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, 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.
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!➰🌏💧🐞💖
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.
“Almost all of us long for peace and freedom” – Aldous Huxley Island, 1962
In December 2024, Syria went through a peaceful revolution and continues building peace: the interim government is committed to people and diversity, integrating all groups in the government; rebel factions are disarming. Amazing. It starts well (despite hurdles) and I wish further peace for them. It’s a fantastic example that “Peace we can”, Peace we must. If not, war, death, suffering, destruction and waste continue.
Here is a song to align with the Peace vibration while you read on: Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Om. Shanti (Peace) is said 3 times because peace is inside, between people and globally.
In the context of the NZ government increasing flirting with military and warfaring nations, I started a petition for New Zealand to Uphold its Peaceful and Nuclear-Free Status
I want peace for the world. Everyday, I look at this flag that invites me to make my own life peaceful first. I realized that I indeed had internal conflicts, voices in my head, defenses and attacks, hurt.
These wars inside us create stress, sickness and project bad energies, therefore wars outside. Anxiety, negative (self) talk, addictions or bad habits, excuse, judgments, justification… Do you recognize any of these? I do!! Inside me, in society and in international conflicts!
Instead, I choose to be relaxed, present, living consciously, creating the life I want, with love always.
Becoming aware of my inner voices, fears and ego allowed me to let them go. Letting go of trauma, identifying thoughts as thoughts, quietening the mind, loving myself; all bring calm, happiness and peace.
Healthy alkaline nutrition, meditation, reiki, 3-deep-breath, time in nature and caring for the garden, sun salutations, gratitude, practicing presence and journaling are all helping me on my journey to inner peace.
Away judgement, need to justify, to defend… Welcome love, expanding love, awareness, compassion, acceptance, openness, connection, calm, beingness and nature appreciation. Peace.
I think it is a life purpose to find peace, it’s ongoing. Peace feels great. When in peace, I shine peace, share peace, pray peace. It’s personal growth. And the flag says it brings peace to the Earth!
I wish you enjoy finding peace and look forward to the peaceful snowball effect we have together. Florence
Resources that practically help me find my Peace inside:
Love Water: I hold a cup of water with appreciation, love. Dr Emoto has shown that water “records” the environment so my water becomes love and gratitude and then I drink it, filling myself with love, becoming love. Crazy or not, it feels great and works with me!
The Serenity App with a dozen free 10 mn meditations creates an immediate feel good feeling. Within a few days of practice, I am am aware of my inner debates and can let go of unhelpful thoughts easily and choose beneficial loving ones.
Thank you dear Jane for the inspiration and wisdom, precious.
I recently did the Teal Swan Love Yourself free course and it changed my life, thank you, highly recommended.
Loving myself brings PEACE inside.
A hilarious book about finding yourself, Jane Tara introduced me to Pearl, thank you for that!
Peace between us
Relationship between people, large or small groups have the same principles. Judgment, separation, justification, comparison, blame… are all degrees of war. Instead, let’s learn to listen, acknowledge, understand, forgive, love, support. What would love do now?
Most of us are able to love our “loved-ones”. The exercise of extending this love to everyone, to every being is challenging and interesting. An enemy is a loved-one for someone else so we can open our hearts enough to love all. Consciousness and compassion are keys here. Love removes the hurt inside, love brings peace. Duh! I know it’s obvious yet worth remembering because societal norms often make us take sides and that’s counterproductive.
Whether personal, business, parenting, couples, groups, schools or states, look for the keywords “wellbeing”, “mindful”, “conscious” for all information you need. Lots of resources on the Greater Good.
I believe it’s important we build peace with nature. Everyone can do it, at their level. In our business, at work, in our household, we have reduced our footprint, by going vegetarian, choosing renewable energy, phasing out plastic packaging, divesting our money, choosing fairtrade, local or organic foods, phasing out our carbon use in travels, hobbies, tools… Everyday choices, most of them FREE or BETTER economically. It’s win-win. With the big win to avoid the climate catastrophe.
When we are in connected with nature, we feel oneness, so we love everyone on Earth too. Building peace with nature builds peace between humans.
3 minutes to understand how to be sustainable, worthwhile your time. Published 14 years ago, still relevant.
International powers
The world is not in Peace, it is over-armed and soaked in violence and huge guns on media, movies, gaming and sadly in real in many countries, cutting short real lives and devastating real landscapes.
Armament industries are financed by governments (people’s tax money) who infuse the world with fear to justify it, making the world more dangerous.
Armament industry provides jobs and huge profits to financial portfolios. Wars increase the GDP with all the business generated to make the weapons then to repair. So warfaring is an economic boost.
Yet we can realize in one instant that Growth-growth-growth is unsustainable, it is exploiting and polluting the planet, colonizing people, draining life, mental health and health. A way out is to doing / going / buying less. What we do, we do sustainably: go circular and local, low carbon, healthy, increasing resilience, aiming at having enough, within planetary boundaries. We, all of us, at our level, can foster the shift and mitigate the effects by sharing.
