Tag: garlic

Growing Vegetables in Shade – a list of shady plants

Did you know? Green leafy veg that is grown in shade, is less bitter.

Does your garden site receive as few as two hours of direct sunlight a day or only get dappled sunlight? Growing vegetables in shade is possible! – but make sure you select plants that will tolerate and grow in these conditions. You can not force or convince a fruit bearing vegetable like tomatoes, to thrive in shade.

Partially shaded: A garden that has light shade or dappled shade all day, or gardens that receive 2 – 6 hours of direct sun per day, either in the morning or the afternoon with light or full shade otherwise.

Lightly shaded gardens receive a few hours of sun plus plenty of indirect or reflected light for many hours each day.

Deep shade refers to almost no sunlight at all. Only root crops will tolerate these growing conditions.

Growing vegetables in shade will be successful with these vegetables that will grow in partial shade:

  • Beets (will tolerate a lot of shade)
  • Broccoli
  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Cabbage
  • Carrots (will tolerate a lot of shade)
  • Cauliflower
  • Celery
  • Chard
  • Chinese Cabbage
  • Endive Greens
  • Garlic
  • Horseradish
  • Kale
  • Kohlrabi
  • Lettuce
  • Leeks
  • Parsnips
  • Peas
  • Potatoes (will tolerate a lot of shade)
  • Radishes
  • Sorrel
  • Spinach
  • Summer Squash
  • Turnips
  • Watercress

Examples of herbs that will grow in partial shade include:

  • Angelica
  • Basil
  • Catnip
  • Chives
  • Garden Cress
  • Horseradish
  • Lemon Balm
  • Loveage
  • Mint
  • Parlsey
  • Rosemary
  • Sweet Flag
  • Valerian
  • Woodruff

Keep in mind:

  • Growing vegetables in shade means maturing will take longer.
  • Planting near walls will reflect more light on your plants.
  • Planting in containers will allow you to move your plants around as needs arise.
  • Yields will be smaller when griwing vegetables in shade.
  • Seed germination will be more successful if done indoors.
Just over 4 minutes of great advice!

Best Medicinal Plants list: something for everyone

“Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.” Erma Bombeck

Photo by federico passi on Unsplash

Below is my best medicinal plants list (and further down is an interesting video on medicinal little wild plants that volunteer to grow any and everywhere). Important: Always talk with your healthcare provider before taking any herbal medicines.

-Aloe Vera
Uses: Treating skin irritations, burns, cuts or superficial infections. Juice helps for digestion. Parts used: Leaves.

-Basil
Uses: Treatment of diabetes, asthma and stress, antiviral and antioxidant properties, and also used to repel insects. Parts used: Leaves.

-Chamomile
Uses: Sedative for anxiety and relaxation, wound healing and to reduce inflammation or swelling. Parts used: Flowers. Important to note: It is possible for Chamomile to interfere with the interaction between your body and certain medicines. Always talk with your healthcare provider before taking any herbal medicines.

-Dandelion
Uses: Excellent diuretic and liver tonic. Sometimes used to treat eczema, regulates blood sugar levels and arthritis. A little plant that punches strong on my best medicinal plants list. Parts used: all. Always talk with your healthcare provider before taking any herbal medicines.

-Echinacea
Uses: Treating / preventing common colds, flu, and infections, and for wound healing. Parts used: Leaves, stalks, roots. Always talk with your healthcare provider before taking any herbal medicines.

-Feverfew
Uses: Treating fevers and arthritis, and also possibly preventing migraines. Parts used: Leaf. Always talk with your healthcare provider before taking any herbal medicines. Feverfew can cause mouth ulcers and digestive irritation and should never be used alongside non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicines and definitely not with Warfarin or other anticoagulant medicines.

-Garlic
Uses: Lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, has antimicrobial effects, possibly reducing total and LDL cholesterol levels and possibly cancer preventing. Parts used: Cloves and root. Always talk with your healthcare provider before taking any herbal medicines. Garlic should be avoided with Warfarin users, because large amounts of garlic may affect clotting. Because of it’s blood thinning qualities, it should also be avoided before surgeries.

-Ginger
Uses: Anti-inflammatory and digestive aid, easing nausea and motion sickness. Parts used: Root. How? in dishes, teas and tinctures. Highlight this one on the best medicinal plants list!

