Garden beds and a back pack full of concrete....

For the last few weeks as I walk to the beach Ive been going past a garden thats getting a serious makeover. Part of the leftovers of which were a large pile of bricks and smashed up concrete that I had my eye on for raising the egdes of my garden beds so I can add more organic matter to the soil. Last night I finally asked the owner if he'd mind me raiding the pile, he replied 'no worries'. So today I did laps with my backpack carrying chunks of concrete and then arranging them in place. On about the 6th lap the owner came out and asked what I needed after this? So I tell him my plan, at which point he directs my attention to several rather lavish piles of soil and mulch. "The job goes another 3 weeks but there should be some left over" he indicates, keeping my cool while my inside goes WOO  HOO, I say well we'll see a bit later then. Joy joy, I then proceeded to begin daydreaming. Ive built two vegie beds and another one out the front and hardly touched the pile! So tommorrow Ill go around and build up the other beds. Its a blessing for this carless chick to have such resources walking distance away, and I can even borrow their wheelbarrow to move stuff. I just love that its all being done with materials that were gonna be chucked. Just like my garden at the flats!

      herb and vegie bed to be

garden beds and steps at flats

The sage smoke twists....

So I am here for another innings. My shack by the wilderness of ocean shore, my suburban hermitage and place for touching poltices to wounds and healing salves to scars. I find new gentler troubles, the daily details that having enough, just enough, clarity of mind allows me to engage with, in their common place natures.

When should I do the dishes, how high will I allow their organically growing mount to reach, Ill sweep today, the ants are moving into the kitchen again I note, cleaning away far more diligently than I.

I stroll through the dappled light of overhanging trees in my garden, trees that drop parts of their branches each time a storm passes through, smothering my lawn thats a tended but wild being. Full of sandy gaps and filled with native groundcovers and creeping things, its hardly manicured, more brushed, like matted hair. Children lived here before we came, my feline companion and I, the paths of their racing play were eroded into the grasses growth, that now with time and rest from tiny feet recuperate and send out new shoots.

I dont have a lawn mower, my whippersnipper shreds and teases the tips from the greenery and leaves missed stalks swaying rebelliously. The soil here challenges me to nourish it as I learn to do the same for myself, to be kind.

To offer myself a cup of tea, lemon balm from the compostuous balance which is my herb bed, failing that a whiskey. I think of Cailleach when i have a dram, and place a glass upon my altar, hers for the taking, offered to the base of the datura when shes taken her sips. It flourishes under such care, promising trumpets again when the season is right.

I wonder what they would smell like burned as incense, would it send the soul flying? Some times the odours we expect are reversed or refuse oversimplified categorisations. The lemon peel I dried in the oven was citrusy but not as much so as frankincense, predictable and mood lightening in its consistancy of scent. The dried rose petals not sweet as I imagined but woody.

Journeyings bind me to Wolf and Hawk who watch over and guide me in the Otherworlds, as I reconnect to my medicine. Gathering in and growing it up, memories come back and old ways return. Solidifying practices for dealing with, and being in the world. Things that once gave fright become allys in a metamorphosis that keeps me on my toes. The sage smoke twists....

In the oceanside herb garden...

Now that Ive signed another years lease on our home I feel once more connected to it in solidity and inspired to put some lovin into it. After building a higher retaining wall out of some old pavers I spent yesterday emptying out a years worth of broken down compost onto the herb patch, very satisfying. The more organic matter I can add to the sandy soils here the better for growth. Time to utilise the cooler autumn, which is when the herbs and veg that summer sun frys, can have a chance to come into their own.

The Wormwood is looking close to being able to take cuttings, and has grown along the soil. I figured just building the soil up under it there might be roots striking along the layered stems, much like what you can deliberately do with rosemary. Motherwort is sending multiple sprouts up from her base and thickening up. Echinacea is spreading her clump like self happily, the flowerheads have finished and I harevsted the seed. The Evening Primrose hasnt looked back since planted, I know she can become a bit noxious in some areas and can believe it if her growth combined with production of seed.

My rosemary that I bought as tubestock from a wee roadside stall now has multiple stems and new growth. I lost about three other plants, which was odd, as I assumed mediterranean plants would go off here. Havent had much luck with lavendar or sage either.

