I didn’t plan on growing any climbing spinach this year since I wasn’t too impressed with them. Well it turns out it wasn’t the plant to blame, but my lack of gardening skills.

Why do I say this? It’s because when the climbing spinach ended up growing on their own in mom’s backyard garden they all looked great! Of course it’s because she takes good care of her garden by fixing the soil, pest control and watering her plants daily.

Here is a perfect heart shaped climbing spinach vine leaf. The best climbing spinach grew out of the potted Mexican lime tree. It produced some of the biggest spinach leaves I’ve ever seen. The bigger leaves were the size of my hand, but those ended up in my salad.

And it made for a great summer salad that was crisp and cooling. All I did was sliced up the veggies and tossed it with rice bran oil, apple cider vinegar, honey and along with some tangy plums, cool iceberg lettuces, plus garden cherry tomatoes.

Here’s one that volunteer to grow along with Thai Basil. Theses guys like to climb, so best to grow them along fences or trellis. This one is just climbing up a small bamboo stick. Note, in the back row are mom’s super hot chili peppers. She has grown them in pots every year and they produce lots of peppers. Almost too hot and spicy for my taste buds!

We have several aloe vera plants in the garden, most are in containers. There are the plain green ones, some are spotted and one has variegated leaves.

We’ve probably had this Aloe Vera plant for 5 years. And this spring it started to blossom. I’m not sure when it will open up completely. So far I’ve seen succulent flowers come in shades of pink or yellow.

Notice the spiders have started to make the flowers their new home. I don’t mind spiders as much, as long as they keep out bad insects in the garden.

It’s a good idea to keep Aloe Vera around because of it’s medicinal value. What I like most is that it’s mostly low maintenance, so no green thumbs necessary. And of course it comes in handy for minor cuts and burns.

I finally got my first taste of raw pistachios. If I can remember vaguely from my childhood, lotus nuts have a similar taste. It’s very fresh and crunchy. But these little green nuts have to be my new favorites!

Once you peel off the skin you’ll see the hard shell. That part is really hard to crack open. Note: some people find the skin to cause an allergic reaction like sumac sap. Lucky for me I am not allergic to many plants or fruits.

This nut might as well be called a “Super Nut” because it’s pack with nutrients. One of which is arginine, an amino acid that plays an important role in the cardiovascular system.

And the green color of this nut provides lutein, which is good for eyes and skin.

Pistachios do contain fat, but the fat is mainly monounsaturated and is similar to that found in olive oil.

Pistachios are rich in phytosterols, which are directly associated with lowering cholesterol levels. And may prevent certain types of cancer.

Other ways of enjoying raw pistachios would be to toss them into a green salad. Or enjoy them as it because they are really that good.

Another interesting thing about this little nut is that the skin skin has a similar scent to green mangoes. I took a little taste of it and it was a bitter, so not something to try eating.

More photos of the tree and fruits from my last visit can be seen here.

Zucchini are one of my favorite summer squash. Also referred to as courgette and can grow to a meter in length. But it’s usually harvested before that and can be found at the local market.

They are suppose to be one of the easiest plants to grow. But it hasn’t been that way for mom’s backyard garden. So she stopped growing them.

To our surprise a zucchini plant was found growing in her pumpkin patch. There was only 2 zucchini on the vine, but they are still really fat and cute. I’ve never seen them in this shape, probably because I’m so used to the ones that sell at the store.

These must have been hiding out for a while as they seem rather old. The seeds are pretty large and were tossed before cooking.

There are endless ways to cook them, from tempera, vegetable lasagna to muffins and cake. Since I’m not much of a cook I decided to just add them to veggie stir-fry, tossed into pasta, and also lightly steamed eaten with chili sauce.

The Poughkeepsie Farm Project adds;

“Zucchini is delicious grilled, or as a supplement to any casserole because it absorbs flavors well. Like cucumber, zucchini is a wonderful weight loss food. In addition, nutrients in zucchini have cancer prevention, eyesight, and cholesterol reducing benefits. You can even eat zucchini blossoms, which are a colorful and decorative addition to any plate.”

