This is a pumpkin leaves while it is called Ugu in an African language.
I woke up this morning, went outside and noticed our Ugu leaves on the trees has been growing so well and even cover the whole trees we planted it. I needed to reduced it from the down so that it can grow more better and bigger. Because if you want your Pumpkin Or Ogu leave to yield you a good and bigger leaves, you need to reduce it from the down and allow only the leaves on the trees to keep growing and breading.
So, I cut some leaves from the down to keep the up ones growing up and kept the main seed very clean from dirty. Other people planted their Pumpkin or Ugu seed on a plain land or farmland soil. There are some farmers who will farm and plant their Pumpkin or Ugu seed like the way you are planting groundout or beans but only few people that used such kind of method of planting Pumpkin in a farmland.
Majority of people uses the trees method to plant their Pumpkin or Ugu seed on a good soil, attached good and strong tress and cover up the tress at the top as you can clearly see in this picture. When the Ugu leaves starts germinating from the soil, you will then use ropes and tight it attached to the tress and the Pumpkin or Ogu leaves will germinating round the ropes to the top of the tress and bread at the top the tress. If you doesn't use strong tress for this particular method of planting Pumpkin Or Ugu, it will not grow well .
If your tress are not strong enough, the tress will breakdown and fall down and while the tress are on lying down the ogu leave will not grow very well as expected. You need to dig a hole and plant strong tress to make it stand very well before tigting the ugu germinating roots round the ropes to the trees.
As you can see this particular pictures, the Pumpkin Or Ugu leaves has broad wide enough on top of the tress, spreading round the tress greenish in color.
Most of the time we will cut the Ogu leaves and make soup with it as vegetable soup, cook it with rice or beans. Virtually different kind of soups and stews of both local and international meal can be cooked along with the Ugu leaves. It's has so many significance and medical benefits to human being.
And again, most of the pumpkin leaves are proteinous in nature and healthy to human. It doesn't need a bigger farm or large land before it could grow, but it can germinate in any kind of weather conditions, and farmland with any kind of methods used. It doesn't needs any fertilizer to make it germinate or does not need any chemicals to make it grow and healthy because it grows naturally.
Pumpkin leaves is a vegetarian food, it added blood to human being when been consumed and is very nutritional to the body system. At times doctor will even ask a patient who has low blood pressure or have low blood level to be eating pumpkin leaves in order to increase his or her blood levels. And research has shown that most people that eat vegetables or that are more of vegetarian looks stronger and healthier than those people eating food and drinks.
To maintain the good nutrite of eating pumpkin leaves, just boil for few minutes and not too long in order to retain the nutrients. Infact some people including me I used to cook it without adding anything to it, add red oil and fish then eat it. Is very good and very nutritional and contains vitamins. As a vegetable meal, it helps to control one blood pressure. Keeping the pumpkin leaves clean and making the tress standing strong to keep the Ugu leaves to grow wider and bread enough on the tress is something worth my time and energy.