I thought the 'Banes' would do well here in the shadey parts of the garden but had no joy growing from seed, so that experiment was cut short. Perhaps its time to have another go, i still have some Henbane seeds soaking in a jar of water in the fridge.

As you can see Im still learning the climate and conditions in Suffolk and dont have the dosh for bringing in loads of soil. I did invest in a big bag of Dynamic Lifter which I have periodically sprinkled around. Recently I heard that a couple of handfulls soaked in a bucket of water makes a great liquid fertiliser. Now that Ive seen the soil with the compost spread through it I bodily get the adding organic matter thing, also mulching. I emptied two big pots of soil into the herb bed, one of which had mulch and the other didnt. The difference in moisture and worm content was amazing.

I planted out lettuce and tat soi seedlings. I have a rather unoriginal theory after failed crops that being in the subtropics it makes sense to have a grow at plants from the same zone, tat soi, bok choy, chilli, capsicum, lemongrass, thai basil, purple basil, gingers and such. I also happen to love these kinds of flavours in cooking. That reminds me, round the corner is a ballistic lemongrass plant that I want to take some starter plants from, its growing lushly straight in sandy soil no problems.

This morning i awoke to find that the brush turkeys had scratched their way through the whole bed, decimating the seedlings and damaging some herbs, buggers. Id forgotten about their rather invasive habits. Banshee screams greeted the turkey which was innocently, and rather stupidly, sitting on the fence nearby. It reminded me of the advantages of hanging pots and planters. My last lot were actually designed for shoe storage and the fabric rotted through eventually, but I hear you can now buy official type ones that are probably made of some kind of plasticy materials and therefore last until the next millenium.

Outdoor bath....

Ive been living here nigh on a year, and Ive gone all that time with no bath, but thats all come to an end, yeeeeehhhah! Went to local tip shop yesterday and purchased a metal tub with its enamel in real good knick for thirty bucks. Gotta love that. So today we unloaded it from a friends very large, and handy, vehicle and set it up in the garden bed out back. I bucketed hot water out from the laundry and test drove it this evening by candlelight, with gingers and bromelliads all about me and the sky above. A dash of lemon and lavendar essential oils and the scene was fittingly atmospheric. Tomorrow I can empty it again to water the gardens. I can see this is going to be habit forming, and may well help my tossings and turnings at night, as Im feeling pretty chilled post soak....

Sage....Salvia officinales...

Any plant that has officinales in its botanical name means that it has a history of being used medicinally and many eventually were included in the 'materia medica' or 'pharmacopeias' used up until the 1930's by, yes doctors and pharmacists. Although the later editions contain less and less 'common' plants and more exotic or potentially poisonous ones. Freaky eh? Pharmaceutical drugs are that young. Apparently the latin derivative word 'officina' originally referred to a workshop, later a monastic storeroom, then a herb store and finally to a pharmacy. 

Which brings us to Salvia officinales, common garden sage. Which comes in several models including red, grey and variegated.

I mostly use this plant, like its cousin 'white sage', Salvia apiana, for smudging (sagebrush or desert sage is a whole nother plant, being Artemisia tridentata). Burning to clear space, people, animals and objects. It can be wrapped tightly with cotton thread when green and dried into 'smudge sticks' or I simply dry and then grind it in a mortar and pestle, or simply between hands, to burn on charcoal blocks. Either way works and its earthy sweet smell as smoke, whisps its way into nooks and crannys, removing stagnant energy as it goes and shifting awareness into the sacred and liminal.
 
Ive also cooked with her in stews and soups, to make stuffings, added her to patties, sprinkled her on potatoes, made sage butter to spread on toast, used sage vinegar in salad dressings. She's a potent medicine, with essential oils that stimulate digestive enzymes and stomach acids making her an excellent food companion, but that can also accumulate, with daily use, in the liver and kidneys. So treat her temptingly assimilable, calcium rich self, with respect as a tea, vinegar or a small dose of infusion. Even a few crushed leaves set in water in the sunshine can make a mild tonic water.

