welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

the plant that keeps on giving, duct tape

THE PLANT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
if i could only chose one plant to plant in my garden
it would be the swiss chard


i presently have 3 planted in my garden

a red version

a bright version

a green version

when i cut the leaves to use in cooking it looks like this


i planted mine in september of last year and this late winter
and have been doing cuttings off of them since

they have provided regular cuttings for our salads
as we use the new leaves as they first appear for salads
but before you can turn around it seems to have grown
even more so the leaves get larger

so we use them in our two favorite recipes

crockpot greens with chopped garlic onions and poblanos peppers
served with fresh my wife shes country n cornbread
or
mollies swiss chard in tomato sauce or coste e bietole
with garlic onions shallots and brandy tomato sauce

yum yum on both those recipes

the plant seems to not mind the winter at all
in fact sometimes unless the temps get way down in
the 20s i dont even cover them to protect them

they love the spring time and usually survive the summer
heat here ok as long as they get water

i rarely have any insect problems with this plant

after the initial prep of the soil when i plant it i never
do anything else to the soil

these plants may sometimes last me two years
but usually i transplant a new plant each fall and if the
old one starts to flounder some i pull it up and feed
it to the country n chickens
who love it


the plant also looks beautiful tucked in the landscape
or in a pot on the deck
especially the more colorful varieties

its also loaded with nutrition

so yes
a plant that keeps on giving and giving and giving

DUCT TAPE
since im known as the duct tape doctor or dr duct tape
or dr duck tape
people are always sending me pictures of new uses for
duct tape

my cowgirl sisterinlaw sent me a picture yesterday
it seems her horse starting loosing it horseshoe
the farrier you know the guy who puts them on couldnt
come out for several days

you got it
she used duct tape to hold it in place
notice the colorful swiss chard color that was used


the organicgreen doctor

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