Indoor gardening, Neem oil insect spray & Heirloom seeds for gardening or seed banks/emergency storage.

"How does my garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells all in a row." ; Also Black Seed Oil references regarding efficacy as a CoV treatment. Neem oil has similar health properties.

VictorySeeds.com has a nice selection of seeds for gardening including medicinal herbs, flowers, and culinary herbs. They offer collections chosen for gardening region, or type of garden, and the list of packets included are linked for individual ordering too. That makes it easy to see what species are considered reliable for your growing zone. The map of zones for hardiness or climate variations is shown on the page with the collections: (victoryseeds.com/collections/garden-seed-packs).

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells all in a row. Pdf in my Dropbox with the children's poem and three sing-along songs for young children. It is a cute handout for parents or teachers. (Gardening Sing-Alongs for kids of all ages)

Positive mood and health benefits from gardening

It is mood uplifting to have growing things and bright lighting during winter months. It may help my circadian cycle and vitamin A/D balance and is a fun positive activity that I enjoy. Being around nature has shown stress reducing benefits in a variety of research studies. Planning your spring garden and spending a little time with seed or plant catalogs can be a mood lift if indoor gardening isn't doable.

More humid indoor air is a benefit as long as I don't let mold grow too. A salt crystal lamp helps sterilize mold spores in the air and do does the UV light setting on my infrared space heater.

I ordered some interesting varieties of nasturtium seeds from victory seeds.com, as I enjoy adding the leaves to salads and the hummingbirds like the flowers. I plan to start a few seeds early to have some winter greens. The leaves are edible and peppery like black pepper in your salad.

A full spectrum florescent grow light has been nice for brighter winter light in the house and it has been fun to replant and add to my houseplants. An indoor garden for mini greens should be fairly easy with the better lighting.

So far I have lettuce, violets and cilantro and a little creeping sedum. I used flowerbed soil for the window boxes → violets, spring bulbs?, and added seeds for some winter greenery. The lettuce and violets are happier with the indoor fluorescent lighting than the cilantro. Ideally the sprouts would be placed directly under the fluorescent lights, very close to them. Having the light on a pulley system would make it easier to move the light as the sprouts grow taller.

Violet flowers and leaves are edible but not the tuberous violet roots. The roots contain some negative attribute - info from an herbal class I took recently. I had been curious whether violet roots were edible because they can get large and forms a cluster of finger size tuberous roots. Once you have violets you may never get rid of violets. Each little tuber will regrow a violet if it isn’t buried too deep. Digging a garden bed will always leave some violets re-sprouting. They like shade or moderate sunlight and prefer moist rich soil with plenty of magnesium.

Neem oil has many health and cosmetic uses in addition to being effective as an insecticide.

Neem oil is used in India for many purposes for human health and cosmetic purposes and it is used as an insecticide/pesticide for plants. Neem oil is a thick, dark oil that is made from the kernel of a small fruit that grows in clusters on the neem tree (Azadirachta indica). (Gopinath, Karthikeyan, 2021)

Addition:

“Neem preparations are reportedly efficacious against a variety of skin diseases, septic sores, and infected burns. The leaves, applied in the form of poultices or decoctions, are also recommended for boils, ulcers, and eczema. The oil is used for skin diseases such as scrofula, indolent ulcers, and ringworm.”

- Neem: A Tree for Solving Global Problems, (NRC (US) Panel on Neem, 1992)

If only the US had stuck with the Neem tree as our solution for global problems.

Neem oil has similar antimicrobial benefits as Black Seed Oil (Nigella sativa seed oil) but is not as safe for internal use by children or sensitive people as Black Seed oil. Both oils have a strong flavor.

• Black seed oil is used in Ayurveda & other Asian/Middle Eastern areas as a traditional medicinal. Black seed oil is a strong antiviral. It helped me (and my mother too) with a shingles problem the summer of 2021. That was a first occurrence for me and it followed a passive exposure problem in May, 2020. See Reference List for more on this topic.

Look for cold-pressed, 100% pure, organic Neem oil and then it will also be safe and useful for cosmetic, dental care, and other household uses. “Neem chew-sticks” are used in India for oral care for elderly people. (Gopinath, Karthikeyan, 2021) Chewing on it likely would reduce negative microbiome species.

Neem oil and Castile Soap Insecticide spray

Neem oil has a long history of use as an insecticide because it is so effective at stopping reproduction of insect pests. It can be used to make non-synthetic, organic insecticide sprays if organic neem oil is used.

