GETTING MY SACK-PLANTED TREE CROPS TO FRUITING STAGE

I have been thinking of solutions to get a particular growing mango tree  to fruiting stage   - would be very interesting to see mango fruits on the trees planted  in sacks..

I have planted  mango, almond, bush mango, pawpaw and one other tree with big leaves, all in sacks. I have three mango seedlings.

One of the mango crops has passed the seedling stage to tree stage. The challenge is that apart from its root threatening to burst the sack, the mango tree appear too slim - it's now almost two and half  years old.

The root obviously need bigger soil mass for expansion. I planted the local variety of tree crops
because they easily germinate. The trees would likely need to grow tall and sturdy to start fruiting. - -

I have thought of transplanring the mango tree into  a large drum . Pending the time I get such drum I decided to put a tyre or is tire on the sack to hedge the soil from falling apart when the sack tears completely -  It was quite a challenge as the sack couldn't be carried up to put the tyre from the base.

Apart from being too heavy to carry, the sack is also torn and would likely tear completely if carried.

So I had to put the tyre from the top of the growing tree to the base around the sack - so the soil can still be hedged together if the sack tears completely. It was well worth it - didn't  know I could do it alone until I made the effort.

OTHER ACTIVITIES
I needed to get some soil to fill up a sack. The shovel came in handy -  - no garden tool could have done it faster  - of the ones I have - I then planted pepper and vegs.

OTHER GIST
By the time I rounded up the tasking work in the garden, I was so tired and famished that I could barely stand straight.

I dont even know which was more  whether the hunger or the tiredness. How I longed to reward my tired body with pounded yam and garden-rich vegetable soup o but I suspected I might pass out due to hunger or tiredness or both before I finish preparing the meal.

So I rewarded my worn-out body with boiled yam and fried egg garnished with garden condiment. By the time the meal was ready I could barely stand straight - I ate sha and my body recouped some energy  - so I write.

As revitalising as gardening is, it's when one consistently does the tasking aspects that the body protests. Thank God the hunger of today though intense  just pinched me but didn't actually slap me before I finished today's gardening and cooking to eat😀.

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

TACKLING NSECT ATTACK IN YOUR GARDEN

...quickly harvested and cooked my beans just in case

Wherever crops are grown, just as humans want to eat or use the crops,  other creatures also seek to eat. 
Afew days after celebrating the growth of beans in my mini-garden, I noticed insects have started swarming the beans.

Since I do organic growing of crops, I can't use chemical pesticides  - too many foodstuffs  in the open market grown  in large commercial quantities are produced with use of chemicals.

When you hear of people slumping and dying not long after, there is every  likelihood that the food they have been taking over time have toxins as a result of use of chemicals in growing, processing and preserving food .

Not all sudden deaths, if any are  due to witchcraft of village people  - let's focus on ensuring the food we grow and eat are healthy .So I needed to look for an organic solution to the insect attack.

I already noticed that the crops planted close to the Neem (Dongoyaro) tree hardly get insects infestation. The reason is simple- Neem leaves as well as the oil repel insects so can be used in production of organic pesticides.

Since I have a small garden, I decided not to produce organic pesticide but just plucked the stalks of Neem with the leaves and use them to wipe or whip the pods of beans.

I have a growing mango tree having insect attack as it's  planted in a sack somewhat far from the Neem tree in the premises. So I also did same with the mango leaves. I then left the stalks of neem leaves hanging on branches of the mango tree.

Some days later I noticed the insect infestations seem to have reduced on the mango tree and to some extent on the bean plant- you may already know that insects love beans so very much.

So, just in case the insects dare the Neem, I harvested most of the bean pods - they were still green - fortunately green beans are edible. In our clime the reason beans are allowed to dry before being sold for consumption is simple  - there is comparative advantage in sunlight and it is more commercially viable for large scale commercial farmers and merchants  to distribute beans in dried form  so the shelf-life can be prolonged -  no need for refrigeration

The advantage of growing in small quantities is that you can harvest and cook your beans while they are still fresh- so the beans I harvested, I boiled and added pepper and oil  - fried a bit and  added salt. I then made corn pap and had garden grown beans and pap for breakfast that morning.

