Blackberries, Irises, Horsetails and Teasels in Walter's Gorge

 The lawn mower is broken. The grass alongside the road is getting long. The blackberry is getting out of control.

I spent a couple of hours cutting back the blackberry that was reaching into Walter's Gorge threatening to cover the beautiful flowers growing there. Himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) is classed as an invasive species here in BC and it does invade at our place.

Japanese Water Iris (Iris ensata)

Two years ago after Ron and I had cleared the blackberry jungle out of the seasonal stream that flows into the pond, it sat bare until my sister and brother-in-law came to stay. Sister Donnel, who knows a lot about plants (as does my other sister Megan Rae) looked at the site and pronounced "Japanese water irises and ferns." Brother-in-law Walter did the back breaking work digging up and transferring large ferns to the sides of the stream.

We, plus our mother (a phenomenal gardener) went shopping/hunting for the exotic sounding plant and found 2 varieties.

This is the second year of flowers and they get larger each year. They are obviously very happy with the conditions - soil continually moist to flooded depending on the season, acidic soil/water - runoff from the forest up the hill, shade.

I'll have to ask my sister when I should divide the plants up to keep the flowers large.

Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) - behind the iris - has also flourished. The seeds of this ancient plant were waiting deep in the soil for the right conditions. 

It is a most unusual plant as well as being one of the oldest on the planet. During the Carboniferous dinosaur age, horsetail grew a hundred feet tall. The Romans called it "hair of the earth." 

The hollow stems with 'bad-hair-day' fronds are 30 plus percent silica and a valuable source of the mineral for other plants. Steeping the plant in a barrel of water for a few days produces a rich mineral tea for other plants. 

Horsetail is said to be the best product for cleaning pewter and for polishing wood and glass without scratching. That is the silica at work. I have yet to try it. It all goes in compost and teas and hasn't made it inside the house.

With blackberry on the right, irises and horsetail in the middle, the teasel has grown up on the left side of the bank.

Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum syn. D sylvestris)

This magnificent plant grows to 10 feet tall. It is fascinating to look at its parts in detail.

The leaves cup the rainwater and hold interesting collections of things. I have been trying to catch with my camera a frog bathing in the water. This teasel bath has been known since ancient times as the bath of Venus and said to be good for warts among many other things. 

The most well known and commercially valuable part of the plant is the dead flower head. I'll tell you all about that once I have some pictures of the flower to show you.

With all of these interesting plants to observe it is no wonder I get lost for a few hours while out in the garden.

Permaculture Plants - Comfrey, the Queen of Plants

Comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum)

I have planted lots of comfrey in the garden for many reasons. Perhaps the most important one is that it fulfills one of the three ecological gardening principles - succession. Except for the Cut Flower bed, all of the beds in the Backyard Project were new with bare soil. By using comfrey as a first coloniser/pioneer plant it helps prepare the soil for other plants, soil organisms and insects. It starts a progression of life.

Comfrey is an insectary plant in that the flowers attract bees to the garden. Slugs devour the leaves while they work to break down organic matter in the soil. The slugs are a food magnet for birds, frogs, snakes and many other creatures needed in a garden.

I put my shoe beside a leaf to show you how big the comfrey leaves are getting. The plant has a long soil-busting taproot capable of bringing lots of minerals up to the surface. As the soft decaying leaves quickly decompose these minerals are released and made accessible to other plants.

The large leaves cover the soil holding in moisture while providing a cool home for the slugs and many other soil critters.

This is the 'mother bed' under a big leaf maple but it is not working to plan. It is dry under the tree, is not irrigated and the hose doesn't reach this far so I don't expect them to thrive over the summer.

The plants that are thriving and have grown the biggest leaves are in locations that correspond with the sunniest places I found when I did the 'Sun/Shade' analysis map.

Here is the comfrey growing along the bottom edge of the Leaf hugelkultur bed. The leaves are small and the plants are reaching towards the sunny south. But they are still doing a good job building up the soil by making mulch.

Whenever I plant plants I don't need to put a compost soil in the hole first. My sister showed me how to pick a few comfrey leaves, crunch them up and put them in the bottom of the hole before putting the plant on top. It is a mineral boost for the new plant.

I make up a herb tea for the plants by putting comfrey, nettle and horsetail in a big tub of water and leaving it until it has decayed. The plants and soil love this tonic.

I harvest the comfrey three times over the spring and summer laying it on the soil as fertiliser. At the end of August, I leave the plant to grow leaves to protect itself over the winter. 

I haven't even touched on the medicinal or culinary uses of comfrey - I'll save that for another post.

Comfrey well deserves its title 'Queen of Plants' in the permaculture garden.

The happy result of what I thought was a mistake.

