back to the garden

Well maybe it is just the time of year, or maybe it's the time of man. I don't know who I am, but you know life is for learning. We are stardust. We are golden, and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden. -Joni Mitchell

[plant-rant]

Our garden at the beginning of spring this year. Can’t wait to see how crazy overgrown and green it’s gonna get come new year!

[blooms-and-shrooms]

Floral umbrella for the bokeh rain shower by alan shapiro photography on Flickr.

[gardengrab]

Seed Saving

[moral-uncertainty]

Windowsill gardening on the cheap: Vintage-style tin herb gardens

[biodiverseed]

Living Structures: PLEACHING

A plant is considered to be ‘inosculate’ if it is self-grafting; if the branch of one individual will, as the result of gentle abrasion, form a living bond with the branch of another individual, or with another branch of the same plant. When this grafting is aided or initiated by humans, the process is called 'pleaching.’

In mediaeval Europe, in areas where annual flooding endangered human settlements, the pleaching of inosculate trees was employed as a solution to what otherwise might have been an insoluble problem. The trees were planted on a grid, like a small orchard. As they grew, branches were pruned and trained along this grid, so that eventually the branch of one tree met that of its neighbour. At that point, an incision was made in the bark of both branches and they were tied together, like blood brothers or sisters. The analogy is deserved, in that not only did these branches grow together to form one member, but their support activities (condition of water/minerals and sap) merged, thereby joining the life processes of the neighbouring trees.

Read more

Diagram: McGill Architecture // Photo: Angus Kirk

More on living sculptures and grafting

[blooms-and-shrooms]

Poppies by Lisa Holder

[opasgarden]

These indigo gold tomatoes are still the most beautiful. 

[inactive987654321-deactivated20]

bumble bees are so cute!!

[opasgarden]

Zucchini! 

[blooms-and-shrooms]

Untitled by jolanthe.brger

[imjustpeacheyy]

[sicksadqueervegan]

Garden update: the five-armed moonflower opened up into this nice round flower. It also has five holes int he base of the flower and five stamen. #witchyshit #poisongarden #houseplant #gardening #datura

[opasgarden]

Purple tomatoes! 

[permaculture-prowess]

All parts of the vegetable are edible, and so are some weeds in your garden. Leaves of many root vegetables can be eaten raw, steamed, braised (or put in a delicious spanakopita!). Don’t be scared to eat your vegetable offal || #organic #leaves #greens #kale #wildfennel #fathen #arugula #beetroot #carrot #permaculture #paddocktoplate #garden #veggiepatch #offal #realfood #foodrevolution #sustainability #locavore #localproduce #vegetable #mint #nasturtium by over.food https://instagram.com/p/25TsSNTPIU/

[solarinnovationsgreenhouse]

Vineyard Progress Update:  How to Train Your Vines!

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[goingbacktothegarden]

[farmertucker]

#dailyblossoms #snow (at Jackson Family Farms)