Other recipe ideas include zucchini cake. Instead of fish cakes, think of the veggie version. See recipe and instructions at The Pioneer Women. Looks delicious!

Sage is native to southern Europe and the Mediterranean region, so it’s not commonly used in Asian cooking. But the scent reminds me of purple Japanese shiso or perilla.

Instead of using dried sage for cooking, this year I’ve decided to grow fresh sage. In the spring, I had started growing them in a container along with Italian basil.

Recently it wasn’t looking too good. Mostly because I forgot to water them and they started wilting so fast. And there were many times I thought they were not going to make it.

So I decided to transplant them to mom’s kitchen garden instead. She doesn’t have much room for anything else, but herbs are welcome anytime. And it’s a good thing since they look much better here.

Not only is sage used in cooking, but it’s also known have many health benefits. When distilled into essential oils, it becomes useful for all types of bacterial infections.

Below is a partial list taken from the “Herbal Resource Guide”:

- Traditionally, the leaves have been made into a poultice and used externally to treat sprains, swelling, ulcers and bleeding.

- It was also commonly used in tea form to treat sore throats and it is also considered one of the good herbs for the coughs.

- Considered by many herbalists as a good medicinal herb for treating eczema, canker sores, halitosis, gingivitis or bad breath and also to treat dandruff.

- Garden sage leaves may be applied to an aching tooth to relieve pain.

- This herb has shown great promise in aiding digestion and enhancing overall tone of the digestive tract.

So it’s definitely one herb that any gardener would appreciate in their garden.

The idea of “Lasagna Gardening” has been around for a while now. Lasagna gardening is also known as sheet composting as we pile layers and layers of biodegradable and organic materials into the garden bed.

According to Patricia Lanza, this type of gardening requires “No Digging, No Tilling, No Weeding, No Kidding!” It’s a tagline from her popular book . Many gardeners claim to have much success with this method of gardening.

I have not personally tried this technique but find it really appealing. I would love to give it a try at my mom’s garden since it would save her the trouble of regular gardening.

In the meantime here’s the basic concept for those who are interested.

First pick out a nice sunny area in your yard. Lay down markers or make a raised garden bed. Then lay down wet cardboard or several layers of wet newspaper right on top of the grass. Or you can just water it after you spread it out.

This is where we see the concept of no tilling since the cardboard starts to eventually break down. And no tilling means no harm done to Earthworms. If anything, once the bed starts composting, the worms will have a new and happy home.

After the wet paper is settled in, add the second layer of compost such as fallen leaves, shredded newspaper, peat moss or cow manure. Grass clipping. It will decompose faster if you chop them up. Kitchen scrap is also great. Such as egg shells, used tea, coffee grounds, etc. It’s recommended to keep adding the compost for about 1-2 feet. Then cover with plastic to let it get cooked. After a few months you’ll have nice fluffy soil. And you can start planting.

One fan of lasagna gardening by the name of Merribelle suggest it’s even OK to plant right away. As she noted, “Finish with compost on top, then either let it break down for a few months for certain crops or plant seeds and transplants directly into the matrix by pushing aside layers and inserting. As the layers break down, the earthworms will be eating the sod and breaking up the newspapers, mixing the layers together for you.”

Autumn would be the best time to start building the lasagna garden since we have lots of garden debris to compost. And then the garden will be ready for spring planting.

Beets are one of those vegetables that people either love or hate. I love them. My mom also loves them. They taste great either roasted or steam.

So mom planted some beets in her garden at the beginning of spring. And now it’s time to harvest them.

These beets came in all shapes and sizes. It makes pulling out each beet a surprise.

The Cheap Vegetable Gardener (a neat blog about gardening) listed beets as one of the “Top 10 least profitable plants to grow in your garden.” Personally I don’t agree. Out here the organic beets are much more expensive than conventional beets. Plus we eat them often, so it makes sense to grow them. And fresh produce always taste way better!

