Sallygardens Smallholding

Sallygardens Smallholding ... The Resurrection!

Hello planet Earth. I'm at home, my work has stopped for now and I feel the world needs this, as do I. So, I'm back <3

In the past few years I turned my hand to raising my children and retraining to work empowering people to self heal, and even better to embrace yoga and Shiatsu Massage Therapy as a self care method to prevent illness and sustain health.

I reduced my Smallholding so I could focus on working to raise my children as I felt I couldn't maintain both at the same time. Now my children are teenagers and although I can still share some Yoga and Shiatsu wisdom online with you all, I feel it's time to resurrect Sallygardens to it's former glory. I'm excited about this.

This is a time for all of us to think about being resilient, spiritually and practically. Resilient as individuals but more importantly as communities, and as a planet. Lets start at home, because that's where a lot of us are right now. If you are not at home it's because you are out there on the frontline and we all fully support you in that, massively admire you and will be forever ever grateful.

In developing some resilience I hope we in turn can continue to support those still in work in some creative and practical ways.

I'm not entirely sure what we will cover here but it will develop and grow organically, as I hope my garden again will too. I will share what I know about growing fruit, veg, medicinal and culinary herbs, growing fuel and keeping poultry, whilst all the time acting as a guardian and keeper of the land for future generations. As I'm starting from scratch again, I'll guide you through the process as I go.

Whether you have an urban garden, an apartment with a window or a field in the countryside there are many things you can grow to enhance your nourishment. Growing not only nourishes your body but also your soul. You'll see what I mean.

Now take care, stay safe and watch this space.

It's good to be back and have something to devote my time to, that I feel will make a real difference. 

Seed Box Treasure Trove

Every veg gardener has a treasure trove like this whether it be housed in a box, a drawer, a bag or some other container of choice 

Although I haven't grown veg for a few years, I'm back at it now and I think I finally got the hang of not getting carried away and buying way too much seed. I'm very pleased with my collection this year from rainbow chard, to dwarf purple beans, crimson broad beans, golden mange tout, beetroot mix, radish mooli, Andean salad, purple sprouting brocolli, flowers and herbs. It's a veritable rainbow of flavours and nutrition  It's also a web, a network of potential biodiversity and sustainability.

A good tip is to look through all of your seeds for inspiration once a week. Along with looking at your garden you'll then get to instinctively know what to sow more of each week. It's about staying in touch, in tune. Of course you should also ideally have a diary taking note of what you sow, when and where but to be honest I've never done that. For my little family veg garden I prefer to walk, look, potter, peer and intuitively respond from my seed box that way.

 

 

Starting with Herbs

One of the delights of having a polytunnel for me personally is the treat of year round herbs. Rosemary, sage, mint and flat and curly parsley pretty much keep going all year. By March I can expect to add in chives, garlic chives, oregano, lemon balm and thyme. In mid April I can start using coriander, dill, fennel, horehound, feverfew, camomile, clary sage, lovage, chervil, sorrel and mallow. There's hardly a meal I don't sprinkle a selection of chopped fresh herbs onto these days. Herbs are also lovely for adding to homemade cream cheese which I make by straining my kefir (a post on this to come).

Besides tasting absolutely delicious each herb offers a unique array of beneficial qualities for our health and wellbeing. I have written previously about borage which now happily self seeds in the polytunnel.

Yes indeed all herbs are a blessing and a great addition to our diet. Nature provides all we need to heal and stay well. Even if you are not a gardener herbs are so easy to grow. From your local garden centre you can buy a pot for the cost of two packets of lanky lifeless 'fresh' herb leaves from the supermarket. Transfer your herb into a large pot and keep it watered on a windowsill (outside in summer, indoors in winter) and you'll be using it for the year. Both parsley and sage are easy to grow and quite hardy so would suit a beginner. That's a massive saving and a great addition to your healthy diet.

Beautiful Borage

This time of year the herb garden is bountiful. The foliage and flowers are bursting with colour and flavour, enticing the gardener to graze. Personally, I can't pass the herb garden without at least one daily munching on the feathery leaves of fennel, dill and coriander, and a mouthful of nasturtium or borage flowers. Herbs are a boost to the soul, a gift from natures pharmacy, all beautifully packaged and perfectly presented. Herbal remedies are one of my passions, in particular those available from the plants that grow wild in the Irish countryside. They have so much to offer, and the treatments, if used carefully, are so much more gentle on the system ... a pleasure to work with. Oh, and of course, they are free! Attending a course, and/or purchasing an excellent book are essential steps before embarking on a herbal voyage of discovery. Several herbs that grow on our shores are lethal, so nibbling on various unknowns is a mugs game. Even overdoing it on Borage can have serious consequences on the liver. This is the book on my kitchen shelf.

Borage is in full bloom outside our kitchen door. I didn't plant it this year, it has self seaded from last years flowers, so a very welcome surprise in the flower bed. The stems are covered in little bristley hairs which can be quite painful, but give the plant a beautiful fluffy appearance. The angelic little blue star flowers bow their humble heads, turning from blue to pink as they fade. The flowers themselves are delicious, beautiful in salads, or adorning the edge of a plate and bursting with borage oil.

Bring the beauty of these little flowers to your iced summer drinks (homemade Elderflower cordial for example). Put one flower head in each ice cube section, and fill with cooled boiled water (for a clear ice cube), place in the freezer overnight. Here I've used a mixture of borage and golden feverfew blossoms.

Exquisite.