I have been growing Amaranth for about 8 years now. I prefer Amaranthus caudatus the Love Lies Bleeding variety for it's long ropes of flowers and seeds. I first starting growing it as a feed source for the chickens, but I found it so beautiful and easy to grow that I have continued to grow it every year. It makes a striking centerpiece for my garden!
The love lies bleeding variety of Amaranth is an annual that grows 3' - 4' in height. It is possible to grow as tall as 8', but I've personally never seen that. It's characterized by the long ropes of blood red flowers and red tinged stems with green leaves. It grows easily from seed and prefers full sun. Both the leaves and seeds of the Amaranth plant are edible.
I kind of hesitate to admit this but...I have never eaten the seeds or the leaves of the amaranth plants that I've grown. Crazy, I know since I am one of those 'eat the weeds' people. Somehow this plant got pigeonholed in my garden as a animal feed plant and an ornamental. I promise I'll try it this year! Till then though...this is how I grow amaranth.
Having problems with digestion can really make you uncomfortable! Nobody likes to deal with heartburn, excess burping or flatulence. People have been dealing with digestion issues since time began though which is actually a good thing! There are a lot of tried and true natural remedies to help you out when things aren't moving along like they should!
When you have difficulty digesting food, a multitude of problems can occur. A pain in the stomach or intestines is the least dangerous part of digestion issues, but it could be a signal from your body that something is going wrong. However, there are a number of ways to improve digestion, and help you to feel better quickly.
Many of these herbs are readily available. As times change I often find that I can buy an herb at walmart or the grocery store that I needed a specialty store for 10 years back! Thankfully brands like Traditional Medicinals bring dozens of herb teas to all but the smallest grocery stores.
Of course, I always prefer the grow your own method. Even though many of these herbs can be grown indoors, it's not always possible...and teas make it easy to stock up for when digestive problems hit!
It's almost time to plant the garden! Can you tell I'm excited? I love this time of year when I'm deciding what to plant this time and looking back on my past harvests. Unfortunately I've made some gardening mistakes over the years, and it's cost me some serious cash. I did learn from my mistakes though so that's what I want to talk about today.
First though, I need to tell you the story of the Summer of Kohlrabi. I bring this up now because it was a costly mistake, and because I mention it in my post on deciding what you should plant in your garden. That's a pretty popular post this time of year and is getting read a lot. A few different people have asked me about this story recently, so here it is:
(skip down to the bold type if you want to just get to the garden mistakes!)
Well, Valentine's day is coming. It's really not a big thing for me to show someone I love them on that specific day, but you know what is? Showing love to myself! Taking care of myself by taking some time to relax and pamper myself. So this year instead of spending the big day at a restaurant, I'm going to be spending time in my bathtub! There is nothing more relaxing than a nice hot, herbal bath with a good book and a candle flickering nearby.
I have several different types of herbal baths I like to mix up. Some of these recipes are really simple and other require quite a few ingredients. If you don't have exactly what I use, in many cases other herbs or salts can be substituted. Don't worry though...I'm going to give you a whole list of bath additions and benefits of each to save and/or print out! The beauty of the herbal bath is that you can often make it work with what you have on hand.
My garden is in the absolute wrong spot! In my defense I didn't put it there, but that does not change the fact that it doesn't get nearly as much sun as it should. You see, the sun travels across the sky on roughly the same path every day. Where my garden is, some of it doesn't get full sun until after noon. This means that many of my full sun plants don't get nearly as much sun and part of my garden is practically useless. Not knowing my sun pattern was an expensive gardening mistake.
I could have avoided this if I had made a sun map of my garden way back in the beginning.
Had I made a sun map of my property and then chosen a spot for my garden based on that, I'd have much better harvests from my garden because I'd be able to plant more efficiently! Even if you already have a garden plot that your sticking with, a sun map can help you plan your garden more efficiently. It's super easy to make a sun map and once you have one it makes garden planning much simpler.
