Update on the Self-sustaining Garden.

Whilst cutting some waterleaf vegetables for a pot of soup, I realised I had been awfully quiet about my garden and the plants therein. The last time I shared a post about this self-sustaining garden, It was raining pepper and chilli plants but there has been a development.

We planted a variety of pepper plants in the garden, even those that weren't known to thrive in my locality and for a while they blossomed. Soon after they all began withering, giving way to just two species of pepper: scotch bonnet pepper and ghost pepper.

The loss of the rest of the variety of pepper was a painful one even though most of them weren't very spicy, they added colour and allure to dishes. However, we have fallen back on the two remaining species and of both of them, my favorite is the ghost pepper.

Ghost pepper isn't just spicy, it has a very lovely aroma making it stand out in meals. Whenever ghost pepper is used to cook a meal, one can easily tell because it simply smells and tastes different.

Back to the water leaves–the star of the show. They happen to be one set of plants that thrive irrespective of the season and this is why it's such an important component of many of our local dishes.

Basically, it's sliced and incorporated into meals and they make these meals more tender and edible.

The okra plant is a new addition to the garden and so far, it's doing amazing.

The okra plant can be cooked as a dish and also used as a tenderizer in place of water leaf. Either way works fine.

On the okra leaf, I found these little buddies. It was a cold morning and on cold mornings or nights, they always come around. Growing up, my siblings usually went on hunts in search of these.

They look very similar to snails but they are smaller and harder to pick out of their shells. But, when properly prepared, they taste glorious.

Finally, the only surviving tomato. There has been a pest or fungi infestation and the tomato plants are the only plants that have been affected. The infestation looks whitish and shrinks up the tomato fruit. But, this particular tomato plant seems to be doing pretty well and I hope it keeps at it.

Least I forget, the yam tubers in a bag. This experiment was an unfathomable one. Yam tubers usually thrive in the direct soil because they like to express themselves but planting them in a bag restricts this expression. The fact that the leaves have grown so tall and greenish goes to show that the tubers are thriving pretty well in the bag too. I'm certain that the tubers of yam would come out half of their actual size but I'm still very excited to see what they look like.

This is the update so far on the sustainable garden and how well it has been and will keep sustaining the household.

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^{Images used belong to me and were taken with my mobile device.}

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LIEBE🤍