Sandra Kim Leong asked:


For juice fasting, it is not just fruits that you can juice. You can also consider juicing vegetables. A vegetable juice detox can help your body remove its toxic waste and its cleansing process.

Vegetables also contain an abundant sources of vitamins and minerals not found in other foods. In fact, if you find that you are not eating enough vegetables on a daily basis, you can also think about consuming vegetable drinks. In this manner, you will ensure that you do not give up on including phytochemicals for a balanced nutrition.

A vegetable juice detox allows your body to absorb quickly what you consume without activating your digestive system as it would if you eat the more fibrous vegetables. Your digestive system can then get to work on all the toxic waste that has been accumulating in your body.

Do bear in mind that a vegetable juice detox should not be carried out as an ongoing exercise. At best, you can only fast for up to a week. Surviving on a vegetable juice diet would not be able to give you all the nutrients you need for energy and health if you extend such a diet for more than it should.

Contrary to what you may assume, vegetable drinks can also taste delicious and are therefore very drinkable. Here are some vegetable juice detox recipes that are easy to prepare:

1. You can mix carrots, kale and wheat grass. Carrots are wonderful sources of beta-carotene and vitamin C.

2. Wheatgrass is an excellent vegetable drink. Another variety of a vegetable drink is to add spinach instead of wheat grass. Spinach is very good for your juicing diet because it is rich in folate, iron and Vitamin B.

3. Blend tomato, celery, parsley, broccoli and cucumber. Be sure that you get only the freshest tomato that is ripe by the time they are picked from the plant. If they are taken at this state, they contain twice the amount of Vitamin C.

4. You can also choose to season your carrot vegetable juice with some garlic, ginger and onion. This combination is something different for your taste buds but is still healthy and nutritious.

5. Add cucumber and celery in your carrot vegetable mix. Cucumber is another good source of Vitamin C that aids in the detoxification process of your body.

6. You can also consider mixing vegetables and fruits together to make delicious juice combinations. Simply add in an apple or a pear to any of the above recipes.

For juicing purposes, it is best to choose vegetables that are organic and free of pesticides. Also, discard all vegetables that do not look their best. Before juicing, wash and rinse the vegetables in filtered water.

You should drink your vegetable juices fresh every time. This means it is best that you juice just before consuming your drink. Alternatively, you can consider buy canning jars with perfect sealing lids for keeping in your refrigerator. Still, you must not keep your juices beyond three days. Do not forget to keep your lid jars tightly closed because air exposure can kill the beneficial enzymes in your vegetable drink.

Preparing vegetable drinks is one of the best ways that you can take them in their raw state. A vegetable juice detox need not be a bland affair. You can come up with some creative recipe ideas for juicing vegetables.

Kenh Jones asked:


As the proud owner of a tiny vegetable plot one of the easiest ways to increase my plot is to grow vegetables in containers. Container vegetable gardening has become very popular to the point the seed companies now have special varieties for growing vegetables in containers. You cannot always use just any plants because some varieties like a wide spread root system while others grow perfectly well with a smaller root set.

This year I tried to grow sweet peppers in some flower pots but I found them pot bound and dying. I transferred them to the plot and within 2 weeks they were growing and much healthier.

Many people actually are constantly on the lookout for a good way to grow their own vegetables even when space is at a premium. Moreover, these people also wish to avoid purchasing vegetables that contain non-organic matter and they need to also find a way to avoid paying for highly costly organic foods.

An Ideal Solution

With problems such as E. coli to worry about as well, growing vegetables at home has now almost become a necessity and so, it is not surprising to find that container vegetable gardening offers an ideal solution to those who have limited space to grow their vegetables at home. Today, almost everything that we consume is a product of mass production which means that the vegetables that we are eating will have been touched by many hands which in turn can lead to these vegetables becoming unsafe to consume.

Even with little space in which to grow vegetables at home, thanks to container vegetable gardening it has now become possible to grow sufficient quantities of vegetables to feed your family on a daily basis. Container vegetable gardening also is advantageous to you because you can grow your vegetables on a patio or even a deck and even growing your vegetables indoors is possible as long as you use indoor grow lights.

Not all vegetables lend them well to container vegetable gardening, and so you may have to especially avoid planting vegetables that are on the larger size such as corn which grows to such heights that it would require using very heavy as well as large pots. Other vegetables that won’t lend them well to container vegetable gardening include large melons and even certain kinds of squashes and tomatoes that are better off being grown in larger gardens.

Lettuce and spinach as well as vegetables with plenty of leaves on them are what you need to consider for container vegetable gardening as these do well when grown in containers. To get the most out of container vegetable gardening you can also choose to plant small tomatoes of which salad tomatoes, plum tomatoes and cherry tomatoes are good examples.

Besides choosing an appropriate vegetable for your container vegetable gardening, you also will need to worry about the proper size of the container and typically, you need to choose a container that should at least be six inches in depth and which is also at least ten to twelve inches wide.

Some people – myself included – find the vegetable plants attractive in themselves. They are to my mind far more interesting because they produce something you can eat but still look good as a plant. Lettuce and cabbages can be very decorative

Another option worth exploring is home vegetable gardening, which contrary to popular conception need not make your home look unsightly. Provided that you plan it thoroughly and plant your vegetables carefully, home vegetable gardens can look very pretty and can add harmony to the home rather than make it look ugly.

The bottom line is that container vegetable gardening is a good option for anyone that is interested in eating food that does not contain excess of non-organic matter and who wishes to save on costs of buying expensive mass-produced vegetables.