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.
Everyday goodness for lunchAutumn harvest to storeGood for the soils, good for ALL
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.
SoakingCuttingDrying, then roastingBlendRich and earthy, and a little kick!
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, kĹwhai 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.
Pinus patula needles are edibleHerbs for the garden teaOur Garden Tea <3
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, this also controls its spread;
A drop of pine cone sap, a long lasting treat;
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!
Fresh flowers in a jar on the leftFiltering the marinated flowers after 3 weeksDaily use of garden oil
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!
And much more…
Many plants are enriching biodiversity in the garden -by definition-. My favourite is the joyful calendula, I wrote a whole post about Calendula wonders!
One calendula plant in each garden bed to attract companion insects and add petals to colour salads.
Instant healer
For bites, stings, cuts, pick three leaves of different plants, hold together, tear the end to access the juice, then rub on the skin.
Favourites: plantain, yarrow, calendula (of course ), pine or cypress…
Or any greens around. Try and refine!
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.
Awesome juices
Hawthorns, rosehips and elders tend to grow on their own in our climate. Great! Flowers in spring for beauty and insects, berries later for the birds and us. Every year, I make a batch of elderflower juice, then elderberry juice, hawthorn berries juice and rosehip berries juice. Healthy goodies for the winter.
Simple method
Harvest a large bowl; rinse; in a pan, cover with boiling water, bring to a boil; leave to infuse overnight; next morning, crush with potato masher or moulin, bring the juice back to a boil with a lemon juice and 1 or 2 table spoons of honey; Into jars, fill to the top, lid on and turn upside down. This keeps a year in the pantry.
Again, lots of recipes online, these preserves have been done for generations so just about every family has their own way. I choose simple.
Our “Herbes de Provence”
The “official” mix is thyme, rosemary, summer savoury, origano in equal measure, plus half that measure of basil and bayleaf.
I haven’t managed to grow summer savoury yet so I add sage and lavender to our mix, and follow the rest -approximately.
Contrarily to the garden tea where I blitz the whole branches together, here, I carefully peal the leaves off the stalks or we end up with bits of wood in dishes. Then left to dry, then mixed in the ninja and kept in glass jars. A little bit is enough to light up any dish.
No packaging, mostly free, and healthy. I can’t remember when I last bought some mixed herbs. When I use some at a friend’s place, it tastes very bland.
This harvest of herbs will last a whole year, until next season.
From wellbeing to food production, gardens are source of goodies (and home for many animals families).
Have you ever wondered where goes what you put in the toilet? In most cases, it goes to a septic tank or to the local wastewater treatment plant. The former need regular emptying, the latter is expensive and is often overflowing into rivers or the sea.
There are lots of options online for compost toilets or composting toilet or dry toilet or off-grid toilet or bio-toilet or humanure system. Some are expensive and complex, some look like “normal” toilet, most are interestingly smell free. And they save so much water! And they close the food cycle too!
Lots of system, screen capture from the first “compost toilet” Ecosia image search.
I made one.
My system is simple, in a corner of the garden : a bucket, a toilet seat and lid from Wastebusters, a toilet paper roll in a water tight container, a bag of saw dust.
I love being with the birds under the trees. I use it for number 2s. I love that I don’t use water to flush. I love that my poo becomes fertilization for the garden. Not a waste.
Behind a tree, hidden with a loose fence of cabbage tree leaves
Here it is, a bucket, a toilet seat with lid, a water tight box for a toilet roll and bags of saw dust. Simplissimo.
Like most people, we have toilets inside, so I only use it when I want. In nature.
When the bucket is full, I empty it in a compost bin, nested into straw, covered with straw. It does smell but already hardly looks like what it is.
In summer, a bucket can receive about 30 uses. In winter, only 12 or 15 as it doesn’t decompose as it goes.
I can empty the full bucket in compost bins four or five times as it reduces quickly.
In autumn, I incorporate the content of the compost bin into the hot compost. At this stage, we cannot tell what it is. I make layers of leaves, mulch, a bit of biochar, our cold compost, bokashi, straw, alternating fresh (nitrogen rich) and dry (carbon rich) layers.
The layered compost is watered, often by rain this autumn season, then covered.
Temperature will reach 70 degrees C. It smokes in the morning. All baddies are transformed in goodies by wonderful nature.
In spring, the pile is 1/3 of the initial height, all nicely decomposed, used in the garden.
For commercial use in the garden, a second turn of the compost and another season are practiced, I think. Any precision on that?
Abundant garden potager, fed yearly with our home compost
2 bags of biochar, enough for a year
Even in a small garden, it’s possible (In my previous urban garden, I had hidden it in a corner, with a few planks and a frost cloth!)
I find it rewarding to close the loop!â°đđ§đđ
I hope I’ve inspired you to do your own dry toilet. Post your experience or problems in the Comments below, we may find solutions together.
