The plant on the left is just starting to grow lush as we head towards winter. It's called Winter cress or Landcress Barbarea vulgaris.  It is in the Brassica family and is spicy and hot to the palate - a winter warming plant to have on your toast or in a salad or soup.  It is full of chlorophyll and sulphur as well as Vitamin C helping to ward off winter colds and flu. 

Chlorophyll is something we take for granted but it’s abundant all around us giving plants their green colour. It is an essential component of photosynthesis allowing plants to absorb energy from light. Then when we eat green leaves we get the benefit of that energy and vitality and it’s the closest, freshest way to eat sunlight.  Isn’t that so amazing!

Did you know that blood and chlorophyll molecules are identical except that in the centre of a chlorophyll cell you’ll find magnesium while in our blood it’s iron (hence red blood).  We are closer to plants than we think!!  Chlorophyll helps cleanse all the cells of the body, fights infection, helps to build the immune system and replenish red blood cells, and detoxifies the liver and digestive system.  An impressive list!

This green liquid has many health benefits and the best way of enjoying them is to eat fresh green vegetables and leafy greens including wild edibles, then you’re consuming lots of chlorophyll, in its natural form just as Mother Nature intended it.

Read the full blog here with a table listing the amounts of chlorophyll in a selection of plants with spinach heading the list and Garden cress being number 3.

It's super easy to save your own seed. This is a lettuce - an oak leaf variety (name unknown that I have grown for years) going to seed.  You cut the head off when the seeds have fluff like in the photo.  Or you could carefully collect the seed from the plant so that more can mature.  Put the whole seeded head in a dry place in a container to dry off and when fully dry you can rub the seeds out of their husks.  You can see that one plant supplies an enormous amount of seed. 

I love it when plants self sow and they can only do that if you let a good specimen go to seed.

Below you can see a buckwheat seed-head. There are unripe green seeds and triangular brown riper ones.  You could harvest them and eat them but you'd need a few more plants to make a meal.  This buckwheat is in my wildflower garden.

These are my newly pricked out seedlings that will provide crops for winter food.  There are Cabbages (a small headed variety), Violet and white cauliflowers and Chinese cabbage, Broccoli, Swedes, Beetroot, Peas, Lettuce (A cos variety called Vivian), Celery and Dill (not in the image). Growing your own food is so important for fresh nutrient rich food that is local (no transport costs) and where you know the soil it grew in and that is it spray free.  It makes us resilient and independent of shops should we have shortages or vegetables become very expensive which is already happening.  You can make your own liquid manures from seaweed, or horse manure if you can access them, comfrey or nettle and even your weeds or grass clippings. With plant liquid manure I put the comfrey or seaweed or nettle into a pillow case I buy in a second hand shop so that when the material breaks down you don't have gunk clogging up your watering can.  Let the green material sit for a couple of weeks then dilute it and apply to your crops.

I've had a huge crop of Magenta spreen or Tree spinach Chenopodium giganteum this year.  My garden volunteer JJ has been cutting it, bagging it up and we label it before taking it to meetings to give away and make people aware of this amazing plant.  We've also taken it to the Welcome Bay market to the Community garden stall to raise funds for the community gardens.  This plant is a super food, one plant providing a huge amount of protein rich leafy greens that are highly nutritious, rich in Vitamins C and E, essential fatty acids, iron, calcium, minerals and antioxidants which are good for dealing with free radicals.  The underside of the leaves and top of the new leaves are covered in a fine pink dust (we call fairy dust). Resist the temptation to wash it off as it is full of calcium and protein. 

It is a true survivor being drought tolerant. We can gain these survival qualities and build inner resilience when eating these and other wild plants.
In the bottom right of the photo are kumara plants.  They're doing well all over my garden this year.  Any small piece of kumara left in the ground comes up the following year.  I eat the leaves - young ones fresh in smoothies or I use them in stir fry to add diversity to what I eat. Some cultures grow kumara or sweet potato just for the leaves. 

Kumara grow well in containers and the tubers make their way to the bottom of this rubbish container which is rather exciting when harvesting them.

The last time it rained in the middle of February, it was gentle and went for days and I couldn't help myself in taking these photos of the droplets that formed on the leaves of Magenta spreen and Fennel seedheads below.

Piet Oulaff is such an inspiring landscape designer. I love his approach to natural looking gardens which he actually creates and designs often using wild plants. I've featured him before in a newsletter but I wanted to share another story as I like his work so much. Take a peek into this documentary "How landscape designer Piet Oudolf captures nature's ‘emotion'"  here.

This little video popped up on my You tube one day and I was totally moved and enchanted by what Pat McCabe Woman Stands Shining (her Lakota name) shared.  The title of her talk is 'how to tap into the magic and mystery of water.' A powerful story from Pat McCabe, a Navajo and Lakota activist.  Watch this short 5 minute video here.   We all need water but do we really think of it as having a consciousness or intelligence or that the water we use is the same water that has always been on the planet.  I have a totally new appreciation for it's sacredness. This is a longer video 30mins called “Let’s see what love will come to meet us in the hour of our not knowing.” Its a talk on a panel Woman Stands Shining was part of at Findhorn.  Very powerful.

These lush plants are in the kitchen garden or zone 1 in permaculture speak because the bed is close to the kitchen for easy access. Here you see a tall chia plant and I have several that have self sown very late in the season. They may get a chance to flower having pretty pale blue flowers. I eat the leaves in smoothie and salads. There's also rocket and cos lettuce in the photo.

This bed is looking colourful with the Xeronema at the back in a pot, the grey sea kale, prickly pair cactus, the tall grey stalked plant is White sage and in front zinnias.

Edible flowers

My latest blog is about Edible flowers and there will be another to follow with more edible flowers.

The photo to the left shows a salad decorated with beautiful blue borage flowers. (Borage features in the blog) They can also be put in ice cubes for added flare in summer drinks.

The beauty and fragrance of flowers have always drawn humans in nourishing our senses. Increasingly we see a trend to use colourful flowers to brighten and make food very attractive. This though is far from a new idea. Ancient Greek, Roman and Chinese herbalists recorded medicinal and culinary uses for flowers. There is also information on the use of edible flowers from the medieval and Victorian periods where salads were made using violets, daisies and borage. Cakes were baked with rosewater and elderflower vinegar. Sage flowers, lavender and peonies were made into preserves with added medicinal qualities. Later it became very popular to ‘candy’ all sorts of flowers other than violets.

Adding edible flowers enhances salads with colour, texture and flavours. Even a simple dish inspires creativity turning a cook into an artist transforming any meal into a celebration. Not only uplifting and pretty many edible flowers are high in nutrients, antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. Here is the link to read all of it including examples of edible flowers like alyssum, borage, fennel, calendula.

I'll leave you with this lovely image of a monarch butterfly on a zinnia flower. 
I wish you abundant, flourishing health and many wonderful green blessings. Find things to be grateful for like the sun rising and setting often with beautiful colours, it never ever forgets or fails to do this.
Much love Julia