How to build good habits

how to build good habits … instead of making then breaking new year’s resolutions.

RRecently we had some shocking heath news in our family and like an icy bucket of water to the head I was reminded that life is too precious to waste. Don’t we all have dreams, a desire to give our life some purpose and worth? Stagnating in an office cubical of status quos is probably not anyone’s life’s goal, and yet here the majority of us are rusting away. We try to shake things up every New Year, but isn’t it just like running on an unhappy hamster wheel of deny, binge, guilt of broken resolutions. Can you even remember what they were by April? Take this as a cyber slap in the face to get it together, if we have each other we can do it! *insert inspirational quote of your choice here*

Health, family, community and happiness are the big ones, right? So let’s help each other build good habits for life. That’s good habits forever that make our life better. I know, I know puns are the worst. Bad habits are hard to kick, but so are good ones so to achieve our goals let’s start scratching away at them, because our goals should be our life’s work not the work of a year and then as quickly forgotten.

how-to-build-good-habits

dreams

Dream big then break it down!

So let’s come up with the big dream, don’t rush it, this is the fun part. We’ll work out how we’ll get there later, for now just get a nice blank piece of paper and some coloured pens for an old fashioned brain storming of all the things you ever wanted to achieve. Don’t rate them, let them flow, even the little ideas might help you work out the bigger picture.

Let’s make it worth it, what’s one thing that will make life better for you? Not make people envy you or make you the cardboard cutout of success, no no no, white picket fence and a sports car in the driveway is so last century. What will make you happier and healthier and more fulfilled? It doesn’t have to be grand, but a worthwhile aspiration will probably tick off a number of smaller dreams on your list as well.

The New Year’s Resolution Approach would be to select one (or even more disastrous, all), clink a glass of Champagne and stumble into January with blind resolve. Feeling inspired for a new you, working hard, getting bored, tired and frustrated (a merry cocktail indeed) and giving up or just getting distracted. So to win at life we might actually need a game plan.

So the best goal will have links to other things in your list and not be too whimsical. So ‘learn French’ isn’t really up there, if I had move to France with handsome French husband then it would definitely be part of it, but that’s not something I’m interested in (so don’t worry Dylan). Same with learn an instrument, unless one of my dreams is seriously to be in a band.

why

The why motivation

If you really want to reach your goal, and sooner rather than later, you better have some pretty good reasons to get you excited. It’s not just the getting started, it’s the not giving up. If you ask yourself “why the hell am I doing this for?” a week, month or year in and don’t have a good answer you’ll give up and maybe it wasn’t worth it after all. “Because it makes me seem more interesting and cool” just won’t cut it.

You need weapons to defeat the “cant be bothered” monster!

Here are some question to get you going, can you think of any more good ones to ask? Don’t limit your self think emotional as well as pragmatic, mental as well as physical.

What will it help you achieve? Why is this important? Will it give you better quality of life?
Will it mean doing more of what you love? (This one is important, if you don’t choose something that involves something you already like and will enjoy doing a lot of the time it just won’t be worth it.)
And less of what you hate? What are you unhappy about in your current situation?
And more of what you’re neglecting?
And will it support causes you admire rather than deplore?
Who else will it help?

This is the list you stick in your wallet, on your fridge or have tattooed on your arm because it’s important to never loose track of why you are doing something, the how and when can evolve but the why should be your solid foundation.

As you can see I have chosen “build a local sustainable community”, originally I chose be self-sufficient, but after our rocky start to this year it became clear that whilst being self-sufficient is an honourable ideal what I really need and the sustainability movement too is COMMUNITY. It’s just no fun if you do things alone, and I might just get a bit closer to my self-sufficiency goal if I work, learn, teach, share and have fun with a group of like minded individuals at my own back door. The only way to convince people to be more sustainable is to show that at its heart it is just more fun and fulfilling. I haven’t had a lot of fun lately so perhaps it’s time to start.

planting-understory-food-forest

child-food-forest-playground

vegetable-garden-permablitz

seda-work-experience-students-permablitz

No your enemy!

