorea rotundata)   that  is commonly known and eaten. Why? Because I have not bought it in a long time because it's outrageously expensive - you all know the price of this sweet  yam has been skyrocketing.

I was waiting for 'New Yam' to start arriving in the markets before buying in hope that the price of the yam would be considerably much lower. 

So imagine my shock when I asked for the price of this yam in the picture and was told - N2,000. Two thouuuuuusand for this  size of new yam grown here on Nigeria soil - Aaahhh!!!

So when I heard the price, I decided I was not  going to buy - some prices of what is grown here are just so annoying! There are other pressing needs other than food that also  need to be met.

But then I remembered I had been wanting to grow this type of yam in the mini-garden. It is based on that I bought this yam.  Well, I did get change of N200 after haggling further so I actually got it for N1,800

If you are able to grow some parts of that expensive foodstuff, you might not feel so crossed at the high price  as you would be able to get more value from it.

Even using the wastes of some foodstuffs to do something beneficial delivers more value to you than just eating - those are some of the ways we decrease pressures of current skyrocketing prices of items including food in the country.

You see these plantaiin peels, though I can use it to manure most plants in the garden, I prefer to use in manuring the Cocoyam, water yam plants and would also use to manure the sweet yam plants when they start growing.

Like they say in my home state - Ogun state to ginger people to work hard -''Omo Ogun Ise ya'.

#growingsweetyams
#growingwhiteyam
##manuringwithlantainpeels
#purwagriculture

PEPPER LEAVES - RICH IN NUTRIENTS, EASY TO GROW

There are lots of plants that are growing or can be grown all around us.

Most of them are yet to  be identified  so we don't know they are so very useful.

One of it is pepper leaves which can be used in cooking e.g  meat and gives it a spicy taste. I  would soon be exploring the possibility of drying it  and blending into powder to use as a barbecue or 'suya' spice  in grilling chicken, fish, beef, goat meat and so on.

How did it get to my garden? - I sprayed some seeds which I couldn't identify some months ago to see what plants would emerge.

When I saw these plants in the picture, I did some research and found out they are pepper leaves - commonly used in other continents to season food.

I then cut the stems and planted in sacks and they are growing- so easy to grow through seeds or stems.

I read that the pepper leaves are rich in vitamins  like A and C.  Eating them i.e. including in food can help improve health of consumers i.e. boost immunity

#pepperleaf
#pepperleaves
#pureagriculture
#agricutureversusgoodhealth
#minigardenresearch
#purebredseeds
#agriculturalmedicine
#gardeningindryseason
#growingcropsindryseason
#spaceconstrainedgarden
#gardeningincementedpremises
#gardeninginsacks
#growingplantsinsacks
#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening
#minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces  #spaceconstrainedurbangardening
#intercroppinginsoilsack.
#growingcornindryseason

ONION PEELS GOOD AS MANURE BUT HOLD ON!

If you have a garden, there's hardly any kitchen wastes. Even your onion peels/remnants are very good in manuring some crops such as the different pepper plants - chilli,  habanero, yellow pepper, cayenne,scent leaves - basil, curry leaves, tomatoes etc. Any crop you want to put some spiciness.

But hold on, if you have already planted the crops, you can't just pour the peels and remnants you cut out and pour straight.

If you use in manuring while fresh, it can sorely affect the growth of the plant - the leaves turn yellowish, even brownish and  plant would appear dying.

If you don't stop manuring with fresh onion remnants and other spices like fresh ginger peels, those plants may actually die. I have had such issues of pepper plants almost dying and after giving up on them, surprise! They came back to life very vigorous. Further investigation then revealed what happened.

But those pepper plants are so spicy and taste  great especially when used to spice any food.

So you may consider drying the remnants of onions you have - a few days of sun-drying is okay depending on intensity of the sun. Once dry, pour into the soil and await the fruiting of your spicy peppers.

If you've not planted the crops, you may dump while fresh in the soil surface or use in making compost with other wastes. Aĺow some time before planting.