As a toothbrush her leaves are antibacterial and can be rubbed onto infected or bleeding gums directly or made into a mouthwash tea by adding a few leaves crushed into a cup of boiling water and allowing it to steep for ten minutes.

Echinacea....

This flowerhead, not fully mature yet,  belongs to Echinacea, commonly known as 'purple cone flower' for obvious reasons. Three to four foot tall with dark green ribbed and trowel shaped leaves, she is a striking plant. The flower taking form to seedhead over some weeks.

Echinacea is a high profile plant as a natural alternative to antibiotics. Especially in treating acute colds and flus. I have never used Echinacea purpurea, or augustifolia, the two species best known for their medicine. Which is why Im so excited that my plant is doing well. Its the top purple flower although as I bought it unlabelled Im not sure which i have. The second one is an ornamental member of the genus, less medicine more simply 'my pretty' but sharing a similar 'form'.  

In reading up on Echinacea, augustifolia seems the stronger medicine, and some folks will take only her, believing purpurea to be less effective. Purpurea doesn't hold her medicinal qualities when dried, but she is easier to grow and self seeds.

When making your own tinctures the root is used, although some people do add flowerheads and leaves. A good tincture should zing on the tongue. I have heard that many commercial Echinacea preparations are made from flower heads only, to save the plant for another harvest. It seems a bit like the ginsing thing of the oldest roots being the best medicine, but because the older roots have been heavily harvested, people turn to the flowers, or the roots of purpurea. Its best to leave roots at least 3 years before harvesting only 1/4 and then you can reharvest annually.

A kindergarten teacher who constantly got colds took 30 drops daily of echinacea tincture and had her first cold free winter since she began to teach. Such stories are the basis of the demand for Echinacea tincture as the seasons turn cooler but there is discussion as to whether she can be stimulating to the immune system which isnt great if its already run down or exhausted.

I look forward to experimenting, I have a feeling she'd make a fine flower essence or protective amulet ingredient....

Journeying and reducing meds...

Its been a while since i typed, been busy. One of the things Ive been doing is seeing a contemporary shaman who's been taking me on some guided journeying. I really like sharing the experience, Ive been a solitary practicioner for so long, its pretty damn cool to be able to talk stuff through with someone who gets it without explanations. Mostly we've been working on building up an otherworld sanctuary that I can visit on a daily basis, part of which has been to reconnect with one guardian, and meet another. Animals I can call on if Im in an iffy situation, spirit backup. She's also taught me a few things to do when it comes to meeting lost, misplaced or plain ol pissed off spirits, while journeying.

As a woman who has a diagnosis of schizophrenia, its great to be working with a shamanic practitioner who has also worked for some 15 years in the public and community mental health systems, and has an understanding of medication, a tricky topic sometimes, but chosen to follow her current path. I know she's not going to pressure me to come off those hideous toxic chemicals (that everyone just loves being on) but at the same time one of my goals with this work has been to reduce them, and I have, so far by some 200mg. This process is also being followed by a psychiatrist and the local community mental health team. Its not a journey to be taken without support, if possible. Having said that the balls totally in my court and Ive been the one directing the changes and how fast they happen, as it should be. I have a medical diagnosis, Im not an imbecile and its refresing to have this acknowledged by all involved.

Ive been on a high dose of a sedating antipsychotic for some 2 years, after a period where I had several long hospitalisations and deaths in the family, in a short timespan. So this has been a long time coming and Im going to enjoy it. Reclaiming my practices has been crucial in all this, and journeying is part of that. As has been moving to a less urban environment. Its not always easy to discuss shamanism when you do have a diagnosis, it can often be clinicalised as delusion. Sad but true. 

Handy hints, combined with revisiting the otherworld sanctuary on a daily basis, and Ive been getting both feedback and inspiration for creative projects, like the childrens book, Ive been working on. There are little girls in spirit excited for this story to be told. As someone with trauma in my past its been a real healing process to connect with the vulnerability but also strength of the child. Infact its been pretty all consuming.

Hence little blogging. So just wanted to let it be known alls well, if busy, and that the gardens still growing away. The motherwort plants are looking a little nervous with their rapid growth spurts, knowing that their medicine is needed to make tinctures. Truth is they're pleased, and have even let me nibble on a leaf here and there....