Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Garden Time!!

Last summer we tried our hands at gardening. I know, I know. Me? The girl that kills anything green. We had so many friends that inspired us from their gardens.  I was determined, and with a little love, attention, good soil, and miracle grow our garden was born. Not just born, but provided us with soooooo much more than I ever dreamed of being capable of growing.

Our summer garden: squash and zucchini (we will have to build a new box to plant these again. They took over our garden!), tomatoes, okra, basil, chocolate mint, green beans, cucumbers, and some grape vines.

Our fall garden: spinach, carrots, beets, sweet peas, and green onions, pumpkins (we tried, but not pumpkins before I just got tired of waiting to see something and let it die off).

Our spring garden: We are still growing things from the winter until early spring, but added a new sweet basil plant, parsley, strawberries, broccoli, red onions, sweet white onions, tomatoes, green and red bell peppers, garlic (not sure if it is the season for it, but we will try), and bought a blue berry plant since they were selling the small ones for only $6 at Lowes.

Most of our plants were grown from seeds. This season we bought an actual small basil and parsley plant. I was too impatient to wait for it to grow from seeds. We also bought the broccoli and strawberry plants. We will nurture them until they produce beautiful fruit.

We planted the green onions and garlic from leftovers from the store. We love it. My daughter barely put anything green near her mouth until we started this garden. She would literally pick the green beans, cucumbers, and even okra right off the plant and eat them right out of the garden. It became our favorite activity to come home from school, go straight to the garden and pick stuff off to eat.

578782_10101037152649810_450533486_nGreen Beans

 hhBasil Bush

 IMG_5356Yellow Squash

 IMG_5359Chocolate Mint (It got huge!) photo (5) Okra

IMG_5776 Beets

IMG_5777 Beginning stages of Spinach (this got pretty big too)

IMG_5782 Beginning stages of Green Onions

IMG_6044 Soleil planting our new stuff to get the spring garden started. 

African Black Soap

I’ve been using African Black Soap for about 6 months now, and I must tell you about the miracle in a bar that I have found. I must first admit that I suffer from adult acne. Yikes!! What grown woman wants to admit that they suffer from a condition that is mostly identified as a teen condition? I’m 31 years old this weekend, not 16! Yet, here I am. I’ve suffered from it since I became pregnant with my first child. The altering of the hormones that pregnancy brings on has its negatives for sure. I suffer from cystic acne.  A condition where the acne is so deep that, although not always visible to the naked eye, they bring on massive headaches (before surfacing and saying hi to everyone).

Now that you know my condition, here is my solution. African Black Soap. African Black Soap is one of those hidden natural treasures that I’ve discovered. I order it 3lbs at a time for only $5-$6/lb on Amazon. The only thing I can warn about using the soap is the slight sting it gives when used. It is definitely not a deterrent, but keep out of the eyes for sure. It will burn! The soap will also leave a bit of a brown residue.  Keep a soap dish close.

Here is a little information for you.

“All natural African black soap is made from dried plantain skins, palm leaves, cocoa pod powder, and kernel oil for an all-natural cleansing process. Plantains skins are largely what make this black soap so effective. It is a natural source of vitamins A & E and iron. When black soap is made, the skin of the plantain is dried under the sun and then roasted in a clay oven. The heat must be constant in order to achieve the perfect brownish black color, texture & smell. Afterwards, cocoa pod powder is added. Cocoa pod is the shell of the cocoa fruit and also has natural healing properties.”

Benefits of black soap:

  • Natural black soaps help deep clean skin.
  • Black soap works on most skin types including rough and dry or sensitive skin.
  • Help clear skin bumps and spots by using black soap daily.
  • Helps relieve acne, oily skin & other skin problems.
  • Black soap is also great for removing makeup.
  • Black soap benefits against premature facial lines and wrinkles.
  • Black soap can also be lathered and used as an effective shampoo.

http://africaimports.com/black_soap_article.asp

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