Varsity Lakes Permaculture Garden Metamorphosis

 

Finally dry enough to check out my patch at Varsity Lakes Community Garden.

Basil, chillis, red beans, Brazilian and Ceylon Spinach are growing with vigor in my permaculture styled patch.

Also lavender, dill, society garlic, carrots and even some late heirloom broccili have survived the difficult conditions and are adding to the available food in my garden.

Have really worked my soil following permaculture guidelines and it is giving back strong plants in this difficult weather.


Some gardeners have however taken different options for February.

One of these patches has a cover crop and the other appears cleared.

The permaculture plants are however thriving in the plot below.

The  gardener below is growing taro a strong permaculture staple along with New Guinea spinach, purslane,  Brazilian spinach, coco yam, corn and basil.

Some tasty and nutritious meals ahead for the owner of this patch.



This post is part of Outdoor Wednesday, WoW Us Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Tuesday Friend and Follow, Tuesday Train, Making Monday Marvellous, Show Off Your Cottage Monday, Metamorphosis Monday, Monday Mania and Just Something I Whipped Up.

Permaculture Home Garden in Rain and Heat

My permaculture home garden continues to thrive in the rain and heat.

This paw paw transplanted from another garden less than six months ago is already offering fruit.

The yacon are thriving and am so looking forward to harvesting these ground apples.

They are so good for you with their sweetness coming from the healthy inulin. Lots of other valuable nutrients in them as well making it such an easy to grow super food.

In the bottom of the garden the Drumstick Trees continue to thrive.

Hope to be adding their protein rich leaves to my meals very soon but for the moment just the occassional nibble as they continue to grow stronger.

Lots of sweet potatoes also growing here, such a great ground cover in this hotter weather. Have had some delicious, large sweet potatoes from the raised mound around the fig tree, and one delicious fig from the fig tree. This small tree which almost died in the winter but now lots of new figs about to form.

Also enjoying eating the pigeon peas.

These were planted originally to provide nitrogen in a difficult part of the garden but are now providing really delicious peas and a great shade barrier for more vulnerable plants.

And last but not least one of my black mulberry cuttings has grown in the same difficult area of the garden. Small at present but just love those sweet, plumb mulberries so look forward to it progressing well.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday, Food On Fridays, Feature Yourself Friday, It's a Hodge Podge Friday, Show and Tell Friday, Flaunt It Friday, Hookin Up With HoH, Making It With Allie, Nature's Notes and Transformation Thursday.

Sustainable Living and Breast Cancer

I can't believe how much better I feel since I have started living green.

Although I embraced modern living it did not work for me. Three separate breast cancers and a very large ovarian cyst confirmed I needed a new way of living.


One of the hardest things I found was not when I had the cancers but when I knew things were wrong with my body before each cancer and was not able to define what was wrong or find help.

This is why I am working to live a new way.

For someone with my history estrogen mimickng chemicals are on the avoid list.

I have what is called estrogen sensitive breast cancer which is feed by estrogen receptors.

A drug I take helps stop my body's estrogen feeding these receptors but estrogen mimicks in our environments also feed the same receptors.

Behind my sustainable living is the awareness that our environment has many sources of these estrogen mimicking chemicals and they are affecting not just individuals but our food chain, our ecosystems and the health of our planet.

My own home is as natural as I can make it and I realize now how hard my body was fighting for wellness but was simply unable to cope with the barrage of contemporary chemicals.

I am aware the breast cancer equation is complex and different for each woman but I am looking at the factors over which I have control and changing them.

This post is part of Welcome Wednesday, Wow Us Wednesday, Metamorphosis Monday, Monday Mania, Show Off Your Cottage Monday and Making Your Home Sing,

Brazilian Spinach, Purslane, Sweet Potato, Society Garlic and More

Brazilian Spinach, Purslane, Sweet Potato, Society Garlic and Mint are on the plate freshly picked for dinner.

Brazilian Spinach is the crinkly leaved plant at the top of the plate. It is a strong perennial that will grow in the most difficult of conditions making a dense ground cover and attracting no pests. It is great gently steamed with a little olive oil added once cooked or finely cut in salads.

Purslane cuttings are beneath the Brazilian Spinach. This plant has more omega-3 fatty acids than some fish oils and is a great food for vegetarians. It is another strong grower with few pests. I eat it daily added to salads. For those who would like to know its scientific name is Portulaca oleracea.

The bright pink sweet potato is one of several types of sweet potato. These are one of the of the best vegetables you can eat and are loaded with carotenoids, vitamin C, potassium, and fiber. They are also great steamed and with olive oil added when cooked.

Society garlic to the left side of the plate looks like garlic chives but with a much stronger flavor. This is a strong grower that adds a punch to any dish with its strong true flavor.

