Organic Vegetables on Flower Pots
Today, I have a nutritious raw vegetable salad for my breakfast. It was a mixture of bitter gourd, radish, cayenne leaves, okra, peppermint leaves, and gotu kola leaves garnished with calamansi (lemon) juice, and a pinch of salt to taste. All these vegetables and herbs I took fresh from our garden and flower pots.
You may wonder why from flower pots. Here at home, we plant our vegetables in flower pots. It is practical, and very economical than planting flowering plants on it. We do have flowering plants and orchids too, but we plant more vegetables for our daily consumption. Besides being practical and economical, it is safe and healthful too being free of toxic chemicals from fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides.
Passers-by are amazed to see our concrete fence decorated with flower pots planted with vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplants, lemon, cayenne, bell peppers, okra, pechay, radish, and lemon grass. At our front yard we have a small uncemented space where we plant cucumber, bitter gourd (ampalaya), and sweet potato. All around the house, we planted horse radish and sweet potato. Our neighbors and visitors liked them, and they are interested to plant vegetables on flower pots at their homes too.
We also planted herbs on flower pots. We planted gotu kola, peppermint, oregano, and turmeric. We planted gotu kola outside our concrete fence for passers-by and neighbors who would like to ask for it. It thrives very well and more people ask and took some for the treatment of some ailments. One lady ask and took almost a sackful of gotu kola leaves. She said she uses it as tea to treat her husband who was schedule for heart by-pass operation.
Our vegetables and herbs at home are all organic. We use black sandy loam soil, and put organic fertilizer from vermi worms. We also use decomposed leaves as fertilizer for our vegetables. We do not use insecticides or pesticides to treat our plants. We make our own insecticide which we learn from a book about organic plants.
Our vegetables, herbs, and other plants grow very well, and their leaves are deep green. We ensure that they get much sunlight, and from time to time, we water them with rice washings. We do not over water them to avoid erosion of soil and fertilizer.
Planting vegetables on flower pots is very economical, and is not space-consuming. You can use the black trash bags as pots, or if you can afford, you can use flower pots made of clay. There is no problem with plants that grow tall – our eggplants, okra, and tomatoes grew tall and bear much fruits. Support them with sticks when they grow tall, or bear fruits to prevent them from falling or breaking.
Maximize your backyard space at home. Plant your vegetables on flower pots, and go organic. Save more money, and be healthy by consuming your own vegetables and herbs that are free from pesticides and other toxic chemicals.