I believe the biggest themes of life are put into the best focus when held up against the very sharp light of mortality. — Mitch Albom
Keeping Your Garden Hot and Spicy
Gardening is sexy.
I mean gardening lets you workout your mind, body, and soul. It helps you eat better by planting good things. It helps you tone down your bad habits and definitely makes you stronger against inflation.
It certainly does not make your mama proud tho, but that's an asian thing, you can still do a profession and also plant a garden. You can be a doctor and grow herbs. You can be a lawyer and harvest a cauliflower. I don't know, I'm a tech guy who also ferments stuff with Lactobacilli.
When the pandemic started, a lot of people became plant-mamas and plant-daddies in an instant, like it's their roots and it was a calling they didn't know if the pandemic didn't happen at all. But since the world had slowly forced people to break the new normal and head back to the old normal, almost everyone eventually left gardening and headed back to their office space. It's not a bad thing as we need to have a job to feed ourselves and our family.
The point is, everyone has a gift for nurturing the Earth. It is imprinted in our very own DNA, when we are endangered our instincts recollect our primitive survival handbook to help us survive and thrive.
Even without a teacher, we can somehow know how to grow plants and what plants are edible. But don't be like Uncle Gary who died eating wild mushrooms in the forest, maybe join a permaculture group, use Google search, or download a gardening app to properly guide you even in a remote setting.
Gardening can be boring and monotonous at times, some friends even wake up with ghost orders from online seed stores which they probably not plant at all and just store in the cabinets.
Like life, gardening has its own season and you must ride with it, not against it. In Japan, they say, has 72 micro-seasons and that is more interesting than just listening to weather forecasts. Maybe make a journal too and record what you observe each time you visit your garden. Is today, Parsley Flourishes season?
During summer days, it can be really hot and humid, but did you know you can literally make your garden spicy?
On some countries with snow, gardeners can grow chili peppers in greenhouses, by using straw bales as garden beds (with soil, of course) and also as natural heating. As it decomposes it gives nutrients back to the plant roots.
Since we don't have snow, I still can continue gardening almost 365 days in a year. Today, I am growing more Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) in the food forest. Lemongrass is a grass, so it can literally grow and multiply on its own. You can grow it from seeds or from stalks with roots, which you can buy in Asian stores, see more here.
In about four months, lemongrass can multiply from just one stalk to ten or more, if left to grow to a year or more it can really grow into a fat bunch that gives you unlimited source for your kitchen or your projects.
It goes well with traditional Filipino cuisines using exotic meats. These cuisines are usually grilled, roasted, soups, and stew. It also goes well on recipes using coconut milk.
Also, lemongrass can be used to make essential oils to repel mosquitos, I don't have the recipe, but likely you'll need a ton of lemongrass stalks to get an ounce of essential oil, based on experience. With it, you can infuse it to homemade lotions and balms, to help deal with insect bites.
I enjoyed highlighting lemongrass as a great spice to add to your garden or in a food forest. As the new year progresses, my goal is to grow long-term and low-maintenance crops in my little food forest.
PINNED POSTS
 | A Sustainability Review of the Year 2022 Starting from January, let's have a trip down the highlights of my journey in self-sufficiency and sustainability. |
 | Clearing the Damage After the Storm Instead of falling into anxiety, I took time to make use of what the storm had given. |
 | Building Abundance with More Fruit Trees Amid the Economic Turmoil This year, I planned to initially plant 100 trees wherever possible until the year ends. |
 | Using Saltwater and Fire to Heal a Permaculture Garden Plant debris becomes natural mulch and organic matter. |
 | Harvesting Cucumbers After a Year of Labor As crops mature, harvest season began as well. |
 | Fermenting Fish Amino Acid for the Garden Crops It would be a sin to throw away such things, even the food scraps I turn it to compost now. |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|
About Me
@oniemaniego is a software developer, but outside work, he experiments in the kitchen, writes poetry and fiction, paints his heart out, or toils under the hot sun.
 | Onie Maniego / Loy Bukid was born in rural Leyte. He often visits his family orchards during the summers and weekends, which greatly influenced his works. |
Support with Crypto
Bitcoin 34hdQNHHFUodqegi2wwNeNw2p35ewvnaXQ
Ethereum 0xd36126ab2463c3404cca1c97d8f3337917dfd113
Not yet on Hive? Earn while blogging.
