MY LITTLE GARDEN IS SMALL COSMETOLOGY RESEARCH CENTRE

I didn't really know such a very little garden has potential for so much. In my past posts I'd been contemplating how to include the beneficial properties of mango leaves in my bathing soap and hair wash. 

I don't know if it is science-based or indigenous knowledge or my 50 year old brain thinking deep. Maybe it's divine revelation. But it just occurred to me that I could infuse those qualities of mango leaves indirectly into my bathing soap and hair wash through the growing Aloe Vera plant(s). 

This entails manuring the Aloe Vera plant constantly with mango leaves. 

I already manure with lemon grass - I can use the fresh lemon grass and mango leaves and/or the remnants left after boiling them for tea. 

While on that it occurred to me I can as well use the peels and other remnants of oranges, also pawpaw leaves and stalks, soya bean chaff etc to manure the Aloe Vera.

The Aloe Vera juice i.e. that inner slimy part is a very vital ingredient I use in compounding my bathing soap and hair wash. 

Rather than go through processing all these other leaves or herbs and fruits to add to cosmetics, it is possible to get at least one of the vital ingredients already used infused with those materials  while it is growing.

When I start growing the other cosmetic  ingredients I use i.e. spices, I can also infuse them with anything I find to have beneficial qualities.  

Which reminds me- this lemon-scented plant  that sprouted on its own in my garden can also become a regular manure for the Aloe Vera so I can tap into the lemon qualities. 

So the Aloe Vera I would be growing going forward would be Super Aloe Vera. By using it in cosmetics, I surely would  not need  to lay foundation on my face or paint it even in my golden years before applying ordinary powder  -  with Natural Cosmetics, you don't need to hide your real face

 😀

#Aloevera

#pureagriculture

#agricutureversusgoodhealth 

#minigardenresearch

#purebredseeds

#agriculturalmedicine

#gardeningindryseason 

#growingcropsindryseason 

#spaceconstrainedgarden

#gardeningincementedpremises

#gardeninginsacks

#growingplantsinsacks

#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening 

 #minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces  #spaceconstrainedurbangardening

#intercroppinginsoilsack. 

#growingcornindryseason

MY MANGO TREE SEEDLING IS OUTGROWING SACK IT'S PLANTED IN

Over the weekend, a friend told me she had fever some weeks ago, went to the hospital got treated. She recovered somewhat but there was a relapse - the fever returned. She became sick again.

Her mother then got some leaves of trees including mango leaves, boiled and gave her to drink.  She recovered fully.

What sparked that conversation was my natural look - I don't use herbs as treatment but as food if edible and for hygiene.

When this friend  mentioned mango leaves, I was glad that despite the possible challenge(s) of growing in containers, that I had decided to plant mangoes in sacks since I currently can't plant directly in the soil.

Though I have few other mango seedlings in other sacks, the main one is that which I transplanted  around third quarter of last year.

I have tried to slow down it's growth by using the stems as stakes to the snake tomato plants  which have very short growing cycles of about three to four months.

So the mango tree isn't growing so fast but still growing anyway. The root  must be getting bigger as the sack it is planted is getting torn.

I would have loved for it to fruit at least once before relocating it. But the growth even though hindered must not be completely  stopped - you know when any living thing stops growing, it will die.

So to keep it alive, it has to grow even if slowly. If it doesn't fruit in the sack, mango leaves are useful - apart from herbal treatments. It can  be taken as tea.

It is anti-inflammatory so it can be used in food that have tendency for inflammation e.g. beans. I also use it in washing my hair.

I am even exploring possibility of including it in my bathing soap which I compound with other edible agricultural raw materials- the fragrance of mango leaves is quite nice. But when I sun-dried the leaves, the sweet fragrance  has reduced so much- almost non-existent.  But I am still researching on how best to use it for hygiene purpose.

