st. john's salve

I spent the other night making a st. John's wort salve - simply melting beeswax into oil infused with st. johns wort, calendula, comfrey and echinacea. It has a beautiful, rich, red tone and would be great for burns, nerve damage and all-purpose skin healing. 

I'm feeling inspired to put together a line of pure, plant-infused body products. I can't wait until I have a bit of land to grow all of the herbs myself...

repurposed patio

I see these old concrete blocks everywhere - at the curb, in parking garages, there are currently several in the loft of the cabin I am renting. This patio shows a great way to put a common, resource-heavy product to re-use. 

This patio is part of a kitchen garden designed by landscape architect Chris Saleeba of Fresh Digs  for the Pantry at Delancey. Saleeba  offers a service he calls 'DIY Construction Coaching' which gives support to budget-conscious clients so they can install a project themselves with guidance along the way. A fantastic idea! See more of the kitchen garden here.

what i've been up to...

Hello there! It has been awhile. I have been away from home for over 8 months now and traveling without my laptop. What started out as a 3 month trip to Ecuador, turned into Nicaragua and Costa Rica and then a 9 week internship in  Oregon and 4.5 months later here I still am in this lovely little village in the wilds of Oregon. Since the internship in herbal medicine and farming I've been staying in this lovely little octagonal cabin on an old farm at the very edge of the forest. I'll be soon heading home to Halifax, NS but I'd like to share some of my travels, and my life at the moment. Here are a few snaps:

my bath tub

my backyard 

a wild turkey saunters by

upper forest meadow

the farm

fall finale...

My last big harvest of the season

golden beet

    late October berries

A long, fantastic gardening season is coming to a close here in Halifax, NS. Here are a few shots from last weekend - just after a few light frosts. I'm kind of amazed that I am getting such a great harvest this late, especially the strawberries! Last year I took things a bit further with a cold frame, but a recent life change has had me questioning where I'll be spending the winter so it looks like I'll soon be closing the garden down for the season. I just read a post over at diggin'food that lifted my mood at a time when I really need some brightening:


"...I was reminded that one of the best things about gardening is that you know what will happen. And you don’t.You know if you sow a bean seed it will crack open underground. A little root will emerge, and soon the emerging bean will nudge aside a lump of soil. The sides of the bean will open up like wings and a tiny plant will unfurl slowly like it just woke up from a very long nap.But sometimes a bird gobbles up the seed. Or your dog digs up the bed. Or the seed just doesn’t germinate. It’s a mystery. This risk factor is what makes gardening and life so interesting. It is never the same. The expected and the unexpected happen. And that, of course, is the whole point."

Summer being the busy time it always is, over the next few weeks I'll share some post-season posts that I meant to share in real-time, but you know, didn't get around to.

chicken coop!

Ok I absolutely need a backyard so I can interject this sleek chicken abode The Nogg.

I have been very delinquent with my posting - but the garden is still going strong. I have been off on a little adventure which I will share with you as soon as things calm down just a bit!

plant combinations: cabbage and marigolds

Another gorgeous plant combination: cabbage with marigolds. Spotted in a garden neighbour's plot.

air plant pods

Bringing things back inside ...  I love air plants and I love pods so these are perfect! From Michael McDowell's Etsy shop Mudpuppy.

garlic time

I decided to arrange my garden plot into a modified square foot (14") method this year. I made the mistake of moving my garlic into formation in late March. It really didn't like it and the stalks remained pencil thin until recently dying back completely. I just uprooted it and was pleasantly surprised to find decent size bulbs. Root vegetables are always such a delight to harvest.

borage cubes

When talking about how to use the borage that has taken over the communal herb garden, my friend Eileen suggested I put the flowers in ice cubes. And so I did. These sweet blue flowers that I often nibble on are the perfect addition to a gin and tonic. I also wonder if the cucumber-taste of the leaves might infuse gin nicely.

coneflowers and bumblebees

The echinacea is in bloom and the bumblebees are loving them, even more than me! They are also all over the borage (more to come). As I was picking borage flowers one ran smack into my arm and didn't sting me. That is the way of the gentle bumblebee.

twined

My fellow community gardening friend, Crispin, has strung up twine through a neighbouring Japanese maple and connected it to his bean poles to allow them to keep 'twining'. It's quite lovely, I find twine to be very simple and elegant.