It’s that little wheedling voice making excuses when your at your weakest, say when a task coincides with a rerun of Mad Men on a rainy day.

So why you haven’t been able to organically and easily achieve your goal yet. What internally and externally has made it hard? Once you work this out you can figure out how to overcome those obstacles. This is a great way to exorcise all those little demons of self-doubt, laziness and plain whininess. It’s not always easy to creak into gear, floating can be so much more fun, but you’re just drifting to a big fat boring nowhere.

The following might be issues:
Convenience of bad, inconvenience of the good
Addictions, whether they be too sugar, watching TV, facebook, or something harder
Social pleasures or pressures
Imbalance, exhaustion and over work
Money, generally the lack of it
Bad habits and routine
Lack of knowledge and confidence
Difficulty
Time poor
Fear of change
Boredom

So let’s work out your excuses while your feeling strong and motivated so you can pound that wheedling guy into dust.

Keeping it bite sized

So now we can finally start working out some good habits, a salve to those bad ones. So let’s break your dream up into mini goals, we’re short term thinkers for the most part, that is why our world’s going to hell in a handbasket as our adorable grannies would say, so let’s make it work for us. So short term goals for long term benefit. One of mine is to start up a Flemington Food Swap, perhaps I’ll see you there. It’s a way to connect to the community, find passionate people to help me and most important of all it will be fun! It’s one step, but when it gains momentum I will feel a sense of achievement. It’s important to be kind to yourself, you won’t always succeed, sometimes you’ll falter and give in to your excuses, but instead of beating yourself up, thing about what you have achieved no matter how small and get back on the horse.

flemington-food-swap-picnic-poster

Getting in the habit

So we’ve got our dream and we’ve got our goals but how do we achieve them?
Have you ever woken up exhausted, and some how you ate your breakfast, got your teeth brushed, dressed and out the door, you can hardly remember doing them, but you almost literally sleepwalked through them. That’s because they are habits, you do them everyday, they are routine. That’s what we have do to achieve our goals as painlessly as possible. Steps so tiny they seem ridiculous but the beauty is you hardly notice them and you can build them up slowly like dunes being formed by grains of sand.

I read one example of a guy who was told by his doctor to floss his teeth every night. He would always starts enthusiastically, but come his next appointment it might have been months since the last time he flossed. So he said he would floss one tooth every night, just one. It took only a second, so he could never justify not doing it and more often than not once he got started he would end up flossing his whole mouth. Sometimes it’s just the getting started that’s hard, then your body takes over from your mind.

So make a list of all those little things you do everyday, or every week. Then work out new little “habits” you can tag on to them to help you reach your goal.

A goal might be to eat healthier. An obstacle might be that you are so tired after work that getting take away is what you end up guiltily doing. You might then have a mini goal of preparing meals and freezing them so all you have to do is heat them up after work. Habits you might start to achieve this are: every Sunday morning go to the farmer’s market for breakfast; when you make a meal double it and freeze half; when you get up Saturday morning soak some beans, etc.

Or if you want to produce no waste, instead of starting cold turkey you might still go to the supermarket but a habit might be: when you buy packaged food only buy it in glass jars you can reuse for preserves or after you have filled your basket put two packaged items back.

It could even just be after you brush your teeth spend 5 minutes cleaning or blogging or practicing. You’ll do more than 5 when you feel like it, but even when you don’t 5 minutes is so little it’s not hard to smash through it. Don’t give yourself room to procrastinate by making it too formidable.

When you’ve locked in one small habit add another.

flemington-inaugural-food-swap

food-swap-produce-limes-seedlings-vegetables

buy 2016 cheap cocktail dresses

crowd-at food-swap

Review and rework

This is the final step. Don’t just slavishly follow your plan into the ground, if things aren’t working they need a tweak. Start small, but don’t be afraid to reassess your goals, after all we change, sometimes we don’t realise something is not what we really want until we almost achieve it. Only you and perhaps the ones you love who have the benefit of perspective can know what’s right, dreams evolve.