Meanwhile, I am wondering what to do when the sack the mango tree is planted in completely tears - are there bigger sacks that are also  very durable?

Caution: if you have a fever, please seek professional medical advice/help, don't just go and boil leaves to drink. It takes years of experience and training to understand herbal medicine.

#mangoleaves
#mangoplant
#mangotree
#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

TRANSPLANTED MY BITTERLEAF PLANT TO BIGGER SACK

BITTERLEAF is a shrub - a small tree so it sure needs more soil depth to grow than small plants.

Can you see how the sack of soil it was planted in has torn? That is one of the challenges of this garden established mainly  with sacks. 

I have  even put in  a second sack when the first sack started getting torn but it's root  still need more space. 

So with this bigger sack I brought out, I hope it will have yet more opportunity to grow and produce more leaves.

 To transplant, remember that you should not uproot if it's a plant has been growing somewhat deep. Gently scrape the soil around the root - see above

 Snce I wanted the bitterleaf to have much more soil than before, I got another sack of soil already in the garden that's also getting torn. This one has a few basil(effirin plants) I replanted the effirin in another container-- an old jerrycan cut into two- if you have any leaky jerrycan, don't throw away, they can be used as container to plant in the garden.

So I poured the soil in the torn sack in the new sack. Then I poured the soil  had scraped off around the bitterleaf and poured in the new sack. I got kitchen wastes  - plantain peels, soya bean chaff and garden wastes - dried  Neem leaves, dried blood leaves, some potato leaves  and poured in the sack.

 Then I carried the bitterleaf plant which still had some soil sticking to the root and put in the new sack.

Then I filled the sack with more soil from another container in the garden. If working alone, before the sack gets too heavy for you to carry, ensure you put it in the position its to be situated before you fill the sack with more soil and manure. 

Behold the taller sack of  soil with bitterleaf planted in it along with another plant which has a nice lemon-like scent - I  have not identified it yet.

 Since I scraped off soil from it to fill the sack for the bitterleaf, I also planted this lemon-scented plant along with the bitterleaf in same sack.

Even if that plant  is not edible, it would likely be good for cosmetics - it's not itchy - maybe I will incorporate it into my organic soap to give it that lemon-like scent.

 Which reminds me, this weekend, I plucked Aloe Vera in this my mini-garden to compound my bathing soap and also added natural spices - I have used the soap for just very

 few days  and my skn seems to be telling me special  'thank you, thank you' and saying 'if you continue  blessing me this way, me - your skin will serve you well till ripe old age' 😁

 Aaawwwnnn! Isn't that sweet! Even if you think it's my imagination talking,, the fact that my skin is feeling real good isn't imagination. 

#bitterleaf

#bitterleafplant

#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

PLANTING FRUIT TREE SEEDS IN SACKS

The downpour yesterday was so very massive. Though glad for the rainfall as plants thrive better with rain water, I somewhat missed the early morning work session in the garden.
So very glad that the heavens freed this morning of rain so  I can do some things in the garden.

I decided to plant mango in one of the sacks. I had planted pomegranate in that same sack over three months ago but seedling didnt emerge.   I suppose the seeds of pomegranate which is not native to our clime are not pure bred.
To get such seeds to germinate would need some extra extra boost because the pomegranate tree they came from was likely chemically-induced.
But the seeds of organic locally-grown mango sprouts so easily without any special support.  Though I already have a mango plant growing in a sack and about two other seedlings in the mini-garden, I am planting this particular mango seed because the mango its  taken from is so very big  - the type that would be good for producing fruit snacks. More so it's a local variety. So I expect it would germinate  soon - should I say wish me luck?
Though it's not likely the tree seeds I am planting would grow to maturity in the sacks, I am hoping that by the time they outgrow the sacks I would have my farmland to transplant them in.

See the almond tree seedling behind me - I think it's the birds that gave been bringing the seeds and one happen to germinate in one of the sacks of soil.

