Garden Pretties

This clematis was almost dead when we moved here, and now it’s been healthy and blooming for weeks. Delphinium came out today:

Edible Landscaping Secrets

I get so many questions from people about permaculture, edible landscaping, Robinhood roses, and “permaculture in pots” that I thought I’d list some of the top things I’ve discovered here. This is by no means a comprehensive post — just sharing some of the beauty and a handful of general tips. (If you would like personal assistance with your own situation, this month’s Property Reading Special can include that.)

Combine Flowers with Veggies:

One of the easiest ways to sneak edibles into a “regular” landscape is to intermingle them with flowers. Passersby will notice the blooms but not the edible. This purple iris and columbine camouflage purple and green radicchio. The taller, vibrant plants distract critters from the radicchio, while the lower radicchio covers the soil and keeps it from drying out so fast. The radicchio is so well hidden that I forgot it was even there, until I found it un-nibbled and happy in the slight shade provided by the purple maple and taller flowers:

Even trickier, you can plant edible flowers like nasturtiums, violets, hibiscus, borage, and roses. Many herbs like sage and lavender flower as part of their life cycle, and squash blossoms are not only beautiful but delicious!

Consider Color:

Many vegetables come in unusual colors beyond what you find in the grocery store. Sources like Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds specialize in rare and colorful varieties of garden classics. Even standards like red chard can play nicely with coordinated snapdragons and pansies like we have approaching our front door:

Garden Inspiration and Permaculture Projects

Yesterday, David and I enjoyed an afternoon in Grand Rapids, including our second trip to the Frederick Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. We took my mom there back in December 2017, and this time proved different but equally enchanting.

Even more exciting, walking around all those carefully planned gardens gave me some alternative solutions for our yard and neighborhood, which will be going through major changes in the next couple years due to mandatory sewer and possibly sidewalk installation. We’re fighting pretty unanimously to save as many of our neighborhood’s gorgeous, old trees, but in the event we lose to the Township’s dedication to the “Agendas,” yesterday’s creativity inspired some lovely “lemonade” recipes from the Township’s would-be lemons.

It’s all very Uranus in Taurus: major upheaval on the physical level, concern for “the greater good.” The questions remain: what is the greater good, who gets to determine that, and how? I’ll share some photos from Meijer Gardens first, followed by a few of our yard and some of the “problem is the solution” ideas this visit inspired. Even this entryway at Meijer Gardens may change, as we heard people discussing a major planned shift in where people enter the park.

David included me in the photo for scale:

Some of the sculptures have a grand presentation, while many others play hide and seek within the landscape and winding pathways. This next sculpture is one of my favorites, called “Espaliered Girl.”

We heard so many different languages as we wandered around the Japanese Gardens.

Garden Photos and Radio Show Link for Friday, May 18

As promised, here’s the link and time conversion for tomorrow’s (Friday, May 18, 2018) radio show. You can listen to the show from anywhere with internet access by clicking here at 1:30 p.m. Eastern this Friday.

For your convenience, that’s:

10:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight time

11:30 a.m. Mountain time

12:30 p.m. Central

16:30 UK time

17:30 in Western Europe and South Africa

7:30 a.m. Hawaii time

1:30 a.m. in Taiwan

and 3:30 a.m. in Sydney, Australia.

If you’re not in those areas, you can still listen at that time, but those are the main regions I know I have blog readers and clients.

Last week, we discussed the challenges and gifts of Chronic Lyme disease, my Metaphysics of Lyme Disease book in progress, and we also touched astrology as a healing tool and some of my encounters with the Spirit World. For now, that show is archived here.

And now for some garden pictures! First, the cutest little faery house setup we’ve ever seen — David bought it as an early birthday gift for me. You can see it next to some bachelor’s buttons getting ready to bloom, alongside purple verbena:

Garden Update: Late Summer Colors, Crops, Kundalini and Moldavite

I’ve been waiting for the asters to bloom before putting up a new garden update. Finally, they did this weekend! Last Friday brought such chilly temperatures that I actually needed to turn on the cozy fire while writing in my morning journal:

Those cold temps meant one struggling tomato plant gave up the ghost and got replaced by more chard, spinach and golden beet seeds. The lettuce I planted a couple weeks ago is also enjoying the cooler weather — good thing, too, because all my other lettuce has gone to seed!

Garden Update: Cat Naps, Fairy Crossing, and Shades of Fall

The magic continues at our new place. The wonderful neighborhood cat, who so successfully shooed away the groundhogs and scents the garden whenever bunny nibbles get too big, has taken to napping with me, just outside the sliding glass door. Whenever I decide to take a quick BioMat snooze in the back room, I usually find something like this:

or this:

Garden Update: Rain! Plus, More Helpers “Reporting for Duty”

After many prayers and much intending, we finally got some deeply needed rain last Thursday and Friday. With so many local trees obviously struggling and very dry, hard ground, I had hoped for a long, gentle rain, and that’s exactly what we received! It rained just enough on Thursday to prepare the ground, and then on Friday, we got a full day into the evening of very slow, misty rain, kind of like nature’s version of a soaker hose. I could feel a collective sigh of relief from all the nearby plants and trees, especially our weeping birch:

On Thursday evening, I went on a walk around the neighborhood. Upon my return, I spent some time with the birch and asked it to give me a sign if the nearly dead branches (from before we moved in) had any life left in them