Seasonal starting blocks

March is a few days old, but not yet a daffodil in flower...at least 2 weeks later than last year. The dance of snowdrops is starting to fade, colchique crocus have been flowering since  around 17th Feb when the first crane birds flew over here back from south to north.

First ticks re-emerging with the sunny warmth, despite frosty nights. And now, after a dryish winter, deluging rains have been flooding the ditches and causing streams to overflow. 
Getting polytunnels and greenhouses back into order, rehydrating the soil, cleaning algae of the plastic and removing last year's remaining dead plants. The new season will soon explode into action, seeds already ordered and potting compost at the ready.

Each year begins with fresh endeavour to have a spectacular, ordered garden overflowing with produce....and then the speed of fresh growth quickly overtakes any notion of keeping up with Nature's own-willed....wild!....profusion.

 Successes of last year include cucumbers,
    sweet potatoes   
 and cape gooseberries,   grown again for the first time in years.



New discovery and definitely to be nurtured this year is shiso or perilla: I saw this little plant with great claims on the label in a supermarket & decided to try it out. Wonderful salad plant, looks a bit like purple basil, tastes like litchi to me. Lifts the flavour of a bowl of mixed leaves in a tangy and delightfully refreshing way.  

Ambitions for garden 2017 include lots of artichokes and asparagus, impressive & delicious perennial veg...and getting sooooooo expensive to buy.

Last year was the least productive in fruit in 2 decades: mild winter, cold late spring, scorching july & dry august all factors. Hoping for much better this year...but despite all best efforts in caring for the soil & cultivating lots of diversity, it's still Nature & the weather that has the deciding hand. 

Brrrrrrrrrrr

-8°C at night +8°C the day...I'm always amazed at the resilience of plants, birds , insects etc, enduring not just the cold but also the bounces between extremes.
Frosted snowdrops emerging through the leaf litter, more 'conventional' timing than those that were already flowering in December the previous year. 

2016 is acknowledged as the warmest year on record, and the winter was very mild. I don't remember the coldest temperature here, but it barely frosted, and then mostly in March. It was a year  of lowest fruit harvest I've known in 20+ years.  The (up to...down to!....) -10°C is tough to live with, but hopefully it means a more healthy and productive garden again. 
Even so, I'm surpised  to see how many wild salad plants are still flourishing, plenty of red dead nettle and chickweed...looking much healthier than the cultivated lettuce!  Ground ivy too.

And nettles still growing, usually having a dormant period before returning in March.






 

 A delight to have a robin hopping nearby as I work in the woods...haven't seen many in recent years, are they on the decline aswell?

Cultivate Peace, the garden of our hearts

Women Wage Peace......beautifully inspiring, the power of gentleness

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyFM-pWdqrY&feature=share


 "Il est arrivé un grand petit miracle presque complètement ignoré par les médias: des milliers de femmes juives, musulmanes et chrétiennes ont marché ensemble en Israël pour la paix. Dans la nouvelle vidéo officielle du mouvement pour la paix "Women Wage Peace",

la chanteuse israélienne Yael Deckelbaum chante la chanson "Prayer of the Mothers", avec des femmes et des mères de toutes les religions, montrant que la musique est en train de changer et doit changer. Un acte d'amour, un miracle féminin qui vaut mieux que mille mots.

Partagez cette nouvelle tout ce que vous pouvez!

Shalom Salam Paix" Anne Flo Vanden Perre :

Warm greetings from a chilly Creuse, white frosted grass crunching underfoot, remaining frozen for consecutive days in the shade.
 All the best for a positively productive 2017!!!

 

                                 A few tasty morsels of wisdom for the journey into the New Year

Seasons Greetings

Best wishes for a joyful and peaceful end to 2016, with an inspirational and hopeful start to 2017 to come.

Helleborus nigra

A Christmas rose in the Moon Garden, already in flower for the last week...more often flowering outdoors in February....

 

 

 

 

A rose for Christmas...possibly the first year I've had plentiful garden roses still flowering....usually dormant between November and April.....so many changes to previously experienced gardens rhythms...still surprising and worth noting despite the frequency....

dream traveller

30th September

Just heard sad news of Bill Mollison’s death last week…..though he’ll be much missed, his inspiring work to preserve and repare a planet worth living in will go on and on.

Thank you Bill, for all the living dreams you’ve helped to generate. Your legacy lives on with your millions of students who continue to strive for the permaculture ethic and their positive application of following nature’s creative cycles.

Sweet dreams.