I have been taking care of it since it germinated - I manure with the stalks of dried pawpaw leaves that fall down .

Today I also cut off branches of the Dongoyaro (NEEM) tree that refused to die despite several attempts I made to decapitate it. I am drying the leaves for a special purpose  - for healthy and beauty treatments. Will reveal  what precisely with time.

Meanwhile the dried NEEM leaves I already stored many months ago have stayed too long to use for that purpose so I burn them to drive away mosquitoes and other insects.

I learnt recently that burning Dongoyaro (NEEM) leaves also cleanse the atmosphere around  by killing bacteria which may be harmful - I think it should also cleanse the atmosphere of carbon monoxide from generator fumes and vehicular engines  - all these natural solutions remind me of the scripture  2nd Peter 1:3 that God's divine power has given us everything that pertains unto life and godliness ...

#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

GROWING POWER-PACKED FOODS

...guard against soil pollution, boost crop nutrients

Do you know if you plant food crops on a polluted land, the toxins might be ingested by the plant and can constitute danger to the health of the consumer?

Even if you do organic farming - i.e. you don't use chemical fertilizer,  pesticide or herbicide.

Let's say for instance there are factories that release polluted wastes to the soil in the vicinity of the land where growing of food crops is done. The toxins in the wastes can get mixed with surface and/or underground water and be carried to the location of nearby farms or gardens.

The roots of the crops can ingest the toxins and may die. But the plants may still live and produce fruits with traces of the toxins in them.

This is not to scare you o - chances are that the traces of the toxins in the plants may not cause ill-health in consumers except over a very long period of time of constantly eating such.

OTHER GIST
In this my mini-garden, I thought since plants can ingest elements from the soil, since I have soil in sacks, let me put nutritious elements in the sacks of soil.

Lemon grass for instance has a whole lot of health benefits, so this mini-garden researcher today started manuring some sacks of soil with lemon grass - if the nutrients in lemon grass are ingested by crops such as corn, pineapple, pepper etc,  wouldn't that be great?

As you see me so, na scientific . experiments I dey  do for this my urban mini-garden. 

If I must farm, it must be farming to provide solutions to health issues - food should heal us, not hurt us.

#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

IF YOU NEED IT AND YOU CAN GROW IT, DO

My first planted Aloe Vera is ready for use!

I use Aloe Vera as one of the ingredients in my bathing soap, also in my hair wash. 

Why So important?

I discovered that commercially grown Aloe Vera sold in the market may have been planted with fertilizer or some other chemicals - well such Aloe Vera causes very serious itching in my skin when I use it. 

Example 

I have already written many times how I developed skin lotion with edible agricultural raw materials to prevent skin problems.

Very few days before the 1st Covid19 Lockdown, I went in search of a packaged lotion I had been using for many years. 

The Lotion had the plain white variant and later the producers started other variants including some agricultural ingredients.

 Some months before then I had bought and used the variant with Aloe Vera. I used to have skin itching at that period due to Eczema which I had suffered from for many years. 

So as a result I started researching on what to do to permanently solve the skin problem. I noticed that some lotions, creams and soaps as well as some foods and drinks aggravated the itching problem I was having. So my observation was very keen. 

I didn't  have too much itching from using other variants of the lotion- just some rashes with mild itching. But whenever I used the variant with Aloe Vera, the itching would become so very intense. So I avoided using the variant. 

But when I needed to urgently shop for necessities few days before Covid Lockdown, I discovered that the shelves of most supermarkets and provisions stores were almost empty - people had shopped ahead. 

So I couldn't get  any of other variants of the lotion I wanted. I had to buy again this variant with Aloe Vera. It had the same serious itching effect. So it was around that Covid Lockdown petiod  I seriously  started compounding and using my own skin lotion with edible agricultural raw materials. I had of course been doing some research several months before then. 

