Growing Fruit Trees for Shade.

The Plantain at Home

I've been looking to align my blog content to the title. Though originally, Lowtree is the name of my indie record label, I wasn't doing much recording at the time of creating this blog, so I wrote all shades of thoughts. Now, I feel that with a name as Lowtree one would expect at least contents on trees of some sort. That's what we are going to be doing hence.

In these days of concern for changing weather and climate, I have a liking for shade trees around the house. Might be residence, workplace or commercial houses.

I haven't had much chance to a research on this concept, but since this blog has been unattended to for long, let me share this experience I have with you in the meantime. You might find it useful or at least informative.
Here we go:

About a year ago, I bought five shockers of plantain from a neighbor and I planted them; squeezing them into a few open spots in the front of the house.They have all fruited and been harvested, yielding appreciable bunches of plantain!

In the course of their life I saw them act as windbreaks during some of the occasional strong wind that blew, often damaging exposed property.

The plantain is a plant of burden, if you permit me say. It seems it transfers all its succulence and life into its fruits, and usually dies with the harvesting of that fruit bunch. Nothing to worry about though, as it multiplies itself profusely while maturing, so that it leaves you with many shockers to watch grow and harvest in their season.

It does not take any work aside from the occasional weeding around the base to keep it neat and to remove unwanted competition for its nutrition. You also need to trim off yellowing and dried leaves, which for me, is a way to ensure unwanted animals do not go inhabiting there.

One more thing you might do is to wedge an artificial support to the stem of the plantain tree to keep it from breaking and causing you to harvest prematurely, sometimes. Why this? Well, remember I said earlier that the plantain seems to transfer its body juice into its fruits. As it does this, the fruits begin to form and mature and get heavier; much, much heavier for the now lean stem to support. The weight of the bunch pulls the tree down towards it and, without a wedged support, any slight wind could cause the stem to snap and you'd have to harvest your bunch at that level, whether fully matured or not.

Please, drop a comment if you find this useful in any way. Also, feel free to add anything more you may know to upgrade this content.   

Oh Dear, I Am So Sorry I Stopped Updating!

Such A Long Time, I Miss You
I can not believe it was in 2010 I updated this blog last.
Google and Blogger, I thank you for your patience with me.
If anyone remotely ever liked what I was doing on this blog and I failed you, please, forgive me.
I'll get back to writing, even better content soon.
This post is not a planned one. I just need to talk to someone out there right away that I am back. It's my space after all, right?
No need for excuses, but you might want to know that I lost my former computer to a system crash. And other things came in between and made it hard to immediately repair or replace it.
I do have other blogs you might want to keep up with from time to time. Thanks.
They are StormWind 
If I Can Help Somebody
Barbershop 'kasa'
To A Better World

Thanks. Love you extravagantly.

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Toro 51599 Ultra 12 amp Variable-Speed Electric Blower/Vacuum with Metal Impeller

Other Views - Click on image to change view.

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How to Survive a Divorce

Remember your wedding day. You were so happy and looked forward to getting

much out of life. The days ahead looked so promising like a rosy pink garden

radiant with immense possibilities. You saw days filled with laughter and

nights filled with passion, never once allowing for the disquiet and

devastation that troubles you now. Divorce was merely something that happened

to others, except now it has also happened to you.

I don't know if one can truly get over a divorce like it did not happen. I

think rather that you mend partially, but the core wound remains. You have to

treat a divorce for what it truly is: a termination of relations. It is just

the same as a death in the family. You mourn the demise of a loved one,

likewise you should be sorrowful over the coming to a close of a marriage.
  

Divorce is a very unpleasant word. Mention the word divorce and you will cast

a depressive feeling on those it threatens. It is just as ugly and hurtful as

the feelings that brew and boil inside of you after it happens. Even in the

seemingly amicable of divorces, there is still that feeling of inadequacy, a

feeling of defeat and that feeling of finality when the papers are signed and

the marriage is legally declared "over." And that is because there is nothing

amicable about getting a divorce. A marriage that ends badly or savagely is

even harder to accomodate. It does not only leave you torn up, it destroys

part of your essence.  

