there's a very special plant in my garden. I wonder whether you'll guess what it is?
It is a perennial. I can rely on it to shoot forth in early Spring, beginning it's annual role. It doesn't merely shoot forth, it means business - it
catapults above the earth - literally it erupts! And from that moment of sunshine meeting first pale green tips - it is
relentless until the cold weather claims it back into the earth's blanket.
It has become an essential ingredient in the mix of the
Permaculture Mandala Garden we have here at Possum Bend.
It encircles the garden beds in a protective, sheltering way, bunching up and enclosing, securing the contents from invading weeds and grass and helping create just the right conditions for all the other plants to thrive.
I can trim it over and over and over and OVER! And then the resulting piles of biomass I use as mulch, chook fodder, a compost ingredient, or to make compost teas...
In the Home Orchard, when planted to encircle a tree, it can drill roots down to 3 metres, depending on the soil - and then mine valuable nutrients in the form of vital minerals back up to feed the fruit trees...
... it also is a harbinger of reproduction in the gardens - it brings the bees to it's delicate pale pink bell-shaped flowers, floating like dancing girls above the foliage...
...and I have a
very healthy respect for this plant, - it definitely means business - woe betide the unsuspecting gardener - with sensitive skin - wearing anything less than their full suit of protective gear to engage in a game of trimming it! (Personally, I had welts everywhere that wasn't covered by clothing - and that day I'd chosen short shorts and a singlet to work in!)
Ironically, this plant contains a skin soothing component, called allantoin - and I treated my 'burns' with a cream emulsion containing a part of the very same plant!
As well, and now I really will give it away, it is useful for helping mend sprains, bruises and one of it's names is 'knit-bone', as it does exactly that - mends broken bones!!
have you guessed? Yes, it's
Comfrey - wonder plant! Love it!
I'm not sure what you'd judge to be the 'cutest' about this pic...the cuddles, those big puppy eyes on the girl, the snuggling of the puppy's coat by Phoebe's friend, Kade, or the apparent implicit trust deep within those big doggy puppy eyes...aw!
one day last week, I was a little pre-occupied, working away steadily with my seedlings or seed sowing or something...and a little voice asked "Mum, what can I do apple-bobbing in?" Quite a surprise and yet, not. We have apples dropping in luscious red and green striped blobs all over the ground under our old Cox's Orange Pippin at the moment...and I now remember we'd thought about this game for playing at Phoebe's party...and not followed through...
So, as resourceful as Phoebe is, it wasn't long before she'd filled this large container with water, watering can by watering can-full, found said apples and begun anticipating and dipping and dripping and giggling and wiping and beginning all over again...for a very long time, it seemed...delicious, pure appley fun. Of course, the apples in a game of apple bobbing never get cornered with a nice, wide, round barrel for playing with...
All the same, it was her fun, generated by her and she thoroughly enjoyed herself and even built a little more confidence with getting her face wet...+ some progress in that department is wonderful!
...where we find ourselves writing, reading, creating, (homeschooling), eating, communing and generally living the most...the kitchen table... built lovingly by Aaron from reclaimed timbers, bolted solidly together - he would call it "rough as guts" - I call it a little bit of "French Country Chic". Anyway you look at it, it sits very happily amid the cosiness of our tiny kitchen in our "worker's cottage" in the country. 
...so before mealtimes whilst the cook was busy concocting delectable meals the children spent their waiting time drawing on a large sheet of plain newsprint, a whole roll of which cost the princely sum of $2.00 from the office of the Gisborne Herald. This idea came from the ever-resourceful Amanda Blake Soule and her book "The Creative Family".
As it became clear we were in for an extended rainy time we came upon another idea "Calvin's Papier-mache bowls" from Amanda, this time from her second book: "Handmade Home"... and made glue on the stove-top...
...cut up loads of old newspapers and pasted and moulded to our heart's content, outside, under the cover of our (very well used) lean-to, off our downstairs living area. We blended Amanda's ideas by cutting up one of the mealtime art sessions into pieces for the final layer of the papier mache...all ending up with a unique bowl [albeit square bowls!], including pieces of each other's art - something to remember the fun week together in the school holidays...
And, here they are drying in one of the rare moments of sunshine this past week.
We have this gnarled, old apple tree, which I'd have to admit was a large selling point when we purchased our property. We think it is a beautiful old variety, the Cox's Orange Pippin. Very tart and very crisp when it is ripe and striped with red over the green. I've always loved the sensation of munching into the first first apple of the new season.
just because...I love RED + GREEN...I love what our Permaculture Mandala Garden grows...I love the abundance, especially that which comes from a luscious slurp of that free wet stuff...RAIN...this is the best broccoli we've grown - and I think I've even managed to get a variety-timing correct for our situation - WOOHOO! So no guesses to what I'll be doing tonight...! (mmm...plum jam..!)
We love putting bursts of colour around our home. One of Phoebe's favourite past-times is wandering around the garden, cane flower basket over her arm, carefully holding her scissors by the blades, looking for just the right flowers for all of her arrangements. Little smiles pop up all over the house.
this would have to be one of life's very special pleasures, don't you think? (well, in my opinion!) smelling their special baby smell, feeling their burrowing in for maximum cuddle-factor...YUM!
GARDEN GIRL