Garden Update

The Farmer’s Markets have begun, the garden is shooting up and out and it’s strawberry time. So far, it’s sort of under control. I’m so glad I feel so good or I wouldn’t be able to keep up the pace. I still make time for quiet contemplation in the garden, always giving thanks for the abundance of this little plot.

A Taste of Spring!

The comfrey root I plopped in the ground this spring (thank you Mary Jane!) is blooming, along with its two compatriots. It’s just a little different from the one I started here from seed a few years ago. I know this baby will yield its miraculous cure in profusion. Its salve healed sweet husband’s bad knee that has bothered him for years, not to mention all the other people who have benefited from its root.

Comfrey Taking Root

I have many valerian plants, but this big mother on the hugel is the only one ready for harvesting this fall. Needless to say, it has greatly benefited from the goodies we buried underneath here. (See article “Hugelkultur” on this blog). The valerian tincture made from valerian root tastes terrible, but always brings relaxation for those infrequent sleepless nights. It’s a must for the herbal medicine chest.

Valerian

 I put one tomato plant in a pot for those early BLTs and it has tomatoes setting on already.

Potted Tomato

This geranium was over-wintered in the south windows in the attic. I didn’t realize I mixed a red and a pink, but it’s beautiful in form and color.

Pink and Red Geranium

 The iris is gone for another year, but the calendula is beginning to bloom.

Yellow Iris

Calendula Blooming

Here’s our new “fire pit,” sweet husband’s idea. It works great and now it has its own special place where we never have to move it again. It’s the bottom of an antique cast iron woodstove and weighs a ton. I hope to find a metal lid for rain protection. I get hungry for marshmallows and may have to get some, just once. We all need a little poison now and then!

New "Fire Pit"

 I’ll leave you with the ornamental strawberry path up front. They have taken over almost all the path and doesn't mind a little foot traffic.

Ornamental Strawberry Path

Update on Vegetable Gardening with Woodchips

Main Garden Plot

On December 7, 2013, I posted about all kinds of edibles I intended to plant in woodchips. If you are interested, go back and read that entry. I believed I had seen the error of my gardening ways and was ready for a change. Really, the essence of that entry dealt with my belief paradigm. Would I be able to change the way I gardened? The answer is a resounding, YES! I had already taken baby steps, now it was time to go all in. Oh my, have I been rewarded. I’m able to grow more than twice the amount of fruits and vegetables on my tiny plot. Here’s what I did:

Sweet husband and I always take our little trailer over to the city yard where free woodchips from local trees are available. For fifteen years we have mulched our trees, shrubs and flowers. I had been mulching the strawberries and they bore a ton of fruit. The apple tree was loaded. I had inter-planted occasional vegetables into the landscape with good results. Now it was time to dump the “free nutrients” on the veggies. We hauled countless loads in the spring and fall of 2014 and then again in the spring of 2015. The fall of last year was a very busy time for us, so we fell down on the proverbial job and added nothing. I harvested broken down woodchips from areas where we had been adding chips for years, moved that to the veggie garden and then we applied fresh chips to those stripped areas. Yes, it was labor intensive, a sacrifice we all tend to make when we’re planning for the future. My old body got whipped into shape and I felt great.

Quince in Flower

I planted in those broken down woodchips in the garden proper and put new chips around plants to retain water and suppress weeds. The results were surprising. Even in 2014 the yields were amazing. I also did second and third plantings of carrots and beets and potatoes. We covered with leaves the few carrots I had left in the ground and harvested them until they ran out in December of 2014. I was determined to have more in “storage” for 2015. I must have re-planted at exactly the right time, as this last winter we harvested over 40 pounds of beautiful, sweet carrots until March, when I dug the rest and put them in cold storage. It’s a wonderful feeling when you remove the snow and leaves and discover orange gold. Some of them weighed up to 10 ounces! They were so tasty and fresh. I experimented with a few beets and next winter we will have fresh, organic beets until spring.

 

Beautiful and Medicinal Violets

Other bonuses to gardening this way:

*NO watering: even after a month last summer with no rain, the ground held rainwater.

*Few weeds: how nice is it when, at the peak of your busy time, weeding takes five minutes?

