Dear reader,

Wow June already and the shortest day fast approaching.  I got one lot of garlic planted in May and I'll plant another lot this month. Its so exciting to see the little shoots coming up.

I'm enjoying walking the dogs down in the bush and picking and eating fresh Herb Robert leaves where they grow in the shade, knowing how good they are for us.  The month's blog features Herb Robert with a recipe for a therapeutic dose for healing.

I got the olives bottled yesterday that I picked in the streets of Papamoa where there are numerous trees with the fruit feeding the birds and falling on the ground. This year I left it later in early May to pick them so they are bigger, blacker and riper.  It took 30 days of soaking them in water and pouring off the water every day to reduce the bitterness.  Then I added a salt brine of 1/2 cup of salt to 10 cups of water and poured that over them in the jars. It is so easy to do this and you can see the result below.

I'm excited to be traveling to Palmerston North next week, my 'old hunting ground' so to speak.  See the flyer below.

Also happening this month is an excellent pruning workshop by my friend Gisella - master pruner who really knows her stuff and explains it all first and then it's hands on. It's the first of a series of Living Skills Workshops offered through Plenty Permaculture. See the flyer for that event below.

You'll also see below some photos of a wall garden Dad went to a lot of trouble to create out of a pallet.  The vegetables didn't do so well (although some silver beet has survived) but the weeds love the top and I counted 9 species thriving and think they look so cool.  We can eat the leaves except for the black nightshade, but the berries will be edible when black and ripe. These survivor plants put themselves there  and need no care like the vegetables.  

 And finally the last photo - What is the connection here?  Our elderly Welsh Mountain pony of 38 years!! is all wrapped up in her new cover and behind my new 'hot' compost is heating up wrapped up in old pony covers. I've followed the idea of putting lots of carbon material (dried stalks and leaves) to create compost that will grow nutrient dense food.  I've linked to Koanga Institute where they explain all about that method.

Have a great month and keep warm or enjoy the spring if you are on the other side of the globe!!

Julia

Bottled olives all lined up on the shelf for eating. There are actually 19 jars of varying sizes!

My sister Lexa and I are traveling 5 hours down to Palmerston North where we grew up on a farm near the city.  We're visiting friends and since I'm going to be there I thought I'd offer a workshop for people who are interested in edible weeds in that area. If you know anyone there I'd so appreciate you spreading the word!

With many of us growing fruit trees these days to be more self sufficient in food it is well worth knowing how to train and shape your trees from the beginning or get them back in shape.

In this photo are Hawksbeard, bitter cress, and black nightshade on top of the wall garden.

At the other end of the wall garden are herb robert with red stems, speedwell in front to the left, another hawksbeard, and amaranth gone to seed ( I collected the seed). Amaranth is an annual so is dying now in winter.

Daisy and the compost pile