Got a wall? You can eat and give your body microbes it needs – for free.

I often speak to people about the health benefits of eating your own organically grown produce, 1 teaspoon of your own grown produce has more beneficial microbes your body needs than the total population of New York. The nr 1 reason people give for not doing it is they do not have the space.
I have a big herb and vegetable patch, but decided to see what I can do against a wall and build a culinary feature that anybody can have close to their kitchen. With this wall you can eat fresh organic herb salads, add herbs to your food and have a beautiful feature where otherwise just an empty wall would have been. As you can see in this picture you do not need a wall, you can create one.
The health benefits are not only in the eating, to take a snip from “Wake the KFuC up!”, here are some others:
So except for eating healthy nutritious food, saving money, burning calories and spending time with the one’s you love, let’s look at what else working with your hands in soil, and do not wear gloves please, for as my Mom always used to say: “Nothing is dirty you can wash off with soap and water”:
- Lowers blood pressure
- Good for your bones as exposure to sun makes your body create vitamin D
- Release anxiety/stress with improved self-esteem (ever put a salad on a table in front of friends, looking, smelling and tasting like nothing they ever had before, all while knowing you created this from seed to plate)
- Specific soil bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae, triggers the release of serotonin in our brain (Serotonin being the happy chemical released when eating sugar or taking drugs)
- Dopamine is released during a harvest – coined the “Harvest High” – another element in making you happy
On the contrary, Glyphosate, used in our pesticides was found when digested actually deplete your serotonin and dopamine levels biologically in your body – I now have a better understanding of why so many people, and more than I thought before speaking out about mental issues in myself, are taking pills to get it up just to feel “normal”.
Using upcycled materials I created this wall, and except for a nail or screw or two, only cost me my time, and not much of it. The backdrop is 3 time upcycled wood I got from helping break down a deck at a friends house, it then became a futon and well, now – herb wall!
Coriander and Parsley is planted in empty beer cans I cut (remember to drill small holes in the bottom) and the Fly Catcher is explained in this blog. I used an old pot and wrapped some rope around it to create a hanging feature for the celery, and created boxes out of old pallet planks for the Rocket (both wild and arugula) and Sweet Basil.
My perennials are standing on the floor: Marjoram and Thai Basil in recycled pots and I also used the pallet planks for the Mint, Rosemary and Thyme box. All together this creates a 2m x 1.5m wall of eating space everybody should be able to have, does not matter where they live.
TIP: Make your herb garden/wall and if you can salad/vegetable garden as close to your kitchen as possible – practically I found people use the produce more frequently and it is easier to maintian.
Hope you enjoyed this post – please remember to subscribe and/or share this post to your social media platforms – growing this movement would allow me more time to post innovative, practical and tested sustainable solutions.