Onion wastes are good source of minerals for the crops grown on such soil enriching your garden plants with good nutrients for human consumption. .

See that pepper plant in the picture just starting to fruit - I had given up on it as dead. After I discovered the fresh onion peels or remnants were what affected it's growth and I stopped, it bounced back. It's fruiting for the first time in many months - tasted a few of its peppers in spicing food and it's really nice.

So, zero onion  wastes -  more spice to your garden peppers and scent leaves - remember to first dry the onion remnants if adding to soil with crops already planted.

#onionlwastes
#pureagriculture
#agricutureversusgoodhealth
#minigardenresearch
#purebredseeds
#agriculturalmedicine
#gardeningindryseason
#growingcropsindryseason
#spaceconstrainedgarden
#gardeningincementedpremises
#gardeninginsacks
#growingplantsinsacks
#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening
#minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces  #spaceconstrainedurbangardening

POURING EGGSHELL POWDER IN GARDEN FOR SNAILS

Egg shells have many uses in human health, cosmetics and gardening or farming.

I use egg shells in cosmetics I make and as organic calcium for body health (more details in books I am writing)

In gardening apart from  using to manure soil (note: only very minimal quantity at a time) it is very useful as organic calcium supplements for snails - to strengthen their shells.

I have only few snails left - I started rearing mainly to obseve and have practical knowledge of snail farming for possible commercialisation in future.

I was keeping them in baskets but I noticed they were not getting as big as expected - I was feeding them mainly with fruit and vegetable remnants and leaves from my garden like potato, cocoyam, okra leaves.

I also give them soya bean chaff and egg shell powder. Sometimes I give solid carbs like plantain and the solid potatoes.

They would eat whatever is given them but would stop eating and there would be leftovers. I would wait for them to eat the leftovers but they wouldn't.

Then I would have to remove the leftovers, clean the baskets and put in fresh food supplies and water.

But still they were not growing fast enough. But I observed that at a time, some small ones escaped and for over a month or so I didn't see them.

When I was clearing a portion of the garden to remove worn out sacks and put the soil in new sacks, I recaptured some of the snails- they had fared better while they were roaming free in the garden - they grew considerably bigger.

I put them back in the cage so I can feed them directly. I didn't replenish stock by buying new snails but kept observing the few.

Their growth while caged was slow compared to when they were roaming  free, so I have decided to allow them roam free in that section of the garden that is somewhat dense.

I put them in the biggest sack. I know they may not stay there but they  can return there at any time.

Since they may not be able to source calcium by themselves, what I just do now is put eggshells or the powder in some sacks so that while roaming free they can find calcium supplements for their shells to develop. The eggshell powder is preferable as they can easily ingest it.

Why do you think snails fare better while roaming free than when caged and given food and water?

It reminds me of students in boarding school - they usually lose some weight while in boarding house compared to when  they are day -students. In boarding house, their food rations are controlled but  in many homes youngsters can eat as much as they want at their parents or guardians' expense.

So these snails apparently prefer to roam around  the dense part of my garden and eat whatever they like.

I rear  the light brown ones  that can grow very big - not those small dark brown ones  that are everywhere when it's wet  but cannot grow really big - when I see those, I throw them away from my garden.

So if you want to raise snails to big size,  keeping them caged in containers wouldn't work - provide enough space with vegetation - grow what they love- apart from fresh vegs, they particularly love the leaves of sweet carbohydrate plants.

If you plant maize, within the garden, they may eat the leaves. You may also put some plantains, banana, potato, tomato, cucumber and watermelon residues  around there- cut them open so the snails can eat the succulent inner part.

#eggshell #eggshellpowder  #eggshelluses  #pureagriculture
#agricutureversusgoodhealth
#minigardenresearch
#purebredseeds
#agriculturalmedication
#spaceconstrainedgarden
#gardeningincementedpremises
#gardeninginsacks
#growingplantsinsacks
#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening
#minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces  #spaceconstrainedurbangardening
#intercroppingsoilinsack.
#growingcornindryseason