Making the new plant nursery a success has been taking up pretty much every spare moment in my day, and to be quite honest there is not a lot of free moments going around these days.

It really is a never ending process to ensure that the nursery remains fully stocked and that there is always a new selection of plants fro our clients to choose from, so seeds that would need a bit more care before being ready to be sold, I normally plant and bag at home where I can keep a keen eye on them before they get moved over to the nursery - and here are the new babies that is has been readied to move out to the nursery.

These first ones, is something you don't see very often, they are the Red Sunflowers, and these have almost reached a point of being ready to flower - so they will find a new home at the nursery. These wont be sold immediately, but they will surely add some lovely color to the nursery.

Ideally I would like to flower these and then harvest some seeds from them, as they are grown from heritage seeds. They might not look like much now, but I bet they will be magnificent when they come into flower - looking forward to that day.

Next in line is my sweet basil - for most of you that follow me on the platform would know that I have a deep seated passion for my basil plants, we already have some basil seedlings on the nursery floor, but these babies will also be kept for propagation purposes. From these we will be making numerous cuttings to ensure that there is always basil plants ready to be sold. They are still a bit young, but they are now established enough to go out to the nursery and be re-potted there.

Then there is my Symphytum more commonly known as Comfrey.

This is a plant that I have been wanting to grow for quite some time, because of its amazing medicinal properties, and I have been struggeling to get myself some of them, but I managed to get some seeds a while back and grew these from seeds.

These will go out to the nursery and once there the plants will be split up and re-bagged before they go out for selling (That is of course minus a few that I will be keeping for myself)

You can read a bit more about this plants medicinal properties and uses here

Below you can see my new African Horned Melon also known as the Kiwano, now this seemingly insignificant plant is actually the parent of an extremely nutrient rich fruit, with tons of beneficial properties. In fact I went ahead and sourced a nice site where you can read up a bit more about the nutritional values and health benefits of the African Horned Melon, and if you would like to go and have a look at it you can simply click this link

And then of course, I managed to get some of my all time favorite medicinal plants growing, and that is of course the Sutherlandia Fructenses - more commonly known as the Cancer Bush

The uses of this plant is almost endless when it comes to health and general well being, here is some of the uses of this amazing plant: Please note that the following quote was taken from the South African National Biodiversity Institute

"This plant is one of the most talked about in the ethnobotanical world because it has a strong reputation as a cure for cancer and now increasingly as an immune booster in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Research on its properties is ongoing.

It has long been known, used and respected as a medicinal plant in southern Africa. The original inhabitants of the Cape, the Khoi San and Nama people, used it mainly as a decoction for the washing of wounds and took it internally to bring down fevers. The early colonists regarded it as giving successful results in the treatment of chicken pox, stomach problems, and in the treatment of internal cancers. It is also known to have been used in the treatment of eye troubles, the eyes being bathed with a decoction of the plant. It continues to be used to this day as a remedy for the above-mentioned ailments. It is still used as a wash for wounds, to bring down fevers, to treat chicken pox, for internal cancers, and farm workers in the Cape still use it to treat eye troubles. It is also used to treat colds, 'flu, asthma, TB, bronchitis, rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis and osteo-arthritis, liver problems, haemorrhoids, piles, bladder, uterus & 'women's' complaints, diarrhoea & dysentery, stomach ailments, heartburn, peptic ulcers, backache, diabetes, varicose veins and inflammation. It is also used in the treatment of mental and emotional stress, including irritability, anxiety and depression and is used as a gentle tranquillizer. It is said to be a useful bitter tonic and that a little taken before meals will aid digestion and improve the appetite. It is considered to be a good general medicine.

There is as yet no scientific support for the numerous claims and anecdotes that this plant can cure cancer, but there is preliminary clinical evidence that it has a direct anti-cancer effect in some cancers and that it acts as an immune stimulant.

Sutherlandia should not be regarded as a miracle cure for cancer — its real benefits are as a tonic that will assist the body to mobilize its own resources to cope with the illness. It is known to decrease anxiety and irritability and to elevate the mood. Cancer patients, as well as TB and AIDS patients, lose weight and tend to waste away. This plant dramatically improves the appetite, and wasted patients start to gain weight. It is also known to improve energy levels and gives an enhanced sense of well-being. It is hoped that treatment with Lessertia frutescens will delay the progression of HIV into AIDS, and even remission of the disease is hoped for."

~ Taken From: http://pza.sanbi.org/lessertia-frutescens

As all the plants above, my Luffa plants as seen below were grown from heritage seeds, and as such I would like to grow them up to a point of harvest in order to get some seeds back in order to expand my grow. The and then from this we will sell some plants in the nursery, harvest some fresh luffa gourds for eating, as well as maturing some luffa in order to harvest their sponges which I intend on using for our little cosmetic home industry.

You can read a bit more on the Luffa plant here

Then of course there were some Delicious Monster Monstera deliciosa plants that we had taken cuttings from a previous job and that we had planted that has since become nice healthy plants, these will be going out to the nursery as well, but made available for sale immediately.

And then of course, More planting... every bag below contains on average 30 seeds of a given plant, once these has germinated they will then be gradually bagged out and sent off to the nursery as well - so as you can see this really is an ongoing thing.

We are constantly nursing a whole variety of plants in various stages at any given moment, and although it is a very labor intensive job, it is also one of the most fulfilling jobs I could possibly imagine.

Happy Gardening!