Winter in the garden

Winter is here and there isn't much to do in the garden whilst it is covered with snow, except of course enjoy it.

Christine and her Alkekengis

Our first real experimentalist in the garden is Christine, a third year herbalist student who is planning on doing her final dissertation on the properties of the Physalis alkekengi commonly known as Chinese or Japanese lanterns and known for helping heal prostrate problems. We are all familiar with the lovely red calyx that protects the round orange fruits at the end of summer, well Christine has planted ten different varieties of Akekengi, some annuals others perennials, some with small yellow fruit, others with large black fruit. The 60 plants that she planted here have all flourished and the fruit have been carefully collected, each plant labelled so that back home Christine knows which fruit comes from which plant. I will keep you informed of how things develop in terms of the research Christine is going to do.

Getting the yurt out of the cupboard!

We have decided that the yurt would be a great meditation space on the field at Romain,'s, only trouble being that the cover has long since disappeared. Romain being Romain is sure that with a bit of this and a bit of that we will be able to make a make shift cover, so this autumn we put up the yurt in order to take measurements and check it was all there. I always love putting the yurt up, its such a beautiful space and so full of fond memories. we have decided to put down a wooden floor as it won't be being moved around and also need to look for a second hand wood burning stove. Can't wait to be in there on the field, meditating...............................

Late summer update

The garden looks its best now at the beginning of Autumn, with a lovely Indian summer many of the flowers have blossomed for a second time. The presence of humidity has also helped freshen things up. I have transplanted a dozen marjorams and grouped them together, the idea of planting dense groups of the same plant appeals to me at the moment, easier to upkeep and instantly gives more visual structure to the garden. The next jobs are to take off the rather weary plastic from the poly-tunnel, repair the structure and put on a new plastic, the poly-tunnel will then be used for starting off seeds in pots before hardening them off outside. The idea of using the large wooden troughs was OK but unfortunately the soil is quickly drained of its nutrients and so the second year the plants didn't do so well.
I am also trying to get rid of a spiky Yucca that takes up a lot of space at the entrance to the garden, nothing against Yuccas except that they are very spiky and apparently due to this reason not very good Feng-shui. More importantly, originally form South America, it doesn't fit into the garden here with its dry under leaves and shaggy appearance. I am now feeling guilty about it and may just cut it right back...anyway help is needed on this as it is very well anchored.
We will be planting a percentage of all the seeds collected in the seed bank and continuing to fill the wild hedge with small native trees dug up from the local woods.....all help will be greatly received.

Update N° 1.

Sorry but things have been very hectic and keeping up with the blog has proven to be a bit much, however now I am back from all my summer work/plant travels and will make a conscious effort to update at least once a week. In the meantime just a few paragraphs to bring things up to the moment. I continued when I could with planting, clearing and bonding a relationship with the different plants of the garden. The bed that was planted in spring is now looking more mature and the plants are all flourishing. We now have a rotavator, although a little late for this year, it will mean that in spring we can prepare new beds easily.
I also found a lovely new deckchair at the dump and took the opportunity to create a "relaxing area" where one can sit down and enjoy the view and the garden.
I will be working outside this afternoon and will take some detailed photos for my next update.

Names-plates for the different Thymes

Olivier and his wife Sylvie came to help in the garden today, it was very interesting and I must say pleasing to see their reaction when they saw the progress we had made since their last visit in March. Sylvie had made some name plates for the thymes that we planted the last time they were here, we put them in place and then they got on with weeding the beds left untouched on the left hand side of the garden, not the most interesting of jobs but one needing doing!!

Herbal cosmetics

The rain and wind carried on into Wednesday so we decided to try our hand at some herbal cosmetics. I had some basic ingredients, herbs (good start), lavender and Helichrysum hydrosols, macerated St-John's wort, carrot and Helichryseum oils. For the rest we made a list and headed down to the local chemists, this is the countryside here, no super organic shop just around the corner. Our local chemist served us well, glycerine, clay, essential oils, almond oil and the local oil press supplied the other oils we needed. The only thing we could not get our hands on here in the sticks was either cocoa butter, or coconut oil or Shea butter, never mind we would have to adapt our recipes to the ingredients...ooops forgot to mention the beeswax supplied by our local bee-keeper. We began with a simple balm from bees wax and macerated St-John's Wort oil and essential oil of lavender, turned out great and such a lovely colour. Our confidence boosted we moved on to a hydrating cream by using beeswax, almond oil , rose water and essential oils, we then tried a cream with glycerine in it and finally made up our own recipe by changing things around from other recipes. We made a cream with a mix of oils, bees wax, hydrosol, glycerine, white clay, borax and essential oils, it curdled and we felt just like when the mayonnaise separates, however we persevered, returned the pan to the heat, emptied out some of the hydrosol and ended up with a lovely smooth and light cream. What a lovely feeling making your own cosmetics out of your own herbs!