-Ginkgo
Uses: Extract from the Ginkgo leaf is used to treat memory loss and prevention of dementia, asthma and bronchitis, fatigue and tinnitus. Parts used: only leaf extracts. Always talk with your healthcare provider before taking any herbal medicines and especially Ginkgo

-Golden seal
Uses: To treat diarrhea, as an antiseptic and treatment for colds, and to treat eye and skin irritations.
Parts used: Root, rhizome. Always talk with your healthcare provider before taking any herbal medicines.

-Lavender
Uses: Lavender has anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties can help with treatment of anxiety and insomnia, migraine and depression.

-Milk thistle
Uses: Treating liver conditions and high cholesterol, and also to reduce cancer cell growth. Parts used: leaves and fruit. Always talk with your healthcare provider before taking any herbal medicines.

-Mint
Uses: Treating headaches and skin irritations, nausea or diarrhea, pain or bloating, digestion or chest congestion. Parts used: Leaves and stems

-Rosemary
Uses: Treatment in slowing down Alzheimer’s disease, as anti-bacterial and anti-fungal treatments. Parts used: Leaves and stalks.

-Sunflowers
Uses: As an astringent, a diuretic and an expectorant treatment and to reduce fevers and cold symptoms It has excellent toxic substance removal properties (which is why the Russian Government used it as a floor cleaner at the Chernobyl Power Plant after the nuclear disaster). Parts used: Leaves

Please send us your pictures, challenges and success stories in the comment section below, so that we can all learn together!

Plants for Regenerative Gardens and growing

Plants for Regenerative Gardens is all about Plant regeneration – definition: Plant regeneration refers to the physiological renewal, repair, or replacement of tissue in plants.

On the list of gardeners and plants for regenerative gardens are examples of magic, and believers in magic. To see a small dice-size sweet potato sprout turn into a crop that never runs out… that is magic!  “Eventually, my eyes were opened, and I really understood nature. I learned to love at the same time.” – Claude Monet 

How magic are these TOP 10 plants for regenerative gardens. They literally re-grow themselves. Two for the price and effort of one!

  • Romain lettuce and Bok Choy will regrow when you add the stump to a glass and fill with water to the shallow depth of about 1cm. Refresh with new water daily and watch how it’s growing on. It’s that easy.
  • A sweet potato can be kept in a plastic back at the back of a cupboard to allow for side shoots to form. Cut a little chunk off the tuber, around from where the vine grows from. Plant these slips in the soil and watch it all unfold. You will wonder why you have ever bought sweet potatoes.
  • Spring onions are at the top of the easiest list. Pack the little bulb ends in a glass together, so that they fit snug enough not to fall over. Fill the glass with 1cm of water and make sure you replace this water with fresh water every day. Expect new plants within a week.
  • Sprouting garlic bulbs will provide you with greens for your salads and sandwiches that are packed with flavor. They have furthermore amazing anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal properties. Additionally, one cup of chopped greens can give you a whopping third of your daily Vitamin C needs. So we can see that immune systems will be boosted and so will your dish. Place the cloves in a class, packed (like spring onions) together firmly. Fill the bottom centimeter with water and refresh daily.
  • Ever considered growing carrots for their greens? Place discarded carrot tops in a dish with you their stumps just covered with water. Replace and refresh water as needed. Carrot leaves are not only edible but will give you at least 5 times more vitamin C than the root, while also rich in other vitamins, minerals and protein, calcium and potassium.
  • Celery and lemon grass can both plants for regenerative gardens and can easily
     be grown from their bottom stumps by the same method of standing in shallow water.
  • Love onions and like the idea of never having to buy them again? The bottoms that are usually thrown away can be planted in well-draining good soil and covered with a 2cm layer of soil. Make sure to first dry this piece for a day or 2. Within a week or 2, leaves will poke above the soil. Remove from the soil at this time together with shriveled skins. Take a sharp knife and cut the bottom into sizable pieces, each with their own roots. Replant in good soil and cut back the top two thirds of the leaves as this will help bulb formation.
  • Pineapples are fantastic plants for regenerative gardens and heads should be re-planted! Remove the bottom leaves so that a slender crown is left. Plant the bottom in soil, firm down around the crown and forget about it. The new pineapple plant needs patience and will only grow a new fruit in about 2 years. Pineapple plants are great for those areas in the garden that little else works for.

Please send us your pictures, challenges and success stories so that we can all learn together!