A More Productive Patch

When I first began gardening here, I knew very little about soil. Our land here is rocky and, if you dig down deep enough, you hit clay under that. So, all of the original garden beds were constructed with soil that had to be brought onto our site from our local landscape supplier. I knew very little about feeding that soil; improving its structure and its water-holding capacity. Eventually, the plants we put in started to struggle and the veggies I tried to grow were underwhelmingly productive. 

After realising I needed some help, and because we wanted to grow more of our own food more reliably, we decided to call in someone who knew what they were doing; someone I could learn from. Lucas, whose flyer I found at my local organic nursery, was that expert. I watched, listened and helped as he worked and we talked about gardening, food, seeds, climate, water and community.

Sunflowers, cucumbers, spring onion and more!

I keep on learning too from the garden itself:  from my successes and failures; from watching the changes from season to season; from observing how plants grow in particular aspects and with particular companions and from how they respond to nourishing compost, worm tea and seaweed extract...not to mention RAIN!

A young cucumber on a healthy vine.

I am very grateful for everything Lucas taught me because now I have the knowledge and the skills I need to grow a productive garden, to grow some of the food we eat. There is a deep sense of satisfaction in that!

Gifts for Giving

Look at what arrived in our mailbox recently!

Washcloths, all knitted with love, by my beautiful boy's Grandma. She's been recuperating from a heart operation and in so doing has had to be much less of a whirlwind than she normally is. Instead, she's been knitting up a storm!

A woolly rainbow!

These handmade, colourful cloths are for our teachers' gifts this year. I'm sure our boy will pick different colours to reflect each teacher's favourite and that he will choose the scent of the soap just as carefully for each recipient. To this, he'll add one of his own hand-rolled beeswax candles that smell of delicious honey. He will wrap each gift with painted brown paper, tie it with ribbon from my stash and add one of his own hand-drawn tags.

He will give each teacher her gift quietly, as he has always done, but there will be that little smile as his gifts are acknowledged and he experiences one of life's great joys...giving.

A Fragile Life

About a month ago, my beautiful boy and I were lucky enough to spy a mother Tawny Frogmouth sitting on her nest in the fork of a gum tree near the entrance to our bike path. She was trying so hard to look like the ragged end of a branch as she sat on her precious eggs.

Each day, when out walking Sir Steve dog, we'd look up to see if her eggs had hatched. Not long ago, we were lucky enough to spy two tiny balls of fluff poking out from in front of their mother's breast. Chicks!

Not long after our discovery though, we had an intense storm here with whipping winds and driving rain. The following morning, while my husband was out walking Sir Steve dog, he noticed that one of the tiny chicks had been blown from its high nest. What to do?

Wildlife rescue advised that the chick's best chance was for us to construct a makeshift nest and to place this in the fork of another tree close to the original nest. So, our boy and his dad constructed a nest from an old plant pot, filled it with mulch and leaves and secured it in a tree. They tenderly transferred this fragile baby bird into the little nest they'd made for it.

Beautiful boy was full of questions:  "Will it survive? Will Mother Tawny come down to it? What will happen if she doesn't come?"  To all these questions, we had to give measured answers and ones that didn't offer any false hope. The chances were very, very slim and we told our boy that because that was the truth and because we have always told him that death is a part of the cycle of life for all living things. We crossed our fingers and hoped.

 The tiny Tawny Frogmouth waiting for its Mum ...

This tiny, beautiful chick didn't survive away from the love and warmth of its mother. Its lifetime was very short but it taught our beautiful boy so much about nature, about tenderness towards other creatures and about the fragility of life. Those are very special and important lessons that no child can learn from a computer game. They only come about from a close interaction with nature.

P.S. We are still keeping a close eye on Mother Tawny and her remaining chick. Mother Tawny continues to sit, patiently protecting her baby. The baby chick is healthy and strong now; seemingly growing bigger every day.