Plant Ally ~ Lavender

I've done it ! I've chosen my Plant Ally for this new year !

Lavender seems to be the plant chosing me ☺

Lavender is not local but it is winter and local plants are all under the snow anyway right now .

Plus I really felt this Lady calling me .

I've loved Lavender since childhood .I find I am also in need of her calming ability .

I've been wanting to partake in a plant ally course or follow along with others for sometime but that time never seemed to arrive or be right .

I don't have funds to take some workshop or course online .Plus At times I have issue that I feel plants chose us freely , we learn and are given by Creator what we are to work with if we are only open .

So maybe you'd like to do this too !

It's free !

Jut pray about it and see what plant appears to you over the next few weeks .

I felt like Samhain is the beginning of the new year so Samhain season is a good time to start and prepare .So I'm going to learn with Lavender over this next year .

I will post on both this blog for spiritual journies with Lavender and on our Cunning Crone  blog for medicinal & culinary journies with Lavender .

Lol this may turn out to be quite the challenge for me as my dh really does not enjoy the company of Lavender nor eating flowers how I do ☺

I actually have two little lavender plants I began from seed many yrs ago . I've no idea what variety they were though . I will work with them along with reading articles , recipes etc.

I will have a journal and write about my expereinces .

There are a few blogs that have write ups on their journey with plant allies  it appears people sort of venture off the path after awhile lol and I've no doubt I'll do my share of wandering  .

So that is it to start I've got to work on a journal and make the cover . I'll post when I can pics of my little plants , what I make and do with my friend Lady Lavender .

Northern Indigenous gardening/farming

I am really getting excited about all the wonderful projects that lie ahead for us in the coming yr.

The more I look into Aboriginal /Native American gardening & farming the more I know this is the way I want to go.

I want to learn all I can of harvesting growing within our natural environment .

I want to give back and learn and share with others in our community projects  .

so far I am looking at some seed catalogs & planning to attend the growing local food conference

and next year in 2012 we are not missing the Wild Food Summit and our own

 local Harvest Moon Festival ! We are saving now ☺

We are in zone 4 so I need to look into what really is hardy and will grow well within our growing season .

I already know that dh dream of bee keeping is a go because there are bee keepers as far north as Thompson MB.

I really feel the great need for First Nations people to become self sustaining once again and this is beginning  to be taking place in some areas ☺

I'm also thrilled to be finding new books !

These two shown we have and are really great !

Buffalo Bird Woman's accounts of gardening are astounding .

This book talks also about food storage & preparation too .

I have a new love of the Sunflower and for certain will make it a major crop .

All of Michael Caduto's books are just awesome ! I'm going to really plan well ahead for work projects for the kids next year .

forever the wild gardener

So it is November and I've been dreaming of my next years garden since October , how bout you ☺

I can hardly wait til  seed catalogues come out again !

I have to say this post was first in response to a mean remark given me .

"it's to bad you don't like to garden "

it hurt , and it was I now know done out of envy and it did come from a bully anyway but it still hurt non the less.

I think it hurt more so this yr. than most because I could not have my garden with our renos & disruptions and all .

I mean it was strange coming from this person who I know very well and she knows me. I know she in fact had to grow into gardening it wasn't a part of whom she was but it is now and isn't that a good thing . yet for some reason she envies my natural ability perhaps .I've already admitted I'm not an average gardener I am pretty much a flop at growing veggies but I try don't I.

I guess what hurt is I've always been a gardener , a wild Gardener that is ☺

since an early age I loved working in the soil helping my grandmother plant her flower beds and build her fish pond .

as a child one of the only good things my abusive father taught me was how to tend the garden .He entered shows and was really into the how toos of growing award winning  roses . when I was 9 yrs I also made another fish pond from digging it to pouring the concrete to collecting the wild lilies for in it .

when I was sent to the horrid city to live at 14 yrs one of the only things that kept me going was digging & planting the garden in the group home I lived in .

I realize the garden this person was referring to is the type of garden she grows .

Is it not a tad narrow to assume when we speak of the garden we only have one view ,one image .

I'm not really shocked that veggie gardening isn't my best type of gardening as I've always found my nourihment in the spiritual & the wild more so then the tame . what can one expect from someone who had her two peas for dinner as my Gramma used to say ☺

I also realized yes that most of my gardening  like to harvest for nourishment comes from the forest or my herbal teas etc. However I do have a dh who loves growing veggies !

we all have gardens , don't we that which we tend to , that which we care for and help nurture and grow .gardens providing harvests .I love eating a wild violet or rose petal just as much as picking a tame cucumber . I've been reading more about Indigenous gardening & Zero Tillage farming .I think these are th types of farming really speaks to me .

I've been inspired by Emily Dickinson lately and her Herbarium

so on that note I've been so inspired taking focus off of bullies and looking to positive reinforcements ☺

I am going to begin the plant Allie work I'd planned to do ages ago .so shall post about that soon enough .

anyway I went through some of our old photos and am sharing with you .

I'm not so much angry anymore for those who are not abusive to me know me for who I am and my life all round me is proof enough of who I am my fruits my labours and my harvests all are here surrounding me ☺

Rox helping Gramma Grace build her fish pond ,the fish pond is the old cement casing from the boiler in the basement of the log house that burnt down .my Gramma turned the old foundation etc. into lovely gardens .after Gramma got Parkinson's she could no longer garden .this is all grown in now with a huge birch growing there but Gramma's day lilies still pop up round this spot .

these friends who visit are so dear to us

children should always be a part of tending the garden

my little chica would follow me round my wild flower garden

one summer my garden was a field of daisies !

we use items from our forest garden for toys too

decorating , play & even math

inspire

I like to hang things lemon balm is lovely to hang

Like my Gramma I continue to be inspired by wonderful gardeners of all kinds like Tasha Tudor

and

Susun Weed

looking for spear grass

I may not have had my garden in the city but I did my best to plant a small flower herbal garden and it lushed right up too

robertwort

nourishment

inspiration

this granny loves mixing potions with her grandson ☺

this was our fairy day celebration activity .he picked flowers and grasses etc.

almost ready

granny made a lemon wild rose pie

potion

Joe & Bonkle love being in the garden

gardening connects us with our ancestors too

my mother & her brother in their family garden

I love using old things within the garden like broken plates etc.

making fairy houses

when we bought the house 18 yrs ago I was thrilled to have a sunroom to grow plants & start seedlings in . Well we really need a greenhouse as my sunroom is no longer big enough for all the seedlings

My dh is really good at showing the kids traditional gardening techniques

herbs

and

teatime

my garden doth grow

old mailboxes make wonderful plant pots

Sharon is my magic cat ☺

a garden reflects who we are

I love spotting hidden plants , this Shamrock came up in 3 unexpected spots !

everyone is welcome to explore

we are very much an all season gardening family

wild picking is what we do

he grew it !

harvest time

rox in tree ☺

wild strawberry

grape leaves

mushrooms and rose hips from the autumn garden

I brought plants from my ex's garden after he passed away .I discovered a new plant deadly night shade

Yes forever the wild gardener I shall be