I tried something similar with my plot: I have been growing scarlet runners up tomato spirals and they too had reached the end of the line. Following suit I connected twine between the poles and my neighbours trellis to create an arbour. Unfortunately someone didn't like my idea and pinched the bean tips. Oh well.

Pesto!

The basil is finally ready and I made my first batch of pesto this season. I used this recipe which I fine-tuned last summer. Sooo delicious!

eggplant and potatoes

I harvested these gorgeous potatoes last night. They were delicious with fresh dill, butter, salt and pepper. I've been hilling my potatoes up with compost and exploring gently with my hands to unearth potatoes near the surface...

I'm also growing eggplant for the first time. Somehow the fruit just snuck up on me as I discovered them with delight a few days ago. These attractive plants caught my eye and I picked up a white variety at the local farmers market. I've chosen to grow them on my sunny SWest facing deck in a pot rather than transplant them into my gardening plot. I'm also growing watermelon and tomato on the 4th-storey deck and they're all thriving.

'happy' gardening

In the midst of a rough couple of days, I stopped by my garden last night in a horrid mood. As soon as I walked onto the sun-drenched site in the early evening I found myself thinking 'I love my garden, it makes me so happy!' Sappy I know, but true. Do you think of your garden as therapy?

pretty partnership

I just came upon this photo on the Evergreen website - cabbage and nasturtiums - what a lovely edible plant combination.

bok choi beginnings

I uprooted my bok choi today, as it had bolted. I meant to post these photos a while ago, when the garden had first taken off. Now they've been harvested and replaced with heirloom tomatoes.

I've started a 2nd sewing of the purple variety. Hopefully it's not too late...

lady birds

Snap of lady bugs on the sweet cicely at my community garden's communal herb garden. Apparently these little ladies have been scarce the last couple of years. The garden was practically teeming with them as they feasted on aphids so perhaps the pesticide bans are helping to bring back the pollinators and other beneficial insects.

my new bed!

Ok so not mine yet, but I have to find a way to get this bed! (via Lake Jane )

test tube trend

I'm really digging this test tube storage trend. My herbs and spices desperately need organization and that spice rack would be perfect. Honey by Bee Raw and Dean & Deluca spice rack. 

Oh wait, I just found this DIY test tube tutorial on Apartment Therapy .

diy outdoor lighting

I love the industrial/DIY/adaptive reuse of this garden lighting . I spotted it on DigginFood , my new favorite blog. It features delightful posts on gardening and eating. I am especially taken with the creative use of such unusual veggie parts as kale buds and garlic scapes. Check it out.

Ambivalence

I am close to finishing Anne Kingston's enlightening and provocative book The Meaning of Wife, and it has definitely woken up my feminist side. It has made me question why I would ever want to enter into an institution fraught with such restrictions and indiscretions placed upon women and also articulated many of the feelings I have about women in contemporary society. How quickly I am swayed... I saw this wedding at Lake Jane today that had me dreaming of my own fairy-tale event. This phenomenon is actually discussed in Kingston's book, many women have ambivalence about marriage but most are excited about the wedding, the ring, the dress... Could I perhaps have love and a big party to celebrate it- without a legal contract and the dreaded title of wife?

bike storage

Yet another example of innovative bike storage for a loft-like space.
(via Apartment Therapy )

divider

Simple, rustic diy rope room divider by Alwill Studio . (via remodelista )

yy

This skirt does look like so much fun!

(yy studio via greedy girl)

unhappy hipsters

Check out this blog that adds melancholy captions to images from Dwell magazine featuring moody hipsters in their modernist homes. Quite funny.

Lying on his back, watching the passing clouds, he worried over the Nathaniel Hawthorne lookalike’s role in this grim threesome.

(Photo: Céline Clanet; Dwell, November 2009)

Everyone always leaves.

(Dwell, April 2009)

perfect backyard wedding

(Spotted on A Cup of Jo via Once Wed )