The Plant Encyclopedia

Your garden is great and your on-line site is awesome. I've bookmarked it for future reference. I just took a couple of photos for you. Here's the first...

Here is the next photo, the zukes and big tomato were planted first. There was lots of wind so I made the wind break and used the covers. When I brought the corn and smaller tomato home, I extended the Besser bricks. I wanted to put plastic down under the soil but my friend said the weeds would not grow through so much dirt. We had some wonderful rain (lots) when I did the first planting and the big tomato took off. They are truss tomatoes. The zucchini took off too within a couple of days the growth was amazing (and very exciting). I was going to put some mulch down but time got away from me. The smaller tomato is growing much more slowly. It is a hybrid called Apollo. To the right of the veggie bed is a mandarin tree...a baby and behind the veggie bed and mandy is a lemon and a nave orange respectively...both small, about 4 years old. I have also put in some grevillia and banksia to encourage bees and birds.

I have planted all of the above as well in my garden with the exception of corn as I do not like it. I have tomatoes popping up everywhere out of the compost at the moment. I might have to move some of them once the seedlings are a little larger. I just finished putting together a web page on my garden. You can check it out here: http://www.squidoo.com/food-forest2 We mainly have lots of leafy greens in at the moment, but also have onions, Yacon, potatoes as well as the above mentioned savoury fruits. The first tomatoes have started to show up, so we just have to wait for them to mature. Yum! Do you have any pics of your garden online anywhere?

Thanks for those sites. I particularly like the Floridata one and the mygardenguide one too. Having photos is an important factor as descriptions can be vague without seeing an image. I knew you would get some use out of this site.

As usual you have some good points there my friend! Sorry it took me so ling to reply to you. Life has been a bit crazy here of late (I will have to create a post to update everyone) so I have not been posting here at all. Have not even logged in this year until a few days ago! How is your garden going? Has it been too cold to grow anything?

you're welcome! I think everyone should possess a plant encyclopedia. As we are learning beings - different from many other animal species who know what's good for them as soon as they are born - we need a good reference when it comes to nutrition. Industrial food cannot be the solution. We have to know what nature offers to us and how much it's worth. Maybe each country should have its own encyclopedia which is given to kids as a present when they get into school. That way they will grow up with the plants and understand their value. Cheers

Hi Wizzy. I have already learned quite a few things from checking this site out over an hour or so. It has so many plants on it and been very helpful indeed. Many of the rare plants have not been edited as yet, but there are still many there I was not aware of!

Hi Paula. My house is surrounded by Bamboo. It is an awesome plant. It can be used for so many things and just keeps growing easily as it is a grass. It can be used for clothing instead of cotton which causes so much harm to the environment, timber and paper products instead of ripping down existing old growth forests and can also be a food source as the shoots on many varieties are edible. (Attempting photo upload of some of the Bamboo...hope it works!) No...it appears that MyLot is not accepting photos today.

Traditional Chinese Medicine is great although I only know a little bit about it. I am really interested in herbs, but mainly those that are cheaply found as weeds throughout most of the world. I should learn more about Traditional Chinese Medicine though as I find it interesting. I have a friend who is in this industry here in Australia. He is an Acupuncturist and Chinese Herbalist. I have seen him do some amazing work and he is very well thought of in his industry. I have never heard of "Compendium of Materia Medica" but I bet he has. I have just searched for it online and read a little bit about it. What an enormous piece of work by Li Shizhen!

I am glad that we are all interest in plant.Yes ,Li Shizhen is the author of "Compendium of Materia Medica".He was a famous pharmacologist of the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644 A.D.)."Compendium of Materia Medica" was published in 1593 A.D.

Yep, it is a great resource. I have already found it quite useful!

You betcha, Bill..I am convinced my mission here on Planet Earth, is a long, arduous battle with Monrovia and Monsato, one that I will never win...but my army is increasing! My artillery is words! I did tho' (operative word DID) for 14 years here, on this small Island have the only Local nursery..growing only "Heritage" seed plants for resale, along with as much knowledge that I could pass along about what aprecious resource this was. Sadly, the almighty dollar beat me up...The only two grocers here, were bought by Asians whom visited the huge Wholesalers/Night Auctions and could offer plants (GMO'd, of course) cheaper...ALL my espoused teachings went out the door, as the population increased by Metropolites (we became a bedroom community of Vancouver, B.C.) I folded the nursery, but there still is a faithful group of heritage planters here. Yes, we have "seed savers" here, but most times am somewhat reluctant..as oft times, the concept of HERITAGE seeds is missed...as so many "seed save" from the GMO's thinking that is what this is all about. Too many times, a lot of effort has gone into crops with NO fruition! When it comes to indigenous plants...what a rich crop we have here in the Southern Gulf Islands, for medicinal uses. Just out my door, there is Yew, Achillea, Hawthorne, Foxglove, Rose hips, Yarrow, Plantain...truly never ending, and the uses are huge. Would love to hear more about your new home...and what your crops are! Two weeks away from Garlic planting again..LOL!

Yes, I knew that you would like this site. Great to hear that "Garlic Lady" will be rich! I too have a bookshelf full of books on organic gardening and plants, edible weeds, etc but it is much easier to find something quickly online. I do like to flick through those books when I am relaxing though. One can never learn too much when it comes to medicinal plants. Are there any seed saver groups in your local area? There are a few groups here that get together and share heritage varieties in order to keep the variety of food alive. I am pretty sure they swap a lot of seeds freely, but if you buy from them, they are fairly cheap too. Yes, let's avoid GMO's at all costs! The truth is getting out there on this matter, but we are up against a very rich and powerful opponent there!

Hi, sorry for my lack of response here. I have been off myLot for a while due to being busy and then breaking my collarbone. For the same reasons, my garden is also looking a bit sad. I have not planted anything new for a couple of months and old plants have gone to seed in there and left neglected. When the time is right, those seeds will most likely sprout new plants as I did not collect the seeds. This time of year is a hard time to establish new plants anyway as it is so hot and we get so much rain. We have had lots of flooding in the area lately and even leaks in the house. (another reason why the garden has not been cared for) We are off to the USA next month so I am busy planning for that and training a staff member to look after our business while we are away. So the garden might have to wait until we get back. Not much use planting anything if we are not going to be here to look after it. We have plantain in our garden, but the caterpillars have eaten all the leaves. It has lots of seeds though! We had a good crop of tomatoes which are dying off now. We had lots of kale, spinach, lettuce, silverbeet and brocolli while the weather was cooler. We also had calendula, herb robert, viola, celery, fennel and strawberries, all of which we still have, but they are not doing as well as they were when the weather was cooler.