Sign up with PeakD | Ecency
Lemon grass grows easily in any place! I have a lot of them in my garden in school.
@\missjoycee It's nice that schools continue gardening! tbh, I might have said it before, but my elementary school experiences in gardening was what really inspired me to do farming. :)
Glad that you grow lemongrass too!
Same here sir ☺️!You know what we are required to do in school taught me to love this! It's more than fulfilling to see that what you planted grew and you are able to harvest the fruit of your labor!
Lemon grass is just a very beneficial plant not only it does enhance the smell of your food but it also has health benefits, too!
Gardening itself is a medicine, it can be bitter at times, but it heals whatever pains you inside... and lemongrass too, it's medicinal 😅
I tried planting lemon grass too, once. And now it's gone. I'm trying to plant but looks like I'm not into it. I just started it, but not able to cultivate and take care of it continuously. But it's enjoyable. Especially if the plant bears fruits or veggies.
Hii Mayt, that experience can be hard most of the times, but is totally relatable. I, too, have hard time growing other vegetables. Personally the three things that I was successful growing to-date were cucumbers, gingers, and lemongrass, but... others were always a failure at nth try, LOL!
Anyway, it was still an enjoyable experience trying to grow stuff. :D
Yeah. I enjoyed planting as well and already tried harvesting cucumbers and okra on it. Now I don't have any. I hope you encourage me to plant again through your posts. 😅
The nice thing about gardening is we can keep some things as secret, but we'll surely share our bumper harvests like we're pro gardeners 😆 hahaha
Just keep exploring btw, I myself will try growing pumpkins and tomatoes again this year for the 3rd time after failures, #crossfingers 🤞🏼
What kind of seeds is okay for planting? Is it the one you bought per pack or just the seeds from the vegetables themselves?
The seeds packs are great, but check their best before date bc the longer it stays in the shelves the lesser chances that all seeds can sprout and grow healthily. Also, there's a 99% guarantee that you'll have a high quality harvest if you follow the caring guide.
But as a practice, I also collect seeds from the kitchen and other unusued vegetable stalks that can be regrown in the garden, but when grown, it sometimes don't look 100% like its 'parent' plant but that's the surprise. 😆
Hahaha, I love surprises. But not on this. 🙈 Anyways, thanks for answering my question.
That’s awesome, I love your gardening journal. Would love to grow lemongrass here too, but I don’t think out climate in uk suits it 😉
Oh that's sad, maybe you can try again by growing it inside your kitchen by the window sill? Or that would look silly especially it's normally not a small herb. ;D
Thaanks btw @\fantagira7!!
Not a bad idea! I’ll see if I can find some seeds i shops 😁
Looking forward to it, tell me gow it goes haha 😆🙏🏼
Sure! If I manage to find seeds 😉
Hey! Just to let you know - when you vote on comments with the value of less than $0.02, it all gets dusted back to the rewards pool. Don’t waste your voting mana on comments for now. Just use it for posts 💙
It's fine, I also build on Hive outside my main account to help discover great authors.
Hive has this mana and RC thing, but I'm gonna drain it if there's genuine conversations happening. hahahah
Anyway, thanks for the time and for the advice. See you around Hive!
Due to the restrictions in COVID, you are right that people who never thought of being involved in gardening started planting in an attempt to survive. We simply realize it is a secure way to provide for things that cannot be easily gotten.
This post has been selected to be curated by @lazy-panda of the Hive Learners Community.
I've seen a lot friends who became green thumbs at the depth of the pandemic, though I'm sure it came naturally. Maybe we are just all to busy chasing dreams and careers that we have so little time to plant or do gardening before. :D
Lemongrass can be found almost everywhere in my country. If I'm not mistaken, one time I heard a friend tell me that he takes the juice of lemongrass to cure or prevent malaria.
I didn't know that, then lemongrass an interesting and potent natural medicine that everyone, especially scientists should delve into. :D
Thank you for sharing this post on HIVE!
Your content got selected by our fellow curator rezoanulvibes & you just received a little thank you upvote from us for your great work! Your post will be featured in one of our recurring compilations which are aiming to offer you a stage to widen your audience within the DIY scene of Hive. Stay creative & HIVE ON!
Please vote for our hive witness <3