We love Calendula, the English Marigold. Orange beauty, it brightens the veggie patch, flower gardens and other corners. The Calendula name comes from the word Calendar and I think it is because it flowers every month of the year! Easy to cultivate, we use it as companion plant, in salad, tea and skin ointments.
Culture
Calendula is an annual, rustic plant, forming 40 to 60cm compact plants. Large yellow to orange flowers will bloom all year round and massively from October to frosts.Â
Seed in autumn or spring in full sun or partially shadowed. They grow anywhere, even in poor soil, even in our dry and frosty climate. After flowering, the heads become seed heads, easy to snap off for esthetics or keep for seeds.
They self seeds easily and can be replanted where wanted. They are also very easy to pull out when we need the space, they won’t come back from the roots.
Companion plant
Calendula attracts and feeds insects when no other flowers are available thereby enhancing biodiversity. They attracts natural predators to aphids (ladybirds, hoverfliesâŚ); Their roots hold good nematodes for a healthy soil.
We cultivate calendula in the veggie garden, one plant in each raised bed to attract favourable insects.
They also grow everywhere in our flower beds, filling in the gaps and adding their joyful colours.
How we use it
Comestible plant, we add petals to salads to brighten them up. I add some petals in the “garden tea” but not leaves as I find them quite bitter.
I make a beauty oil: I harvest nice fresh parts of the plant, leaves, flowers and stalks, cut roughly and macerate for several weeks in a variety of oils (sweet almond, grapeseed, avocado, apricot kernel…). Then it is simply strained and funneled into a glass jar with a dropper lid. I used to make a cream with beeswax but it was longer and quite messy so I simplified to oil. Of course we can add essential oils to perfume and help our skin, lavender, geranium or rose. I sometimes mix cistus leaves and flowers into the oil maceration, cistus is good for aging skin!
Medicinal usesÂ
Its Latin name is calendula officinalis and for good reason. My Maria Trebenâs Cures book (Steyr: Ennsthaler, 2000) has 2 pages on it. Here is a summary:
Depurative, blood-cleansing, purifying, stimulating for blood, antiseptic. Also the plant of the skin, wonderful for wound healing.
Drink two cups per day of calendula herbal tea to help cure jaundice, wounds, digestive illnesses, intestine or liver or stomach pain, colitis, dropsy, and hematuria. Calendula herbal tea is ideal to help with all viral and bacterial infections. Also effective vermifuge and laxative. Calendula herbal tea applied on eyes helps vision.
Some recent study show good results with cancer, skin cancer, breast cancer, stomach and ulcers. In this case, fresh plant juice is more effective.
In cream or oil ointment, calendula is wonderful for skin. From post-chirurgical wounds to fungus, blues, strains, scars, piles and varicose veins, sunburns, dryness, age pigmentation, also purulent or swelling wounds.
Calendula TM is a powerful antiseptic and helps skin recovery. It can be used on any wounds and post-natal or postoperative situations: infant umbilicus, lesions, soreâŚÂ
Lawns certainly have an aesthetic and social value and sometimes are a great play area. Closely cut green grass used for landscaping or leisure, lawns were historically created by wealthy people who could keep unproductive spaces. With the invention of lawn mowers, lawns spread and became a standard feature of suburbia. Lawns maintenance necessitates high inputs not only in fertilizers and pesticides, but also in natural resources like water and petrol to mow it. And they don’t hold any wildlife. To me, they reflect the man’s desire to control nature.
I think growing vegetables is a more productive way to use that space therefore we progressively dig up our lawn. Advantages are many:
We transform wasted areas in productive and beautiful spaces.
We produce pesticides free veges, delicious and fresh from the garden, with zero food-kilometres and nearly for free. In her New Zealand footprint project, Ella Lawton has demonstrated that food and beverage makes up 56% of the total New Zealand footprint. The most efficient way to reduce our footprint is to produce half of our own food in our backyard, or at least eat locally grown food (page 27). It is slightly more efficient than becoming vegetarian.
We take fresh air, build up muscles, stretch and burn calories. Gardening is good for our bodies.
When out in the garden, we hear birds and smell flowers, we connect with the slow pace of nature, reducing stress while providing a deeply meaningful and rewarding activity. Gardening is good for our minds.
We spend quality time together as a family.
Using a slammer, it is incredibly easy to remove patches of grass. Materials from Wanaka Wastebusters make frames.
Yes for a successful harvest, we need a lot of knowledge. It’s been built over the years, thanks to Dad, Terre Vivante where I worked for 7 years, Organic NZ, Dr Compost, permaculturists and friends’ wisdom. We also need seeds, also collected over the years and thanks to exchanges with friends or community swaps.
I’ve proudly added a Robert Guyton‘s Green Man sticker on my letter box and I am keeping an eye out for it in my community.
One advice: start small and expand over time. Now is a great time!
Regenerative Livestyle Blog 