*No cultivation: yes, my second year of no backbreaking turning-over-of-the-rye. That was a bear, getting ready to plant. This year, as every year, I mail ordered any seeds I was unable to save from 2015. I also ordered onion plants instead of sets. They sent my order and informed me that the onion plants would come when it was time to plant. Yikes! There they were on March 16^th. The weather was wet, cold and dreary and the instructions said “Plant ASAP”. I took the box out to the potting shed and grabbed the hoe. Surely it would be a bog out there. To my surprise, the soil was not muddy but instead well drained. I made my trenches and quickly planted three long rows of red, yellow and white onions. Way too easy. No-till gardening means you are ready to plant whenever. The soil retains its natural integrity; no cultivation means preserving the structure that encourages natural biological activity and fertility.

*Heavy yields: close plantings and successive plantings means food pouring in. Pull a beet, plant a seed in its place. Of course, this doesn’t work for every vegetable at least I haven’t found a way. Maybe, for example, starting cabbage seedlings in pots for late transplant? The woodchips generate warmth as they break down, which jumpstarts the season, but some things are harvested only once.

*Constant fertilization: trees are our best source for fertilizer. Trees harvest the energy that can later be transferred into food. Yes, I compost, but leaves and woodchips mixed in with kitchen waste (banana, citrus, potato peels, coffee grounds etc.) heat up and speed the breaking down process. Really, it’s just easier to find a bare spot and dig a small hole and bury the kitchen waste right in the garden; the same with leaves in the spring. If it goes on the pile, it has to be moved into the garden at some point. I’m not getting any younger.

In December of 2013, I made a commitment to grow vegetables in woodchips. I overcame the bare-soil belief paradigm. I protected the tender skin of Mother Earth and she has rewarded me beyond my expectations. I’m able to grow more than twice the amount of fruits, vegetables and herbs on my little urban plot.

Sammie on Top

 

Fig Tree Overwintered in Front Porch

Tulips Pretending to be Roses

Spring Has Sprung

Daffodils

Glorious spring! First the daffodils, then the tulips.

Yellow Tulips

May 3rd

The quince is a thorny mess all year, but in the spring, it is one of the first to bloom a delicate pink. Later, there will (hopefully) be those crazy apple-like fruits that make such good jam.

Quince

The violets are sending out their delicious perfume and are gathered for salves and tinctures.

Violets washed and ready

Added to the Bechard’s Botanicals line of new products are these:

Shampoo bars are joined by hair balm

Stardust Shimmer Dusting Powder for sweaty summer days

Healing Salves

Lip Balm

As I was working in the garden, I happened to look across to the park and saw my husband making the best of that irritating wind. He’s the only guy I know that will go fly a kite when his wife tells him to!

Go fly a kite!

Herbs and New Stuff

Herbs Drying in Stairwell

 The herbs that have been hanging around drying are mostly taken care of. Some will be used for culinary purposes and some in bath products. I always have some that end up on the compost heap the following year.

Herbs for Tea

My philosophy is that it's better to have too much than to wish I had some!

Health in a Bottle

Bottling tinctures takes patience.

Fresh Salad

The last salad has been eaten and the cedar box emptied and awaiting February, when it will be replanted and set to grow in the front porch until it thaws outside. With the two boxes Sweet Husband made, we can have fresh lettuce at least seven months a year.

Wrapping and Labeling Bath Truffles

After much experimentation and friend-testing, I've added three new products to Bechard's Botanicals: bath truffles (two different fragrances), a therapeutic bath soak for troubled skin and my fav, body butter.

Dry Skin and Stress Releif

This is the best body butter I've ever used! I should call it, "Itch No More"!

Physalis peruviana

Aramanth with Cape Gooseberry (lower right)

I cannot find the words to express the joy and awe and wonder I feel when I explore the workings of Nature. Sometimes I still can feel the justifiable anger that so plagued my early explorations into herbal remedies; anger that beneficial information on healing plants has been so carefully and diabolically hidden. I rarely waste my time with that these days, because I deeply understand that no iniquity can be perpetrated against me without my consent. If I invite malevolence into my personal sphere of existence, can I then blame those who choose enter? In the Mill of Life, these shadowy entities could be perceived as the abrasive stone upon which the grain of my soul must be ground.  

My spiritual, physical and mental wellbeing is totally and irrevocably my responsibility. I am fortunate to have at my disposal the tools I need to educate myself: a relatively clear mind, a fantastic library and of course, the internet. While most other Baby Boomers are crediting themselves for reading Big Pharma's package inserts for the latest symptom management medications, I study plants. I don't just read, I contemplate as I plant them in my garden or find them in their natural habitat. I have what could be called, an intuitive conversation with the actual plant. It's amazing the number of "accidental plantings" that I have done, even before my herbalist explorations began in earnest.