There is no need to continue war to keep the economy going, there is a lot to repair, from the wars and from increasing climate change disasters; There is a lot of work to relocate, innovate, plant, restore… Governments can accompany the transition into a low carbon regenerating resilient society, with subventions to foster the conversion of unsustainable industries into sustainable beneficial ventures. For example, an armaments plant starts building electric civil machinery, a farmer becomes a biodiversity steward…
Provocation, tit for tat, justification, fear culture, bullying and blackmailing, to pure cruelty… Resulting in so many death and victims.
Several leaders of the world behave like nasty kids, bullies, below-the-belt thinking. I feel compassion for all, they hold so much fear and look so hurt, by generations of wars, indoctrination and revenge.
I wish leaders soon have the realization that peace can be chosen every day, a peace that is fair, durable. Steps are taken. More effort is required.
Asking people what they need; listening; supporting; finding ways to live in harmony together… Talking to each other, sharing, realizing we are all humans who love, choosing peace over further death, creating reconciliation, this is the mission of the Israeli Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace. It takes courage, change, vulnerability, that’s bravery. This group activities brings peace inside and between participants and hopes for wider peaceful resolutions.
I think citizens’ assemblies are great conduits for understanding and creating solutions for the highest good of all involved. They are well-suited to rise above conflicts of interest and complex issues with trade-offs and values-driven dilemmas. In New Zealand, Max Rashbrooke is fostering the practice of citizens’ jury.
So there are solutions and I continue to hope that the leaders of the world, the wealthy, the influencers, everyone really, will shift, change the way we do things and invest for the greater good, as ultimately, it benefits all.
At the occasion of the International Peace Week in September 2024, I wrote an open letter for Peace to NZ Prime Minister and Defense Minister. Then made it a petition to stay peaceful and nuclear free. (Update August 2025: The petition was sent with more than 70 signatures to Christopher Luxon, Judith Collins, Winston Peters and David Seymour on the 28th July 2025 🕊)
We are one mind shift away from peace and all it requires is love, which we all have plenty of. So I continue hoping and holding the space for peace, always. With peace, our world will be safer, better connected with one another and nature, equitable, harmonious, happier… what’s not to love?!
Does this essay on peace helps you or brings you hope? Let me know!
Love love love 🌸Shanti shanti shanti
Peace stops the destruction then regeneration begin. Divesting from military is an easy step for peace.
In New Zealand, Mindful Money helps people to direct their funds towards social and environmentally beneficial outcomes.
Peacemaking is reconciling people. Extracts from the Courage for Peace, by Louise Diamond.
These books are great for understanding and practicing Peace.
I’ve just embarked on a new adventure, signing up for for the ds4oer course that is learning Digital Skills for Open Educational Resources. Watzat? It means I will be able to create and contribute to free online courses available to everyone.
Knowledge for everyone, for free!
Knowledge for everyone, for free!
In the last 10-15 years, more MOOCs have been made available through the internet and I value the concept, in particular the “free” part of the idea.
A framework using a shared language has been established over the years to enable sharing and contributing lawfully. The purpose of this course is to master this language.
I enrolled in the Graduate Diploma in Sustainable practice in 2010 and I have finally graduated! I did not have to wear the black graduation cap but instead was offered this amazing pounamu / greenstone that connects me to the Earth and gives me strength to care for her. A mandate, a mission!
This is my final presentation, summarizing my years learning in 10 minutes!
The most interesting part of my studies has been the development of the Yellow Blue Park concept. A public/private partnership contract has been signed in December and a task force is being set up in January to implement it.
I now feel ready and skilled to help businesses or organisations who-want-to-but-are-not-sure-how-to embrace sustainability. Exciting times ahead!
One of the highlights of my winter was our visit to the Dalai Lama. I had bought two tickets upfront when I heard about him coming in Otago and thereafter waited and organised our trip to meeting him.
It was great! Here we are, in the Dunedin townhall, waiting for HIM.
When HE arrived and after a long round of applause, what stroke me first is that I could not understand HIM. His English is appalling and it took me a while to understand HE repeats and repeats until everyone understands. And after a while, I became a bit more used to his accent and understood more and more. The main words I understood were love, forgiveness, compassion, and also peace, patience, happiness…
I did not want to take notes and instead wanted to infuse HIS saying. Therefore, just after HIS talk, I was unable to express what HE’d said. All I knew was:
When HE laughs, everybody laughs.
In Sydney during the same tour…
HIS meekness is most amazing!
Interestingly, over the next few days, I realized what HE had said about religion, about politics, about school, about living today, about China,…
Beyond religion: Buddhism is not a religion anyway, just a spiritual path, a growing up practice. Religions generally support love and understanding. When they start to support hatred and divisions, when they serve other purposes than spirituality, then people need to be wary of them.
About politics: Same as religion! If politics do not support the people, then, be wary of them… Governments need to be inclusive, not divisive.
About school: We prepare tomorrow’s adults. If young people are taught to meditate, the world will be different.
About China in Tibet: Sometimes in the past, Tibet was autonomous. Sometimes, one area is dominated by such and such. Now Tibet is under Chinese regime. This may change over time. What is important, anywhere and anytime, is not who rules the country but how human rights are applied, including freedom of religion. No use to battle for a political freedom but imperative to fight for human rights.
Last but not least, we need to learn to meditate if we have not already. We will be better. People around us will be better; the world will be better…
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