“‘I don’t feel very much like Pooh today,’ said Pooh.
‘There, there,’ said Piglet. ‘I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.'”
After feeling so weary last lockdown, I decided to take stock, and for me that means time in the garden with a cuppa and I came to the decision that there no point worrying about what I can’t control and to focus on what I can. Cultivating a garden is a very positive way to achieve this.
When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden.
Minnie Aumonier
No one kind of garden is ideal for all. So shut your eyes and dream about the garden you love the most, then open your eyes and start planting and remember that loved gardens thrive.
There is no doubt that gardening conditions in Meredith can be challenging especially as the wind is almost always blowing. But preserve and you will learn to understand what it is to grow and cultivate food that, which will nourish as well as provide food security for you, your family and community.
Growing an edible garden gives a sense of achievement and pleasure, more than you can imagine. I am excited because we actually got our potatoes planted and the strawberries lifted and replanted in August- one benefit of #stayhome
This week the plan, as it is late August /early September, is to plant out broad beans, carrot, lettuce, onion and peas. Next will be to plant seeds in trays to plant out as the soil warms up. This will include celery, silver beet, lettuces, leeks, spring onions, climbing beans, cucumber, sweet corn, tomato, pumpkin, zucchini, and radishes. Remember to plant little and often to stagger and extend harvest times.
“First he ate some lettuces and some French beans; and then he ate some radishes.” ‘
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
According to the Diggers Club you can grow 2 tonnes of food for under $30! With 13 packets of seed, you can grow 120kg pumpkin, 21kg beans, 824kg tomatoes, 560 lettuces, 268kg cucumbers, 42kg carrots, 22kg peas, 115kg parsnip, 247 broccoli heads, 840 onions and 60 bunches of silver beet. Now that’s food security, guaranteed fresh wholesome food and you have more time outside in the fresh air rather than time spent staying 1.5 m apart in the supermarket or fruit & veg shop with masks and QR scanning rules.
The plan also includes planting or tidying up the cooking and medicinal herbs of parsley, chives, catnip, sage, oregano, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, basil, mugwort, chives, comfrey and it is always good to leave a patch of nettles.
Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.”
-A. A. Milne
I have also started preparing a few beds that are for benefit of the bees and other pollinators. These pollinators are important for the vegie patch as they increase pollination and therefore crop yield. Flowers such as coneflower, cornflower, cosmos and sweet alyssum, zinnia, sunflowers, queens anne lace, lavender, poppies, and calendula and great for attracting pollinators. Allowing herbs and some vegetables to go to seed is also another great way to attract pollinators to visit. (Next plan get a beehive to be self-reliant in honey).
“Even the smallest one can change the world.”
‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’.
Now we cannot forget our backyard chooks –poached eggs and fresh steam vegies make a light and delicious meal. I like to plant around the perimeter of the chook yard borage, comfrey, lemon balm, calendula, wormwood, lavender, and tansy to repel pests and parasites from the chooks and help keep them healthy and happy… remember it is very hard to stay down while watching chooks being busy in their daily lives.
To paraphrase David Hobson, there are many reasons, to grow plants: to please the eyes and the soul, to challenge the elements and to challenge your patience, for novelty and nostalgia, but mostly for the joy of seeing them grow and knowing that I can provide for my family.
The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard.
Joel Salatin
For me gardening is all about finding some faith in what the future holds, every seed you plant is a symbol of hope and happiness, a sense of control. So, although our world seems to be in free fall and challenging in the extreme, I can hold onto my seeds and seedling’s and breathe deep and know that time spent in our garden is not wasted, but that I am participating in one of the purest pleasures, one that feeds not just our bodies but our mind, soul, and spirit.
A society grows great when we plant trees whose shade, we know we shall never sit in!