December 2014 Issue #112

Hello,

What fun that we both love gardening. Thanks for joining me.

1) Green smoothie leaves
2) Eco gardening tips
3) Smoothie for Headaches

Have a happy, healthy Christmas and holidays wherever you are in the world. And as food for thought, here are a couple of interesting points:

• From The Ecologist, UK. According to a study by Mintel over 1.8 million people in UK eat a microwave ready meal every single day, and one in four people ate a Christmas dinner that was made entirely from pre-prepared food.
• Author Dianne Loughnan says in her book Food Shock "After working for 48 years in the food processing industry around the world with most of the big name companies, in reality you would be well advised to eat the packaging of most cereal companies as it would be more nutritious for you."

Eco gardening tips

• Green smoothies
  Some veggies have a double use. Carrots for example — you can use the tops in smoothies. Radish greens are another, and because of the prickly texture of their leaves they are only good for smoothies, otherwise they tend to be a bit hard on one's tongue! Same with turnip greens.
• Containers and watering
  If you have container plants, veg or ornamental, you may be using water retention crystals or pellets to save frequent watering. Rather than buy the polymer crystals, there, are biodegradable ones available made with nature's materials.
  
  

  There are pea straw pellets which are neat and clean little pills you just mix in with the soil. Another environmentally friendly water saving product is the teabag-like 'Zeba' product, made mostly with corn starch. Zeba particles will absorb water up to 500 times their original weight, releasing it back in the soil as needed.

  Both these products work well, although they break down with a lot of water after a while, usually one to two years.

• Marigolds' many uses
  For ground set aside for a potato crop and other plants susceptible to root-knot nematodes, pretty French dwarf marigolds are useful as over-wintering plants, or green manure if you like to call it that. Marigolds attract nematodes, then due to a compound in their roots the nematodes life cycle is inhibited and they die.
  
  

  A good month or two before sowing your spuds, lightly fork in the marigolds, or cover with no-dig/lasagna layers, to provide green manure.

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Delicious smoothie for headaches

Ingredients

• Large handful of spinach
• 1 medium can pineapple and juice. Or ½ fresh pineapple chopped and a good ½ -1 cup of water.

Method

• Chill pineapple first, if you like your smoothies cold. Put into blender with spinach and blend until smooth.
• Drink a large glassful and lay down if you have a headache. This should clear your headache or at the very least lessen it considerably.

Preparation: 5 minutes

Serves: 1