city garden . farm photos . the good stuff

Building a garden - like building a life - or designing a house - starts with a plan, takes patience, and grows best when we stay flexible, dig deep, and plant only what we truly need.

I have designed a lot of gardens, dug the beds, planted plants, maintained the gardens, reaped the bounty and the beauty. So I embark on each garden I work with gusto and plenty of experience. For I know things take time but also change fast.

An interesting dichotomy is a garden.

I have always felt like a visitor in this life. Each day fills me with surprise and a curious kind of glee; like the world might quietly reshuffle itself overnight, and I get to wake up and discover what’s new, what’s blooming, what’s shifted, and where the light is falling now. I feel grateful for this. Stupidly grateful for being able to participate in such a wonderful prism of events and personalities. Such a life. Short or long. Much of life is service.

Altruism is all very well in a life where we are encouraged to put ourselves first but in fact we serve our gardens, we serve our farms, we serve our families and communities and neighbours. We should care. We should be alarmed at the obvious evil around us. We should protect each other.

Anyway, back to the gardens that feed us.,I think it is important to live with the garden you are remaking a while and create a real visual plan. Write your plan down, draw up a list of plants, watch the sun, check the soil, write a sentence about what you want from the garden - maybe draw a picture.

But also look for the bones of the previous occupants of this piece of land. What were they thinking when they planted that particular tree. Why did they paint half that fence black. Finding old fairy lights and hanging plants are recent relics of a not so long ago past. Full of dreams and importance.

created by me in chatgpg and only slightly resembles my garden!!

I like to try and work with past ghost gardeners. And remember our favourite midwife’s words - a plan is really just a map. Be prepared to take the side roads. Watch for doors opening. And be patient. Follow those new leads. These things take time.

Gardens take time. Communities are timeless.

Pictures from the City Garden in Melbourne

In the sunny corner down the back of this little garden the tomatoes will be planted in between my two trips. I am away from my daughter and her baby, for a few weeks at a time, twice in the next couple of months. So, I am determined to get way ahead of the gardens. One less concern for her.

The tomato garden has been dug. Exactly as I designed it, though my pathway is not as wide as I hoped but everything is in miniature in a little garden. And I have found old lights and curious fence coverings - I think this little corner may have had a chair and maybe a geranium for someone to sit and catch the last of the light.

I wonder at the small area of gravel. Did she have a chair here? A table? That dip in the corner. Was that a long ago tree? I dig talking to the soil and the garden ghosts and angels. I wish them well. Incorporating their beds into mine.

Everyone one has struggles. Generations before us had struggles. I learn from the gardeners who were in this little plot before me.

I have a very particular way of digging new garden beds taught to me by one of my father in laws; a Dutchman. (One day I will tell you his story). He struggled. He taught me to dig in clods, deep. Slice straight down through the grass with a sharp spade, cut deep into the soil, slice down all four sides first, like cutting a cake, then cut out a square clod with the spade, flip the whole clod back into the soil from the last pass, root-side up, then whack the upside-down clod with the spade to loosen the soil. Flip back over and lift the grass out, roots and all, shaking the soil out, leaving the soil behind. It’s time-consuming, but with two trips away already planned, I can’t risk a weed explosion in spring. I must be thorough. Gardens don’t take well to short cuts.

Now that the soil is cleaned (as much as possible) I sowed the newly dug area in bulk green peas.

Peas are legumes so they will be great for this neglected soil. Pumping in the nitrogen and keeping the weeds down while I travel. Plus the peas and the pea greens are good to eat.

When I am back I will clear spaces for the tomatoes between the peas, digging in some of the pea plants, and plant the tomatoes in with the peas. I hate to leave soil uncovered. And peas make great ground cover.

Along the side of the long raised bed I am digging a bed for zuchinni and aubergine. We eat zuchinni/courgettes almost every day so we need lots of them and we will be freezing as many tomatoes as possible as sauce and the tiny cocktail tomatoes will be frozen whole. Any extra aubergine/eggplant I use in all my tomato sauces as a thickener. So these are my plantings for winter food.

The farm has trained me to always be preparing for winter.

Grow what you eat.

Naturally I am incorporating a tray full of worm compost.

Pictures from the Farm back in Central Illinois

Everyone is good on the farm. We are already in full planning mode for the week I will spend there next month. I don’t think I will be sleeping!

Here are some shots Rhonda sent me. She brought some of her family out to ‘help’.

Tima and Wai and one of the PopPops, who seem to range wild half the time, were visiting with the kids.

The chickens are not laying as well as in the spring because John has given up locking them into their hen house. And I can do nothing about that from here.

One of the cows will go into the locker while I am there to feed all my helpers.

Not this one. He is a year away from the locker this fat cow. They only eat grass and hay, no corn so they take an extra year to grow naturally, and are doing so well I have told Rhonda to cut back on the hay while they have plenty of grass now in the fields. Lollipop is looking a little chubby!! Check out that cow’s ankles.

They have had high temperatures and lots of rain and everybody is growing fat. There is another load of hay cut and ready to bale.

I am thrilled to see the wallows. There is nothing quite as delightful as a pig in his wallow.

City Pot Garden

Not that kind of pot! As an aside pot/cannabis is illegal in Australia and New Zealand except for medicinal purposes. This is a garden with plants in found pots. Creating views through windows in a town is hard!! But the pot garden is growing nicely. And we watch it from the dining room table. With baby’s play pen in that corner for winter sun.

The pot garden will be much bigger when you see it next.

Looks better close up. But it will grow!

Herbs and flowers. The driveway is not as easy to get to as the backyard so there is nothing I use frequently in this pot garden - I think it is important to make things easy to find. Being lazy by nature!

I have not been baking or cooking anything exciting lately. Babies take a lot of time! So - no recipes today. This afternoon I am baking a couple of lamb shanks in a sauce made of carrots and celery and garlic and onions and red wine and home made chicken stock and a tin of tomatoes - looking forward to using our own tomatoes in sauces.

Have a gorgeous day/evening.

Thank you so much for rolling with my total lack of posting routine. I am in Notes everyday which are fun when a person wants to touch base without too many words but it takes me days to put together a post.

I used to blog every day - for years. But like I said. Changes. Roadmaps. Protecting and supporting those in need. We are not alone in this - our little lives. We are not alone in being disgusted by the monsters.

Leave me a comment.

Tell me about your garden. Your service. Your cooking. Your sleepless nights. The maps and designs you are drawing. Your kindnesses. I know you are kind. Or you would not be here!

Take care.

Celi