The young greens are also edible and full of nutrition. I like to add them in spicy vegetable and noodle soup.

Beets are loaded with calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, vitamin C, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin A and vitamin K.

I really enjoyed reading this by William Rosenzweig, it was from his acceptance speech at the “Oslo Business for Peace Award”.

Business Lessons from A Quiet Gardener

The people who know me best know that at heart I am just a quiet gardener. My garden has probably taught me the most about how things grow - and thrive in a vibrant and sustainable manner. These lessons have shaped my approach to encouraging responsible growth in business and to the ways I apply my intention, attention and energy.

Tranquil garden at Leaping Lamb Farm in Oregon. Photo from Flickr.

A gardener sees the world as a system of interdependent parts - where healthy, sustaining relationships are essential to the vitality of the whole. “A real gardener is not a person who cultivates flowers, but a person who cultivates the soil.” In business this has translated for me into the importance of developing agreements and partnerships where vision and values, purpose and intent are explicitly articulated, considered and aligned among all stakeholders of an enterprise - customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, and the broader community and natural environment.

The garden has taught me about patience and persistence and the ethical principles of generosity and reciprocity. It has illuminated the importance of appreciating the cycles of life and decay. For the gardener, composting is a transformative act - whereby last season’s clippings (or failures) can become next year’s source of vigor.

I’ve learned that it’s not just what you plant, but how you plant it that brings long - term rewards in life, work and the garden. Gardeners know that once strong roots are established, growth is often exponential rather than linear.

Also gardening, like business, is inherently a local activity, set within an ever-changing and unpredictable global climate. Showing up in person, shovel - and humility in hand is essential.

Gardeners, like entrepreneurs, are obsessed with latent potential - and can be known to be pathologically optimistic. We can vividly imagine the bloom and the scent of the rose even in deepest of winter. As the American naturalist Henry David Thoreau once wrote: “I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.”

In essence, the gardener’s work is a life of care. We cultivate abundance from scarce resources. We nurture, encourage, fertilize - and prune when necessary - while being respectful of the true and wild nature of all things. We know that creating enduring value requires vision, passion, hard work and the spirit of others.

I am just coming to understand this work of business gardening - and investing in keeping people healthy - as an act of universal responsibility. His Holiness Dalai Lama reminds me: “Each of us must learn to work not just for one self, one’s own family or one’s nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace.”

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You can read the whole speech here. Or visit his website.

Since I am on the subject of Neem this week I wanted to share my experience using Neem oil extract in the garden.

We have a 5 feet tall broccoli plant growing in mom’s kitchen garden.  It’s been giving us delicious mini sprouts year around. But this summer it’s been attacked by bugs, mostly aphids and tiny caterpillars.

There’s also a band of beetles that hang around too, but mom thinks it doesn’t harm her plant. They just hang around to make babies and fly off to greener pastures.

Because the plant looked so bad I had to do something to save them. And I wanted something natural and non-toxic. At first I tried the soap and water spray, mostly to kill off the aphids. It work somewhat but not the other pesky guys.

While shopping at Lowe’s, I saw Garden Safe brand Neem oil extract.  I didn’t even know they carried this stuff, so was definitely happy to give it a try.

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I planted this pineapple guava for my mom’s garden last summer. And I’m so happy to see it’s blooming already.

There’s only a couple of blooms and most are still little buds about to open up soon. But my mom tells me her pet chicken (Eliza) has been eating the lower hanging flower petals. It’s been known that birds love to eat the petals too. Let’s just hope they will still bear some fruits in the fall.

The petals are suppose to be great tossed in salads. But I have no desire to eat them. They’re really too pretty to eat and will just let the birds and bees pollinate it.

The common names for this fruit is Feijoa, Pineapple Guava, and Guavasteen. They are native to Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Basically most of south America.

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