  

Be sorrowful therefore. Permit yourself to recognize your own feelings so as

to keep your health of mind. Do not let anybody talk you out of it. Your

heart is broken , and you know it ! Let it all go. Cry your eyes out into

your pillow, grab your best friend, if you have any other one left, and turn

on the waterworks on her shoulder; but do let it go. Keeping it inside is not

normal. Vent your pains. If you would not cry, write in a journal then; or

sketch a tatoo on yourself. However you want to do it, those feelings of

misfortune and anguish have to come out to give way for the more positive

sensation to burst when you are ready to live again.
   

After you are done brooding, you might be set to move on to annoyance. After

a painful divorce rage is also a perfectly normal and healthy emotion to have.

Feel like kicking and screaming? Join a kick boxing class and wail and take

it out on a paid professional. You get buff while you vent, it's a totally

win-win situation! Why shouldn’t you be mad? That man stood before God,

friends and family and took an oath he would love you ‘til death would you

part. The last time you checked, neither of you were dead, so that means he

lied to you and that is not fair! You're right, it's not decent and you have

earned every right to be bitter.
   

Do you need counseling to survive a painful divorce? That is a personal

choice that only you can make. Some people would not go to friends and family

for succor but would feel safe telling their hurts to people they do not know.

 An unhappy reality today is that, some people cannot share their most

intimate pain with blood relations, but canlook up a stranger out of the

phone directory and lay themselves bare. And pay them to do it ! If that is

what you need to heal, then get on with it and do not listen to anyone else.

Talking will help, and any one could be listening.
   

A divorce ends your marriage, but it need not be the end of your life. If you

are open-minded you could even use it to your advantage. Your life is being

re-oriented already, why not take a good and honest look at yourself and do

a face-lift. How about those places you always wanted to travel to, and the

career you  wished you could swtch to? Well, your chance has come, the time

is now.? Was there a restaurant that you always wanted to try but could not

get your spouse interested in? Give it a try now,there is no one to stop you.

Sign up for classes at the local community college, or go whole hog and aim

for a degree. Go on-line, meet the world, do anything but keep going because

as dreadful as it seems right now, divorce is not the end of the whole world.
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A Demand On Jonathan to Sprint against Time!

Everybody is asking Jonathan to do a miracle in less than 12 months. Why? Why was such demand not made on previous  presidents, like Chief Obasanjo. Not that there is something wrong in expecting someone to deliver good. But for heaven's sake most of the previous 13 heads of state and presidents were watched squandering our days and resources, yet nobody dared voice up!
Maybe it's something about Jonathan. Physically and by disposition, he does not seem to me to have that carriage of a president. And the man seems to have a very deep set attitude of 'yes sir-ism' about him. So they now see an errand boy president to push around. Not that our president is not our servant, no, but not in the sense they are carrying on about it. In fact, I see a lot of public people being reprimanded for over-stepping their bounds with regards to how they relate to the president in the coming months. So, you wise ass politicians, appointees and activists don't forget your place just because Jonathan is a simple man. He is the President, and the President of the land is to be honoured whether you like it or not.
Now back to the tall expectations of all the toms, dicks and harries so far expressed. Do not, just because you woke up yesterday to a faint awareness of what duty you think the leadership owes you, begin to ask for Rome to be built for you in a day! Nigeria is not coming to an end with this government. Lets just hope that your passion for asking, demanding, commenting, setting target for your leaders so fired up since the incapacitation of late Musa Y'ardua will not end when the general election comes and another set of stooges are imposed on us country-wide and you go docile and fall into slumber yet again, until maybe by next blue moon when another president you can treat anyhow and talk anyhow to comes along!
But you know how often it's been told you not to wait for the government to determine your economic fortune; now here's your chance to put all that into working. Tell me what you think about it.