So I took 2 used tires and filled them with all sorts of stuff. Garden weeds, dead animals, a little dirt, maybe even a log, lots of compost of various sorts. After a month or 2 I planted some Luffa sponge seeds (soon I'll have some available for purchase). This pic is part of the harvest I got.
The peeled sponges ready to hang.
a sponge being peeled. The outer layer was then used as mulch... which we quickly found to be rather slick. Lucky for us nobody wiped out hard although. I personally enjoy slick mulch as it's a bit of a challenge and typically after a few days isn't so slick. I feel that using plants to challenge ones movement abilities is yet another great use that's often overlooked.
Using a paperclip as a needle and hemp cord as the string we strung up some of the lufa to dry.
I put the larger end up so that when it dries it won't dump the seeds all over the ground. That way I can harvest the seed and sell them online to support my gardening habit.
Tried sticking a few through the lattice work to see how well that works. This is my first real season to get a solid harvest on these. I'm learning a lot from the experience.
I have a bit of random lattice in an area of the garden I named "Little Coasta Rica. I used some of this for hanging the lufa once I ran out of space on the lattice.
I hear you can eat the luffa when they are small (under 12cm according to wiki)
Ewwwwww haha this is slim from some of the younger lufas.. I harvested a decent bit of it for my first attempt at making body wash. During the harvest I put a good bit of this slim in my hair and on my skin. It works a lot like hair gel and I feel it does something beneficial for the skin. If the body wash turns out to be any good I may sell it at the local farmers market. I mixed in salt so hopefully it will keep. I may pasteurize half of it as an experiment.
Random Aloe! I'm not sure what kind this is but it grows like a bush. I've seen it growing at least 5 ft tall but I don't think that's as large as it can get. This particular variety of aloe is better for cuts and burns than the 2 other variety. The sap or gel from this plant is more likely to give you the runs also. Aloe gel and luffa gel are not quite the same although some of the applications are similar. Has anyone tried luffa gel on burns, cuts, or abrasions? I'd be interested to hear your findings. Also has anyone tried the gel in cooking applications? Aloe gel can work as a binding agent in raw breads for example but I haven't tried the older luffa gel like that yet. I'm not even sure if the gel from the larger and older luffa is edible. I may try a small bit of it next season but I didn't think of it in time for this season.
I like to break up the work day a bit with random task. This is from rocks that I'm clearing from the soil. Rocks like this could come in handy one day. These rocks were not here to start with, someone put them in. Moral of the story, if you put rocks down for one project someone will probably have to pick them up for another.
Random side note on picking up after old projects - Plastic does not ever belong in the soil. I know it's a popular trend to use plastic weed prevention liner, pond liner, ID cards for plants, fence, or whatever else.. I have spent a good deal of time picking small bits of plastic out of soil. Short term it looks great, long term it looks horrible. Short term it may seem logical, long term it's counter productive. With so many alternatives out there, plastic should never be used in a garden. Biodegradable plant based plastics might be a little better but I probably wouldn't use those either. For the love of gardeners please don't resort to plastic, it's just a stupid idea typically had by those who don't actually go outside much.
left overs from building the stage, haven't figured out what to do with them yet.
Didn't get to this luffa in time. I had a few like this but I still dry them. Although I wouldn't want to use one like this in the shower they still come in handy for cleaning out a bucket or other dirty tasks.
Coffee grounds, complements of Starbucks. Most Starbucks will give you their left over grounds for free, simply for asking. I've placed over 300 bags of coffee grounds in this garden so far. Worms love it after about 2 weeks.
Progress check on that banana tree, it's grown a few inches! I'll try to document the process from stump to tree. Actually calling it a tree would be technically incorrect, it acts more like a grass from my observation.
Word of wisdom for the day:
walk barefoot on the earth... and eat lots of garlic.
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