But at the micro level if you’re struggling to make a habit stick ask yourself:

Why am I struggling to change?
Can I make it easier for myself?
Can I remove temptation?
What can I replace it with?
Now this is not replacing one evil with another, it’s figuring out what positive aspects a former negative habit had that you have lost. Things aren’t black and white. Perhaps giving up coffee or cigarettes meant also giving up a 10 minute break from staring at a computer screen, a chance to chat to co-workers, stretch your legs. My co-worker and I have come up with the idea of a “pause pomme” (an apple break) where we each eat and apple and walk around the block.

Could eating out be replaced with rotating dinner parties with friends or potluck suppers?

Is keeping your room neat as simple as having a drawer you can dump your clean laundry in until you have time to sort it rather than what happens to us, a vicious cycle of clothesline, hamper, bed, floor.

But most important of all, don’t lose sight of your ultimate goal.

goals

Well I hope you’ve gotten something out of this. Let me know if you have any tips!

I’ll share my progress with my goals as I go. Honestly finishing this post feels like aback patting moment for me, it’s been sitting in my drafts for so long!

So wishing you all happiness and inspiration for every day and every tooth flossed! Good night.

Continue Reading

moving garden

say goodbye to the old life, losing something but gaining more

A clunking trailer bouncing: chicken coop, couches and a mobile garden over speed humps. There was something delightfully outlandish about our arrival at our new home, chook in the boot, we were the Beverly Hill Billies of Flemington (alas no rocking chair grandma on the roof). Books and plants and tools, that is what our worldly possessions amounted to, but after months on the road even those few items chaffed a little, there was no carrying them on bike and back.

Downsizing in house size and housemates was a huge relief after months self-indulgently alone. Even now, months after touching down, my brain fills with static when the emotions and drama of others grow too intense. A rising desire to flee to the quiet recesses of my own brain. Time to slip into my most fluid friendships, easy-going and nurturing they’ll help build back my tolerance to the world we live in.

moving-garden-trailer

Here are my top 5 tips for a mobile garden:

    1. Deciduous trees

Cut a circle around deciduous trees a few weeks before you move them, prune braches so root loss to branch loss is about even. An arborist friend says this gives them a chance to regrow their feeder roots before being transplanted.

    1. Evergreens

Grow dwarf evergreens in barrels/planters with wheels. We have all our citrus in barrels as well as a devil plant so when moving garden they can just be wheeled to the trailer. Make sure wheels you buy are strong, we’ve had one collapse before and it’s no fun.

    1. Infrastructure

Make things dismantleable. Our chicken coop can be dismantled into three pieces which I can carry by myself although I prefer not to. This is also good if you want to rotate your chickens every few months for hygiene and to make use of the super rich soil under their coop.

    1. Cuttings

Before perennials get to the point where they can no longer be moved without risking death take cuttings as a back up and pot them up. Take cuttings of deciduous plants while they are dormant. You are more likely to have more success if you catch them before they have expended all that stored energy.

    1. The Everyday

As a renter you never know when your lease might be suddenly broken, keep a copy of all your most useful herbs and vegetables in a window sill planter so you at least have your salad, oregano, chives etc flourishing while you go about trying to get to know and establish your new garden.