If you harvest your matured beans while still green, even the pods are edible. So I cooked the beans with the pods- the pods are indeed edible but I don't really like the taste so I removed them- but the beans sweet o - I didn't even add onions and my garden beans still so very tasty. Henceforth, grow beans I must..

OTHER ACTIVITIES
I also planted yam during last week after doing tillage of the soil - packed out the soil with a shovel, put in a bucket, poured  the soil into a new sack and added organic manure - tillage is about the most tasking aspect of gardening.

This morning, I did similar tillage of
another sack of soil, manured and planted Okro. In farming -  do the best possible you can and trust the process that God - the Creator has put in place.

If there are issues, find out and rectify because the natural  growth process by the Creator is actually infallible- problems that emanate are directly or indirectly related to humans.

OTHER GIST
But am wondering o - when I was doing the tillage last week, even though I had taken fruit in the morning, can you guess what happened?  I was given a very hard slap - my entire body shook!. Really? Yes o - Hunger slapped me very hard!  I ran  all the way from the garden to the kitchen - you won't believe it- even though I was very tired, I pounded yam and ate with Okro soup! I tell these things because I used to be someone that I could work all day and not really eat, maybe just a snack and drink or even  nothing. .  But the more I get involved with farming through gardening work, the more  mean hunger is to my body - it's as though my body is saying - 'if you work this hard and don't eat, I will deal mercilessly with you.'

Even this morning, after taking tea, while doing the tillage, thankfully it was not a hard slap that hunger gave me just a  wicked  bite of my tummy - so I quickly went to boil egg and then rounded up the work in the garden.

Thank God for the  boiled egg I tool immediately I finished.  So I am able to write without hunger slapping me but hust sending reminders to my body.

I will go to garden to look for vegetables and cook the egusi soup and herring- shawa fish I bought. If not for fear of  what hunger  would do, I won't bother to cook, I would   spend more time doing reading on some  herbs and writing .

To cook is not easy o but since farm ing and eating -well are 5 and 6, dare  I not eat well after doing farm work in the garden? Not even tiredness from farm work can stop me. 

#dealingwithinsects
#dealingwithinsectattacks
#organicpesticide #minigarden
#neemleaves
#minigardencare

EVEN BEANS AGREE TO GROW IN SACK IN MY MINI-GARDEN

Imagine my excitement when I saw the pods of beans emerging from the bean plant grown in sack in my mini-garden.

I still do a lot of testing to see which plants can grow well and why not if they don't grow.   I planted the Cowpea or is it soya beans (not precisely sure now because I sprinkled both seeds in some sacks ) just to test o- I knew the plant would likely  emerge but didn't expect they would grow to pod forming stage.

The bean plants in about two other sacks grew to some extent and dried off.

By the way the maize - corn seeds I replanted after I saw a rat feasting on the seeds are yet to sprout - but I am no longer seeing any rat in my garden. Hope they are really gone and not just hiding because they found out I still have sone rat poison?

Surely the rats couldn't possibly have read my Social Media posts and fled?- not possible. But maybe the rat(s) that ate the poisoned delicacy  communicated to their counterparts what happened to them before they died.

Meanwhile I am ensuring that the surrounding area of my premises is kept clean just as I always keep within the premises clean.

But sighs....not everyone sees the need to keep their premises and the environs clean. Whether gardening or not, the cleanliness of people's immediate surroundings may be a reflection of the people.

Understandably not everyone would be able to engage in gardening, but at least keep your environment clean and uncluttered.

If you do decide to grow some plants, please ensure they are well-tended by doung it yourself or paying people to do it.

No point in growing plants and allowing them to grow so wild and untended that these  constitute nuisance in the environment .

This Nigeria self - it's becoming more and more obvious that the  issues of the country are what is called 'afowofa' - problems the person(s) caused by themselves.

