This morning I popped down to the gardens with the cats... they love to follow me around, sit on my lap, get under my feet - and up on my back, as you see above with Monkey! He's getting bigger now, and gives me quite a fright when he leaps unexpectedly onto my bent over shoulders!
The other 5 cats also potter about with me - keeping as close as they can without actually climbing into my pockets...
This time of the year I'm picking some herbs, leaves, firewood, oranges... And clearing paths and beds. Mostly working without agenda or trajectory....
I'm mostly observing the great beauty of all that's already growing abundantly, redistributing seeds, and checking on pots with cuttings in.
As time passes in this magical landscape, I feel less need to either interfere pro-actively or to try and force the garden into any particular form. It just calls to me, plant by plant, as I wander and wonder around.
I put some chayote which have already chitted/ sprouted very enthusiastically, into very specific spots where they might survive winter and flourish into the new year. They're sturdy but not terribly cold-tolerant. Nevertheless, I usually put them in the ground as soon as they chit, and they start very slowly, then take off in the spring!
I tidied up the artichoke and around the herbs next to them: a lot of the ground throughout the gardens is without much soil, so a lot of the tidying process us taking 'spontaneous' plants off walking areas and piling them onto beds.
This develops into great growing areas like these, where I encourage strongly any spontaneous plants like beet greens and borage. They are coming into their full vitality right now, and I am so grateful for their magnificent nutriment and holistic medicine.
The star flowers of borage really light up my day...
And the tamarillo or tree tomatoes are doing amazingly: they might handle the worst of the cold season, if they're sheltered in this perfetto microclimate. But I'll keep an eye on them - they should fruit soon. I grew them from seed and amvery excited that they've grown up so well... Here I have a post propping one up a little 🥰
The beds are getting more under control, though I'm doing any cutting of brambles and invasive tree species etc very slowly. The beds start off like a scribbly sketch, and over multiple seasons organically take natural form.
The plants sometimes feel like close friends and relatives. They care for me, as I do for them. Seeing their beauty, sacred geometry, colour... and sensing their medicine and vitality - and their generosity to give freely; this is such a re-education every single time I interact in the garden.
The garden is always teeming with newness.
And every petal and seed that I reap is a bliss-ing.
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My beta carotin levels are good this month! All the oranges and oranged pumpkins (the wee green ones that I shared last season).... It is a joy to pull fruits like these out of my cellar/ cantina and make juice or soup!
Today I lunched on a splendid - free - soup, of pumpkin and herbs... it was divine. I adore how one pumpkin is just right for a good-sized pot of zuppa. The rosemary, sage and thyme were all picked fresh.
Clare.