What are your tricks? Let me know it the comments section!

hintergrund weihnachten//hintergrund weihnachten klein//hintergrund weihnachten foto//hintergrund weihnachten stoff//hintergrund weihnachten fotostudio
The fantastic view from our deck. It’s like being in the bush! We will not miss the three storey apartments that looked into the backyard of our old place.

lace wedding gown NZ

This sleeper planter full of succulents was my house warming present to myself, 50% off though!
This sleeper planter full of succulents was my house warming present to myself, 50% off though!
gum-trees-red-eucalyptus-blossoms

bantam-white-silkie-chicken

This is going to need some work!
This is going to need some work!

dog-yawn-Alyogyne-huegelii-NATIVE-LILAC-HIBISCUS

I just through all my lettuce seed heads in pots so I could have plenty of cut and come again lettuces without having to stress about looking after seedlings in punnets. Just snip the tops off and they will regrow 3-4 times!
I just threw my lettuce seed heads in pots so they’d sprout as cut and come again salad so I wouldn’t have to mess around with punnets. Just snip the tops off and they will regrow 3-4 times!

young-border-collie

boiling-hot-water-twigs

old-blue-ship-boat-lantern

chillie-kettle-scottish-wood-burning-tea-camping

First cup of tea at the new place! We have a chest fridge/freezer, a “Ghillie Kettle” and a biomass stove that we fuel with dropped gum tree twigs, it’s a bit like camping! So much fun!

old-border-collie-dog
Gracie the old Border Collie is very sceptical of the whole arrangement, and Clem the pup is so stick obsessed we had to stop her retrieving the twigs from the fire! never a dull moment!

water-dragon-outdoor-tick-burning -oven

https://www.katebackdrop.de/collections/backstein-hintergrunde
Nosey neighbour! My parents live behind us now and their dogs are very curious about the goings on over the fence!
Continue Reading

st erth

Sometimes inspiration is best digestested through the eyes. Follow me through the garden of St Erth.

Hidden in the heart of the dusty, dry Blackwood bushland, there is a lush garden oasis. Our last visit was made all the more surreal because the surrounding bush was crackling with ‘planned burns’, smoke wreathing the town below. Climbing upwards we exited the smoke and found the normally placid place packed with cars winding down the hill. The nursery, packed with its normal smörgåsbord of rare edibles and ornamentals, was overflowing and the cafe too. We had accidentally, but providentially arrived on the day of their Spring Festival.

The nursery is usually the main event for me: Native Finger Lime Pink Ice, Purple leafed Elderberry, Kiwiberry Issai, Tomato Wapsipinicon Peach…the names alone enough to delight the fancier of unusual & heirloom, however the garden is a real treat. I had already seen it a number of years ago, but and it was still able to surprise me. Behind the box hedges and the espaliered fruit trees in flower there was a Food Forest! Winding paths banked with drifts of marjoram, arbours lazy with hops, currants dropping with fruit. It really is amazing, I hope you all find time to investigate, it’s worth the trip. Afterwards I also recommend a cafe and coffee at the Black Wood Merchant in town, they’ve got lots of local delights to take home too and an antique store next door.

What are your favourite nurseries?

tmber-branch-fence

chilean-guava-hedge

apple-cordon-fence-easy-diy

potager-garden-pretty-deciduous-fruit-trees

clever-way-to-train-espalier-plants-bamboo-cheap-easy

slopin-garden-potager-blackwood-bushland

garden-instructions-bird-pest-protection-annual-vegetable-gardens-nets

food-forest-arbour-hops-plant-st-erth-blackwood

red-leaf-amaranth-currant

garden-seat-metal-arbour

comfrey-knitbone-uses-thyme

cabbages-decorative-edible-garden

fruiting-currant-plant

hanging-rosemary-lavender-bay-tree-underplanting-groundcover-hardy

purple-globe-artichokes-garden-inspiration

pineapple-giava-food-forest-compact-shrub

yarrow-shrubby-groundcovers-wormwood-artemesia-blue-flowered-rosemary

giant-red-leaf-mustard-ornamental-planting

knotted-golden-marjoram-path-giant-red-mustard

red-veined-blood-sorrel-under-currants

grlic-chives-along-path

st-erth-diggers-club-lawn

red-head-girl-dog-pats

st-erth-blackwood-box-hedge-formal

Continue Reading

25 edibles that survive utter neglect

Who said the greatest hunger a person has is to be needed? When it comes to gardening I’d consider it the height of success if I’ve designed myself out of the system completely. No watering, no propagating, just eating!