I planted bloodroot (2002!) long before I understood its healing implications for skin cancer or that it is on the endangered species list. Time and again this strange phenomena has transpired in the Garden of Nemesis. Here's the latest:

I planted Cape Gooseberries because I wanted to grow more fruit for preserves. I picked the berries and froze them. That was no mean feat because they tasted sooo good I wanted to gobble the entire crop fresh. But then I did something entirely crazy. I harvested the leaves for later use. After partially drying them as per usual, I froze a bag and later retrieved them to make a tincture. I did this without really even thinking about it. Imagine my surprise this morning when I stumbled across a major research article about how the leaves of Physalis peruviana has been shown to destroy cancer cells!

In that moment of understanding, something big shifted in my psyche. It felt like the blast of a tsunami that picked me up and carried me, rather flung me, to a new and better place. A surge of joy also came with the wave. As best I can express this tremendous revelation in words might be this:

You mean we have everything we need here? Growing in the dirt? There is no lack? Is health just a matter of brewing a tea or swallowing a tincture or applying a poultice? Could it be this incredibly simple? Is it that all I have to do is listen to the still, small voice inside as it whispers the secrets of Nature? Can I lie in the grass and watch the clouds instead of having parts and pieces of my body removed and/or poisoned by doctors practicing on me? It can't be so! But it is. It is.

Drats, Winter AGAIN!

I only have a few jars left!

Is it just me, or has winter come early this year? I remember when I was a kid on an Iowa farm and it was always, always full and complete winter by Thanksgiving. Sometimes we’d have trouble driving the few miles to or from Gramma’s house. I think we Midwesterners have had it easy the past several decades. Anyway, the view of the garden from my window is already white and the wind is howling. I need to remind myself that Nature is simply renewing Itself.

Last round of Tincture making

The soap kitchen has been lately the scene of many frustrating experiments, mostly involving my attempt to make bath melts. Every night at bath time I am the recipient of my own cockamamie research. My desire to avoid synthetic ingredients such as polysorbates and their ilk as emulsifiers has caused repeated failures. Today I decided to allow one more morning’s worth of trials and have been rewarded with what I believe to be a passable product. Actually dropping the thing into my bath will tell the final tale. I’ll keep you updated and list the ingredients should it turn out fabulous.

Looks good, smells good, but horrible in the bath!

In between failures I’ve created a wonderful product I call “Goddess Bath Tea”. The ingredients are very simple and wholesome and friends who volunteered to test this have given it glowing reviews. Thus, it’s made and packaged and will be up on the website this next week.

Two of the six new Bath Teas

I also messed around with recipes for a super moisturizing body cream and I’m really excited that I seem to have succeeded. It could be a little smoother, so plan to whip the next batch. Here’s a photo. Now I just have to find willing participants to use it and give me reviews. Volunteers?

This will soften even the roughest skin

 Last but not least, I’ve spent many hours felting soap. This will also be up on bechardsbotanicals.com soon. Meanwhile, here are some pics.

Nice little Christmas gifts

 Felted soap delivers just about the most luxurious bath I’ve ever encountered. It’s pampering to the extreme.  

Catnip Jute Stocking for the discerning kitty

Little stocking stuffers!

 Now you know why I haven't had time to blog...

Soaps and Tinctures

I finished canning tomatoes this week (no pics of that sweaty job!) and got some tinctures bottled.

Then, I made two more Holiday/Winter soaps.

Cutting Winter Wonderland (complictated by tapioca pearls on top!)

Cutting Yuletide Cheer (the pic doesn't do justice to the sparkles in the gold)

Bye Bye Summer

Peppers to freeze

 The last of the summer has shot by at warp speed with manic rounds of canning and freezing and drying.

Mugwort Root

My tincture line is growing. It’s amazing how the new heath-care (I call it sick-care) changes has had a boomerang effect and more of us are turning back to Nature where true healing is possible instead of just symptom management.

Christmas Cantata

My friend Caryn has an alpaca farm and asked me if I’d like to set up my mobile shop at her place for the national alpaca Farm Days at the end of the month. I compelled myself to sit quietly and contemplate the coming winter and its traditional holidays so I could plan some new soaps. It wasn’t easy! “Christmas Cantata” is the first of a series of three. This week I’ll make “Yuletide” and “Winter Wonderland”. The names are always subject to change, but I have a vision of the designs and the scents. I intend to cut some soaps smaller and bag for Christmas stocking-stuffers.