Grow your own - Odds and ends!!

[veggiechicken]

By Odds and Ends I mean plants that produce something useful but not the usual edibles like veg and fruits.

For example, I'm going to try growing Saponaria to make a soap replacement. https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...tml?highlight=
I'm also going to try (again) growing Loofah/Luffa for washing me and the dishes. https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/sit...sheetLuffa.pdf

Also want to find out more about growing cereals - for me and the chooks. https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...eed_95690.html

What else can be grown in our gardens to replace everyday items. Please don't suggest something that needs a tropical climate - just a sunshiny one.

[Small pumpkin]

Stevia for sugar replacement. Do you want to go in the medicine plant direction?

[veggiechicken]

I've tried Stevia - its was soooooooooooooooo sweet - didn't like it . I do have some old seeds though so I should give it another go.

Medicinal - not sure!!

[Starch]

One thing I intend to try is growing cups from gourds in moulds, example here: https://materialdistrict.com/article...-grown-gourds/
Looks like a clever idea. I wonder what other shapes you could grow and what you could use for moulds?

[veggiechicken]

I've seen those gourds used for musical instruments and, with a hole drilled in the side, bird houses.
They last for ever - I have one I was given in Greece at least 30 years ago. It still rattles like a maraca with the seeds inside it.

[nickdub]

The main non-edible thing I get from mine and other people's gardens is wood. At the moment I'm making a replacement shovel handle out of a damson tree branch.

The main thing I'd add about wood is Don't Burn It, unless you can find nothing else useful to do with it. It annoys me when large trees are felled in gardens and all that happens is the trunk gets cut into logs for convenience of handling mainly, when with a little more work that timber could be turned into furniture or whatever. Even quite small pieces of fruit wood can be made into something useful like say a knife handle - if you are cutting down a tee and don't know what it might be used for, then I'd suggest putting and offer for the wood on Freecycle - you might get a bowl or whatever back as a thank you from a grateful wood turner.

PS I'm so mean I keep the prunings from my apple trees back to use on the barbecue for cooking in the Summer, the smokey flavour is a bonus :-)

[Snadger]

Mares tail for pan scrubbing.

[Snadger]

Oops, forgot Comfrey for tea , that is a must.

[veggiechicken]

^^^ That's fertiliser tea, not Twinings!!

[lottie dolly]

Or pucka VC,SNADGER,really you are welcome to that young man,another for herb tea is lemon balm and mint,the LB need a net over it to stop the ruddy seeds flying everywhere,the mint a container,perhaps use lemon balm in with your soap preps,it should make the home smell fragrant along with other herbs placed in a vase.