Hmmmm....what will I do with the small  quantity of beans to be harvested from the sack harvest? Shebi something similar is used as fried rice ingredients and in salads? Maybe I will use it to cook/garnish local fried rice or local salad

My people most of those ingredients used in these dishes are highly commercialised because their market demand are high. So they are more often than not grown with fertilizers,  pesticides, herbicides and preserved also with some effective but harmful elements - please let's encourage commercial farmers to do organic farming and preservation  to help our populace in living healthy and long.

#cowoea #soyabeans #growingbeansinsacks #spaceconstrainedgardening #gardeninginsmallspaces
#gardeninginsacks
#pureagriculture
#agricutureversusgoodhealth
#minigardenresearch
#growingcornindryseason
#growingcornallyearround
#throughbredseeds
#purebredseeds
#agriculturalmedicine
#gardeningindryseason
#growingcropsindryseason
#growingcropsinsacks
#growingmaizeinsacks
#spaceconstrainedgarden
#gardeningincementedpremises
#gardeninginsacks
#growingplantsinsacks
#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening
#minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces  #spaceconstrainedurbangardening
#intercroppinginsoilsack.
#growingcornindryseason

YOUR GARDEN - YOUR BODY REPLENISHING CENTRE

Apart from having serious menstrual pains, a lady also used to feel empty and weak after her menstrual period.

She went to a  pharmacy and explained that dilemma to the pharmacist on duty. The pharmacist said  she needed to be taking blood tonic after the menstrual flow to replenish her body. 

The pharmacist recommended a particular brand of manufactured  blood tonic in a bottle.  The blood tonic was good, served it's purpose of helping her regain  some strength after her menstrual flow..

But it so happened  that some months later when the blood tonic finished , due to her schedule,  she was unable to go to that pharmacy. Coupled with the fact that she still used to experience pains during the days of menstrual flow, so the period of menstruatuon used to  slow down her work pace and much work would be awaiting her attention afterwards.
 
She  couldn't find that particular brand of blood tonic in nearby pharmacies.

Being a curious scientist, she had been checking even before then the composition of the blood  tonic and noticed that among other elements it contained iron.

From her other studies she knew that many leaves, if not all,  contain iron and some leaves have higher concentration.

Iron is a vital nutrient for blood. So she sought out those leaves- starting with the first one - bitter leaves. She began to eat the leaves raw towards the end of her menstrual period. 

Bitter leaves  is too bitter for many people to eat raw though. She also discovered that by boiling  leaves called blood leaves  which have a reddish juice and sweetening it with natural sweeteners- fruit juice, honey or dates- her body became  very well-replenished.

The benefits of those two leaves mentioned  go beyond getting rid of menstrual pains before, during and after the menstrual flows  - they also help in other functioning of the body for both males and females.

In fact blood leaves have about exactly same effects  as blood tonic - to reduce the drowsihess drinking the juice causes, especially if taken in the morning, you may boil with lemon grass . Then ensure you eat well - just as you should eat well  when you take  manufactured blood tonic.

As for the male folks, since you don't do menstruation😂 if you don't want female folks becoming stronger than you physically,  you may also take blood leaves juice and lemon grass.

When you see a woman carrying shovel 'upandan' to scoop sand to fill sacks for gardening, don't wonder too much. Find out what she's been taking -   the secret(s) may be  in that garden. I remember the bible says, the life of a thing is in the blood .

You see these blood leaves ehnn! The rate they grow is amazing! Even if the stalk just drops on the ground and there is little soil, it would likely sprout just like the one in picture.

By the way ladies don't  always wait till after menstrual flow to give your body healthy boost

#bloodleaves
#bodyreplenishing
#bodyboost
#pureagriculture
#agricutureversusgoodhealth
#minigardenresearch
#purebredseeds
#agriculturalmedicine
#gardeningindryseason
#growingcropsindryseason
#spaceconstrainedgarden
#gardeningincementedpremises
#gardeninginsacks
#growingplantsinsacks
#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening
#minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces  #spaceconstrainedurbangardening
#intercroppinginsoilsack.
#growingcornindryseaso