A few years ago I planted some irises near the edge of the pond. During the winter rains, the pond water level rose and covered the irises. I thought that was the end of them because they would rot. But no, each spring they grow back out of the pond mud and put on a magnificent show.

Backyard Project - Planting More Trees

Sammy, the owner of Pacific Ecoscapes , is asking me where I want the tree planted in the Gravel Bed Garden.

It is the focal point of the bed so its position is important. I have been holding off from planting more in this bed until I can what the tree looks like. 

We discuss where it could go and settle on its location.

Sammy has to scrape back the gravel, cut a hole in the filter cloth, and dig out the soil below before settling in the tree.

Strawberry Tree/Koumaria/Koumara/Pacific Madrone/Madrona (Arbutus unedo)

We considered many different trees before settling on the Strawberry Tree. It needed to suit the site - sunny, hot, dry thin well-drained soil. It needed to be multi-functional to fit with the permaculture philosophy - edible fruit for birds and me, lots of summer biomass (falling leaves) to act as mulch on surrounding beds over the hot months, falling fruit to feed the soil, a high resting place for birds and a shady spot underneath for me, tannin-rich bark for me to use as a fabric dye. All of these functions made it the winner. Design-wise it is a smaller version of the larger nearby Arbutus (Arbutus mensiesii).

It is an evergreen but like its cousin the Arbutus, it drops half its leaves over the summer. The guava-nectarine tasting fruit takes a year to ripen so the tree has ripe fruit and the next season's flowers both at the same time over late autumn into winter giving birds food into the cold months.

Sammy brought the feijoa/pineapple guava trees for the hedge. I have been growing in pots fig cuttings collected during a Gaia Organic Master Gardener pruning lesson. The soil in the new bed is not yet ready to plant in so Sammy left the plants in their pots and placed them within the hedge area. It is good to be able to better visualise what the hedge will look like.

Fig - Dessert King 

This has proven to be the best cultivar for our climate. Our summers support a plentiful very sweet brebus crop but there are not enough frost-free days to mature the 2nd crop.

Feijoa/Pineapple Guava (Feijoa sellowiana)

This yummy fruit bearing small tree will make up most of the hedge. The green fruit ripens and falls in the autumn. It has soft spiky scarlet flowers which will give the hedge a punch of colour.

Sammy brought and laid some top soil for the 2 meadow beds in front of the studio.

He also planted a native apple tree out the front by the letter box.

So lots of new planting that I now have to keep watered while we wait for the irrigation system to be installed.

Permaculture - Soil Building Techniques - composting, fertility crops

Ron holding one of the new compost bins.

The black bin has a secure screw-on lid.

Ron cut the bottom out and cut holes in the sides.

It will be placed bottom side down in a small hole in the garden bed. Soil life can enter through the side holes and bottom and we will feed it with kitchen scraps and scoops of soil from the top. 

There are 2 of them - one to fill and one to leave to compost. When the composting has happened we lift the bucket up and move it to another location. The new compost is then chicken-scratched into the soil in-situ.

With permaculture gardening, the area is divided up into zones. The beds nearest the house are in zone 1 - the 'Fluffy Slipper Zone' because one can hop outside in slippers to harvest the most accessible plants. These compost bins are in our Zone 1 - Kitchen Beds where the soil is being kept rich and damp. Continually making compost within the bed helps to keep the soil fertility level up.

Ron came back from a shopping expedition with 2 bags of chitting potatoes. He said they were free to a good home. The sprouts were long and pale so there may not be enough energy left in the potatoes to support new growth. I planted them anyway because it is all good organic matter for soil building and if some do grow into plants it is a bonus. I am thinking of them as soil fertility plants but we may get to harvest a few potatoes as well.

Some of the potatoes had small shoots so I cut them up and planted those too.

Now to wait and see what happens.

 Gardening involves a lot of curiosity tempered by patience.

VISDA 'Current Threads 2016' Artists with their Work

Judi MacLeod 'White Lady,' white linen, manipulated white cotton, hand and machine stitched

Judi led the this year's Current Threads exhibition committee. She led the hanging and compiled the artist statement binder among many other tasks.

A close up of 'White Lady' because my poor photography didn't really show any of the texture.

Committee member Sarah McLaren with her 'Van Gogh in Yellow,' cotton, silk, tulle, organdy; edge turned machine applique, free motion embroidery.

Sarah organised an elegant afternoon tea on the gallery verandah during the artist reception.

Committee member Dale MacEwan beside her work 'Nature's Patterns' (bottom - Karen Selk's work on top).'

Dale manipulated and printed on cotton 2 of her rock pattern photos then machine stitched into them.

Among the many tasks Dale worked on were registration and the show sitting schedule.

Many thanks to this year's Current Threads exhibition committee for doing an excellent job showcasing VISDA members work so well.

