ONLY WHEN.......

... all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover.......
.......you cannot eat money........

It is time.......time to move to a simpler life where we care about cause and effect, where we take time to smell the roses and where what we do every day matters, for our planet and our fellow man.

HERBS - A natural way to health

My goal towards creating a healthy, natural medicine chest and culinary addititives herb garden has been somewhat of a mixed sucess. Many of the plants I put in were killed by the summer heat or the seeds just did not take off.

 As you can see, some of them are doing very well......others have either died with the summer heat or the seeds never sprouted for whatever reasons.

In addition I now have plants coming up that I have no idea about! I am not sure if I planted them or they have just arrived with the wind or perhaps are seeds from those plantings last year that decided to wait until this year to show their faces! Talk about confusing lol.

Here is one....recognise it?

If you do let me know, I have noooooo idea!

And this is another, again, I have no idea, it is very tall though, similar in height to a sunflower?

I recently purchased James Wong's "Grow Your Own Drugs"...delighful recipes for all sorts of health ailments. Once I learn what all these plants are, what they look like and how to use them I should have quite a pharmacy going lol.

The Celpar is doing amazing things, I have cut this back 5 times already and dried the leaves for soups and casseroles, it truly does taste like celery. I use it when the celery is not in season, a great way to stick to cooking with a seasons flavours all year round without the importing attached to it!

The italian parsely is going great guns too. I like this variety far better than any of the other varieties, it is milder and seems softer than the others. I also dry this all season ready for when the season is finished.

We have planted Tagasastes along the fenceline where the afternoon sun hits the house. Hopefully this will shade it completely and keep the summer heat at bay. I am not worried about them not being a deciduous variety, it is never that cold in the house in winter.

What I do love about these trees, (other then the fact they make great chook food with their high protein content) is that they are fire resistant, in fact they hate fire, great to plant around the house in this region where fires are so frequent in our summers.

Work is beginning to slow a little thank heavens, a couple of weeks and I will be taking a week off, with another couple in December/January, I am really looking forward to the rest. Today however I am feeling like I want to garden all day, even with the very slight drizzle we are having..........so, I will say bye until my next post.

Enjoy your weekend and take care:)

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

Good morning to you all :). It's such a delightful day outside I have been snapping a few pictures to show you we finally have something happening again after such a cold, harsh winter.

The Bay leaf tree is covered with lovely new shoots. not only will this provide shade for visitors cars, it saves me buying  bay leaves for cooking and pest control:)

 The cherries are sprouting new leaves, I have 2 bing and a stella. The bing are marvellous for those of us that suffer from gout and/or arthritis I am told.

You can read about it in the links here:
USDA and here:
at the Science Daily site.

 The fig is sprouting new leaves too. This is the black one, sooooo delicious, and brings back many happy memories of my childhood....pinching them on the way home from town from an old tree in a paddock lol!

Figs make super jams and delicious desserts, try these recipes: Burkes BackYard-Dessert and this delicious jam: Cooks  .com

 I just had to include these flowers :)

I have no idea what they are, they were given to me by a friend mixed in a box full of other bulbs....whatever they are they are stunning!

 And the fruit trees are taking off too! Just about all of them have started producing leaves and/or blossom. This one I noticed has peach leaf curl, which means once finished I will have to watch it for bud swell next year around and treat. The curl won't kill the tree however it does weaken it.

 The pomegranate I thought had been killed by the frost has taken off!


This is the dwarf variety with fruit that is smaller, the perfect size for lunch box snacks!

 The berries are all beginning to sprint across the fence. As you can see hubby was very liberal when spraying the fence, I was certain he had killed them, there was bloody paint everywhere LOL!

And I just had to share this picture with you:)

The pond is doing wonderfully, full of minnow, water scorpions, we have half a dozen queensland blue marron (don't ask, they were given to us) LOL

The water iris plants were given to us by the same couple, just stunning.

I haven't seen the turtles, however I suspect they buried themselves in the garden over winter, I hope so, they were such fun to watch.

Well, there you have a few snapshots of my favourite place to be.....and that's where I am headed again............have a super weekend and enjoy your garden too:)