After 6 months of neglect: a boiling February, an unseasonably hot autumn and a cheerless winter; the food forest hadn’t even missed me. I was relieved. Some plants like the Warrigal greens, parsley and wormwood had actually attempted to take over the joint while I was gone!

So this list is for the busy, busy people out there, who just want to water intermittently, then leave plants to their own devices except for the occasional, to borrow a phrase from Jackie French, “hacking back the jungle” (maybe we can even train the chickens to this for us). I never thought I would ever curse having TOO MANY vigorous plants in the food forest, but I certainly did when I had to write this list, by number 20 I had lost the will, so I hope you find this useful! Drop me a comment if you do, I read everyone and cherish them!

The Survivors & multipliers

These are the plants that not only survived, but thrived on neglect. Taking the mickey really, not for the perfect manicured potager garden, but oh so wonderful for a community food forest. They are great filler plants when a garden is just getting established, after which plants like Warrigal greens can be cut back to create a space for a new plant. Once established these hardy plants will improve the soil, protect it for moisture loss and help to create a better environment so softer plants can also take root.

The fodd forest a year ago!
The food forest a year ago!

The food forest now!
The food forest now!

nasturtium-edging-mint

pineapple-sage

chard-silverbeet

parsley-food-forest

parsley-chard-nasturtium

  1. Nasturtiums

  2. Acts as a living mulch
    Great Companions for fruit trees (repels bugs, attracts predatory insects) as well as to cabbage family, Turnips, Radishes, Cucumbers, Zucchini
    Pretty edible flowers
    Seeds cam be pickled as caper substitute
    Leaves can be used in salads and pesto
    Spread across the ground, roots easily by layering
    Self-seeding

  3. Chard

  4. Can be harvested all year, if it starts bolting cut the stalk and it should resprout
    Good companion for bean, cabbage family, tomato, onion
    Young leaves can be used in salads
    Its colourful stems are delicious baked or grilled
    Leaves can be used as spinach substitute in warm weather
    Self-seeding

  5. Parsley

  6. High in vitamins and minerals
    Good companion to asparagus, tomatoes, chives
    Wonderful in falafel stem and all!
    Yum in tabouli
    Self-seeding, when we came back from overseas we had an entire wicking bed and two huge pots full of parsley that we never planted there, lucky it’s so useful!

  7. Mint

  8. Good companion to cabbages and tomatoes
    Great fresh or dried for herbal tea
    Some like it hot, but for those who don’t a minty raita is great on a curry
    Robust, can be used as a permaculture lawn or living mulch (but can choke out other plant if not harvested regularly)
    Quick spreading by runners, you can just rip a fistful out and replant it

  9. Wormwood

  10. Pest and animal deterrent so best utilised on garden borders to stop those pesky pets weeing on the veg!
    Can supress weeds because roots secrete growth inhibitors, should keep away from other plants for this reason
    Chop and drop for paths for above reasons
    Grow near chook pens to control external parasites
    Sends out roots and shoots to multiply

  11. Pineapple sage

  12. Our housemate loves to make pineapple sage cupcakes from the flowers and leaves
    Adds nice fruity taste to ice teas and cocktails
    Extremely vigorous if chopped inches from the ground will resprout bushier and fuller (like a beard!)
    Provides nectar for native spinebill
    Used for treatment of anxiety and depression

apple-trees

Wormwood seedling in January
Wormwood seedling in January

6 months later it is huge!
6 months later it is huge!
elderflower in january
elderflower in january
elderflower 6 months later
elderflower 6 months later
warrigal-greens

feverfew-flowers-daisy

  1. Warrigal greens

  2. High in antioxidants and fibre. Captain Cook’s crew ate it aboard the Endeavour to prevent scurvy and it was the first Australian edible to be cultivated overseas. Can be used just like spinach.
    Like nasturtiums makes a great pesto (who needs spinach and basil anyway, the capricious creatures!)
    Completely smothers weeds, so excellent under fruit trees (just be careful to cut it away from other smaller plants so it doesn’t just plow over them)
    Disease and pest resistant
    Self-seeds readily and is easily propagated by cutting, just snap it off and shove it in the ground like elderflower and it will just keep on growing.