During the artist reception, I managed to catch 2 other artists with their work.

Susan Duffield 'Ragged End of Life' - stitched textile fragments mounted on painted canvas.

Louise Slobodan 

Top - 'Ancient Pathways' - a collagraph printed on rust printed muslin with stitching. 

Below - 'Arbutus Landscape' - Photographs printed on rust-print cotton with hand and machine stitching.

The exhibition is on for another week. I would recommend you visit if you are in the area.

Vancouver Island Surface Design Association's 'Current Threads 2016' exhibition at Tulista Gallery, Sidney

Laura Feeleus 'Heartfelt'

VISDA's annual exhibition is on at CACSP's Tulista Gallery in Sidney.

Works by Lori Mudrie, Terry Phillips, Donna-Fay Digance

The exhibition is on until Sunday 4:00 pm July 31st.

Works by Barb McCaffery, Margie Preninger

There will be an Artists' Reception on Saturday 2 to 4 pm July 23rd.

Works by Bryony Dunsmore, Sarah McLaren, Jo Ann Allen

Many of the artists will be in attendance. It will be a great opportunity to talk to them about their work. 

Works by Sarah Mclaren, Morag Orr-Stevens,

As this is an annual event for VISDA we are already working on our 2017 exhibition.

Jo Ann Allan 'Song of the Earth' 

Any work a member finishes between now and the date of the next exhibition is eligible to be shown.

We are working on several exciting ideas for next year's venue.

Backyard Project Update - What happened while we were away

While we were away Sammy and his crew continued to work on the Backyard Project.

They mulched the hugelkultur beds with straw to slow down evaporation from the soil as we enter our dry season.

Sammy cut more rounds from logs and extended the gardener's paths around the perimeter of each hugelkultur bed.

They started construction on another garden room - the fruit hedge. 

This room begins on the south side of the path next to the Gravel Bed Garden.

They made a lasagne bed composed of many layers of different materials. It will be left for the soil organisms to do their work breaking down these materials to make a rich soil. Once the soil has cooled down the trees and shrubs can be planted.

In the Cut Flower Bed, the peonies and irises are at their peak.

The alliums are moving into the seed-head stage which I enjoy as much as the flowering stage. I leave them in the garden until the stems are getting dry then cut them. I bundle up the stems and hang them in the garage to dry further.

In spring time the rate of change in the garden speeds up.

Art Nouveau and Art Deco - On the Lookout for Art Styles While Travelling

After flying across the Pacific from New Zealand we endured a 10-hour layover in San Francisco. We occupied ourselves with: finding a short term hotel room - no such place; a shower - closed for renovations; a place to sleep - the meditation/prayer room but that didn't last long because the dark quiet room was intoxicating when in a jet-lagged state and lying on the floor, as opposed to sitting cross-legged, was forbidden.

The many exhibitions within the airport were a welcome distraction and kept us moving.

Curtain panel, c. 1900 - 1910, USA, cotton

The SFO Museum was established by the Airport Commission in 1980 to humanise the airport environment, share some of the unique cultural life of San Francisco, to provide educational services for the travelling public, and to keep jet-lagged people occupied.

Centrepiece, 1900, Loetz, Austria, glass, bronze

We didn't find all 25 galleries but what we did find certainly worked for a while to distract from our basic needs for sleep, personal hygiene attention, and moving the body. 

Jardiniere, 1903, Austria, bronze

When I travel I am always on the lookout for expressions of different art styles in architecture, interior design, and artworks. I am particularly interested in the more recent styles that encompassed more than 2D paintings and sculptures.

The rebellious Arts and Crafts movement at the end of the 19th century in Europe morphing into the Art Nouveau period was the beginning of taking 'art' off the walls and plinths for Europeans.

The motifs on this jardiniere are typical of the period - dragonflies and plants, particularly the stems and leaves caught up in the hair of languid women. 

What do you think of the women with their mouths open forming the feet of the dish?

Octopus Chatelaine c. 1900, William B. Kerr & Co., Newark, New Jersey, silver

I had not noticed the octopus motif being used before but with its curvilinear legs it would have been seen as having great design potential if more designers of the time had been familiar with sea life.

Art Deco shop front in Ngatea, New Zealand

My favourite art style is Art Deco, a style that flourished not only in Europe between the world wars but it was the first style that spread around the world. It may have been halted in Europe once WWII started but it continued to develop elsewhere. I love to find Art Deco gems in unexpected places.

It was the first style to unify people rather than separate them. Art Deco concepts were freeing providing a spring point for many different cultures to interpret.

Another reason why I find the Art deco style so fascinating is that it was the first style that permeated all material culture at all economic levels, from grand hotels to this modest shop front (above), from costly wood inlaid furniture to a mass produced milk jug. Everyone could identify with and express themselves through the style.