While rushing around to finish some last-minute gardening chores, I stubbed my toe, singed my finger and scratched my eyelid, all within an hour.

Although I can occasionally be accident-prone, acquiring three self-inflicted boo-boos in an hour was a new record. I also set a new record for the number of times I used freshly-picked aloe vera leaves to topically treat my minor wounds.

The ancient Sumerians, Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, Indians and Chinese used the clear, viscous substance from the leaves of aloe vera, a house plant native to Africa, for medicinal purposes. The first account of such use dates all the way back to a 4,100-year-old Sumerian tablet.

Today, research with regard to the medicinal properties of aloe vera has shown that the liquid center of aloe vera leaves actually contains antibacterial and antifungal compounds. In other words, it's a natural topical sanitizer. It can also soothe raw skin that's been subjected to minor abrasions and first-degree burns.

Growing aloe

Our aloe veras are attractive, pest-free house plants that thrive on neglect. Yet they reward us during late winter with yellow-orange flowers that form at the tops of foot-long spikes.

The aloes I'm growing came from a sprout that was given to me several decades ago. It was only an inch tall. Its pot was a 5-tablespoon medicine-dispensing cup. A fitting container for a medicinal plant, don't you think?

Since aloes and cactuses share the same light and water requirements -- warmth, dry soil and bright light -- I transferred the sprout to a larger pot containing sandy soil that drained freely. And because I didn't have a sunny window back then, I placed the sprout alongside cactus plants growing beneath a timed grow light.

Today's descendants from that original sprout occupy a sunny window and are in a clay "azalea pot," a pot 12 inches in diameter and a few inches deep.

I water them no more than twice a month and never feed them. Still, they continue to thrive.

This week in the garden

Why should anyone go to the trouble of removing the fallen leaves of "deciduous" (leaf losing) trees and shrubs from lawn areas?

Due to a lack of sunlight, an opaque layer of leaves, including evergreen needles, will kill the grass growing beneath it.

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