  3. Saltbush

  4. Tough, drought tolerant and longlived
    Can grow in very poor soils, it has thrived in the dry, compacted edges of the food forest
    Seeds can be ground for damper, or the dried leaves used as a garnish
    Leaves can be used in salads, blanched to wrap fish or even in fritters
    Prostrate forms are a vigorous groundcover that are like a carpet so they don’t smother like warrigal greens; shrubs can be shaped to form a low hedge

  5. Elderflower

  6. Repels insects and vermin
    An excellent hedging plant, often seen in British hedgerows, birds and bees love it.
    Flowers make delicious elderflower cordial
    Elderflower fritters are also yummy
    Strike extremely easily from cuttings, I have cut twigs and just poked them in the ground and they have sprouted!

  7. Feverfew

  8. Good companions crop “banker” to attract predatory insects which reduce aphids, spider mites, thrips and white fly on nearby plants
    Self-sows easily
    Chewing the leaves is said to reduce migraines, but as with all medicinal plants it is best left to the experts, pregnant women in particular should avoid self medicating with medicinal herbs
    Creates a compact 30cm hedge that is great for delineating borders, pretty daisy flowers
    Dried sachets can be used to deter moths from clothing
    Yellow dye can be made from the leaves and stems

saltbus-close-up

ground-covers-food-forest

alpine-wild-strawberry

  1. Native raspberry

  2. It is high in antioxidants and it studies with mice was shown to prevent damage to the liver.
    Similar taste to commercial raspberries
    Hardier in this climate than commercial raspberries, can be shawn off at the base whilst in leaf and resprout within weeks (It was accident, but it came back even bushier!)
    Self-fertile, but more success by layering – takes root where canes touch the ground
    Tolerates full sun to full shade, but more likely to fruit with sun exposure.

  3. Rocket

  4. Good companion to bush beans, celery, carrots, nasturtium, mint, dill, lettuce, cucumbers, onions, rosemary, potatoes
    Cover crop, is an effective biofumigant that will overwinter. Before it sets seed chop to the ground and incorporate into soil. Suppresses weeds, fungal pathogens and insects.
    Minimises surface compaction with its tap root.
    Young leaves great in salads
    Self-seeds readily

  5. Nettles

  6. Good companion, increases volatile oils in plants e.g. valerian, mint, sage and rosemary
    Compost activator
    Makes a delicious pesto, but harvest when leaves are young for best flavour. Great on pizza as well as pasta.
    Winter forage for chooks, even increases egg production!
    Habitat for butterflies and other beneficial insects.

  7. Dandelions

  8. Roots are fantastic in stirfries.
    Roots can also be used as a coffee substitute for those trying to kick the addiction, but love the ritual.
    Flowers and young leaves are great in salads
    High in vitamins and nutrients especially calcium, iron and vitamin A & C.
    Spreads readily via their puff ball seeds, grows anywhere.

  9. Strawberries

  10. Good companion of Borage, Lettuce, Spinach, Sage
    Groundcover to exclude weeds (especially wild strawberries) Look lovely on borders as a barrier to grass.
    We had surprising success with strawberries in the food forest wild and standard, they have survived very dry conditions and although those in the driest spots did not fruit as well we still have gotten a constant trickle of fruit this spring, can’t wait until summer! we just ate them straight off the bush.
    Try this strawberry chia seed jam
    Spreads via runners