There is also a sprig of mint on the plate. I love a hint of fresh mint to freshen a meal.

Other strong summer growers are basil, nasturtiums and passion fruit.

What a joy it is to eat freshly picked food. These favorite Permaculture foods just keep giving whatever the weather.

This post is part of Foodie Friday, Food On Friday, Fight Back Friday, It's a Hodge Podge Friday, Flaunt It Friday, Transformation Thursday, Hookin Up With HoH, Making It With Allie, Nature's Notes, Totally Tasty Tuesday, Tuesday Train, and Outdoor Wednesday.

Permaculture Food Forest Provides Food in The Heat

My Permaculture Food Forest provides food in the heat.
Yesterday was the hottest day for several years but as the photo shows there was still a good harvest of food from my garden.

The plate contains some of the wonderful permaculture foods including Brazilian Spinach the crunchy, curly leaved perennial that seems to just go on growing in hot and dry weather while all around other plants wilt.

The egg like plant with purple stripes is a pepino a melon like fruit with a delicious sweetness when soft to the touch.

Purslane is  also on my evening's plate. This plant is another favorite in permaculture gardens because of it contains alpha-linolenic acid, the highly sought after Omega-3 fatty acids usually obtained from fish oil. I eat purslane daily much less expensive than fish oil and much more accessible.

Among the tomatoes, passionfruit, mints, dandelions and peppers you will also see a large purple sweet potato.

At last I have succeeded in growing these thanks to my friend Monica from New Guinea. Monica showed me how to twirl long sweet potato runners into loops and place a group of these loops into the earth on a raised mound.  Now about five months later I am amazed at the size of the sweet potatoes I am harvesting. There will be a lot more of these loops placed into mounds in my new food forest.
  This post is part of Metamorphosis Monday, Making Monday Marvelous, Making Your Home Sing, Fight Back Friday, Food On Friday, It's A Hodge Podge Friday, Frugal Friday, Flaunt It Friday, Foodie Friday, Show and Tell Friday, Creativity Party, Wow Us Wednesday, Nature's Notes, and Transformation Thursday.

Pimp My Cube Contest Offers Grand Prize for Worst, Most Pathetic, and Messy Cubicle or Office

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Contest Factory for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

  The Pimp My Cube Contest is offering a grand prize for `the worst, most pathetic and messy cubicle or office 'and a generous price for those voting on the contest..

If your work space has bad furniture, old technology, or is just messy, unorganized, noisy, dirty, dark or anything else that just makes it a bad place to be you could be in the running for this grand prize.

Valued at approximately$1200 your grand prize could be new high end computer system or new desk, chair and decorations or new entertainment package including a high end stereo and espresso machine.

All you have to do enter the Pimp My Cube Contest  is upload a video from your webcam or phone showing and explaining the horrors of your workspace.

Once entered your friends, family and coworkers can vote for your video, and anyone registering to vote could win a  $200 gift card.. 

Sweepstake entry points are gained for registering, voting, commenting and inviting others to register for the contest.

The grand prize will be selected by CF judges on criteria including  the most votes, and the worst and most compelling story.

 Spinning a good story and making your viewers laugh will bring in those votes.

The contest runs from until 1/31/12 at 12:00PM so plenty of time to get your video made and be in the running for the grand prize.

Breast Cancer Prevention and Permaculture

This blog tells the story of my journey in breast cancer prevention after recovering from a third breast cancer and my discovery of permaculture on this journey.

There is so much good advice out there on breast cancer prevention including that from the the Mayo Clinic which includes developing healthy habits such as limiting the amount of alcohol you drink, staying physically active, maintaining a healthy weight, breast feeding and discontinuing hormone therapy.

All of these with the exception of breast feeding as I was unable to have children I was trying to put into practice when a third small breast cancer began.

The last piece of advice from the Mayo Clinic is to avoid exposure to environmental pollutants. They state some research suggests a link between breast cancer and exposure to the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons found in vehicle exhaust and air pollution.

My instinct was that the issue of environmental pollutants is much more complex than this. I decided to sell my apartment which was in a block of six apartments where to my knowledge five cases of cancer and three deaths have occurred in a space of a few years and find a new way to live.

Near my new house a community garden had just opened and I discovered at their workshops the relationship between healthy soil and healthy food.

With the knowledge gained at the community garden I attempted my dream of beginning my own sustainable home garden.

I sometimes think I am a slow learner for it was only much later I began to understand the nature and importance of permaculture.

Gold Coast Permaculture and its many powerful workshops really opened my eyes to a new way of both growing and eating food. It was and is also exciting to find so many other people looking for positive answers to old ways that cannot sustain quality life on this planet.

From a difficult time I had discovered permaculture, a new and healthy way of living for our planet and its people.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Tuesday Train, Metamorphosis Monday and Show Off Your Cottage Monday.