Neem oil contains the chemical Azadirachtin which is a potent insecticide. It causes some types of insects to lose their appetite, stop eating and die. Other species it will cause them to be unable to lay more eggs. It is used in a very dilute solution with a tiny bit of a naturally sourced soap like Dr. Bronner’s line of liquid castile soap.

The soil, stems and leaves should be sprayed as insect eggs may be in various locations on the plant or soil. From my own use of commercially mixed products - ALWAYS test spray a small part of a plant to make sure the mix is not too harsh before soaking everything with the product. I killed a lot of plants once using too strong of a spray.

Neem oil can kill over 400 types of insects including: “Spider mites, Aphids, Whiteflies, Cabbage worms, Mealybugs, Fungus Gnats, Moths, Nematodes, Scales, Flea Beetles, Squash bugs, Stink Bugs, and Caterpillars. It is also helpful in controlling Japanese beetles, Mosquitoes, Grubs, Slugs, Snails, and Crickets.” (pinchofseeds.com)

• Neem oil and Dr Bronner’s soap for insect spray for plants: Neem Oil Insecticide & Fungicide Soil Drench Recipes, (pinchofseeds.com)

To mix one quart of insect spray, only a tiny amount is needed of Neem oil (one teaspoon) and Castile soap (one 1/4 teaspoon):

• 1 teaspoon Neem oil (100% Cold Press Neem Oil)

• 0.25 teaspoon liquid dish soap (Castile soap is preferred)

• 1 quart Warm Water

• Spray Bottle

• Measuring spoons or Dropper. (pinchofseeds.com)

Disclaimer: This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health guidance.

Reference List

(Gopinath, Karthikeyan, 2021) Gopinath H, Karthikeyan K. Neem in Dermatology: Shedding Light on the Traditional Panacea. Indian J Dermatol. 2021 Nov-Dec;66(6):706. doi: 10.4103/ijd.ijd_562_21. PMID: 35283494; PMCID: PMC8906293.

(NRC (US) Panel on Neem, 1992) Neem - A Tree For Solving Global Problems, National Research Council (US) Panel on Neem. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1992. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234637/

Black Seed Oil References regarding effectiveness against CoV:

Ahmad A, Husain A, Mujeeb M, et al. A review on therapeutic potential of Nigella sativa: A miracle herb. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed. 2013;3(5):337–352. doi:10.1016/S2221-1691(13)60075-1  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3642442/ 

C19Early.org/Nigella sativa, “Nigella Sativa for COVID-19; 14 studies from 174 scientists, 3,333 patients in 9 countries: Statistically significant lower risk for ventilation, hospitalization, recovery, cases, and viral clearance. 11 studies from 10 teams in 8 countries show statistically significant improvements. 41% lower risk in 10 RCTs, CI 15-60%” https://c19early.org/ns

Frontline Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance, FLCCC, IMASK+ prevention protocol: https://covid19criticalcare.com/covid-19-protocols/i-mask-plus-protocol/  https://covid19criticalcare.com/covid-19-protocols/ 

Koshak AE, Koshak EA, Mobeireek AF, Badawi MA, Wali SO, Malibary HM, Atwah AF, Alhamdan MM, Almalki RA, Madani TA. Nigella sativa for the treatment of COVID-19: An open-label randomized controlled clinical trial. Complement Ther Med. 2021 Sep;61:102769. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2021.102769. Epub 2021 Aug 15. PMID: 34407441; PMCID: PMC8364675. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34407441/ 

Khazdair MR, Ghafari S, Sadeghi M. Possible therapeutic effects of Nigella sativa and its thymoquinone on COVID-19. Pharm Biol. 2021;59(1):696-703. doi:10.1080/13880209.2021.1931353 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC8204995/

Rahman MT. Potential benefits of combination of Nigella sativa and Zn supplements to treat COVID-19. J Herb Med. 2020 Oct;23:100382. doi: 10.1016/j.hermed.2020.100382. Epub 2020 Jun 24. PMID: 32834942; PMCID: PMC7313527. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7313527/  ** Mentions the zinc ionophore activity of Black Seed Oil.

Rhindt, A., Black seed oil against coronaviruses: thymoquinone at Covid 19. November 16, 2021, medmix.at (automatic translation from German)  “Shield and sword in the corona pandemic: black seed oil a possible remedy against the coronavirus disease Covid 19.” https://www.medmix.at/thymoquinon-schwarzkuemmel-gegen-coronaviren-covid-19/?cn-reloaded=1

• Some of the Black Seed oil references were via https://twitter.com/the_Sigilite/status/1474044789293264899?s=20