Gardening in harmony with nature is ideal to adapt to today’s crises: vegetables from the veggie patch, fruit from orchards, regenerating habitats for wildlife and carbon capture, and joy, fitness, fresh air, wellbeing from beauty and tranquility… Paradise!
Local workshops, community gardens, many books and online knowledge can help start and answer any question.

Nature and the garden are so abundant, they provide even much more! Here we’ll share about garden goodies, tea and coffee, skin oils, medicines, lollies, fertilisers… So much goodness, mostly for free!

First in, champion dandelion!

Dandelions have flowers nearly year round, which means they brighten the yards and feed insects year round. The whole plant has therapeutic value, especially useful to cleanse the liver and heal hepatitis, therefore also good for skin, rheumatism, everything. So we consume it everyday.

• Two young leaves per person in lunch sandwiches or salads;
• Two bigger leaves per person as greens in dinners;
• Young dandelion flowers are one of my pleasures: as I potter around, I just pick one with the milky stalk that I fold and eat like a lolly;
• And my morning “coffee”:

My dandelion root coffee satisfyingly replaces imported acid-forming coffee while giving that morning kick. It also transforms weeding into root harvesting. I cut the leaves off as I harvest the roots, then soak overnight for the soil to drop. Next day, I chop the roots, and leave on a fabric to dry for several days, then roast (180°C for 10-12mn – keep an eye!), then blend in a ninja, then store. I use one spoon per cup, adding milk or not. Dandelion root coffee can also be purchased here.

Dandelions are either loved or hated! There are many FB groups of dandelion lovers sharing beautiful photos and AI compositions of flowers, seed heads, fairies, wishes and happy gardens. There are also many metal sculptures of seed heads.
For other people, dandelions are a weed, sprayed systematically (with dangerous chemicals). I often ask those people why. They have no answer! For me, dandelions hold joy and magic, they are so clever: dandelions in deep grass will grow flowers on long stems, dandelion on regularly mowed lawns grow flowers at the lawn height, I find this miraculous! But I don’t use them in our garden tea, too bitter.

Garden tea

There are many edible and medicinal plants and trees. Known ones like rosemary, sage, thyme, yarrow, nettle, St. John’s wort, plantain, chamomilla… Maybe less known plants like lady’s mantle, mallow, comfrey, eupatorium, veronica, calendula, horny goat, roses…

Even less known, tree leaves like walnut, birch, maple, mulberry, blackcurrant and raspberry, many pines, hawthorn -the heart master-, eucalyptus… Barks and roots are often useful too but it’s harming the trees so I don’t practice that. It’s worth googling the trees in your backyard for surprise health benefits.

Many NZ native plants are edible and have traditional medicinal use, hebe for stomach pain, horopito as spice and painkiller, kōwhai for skin, even some ferns for cancer. There is a lot of information here and here.

I go around my garden and harvest any of the above, in small quantities, to create a balanced mix, varying by the seasons. I dry that mix for a few days in open air, then blitz it, store in a jar, and drink our garden tea every afternoon, no packaging, free, always different, good for health, and yesss super tasty!

There are many resources for common plants medicinal knowledge. I enjoy getting to know the plants available in the garden and finding out about their health benefits. If in doubt, check with professional herbalist.

Plants can also be foraged. Always check with owners and be wary of roundup. Only harvest small quantities when there are heaps, leaving plenty for nature to regrow and share with other beings.

Garden lollies!

As I potter around or go for a walk in the garden, and depending on the season, I enjoy:

• Folding and eating a dandelion flower and its milky stalk for a rich experience!
• Pinching mint or pine cone sap are treats;
• Gleaning blackcurrant flowers, blackberries climbing on the glasshouse, a wild strawberry or the sweet base of primula and clover flowers
• Also the unvaluable delight of crunching a cherry tomato, a snow pea or a nasturtium flower as I harvest for lunch or dinner.
• As a breath freshener: one leaf of each plant in the herb garden (rosemary, sage, origano etc.) and munch together, wow.

Skin oil

On a nice sunny morning, I take a glass jar and scissors and go around the garden. In the jar go cistus leaves and flowers (good for aging skin), lots of calendula leaves, stalks and flowers and one rose. I chopped these with scissors, then add oils: sunflower, grapeseed, almond or apricot kernel, a bit of jojoba for texture. The closed jar is left to marinate 2 or 3 weeks (longer, it starts to smell like manure!). Then I filter it and put in tainted jars. I add a few drops of essential oils that I like and are good for my dry skin, frankincense, rose, geranium, lavender. There are so many options, check with Auntie Google, but do NOT use citrus for day oils. No chemicals, no plastic, not quite free as the oils can be pricey, but what a satisfying pleasure every morning!

Garden fertilizers

It’s well known that comfrey and nettle leaves are great fertilizers for the veggie garden. With gloves, I harvest half a bucket of leaves, weigh them down with a stone, cover with water and a lid; Leave to ferment 2-3 weeks, then dilute 1 liter per water can to feed our plants.

Both these rich plants can be used as mulch -before they are in seeds. It has been known since the mid-50’s and popularised by Henry Doubleday in Britain. Together with the compost, they are enough to feed our prolific garden, no chemicals here of course!

Finally, many plants are enriching biodiversity in the garden -by definition-. My favourite is the joyful calendula, I wrote a whole post about Calendula wonders!

In fact all plants play an enriching role, clover brings nitrogen to other plants, rumex is an interesting addition to dinner greens and food for many insects, lily of the valley keep rabbits at bay, the list goes on…

Weeds are not weeds really. In our garden, weeding is CARING for our plants, making space for their roots and aerating the soil. One important message here is to always check any plant use and benefits before removing it. Spreading very fast or being prickly are good reasons for me and I do remove some plants by hand before they go to seeds. As we like to walk barefoot, we remove thistles even if they are great soil enhancers with their deep tap roots and offer a lot of food to birds. We also remove cleavers after eating young shoots in dinner greens and before they spread up trees. We do also remove a lot of grass when it competes with our plants and trees roots. But apart from that, we leave everything to grow, we welcome and manage them.

From wellbeing to food production, gardens are source of goodies (and home for many animals families).
More tips from your garden?