Return to Opalplantways....

This brief post signals a return to Opalplantways for me. and my typing fingers. I stretched out amidst the ether to establish other blogs but none of them stuck. I did however decide to preserve the posts here. So, sometimes a step back in time is the way forward! Lets begin the journey.....

Beginnings, also endings...

 Coming up to Samhain in the northern hemisphere, it seeps through into my awareness, even in the southern. As cackling pumpkins, and silhouettes of pointy hat wearing women, with a fine way to travel, appear out of nowhere. Thoughts shift deeper to ancestors, family that have crossed over, especially my brother, Dylan. I realised i didnt have any photos of him up in hq, so pulled out all my boxes and folders with family pictures and other gathered images to create a collage pinned to my cork board. Cranked the stereo and went with the process....

Outside, Ive been watching the green, crysalis like, buds on our Tree Datura growing, and then today they began to unfurl into flower. Like the wet wings of an emerging insect the flowers took form and opened out into the distinctive trumpet shape. I was drawn into the flower, intoxicating in its lovelyness and the play of light within.

Where there are beginnings, also endings. I found a small Eastern Brown snake dead out front of our place. I was fascinated by her beautyfull colouring and the silkyness of her scales, so smooth, but her spirit was still noticeably present so I was real respectfull. Brown snakes have a nasty bite and can be aggressive. I was surprised to see her, as the local snake expert told me they tend to avoid Carpet snakes, despite their shyer nature. We have a couple of them resident, including a big mama.

I put her quietly to rest at the base of a big ol tree.

Some spring success....

Having brought in three cubic metres of soil in autumn to improve the baseline fertility of my beds by raising them, mulching them, and then just letting nature take its course. Now, when I peel back the sugarcane mulch, theres a happy little ecosystem under there in the soil, microbes working away, and worms!

I created beds in new areas based on a bit more knowledge of how the sun works in the garden. A new area that only gets morning sun is showing promise for when the summer heat kicks in. Up here its wipeout material. Not that suns much of a problem for the more reptilian amongst us, who can simply retire to a cooler spot...

After feeling like a brown thumb last year, this spring I decided to have another go at growing from seed. I kept it simple. Roma tomatoes, large chillies, lettuces, bush basil, borage, calendula, marigolds, cosmos, bok choi, pumpkins and red poppies. This time I sat the seedlings in any kind of waterproof trays I could lay my hands on, including the hideous plastic ones that meat from supermarkets come in, which stopped them drying out so fast. When you add water, the excess drains through, forming a reservoir for the babies to draw on, which also serves as a drinking bowl for catfriend...

Ive had some luck with the seedlings and am now starting to plant them out! Ending up with way more plants than I could have afforded to buy in. I gave them a good soaking with a mix of seaweed emulsion and charlie carp fertiliser to help them settle in. Seems to be working. The climbing beans I planted straight out, and watered in the same mix, are just starting to peep shyly out from under the soil.

I used all open pollinated seeds. The goal being to gradually build up the plant population to self seed away and spread, whilst gathering some as backup. The other strategy Im experimenting with, is to simply sprinkle a few seeds around things as I plant them out. I figure if Im watering the area anyways, may aswell see if others can benifit and sprout. It happened organically in some of my pots, like around the lovely motherwort plants that get a regular drink, I have my first ever dandelion! Which threw up two seed heads I could then distribute elsewhere. Free greens!

There have also been a few surprises, unexpected flowerings occurring off their own bat. I think the garden is getting the message that I'm here to stay awhile and I appreciate its offerings. The real estate agent told me its been years since anyone gave a damn about the garden, as I could tell when I arrived. So its nice to see it begin to flourish some more. Its so luxurious to live amongst a garden where your feet are directly on the ground, especially after ten years in a third floor flat. Hopefully, the whole scene will continue to build abundance as I improve the soil and plant out more and more babies.

  

Hybrid adobe and inspiring garden plots....

Today i bused off to a hybrid adobe workshop at Mullumbimby Community Gardens, with no idea exactly what 'hybrid adobe' meant but hopefull that whilst the specifics were to 'make garden bed edges', that the techniques learned could also be applied to building. Turns out we were creating garden bed edges in the shape of a love heart in the childrens space. A preliminary concrete shape had been laid, onto which we were to work, using our hollow rectangle forms filled with the hybrid adobe mix pressed down. Pictured here is the soil for planting in in the middle, then the concrete base to the upper. With the first layer of hybrid adobe below, and the brick form filled with mix.

The mixture was 3 parts sawdust ( sieved to remove big chunks and pieces), 2 parts sand and then adding one part concrete. Mixing the sawdust and sand properly first up, adding the concrete continuing to blend, and then just enough water to activate the concrete. Taking a handfull out and forming it into a ball it should gel, without excess fluids. The moulds overlap the previous brick by about two inches, the gap formed as the mould presses down, later blended, and matched to the underlying concrete forms edge. Heres layer one...

Which dried pretty sucessfully before we all added layer 2.....

Now by the end of the day its getting close to finished!

I took a break to walk around the gardens and simply photograph some of the beauty to be had. Spring rocks, and some of the plots were truley inspiring in their abundance....

