Garden Journal Weekly Newsletter, 16th March 2022

avatar

Last week the newsletter coincided with the garden journal challenge, so @riverflows did her comment contest instead. It ended up with so many wonderful stories being told about early gardening experiences, that @riverflows has added her own and compiled a full post for them. you'll find the winners announced there too.

My_project_2.jpg

There is a very knowledgeable chap who lives just north of me who has done the occasional weed walk for interested folk. He calls it "food under foot" and will teach you how to recognise the weeds around, what's edible, what's medicinal and what you shouldn't put in your mouth. It's rather exciting to be able to share this with you, dear readers, because he, @ligayagardener, has shared a video of what's growing on his verge, which will give you a taster of one of his walks.

Farm work and gardening is something that stirs up different emotions in different people. As I read the stories collected in @riverflows post above I was reminded that gardening often felt like a chore when I was a child. Not always, though, and I grew to love it. It was funny then to read @zellypearl's confession that she still finds farming unenjoyable to this day. Yet she sees it as a responsibility to help the on family farm and I couldn't help but feel her skill and experience coming across.

@rukeros' garden is heading into autumn and lots of beautiful harvests are coming in. The cherry drink sounds divine and that soup looks great for those chilly days to come. I was immediately drawn in by this cheerful collage as well!

54TLbcUcnRm4Bw8fmw3Y3deXChf9UQSDSsMgDEZRr58rJP5AcfoKFrHmXSgYrmnUfj3TqrLWgSgqsmt7kZDpYekSHCgmJE9KriAAC6j44xwzsoBs9ULxAgi6vJHo5yeuaE8Yy5fi6.jpeg

I remember once reading some advice to grow foods in your garden that you love, but are expensive to buy, rather than filling up a small sized garden with cheap produce. This came back to mind when I saw @ndari's post on her thriving red ginger plants, which she grew from some excess she had. A food she loves, but it's quite expensive, so you wouldn't want to waste that excess and now she won't need to buy it as much either. I was also fascinated to discover that there was such a thing a red ginger.

I'll leave you this week with a garden tour from @sanjeevm, who has pineapples volunteering themselves everywhere, but doesn't like to eat them? I wish I could grow them here!

~♧~

Thank you for joining us again this week. Beneficiaries go out to @plantstoplanks for the continued delegation and @ligayagardener, @rukeros and @zellypearl will also receive beneficiaries for some entertaining and informative posts this week. Thank you all.

HG SMALL.png

GARDENFOOTER.png

Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here

Join The Hive Garden Community!

homesteading gardening sustainability lotus palnet neoxian proofofbrain vyb teamuk
0
0
0.000
26 comments
avatar

I am all too tempted at the site of those cherries. Here in the MiddleOfNowheresville, Cambodia, the food is simpler than in the bigger cities, and thus the local markets have less ingredients. We're growing a few things in small pots outside our rental room, but far from a gardening adventure. The local market doesn't have curry leaves, but we found a tree on a backroad to the market, and I can actually pick them without leaving the tuk-tuk, best case scenario.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

I can see you doing the drive by, hand outflung, nonchalantly picking leaves at just under break neck speed...

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Well, the curry leaves are on the right side of the tuk-tuk, my throttle hand, so I have learned to put it in neutral and keep enough momentum to break a small branch and hand it off to Pov without stopping. Now that I think about it, that would be a great GIF.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Haha! I love the idea of you harvesting from the tuk-tuk!

Can a wider range of food be grown than currently is in that region? I recall someone saying of Argentina when the collapse happened that they thought the country people would fare best because that was where the food was grown. However, while they likely didn't starve like many city dwellers, they also had very little variety, due to the tendency to monocrop. They loved the variety you could get in the city, if you could afford to buy it.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Here there isn't monocropping like more modern countries, well outside of rice fields I should say. Our particular area is very hilly, although in the valley, and it seems there are intermittent layers of deep red soil and nearly white bleached soil void of nutrients. Half of the land around here is of the white nutrient-less variety, so we'd have to get lucky to score both an appealing location and workable soil.

I guess we are spoiled, but the lack of variety is that there aren't various types of turmeric and ginger, potatoes, herbs, etc. Often times towns even with 5,000 citizens will begin to sell basically everything you can find in a place with millions of residents. Fresh coriander and green chilies are another two ingredient not so common here for whatever reason. All in all though things are diverse enough here, there's probably at least a hundred different fresh veggies, herbs, fruits, beans, etc., more than enough to work with.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

And we have chillies coming out of our ears, currently. Need to invent teleportation so we can do some swapsies. Imagine if you could have the produce of different climates arriving fresh and ripe wherever you were...

It's easy to get spoilt, isn't it! It can take a while to adapt to different flavours. I missed so many foods when we first came to Australia, but adapted and found new ones too.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Food under foot is a great term! I have been foraging as well. But how I wish there was an old local experienced in the inherited knowledge of food under foot. Some great posts here @minismallholding. I love everything in a condensed post. Thank you! I totally missed the pineapples - who wouldn't want to gobble them all up! As for those cherries - why don't they grow here! I have started doing fermented fruits and would love berries and cherries.....

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Fermented fruits? Isn't that... Wine?

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

So picky about words! One woman's wine is another's fermented fruit ;) But don't make me feel bad....all my diligently prepared and frozen fruit is begging me to ferment it into ... umm ... wine! Still haven't done it. Do you think if I add thistle to the ferment it will be a DeTox Wine?!!! Whom I kidding?

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

@ligayagardener has immersed himself in a lot of local knowledge over the years on both our native and invasive plant species. It's a real boon to have him sharing his knowledge with the local community. He probably gets a lot of questions sent his way on plants.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Oh I bet he does! It's a gift. And definitely a privilege to share in.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Though I keep up with most gardening posts when I can you always seem to find ones I missed so I love reading your version of the newsletter. Honoured to be sharing this garden 'chore' with you!

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

I try to start in the tags before heading for the community to broaden my scope. It's surprisingly easy to miss stuff, though. I appreciated the reminder on the verge video.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

I was also fascinated to discover that there was such a thing a red ginger.

I am also fascinated by red ginger, before I read this blog of yours I only knew about the normal ginger and turmeric.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Perhaps one day we will all have to start growing our own food, probably better for you than supermarket stuff.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

It certainly tastes better than a lot of the supermarket stuff. Although if you can get local grown that's not too bad. In general the fresh food here isn't as flavourless or under ripe as a lot of it was in the UK anyway. So much was imported there!

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

I agree... we are in process of putting in a large garden beds just in case.. It certainly DOES taste better :-)

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Congratulations @minismallholding! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):

You made more than 13000 comments.
Your next target is to reach 14000 comments.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:

Hive Power Up Month - Feedback from February day 15
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Thanks for the shout-out and sharing all these great gardening experiences! Glad you liked the collage 🥰

0
0
0.000
Reply