child-food-forest-playground

native-raspberryrocket-floweringdandelion-plant-leaves

alpine-strawberry-roquette

  1. Radish

  2. Good companion to peas, nasturtium, lettuce, cucumbers, spinach (attracts leaf miner away), chervil (Improves growth & flavour), carrots
    Good nurse crop, they grow fast so if you plant them in a circle around a tomato or other slow grower it will protect it from sun, wind, weeds and pest until it is big enough to look after itself. Often sown with carrots and keeps the soil moist.
    Radish leaves can be used in stir-fries or salads and are more nutritious than the root.
    My french friend eats baby radishes like an apple, fresh from the garden and then eats its leaves too! That’s a bit too spicy for me so I prefer them sliced in a salad.
    If you choose daikon radishes they are very good at breaking up compacted soil , scavenging nutrients from deep down

  3. Clover

  4. Fixes nitrogen in the soil
    Attracts beneficial insects
    Great ground cover/green manure in cooler months (dies down in summer)
    Try clover tea for multiple health benefits including being anticarcinogenic and relieving PMS
    Self-seeds

  5. Borage

  6. Good companion to Tomatoes (attract bees, deters tomato worm, improves growth & flavour), squash, strawberries (increases yield)
    Pretty blue or white edible flowers can add colour to salads and pastas; sugared they can also be used in sweet dishes as cake decoration or in drinks
    Borage leaves make a tea that soothes the stomach and the heart!
    Leaves have a cucumber taste commonly used in soups
    Self-seeds like a champion

  7. Yarrow

  8. Attracts beneficial insects with its pretty flowers
    Increases essential oil production of herbs
    Compost activator
    Useful herb for wounds stops bleeding, relieves pain and has antimicrobial properties.
    Spreads through seeds and underground rhizomes, once you have it, it’s for life.

  9. Calendula

  10. Beneficial insect attracting
    Nematode deterring plant, so a good companion for tomatoes
    Bright orange petals add lovely colour to salads or vegetable stock
    Oil made from the flowers is used in creams and balms to help heal wounds, burns, cracked skin & co
    Self-seeds

clover

arrow-flower

picking-radishes

sorrel

clover-mint-radish-flower

  1. Sorrel

  2. High in Vitamin & minerals, especially A, C & iron
    Dynamic accumulator – long tap roots mine for nutrients so it is not only good for breaking up compacted soil, but a good cover crop which can be slashed to add nutrients to the top soil
    Grows in sun or shade
    Leaves add a nice lemony taste to salads or soup
    Drought tolerant
    Grows from seed or by division

  3. Cherry Tomatoes

  4. Kids love finding these sweet treats, we just let the plants sprawl.
    I’m sure I don’t really need to give you any recipes, but this is a chance to send a shout out to two of my favourite cooking blogs vegie num num and green kitchen stories
    Cherry tomatoes are hardier and faster to ripen than larger varieties
    Cherry tomatoes require less heat/sun hours
    A surprise favourite in the food forest that seemed to come up of its own accord. We let it go to seed and sure if they sprang up again this spring.

  5. Lemon balm

  6. Forms a low hedge, so good for borders
    Create a soothing tea from the leaves, considered a mild anti-depressant
    Can be used in baking – how about lemon balm biscuits?
    Flowers attract beneficial insects
    Self-seeder

  7. Basil mint

  8. Strong scent repels cabbage moth so plant near brassicas
    Doesn’t quite taste like basil, but has its own delicious flavour that I love adding to Banh Xeo
    Can be pruned to form a low hedge for borders
    High essential oil content
    Great filler, like mint it spreads by runners

  9. Marjoram

  10. This is included in a list of “plants that benefit everything” with lemon balm
    Tea from leaves good for sorethroats and aids digestion
    Pretty delicate leaves, flowers attract beneficial insects
    In our garden golden marjoram is far more vigorous than oregano
    Keeps full flavour when dried, mmm…tomato marjoram dip

golden-marjoram

lemon-balm

harvesting-garlic-chives

sorrel-seed-head

basil-mint

Continue Reading
1 4 5 6 7 8 32