I decided not to use Aloe Vera in compounding the skin lotion. But when researching on agro ingredients for my bathing soap and hair wash, I realised Aloe Vera would be essential since I didnt want to use Palm oil. 

But I was worried about buying Aloe Vera in the open market because I wouldn't know how it was grown - compounding these cosmetics have helped to tackle the skin issues I was having.  So I couldn't take chances with using the wrong quality of that ingredient. 

Making my bathing soap

Later I discovered a very Dear Lady also into gardening has a lot of Aloe Vera plants grown through organic means. She always gave me the Aloe Vera I needed for the soap-making. 

Some months ago - I think it was towards 4th quarter of last year, I asked myself - why not start growing mine? - It was so much easier to collect the freebies but even though my garden is so very small I could still grow few Aloe Vera plants. 

So I  started - incidentally - this very Sweet Mummy that was giving me Aloe Vera freely has just travelled to USA and would be staying for awhile. 

So if I had  been  enjoying  the freebies so much that I didnt  make plans to grow or get by myself, wetin I for do now o?

 Would I have started going to open market to buy what I am unsure of? So if you can, always make plans to do by yourself, what others do for you.

#Aloevera

#plantingAloeverainsack

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

#growingcornallyearround

#throughbredseeds

#purebredseeds

#agricresearches

MY SAUCE DOES NOT LACK TOMATOES EVEN IN SCARCITY

I heard tomatoes are currently  scarce and expensive? Is that so? - I didn't even know until  someone mentioned it in passing- I've not needed to buy tomatoes for weeks now but still been enjoying rich tomato sauce - the goodness of snake (paste) tomatoes   (Trichosanthes cucumerina)  which I planted few months ago. 

Some years ago, it was during the period of serious tomato scarcity. I was at a prayer meeting with my grown-up niece.

The person leading the prayers was a very sophisticated lady in her 70s then. One of the prayer points she raised for people to pray and which she  prayed very loudly, fervently was, "Oh God, in this period of tomato scarcity, my sauce will not lack tomatoes o.!....

After the prayer meeting my niece laughed and laughed as she recalled the prayer point and  the sophisticated  Mama's  prayer- didn't know such matter could be brought to the church pulpit.

Well, virtually every year in Nigeria in recent times especially during the rainy season, the price of  the rounded tomatoes skyrocket- for many people, buying so much tomatoes as they normally do at such high prices is outrageous, very annoying and even not worth it and that is if you get to buy.

So people buy less and make do with lesser quantities of tomatoes in their sauces for stews, soups, jollof rice and other delicacies enriched with tomatoes.

Many also turn to packaged tomato pastes -sachets,tins  and bottled which are not as fresh and healthy but can add colour to their sauces. But you see this snake (paste) tomatoes is the rich goodness of tomatoes at its peak.

The beautiful part is that it matures and ripen even during rainy season in open gardens and fields unlike rounded tomatoes which would need expensive greenhouses at such period to grow, mature and ripen. 

Now I am enjoying the paste tomatoes I planted in January ending/February.  Prayer answered - Oh God, I thank you o - my sauce does not lack tomatoes!

It's a whole lot of work removing the relatively big seeds from the paste but so well worth it - there are many good things in life but they usually require some sacrifice.

This tomato sauce  with just a little addition of pepper and natural spice even tastes like ketchup -  this sauce is a good friend to fried yam and cocoyam.

No need to worry about  chemicals used in growing tomatoes and preservatives used in preserving the packaged ones.

So if you can, make una farm for farm-fresh foods, but  our people go still  dey do shakara- lifestyle terminal diseases no dey kuku respect  even big people.

#richtomatosauce
#snaketomatoes
#harvestsize
#cornsize
#manuring
#manuringwithfruits
#manuringwithsweetfruits
#wateringplants
#climatechange
#dryseasonplanting
#pineappleplant
#pineapplenowfruiting
#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
#growingcornallyearround
#throughbredseeds
#purebredseeds
#agricresearches