All in all, it was a fine way to spend a saturday. The little people will be able to clamber all over the garden bed edges quite happily and the same mixture can be used to make house walls. I found out through chats that there are a variety of brews that can be used for building. Like 'cob' which is simply clay and sand mixed together. Im also interested in the brews that can be used to render strawbale buildings, or the rammed earth into tyres which become the walls of 'Earthships'. Hhhhmmm more researching to be done!

Colour charts and a red nasturtium ....

Im studying Natural History Illustration by correspondance, which is great in terms of flexability but a tad dangerous for the ol procrastination and general delaying of the inevitable. I was doing ok until we hit watercolours, and therefore some colour theory.  My usual painting technique involves seeing what colours I have and making the best of them. For the course we had to buy specific colours and then ensued very specific colour mixing charts, eek! I was afeared of them somewhat, being more comfortable in black and white. So 3 months (I know) and several attempts later, theyre finally done!

Now I can move on to the assessment excercise in colour. So first up is a tonal master drawing and then a colour sketch, which basically maps out all the ingredients, with a swatch of each colour mixed. That gets sent in for comments and then I can proceed to add watercolours to master drawing. It all seemed very anal to me at first, but having completed half of the process i can see the sense to it now. Any mess ups are made on the colour sketch, not the original drawing.

So I chose a red nasturtium, Tropaeolum majus to be more formal. Its the first flower from the seedlings I pinched off someones front garden, it was so abounding in them I doubt anyone even noticed. Its symbolic of my struggle to get vegies and herbs going in seaside environs which is actually coming along this spring! Still, a very proud mother, hence the illustration.

 Spring blessings to southerners, and happy growing wherever on the planet you find yourself!

Broken Head....

Heres a photographic journey of a walk around the headland, at the southern end of our beach, Broken Head. It never fails to blow my mind. Enjoy....

Esther Dean on dowsing....

Here's an excerpt from an 2001 article on Esther Dean, pioneer of no dig gardening, where she discusses her use of dowsing.....

"On this sunny morning, the fabled gardener is waiting on her front porch, pet magpie on her shoulder, looking exactly as if she’s stepped out of the pages of a children’s storybook. She’s the classic image of the fairy godmother: bright eyes, apple-cheeked face, hair swept into a neat bun, her manner and figure warm and cuddly.

As she shows you around her garden, introducing each plant with its own little story or homily, there’s a sense of wonder in her expression, in every sentence.

She disappears into the kitchen to get the morning tea, and just as you’re half expecting her to pop back out having sprouted wings and a wand, she does something equally fey. “Do you know about dowsing?” she inquires brightly, plonking down a dish of her favourite dowsing pendulums and various shells, stones, brooches, crystals and rings on strings.”It’s truly so helpful... I’m a member of the British Society of Dowsers,” she adds, producing a booklet.”See all the eminent people who belong to it, all the initials and qualifications after their names. We’re not cranks, you know. Dowsing is an ancient skill, old as time.”

Soon she’s demonstrating her technique, lifting her favourite pendulum, a wooden spindle on a string and suspending it over a plate of apple tea bun. “ Is this bun good for us to eat?” she asks the pendulum, and it immediately starts rotating in a wide circle. “That means it’s positive, or feminine,” she explains. “What about this arrowroot biscuit?” The pendulum remains still. “  Hmmmph. That means its neutral, another one of those dastardly genetically modified products that have to be stopped! You’re looking sceptical dear....”

 “Yes, because it looks like you’re moving your hand to make the pendulum swing like that,” I blurt out. “ Let me try it.”

Doubting journalist holds pendulum quite still over apple tea bun, declaring, “See, it’s not moving!” Leaves hand in place, turns head to look at Deans in the ye and continue the conversation. Then, lo and behold, the blessed pendulum starts whizzing in a circle over the bun, just as it had done for her.

“I don’t believe this.” I say laughing at the absurdity of it, then test the biscuit.

“Concinced now?” queries Deans, preening. “ You have great dowsing skills, dear, you must use them every day of your life. Come her...”

Her kitchen is cluttered with plates of vegetables, bowls of fruit, mushrooms, croissants, salmon and many other things. Above the sink are three wooden pegs, painted red, on string-her dowsing pegs for shopping. “I test everything before I buy it.” She swings the peg over the tomatoes:”Are these good to eat?” Then each field mushroom: “Is this good?...No that ones trouble, out it goes, into the compost. And this cheese?”

How do people react in shops when they see her swinging a peg over a banana? “Oh” her eyes widen, “some look at me as if Im a bit odd. Others ask, ‘What are you doing?’ I reply, ‘Just testing to see if it’s good – do you want to learn how? They usually say no thank you, or shy away.

“I use dowsing when I buy anything, like clothes, shoes. I ask,’is this colour or style right for me?”

Doesn’t it take forever to do the shopping like this? “Oh no, Im very quick at it, years of practie. Here’s a tip – tie your dowsing peg on a piece of old pantyhose around your neck. That way you can keep it hidden, then stretch it out when you need it, and you never lose it.”

The pet magpie struts into the kitchen as if it owns the place, and pecks at the fridge door. “Oh you want to be fed Maggie,” sings Deans, opening the fridge and offering a ball of minced meat to the waiting beak."