Gardening Journal - Post your gardening updates here

Here’s a walk thru my gardens a couple days ago:



I live in the Kootenays of BC in Canada.

Journal note: 6/19/21

Know your Xeric Medicinal Herbs

Erstwhile ugly desert plain weeds that 99% of people would ignore.

Except...

Sirsium is related to Blessed Thistle and may just be the best natural remedy for hemorrhaging in general and especially postpartum hemorrhaging. Definitely on the list top 30 list of Xeric Medicinal Herbs. Cirsium Undulatum is our local species, but any species of Cirsium will have similar results.

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Another xeric medicinal herb that no one ever thinks about, but is perhaps the most marked against colds and chest conditions is Asclepius. Our local variety is Asclepius Fascicularis, but any variety of Asclepius will have similar results.

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Both Fife and Scudder offer receipts and dosage for Sirsium and Asclepius. Two xeric herbs that require no watering and will be most beneficial in the medicinal herb garden.

Not the most beautiful plants in the world, but very helpful plants.

Nice, Christian. :-)

Let us know how your xeriscaping is going.

Thanks. Will watch now.

Will do!

We do continue to pray for rain on this last day of spring before a very scorching summer to come. May the drought be broken as the wicked in power are broken and may the hearts of the people be turned again.



Job 29

Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;
3When his illumination shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;
4As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;
5When the Omnipotent was yet with me, when children were about me;
6When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;
7When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!
8The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.
9The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
10The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
11When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:
12Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.
13The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
14I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my justice was as a robe and a diadem.
15I became eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
16I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.
17Then I broke the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the prey out of his teeth.
18Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as phoenix.
19My willow root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.
20Then my glory was refreshed in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.

There’s a wealth of information in this thread, thx for creating it, OP!

Well, kind of geared toward the prepper crowd and just for general information on finding our way around nature's flora.

Feel free to chime in with any tidbits you may have. :-)

Journal note: Should be some different energy patterns coming in this next week. Mercury Retrograde ends Tuesday June 22 at 16:02 Mountain Daylight Time. Sun sidereal sign 7deg36'28" Gemini.

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Bought several kinds of seeds on Ebay. Wild lettuce quickly sprouted.

Trying to learn which vegetables & herbs are easiest to grow in my balcony/patio garden.

Kale plants tasted like mild iceberg lettuce. Wonder if they'll re-grow?

Drinking fresh mint & anise tea daily.

Green onions are successful as is oregano.

Cherry tomatoes taste just OK. Same with strawberries.

Squash plants are growing but haven't seen any food from them

Think it's about time to dig up my potato plant.

I've got a huge amount of raspberries that are ready to pick. It will take me all day to pick them all.

Wild lettuce tincture for colds and cough suppressant:

8 volume ounces macerated wild lettuce

8 weight ounces of 5 parts water, 1 part 95% grain alcohol.

Dose 1/2 to 1 fluid drachm as needed.

Full Strawberry Moon is the 24th. So it's about that time. :-)

Prickly lettuce is also a true xeric herb requiring no watering except seasonal rains. Extremely drought hardy and useful ugly little desert medicinal wart. Always keep some in the garden if possible.

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Isaiah 27

1In that day the LORD with his terrible and great and mighty sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that serpent of coils;
and he shall slay the dragon that is in the abyss.

2In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine,

3I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.

4Fury is not in me: who would set Briers & Thorns against me in battle? I would go right through them, I would burn them altogether.

5Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.

6He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

Heirloom tomatoes have been outside a month. Had to Sun temper the leaves using single layer of cheesecloth and clothespins on the cages for 2 weeks.

Flowers on two of the five "German Pink", they're about 18". Black Cherry about 10", all five..

Lavender never germinated so I planted the seeds outside with the rest of the established lavender.

All other veggies are up and normal.

About 24 hours away now from summer solstice. So begins the race to autumn harvest.

As Babylon spirals out of control, one must keep running with the torch to the end with an eye toward the finish line.

But the Road of the Righteous is as the Twilight, that shineth more and more unto the Perfect Day. - Proverbs 4:18

Prickly lettuce is also a true xeric herb requiring no watering except seasonal rains. Extremely drought hardy and useful ugly little desert medicinal wart. Always keep some in the garden if possible.

I bought wild lettuce seeds on Ebay. Very fast growing.

There are many different looking plants all that say they're "wild lettuce." Would there really be a difference between them from a medicinal standpoint?

We have deer issues and are not allowed to have fences here, except a cedar split rail, which does absolutely nothing to keep the deer out. I've been planting bushes around a cedar fence I installed and almost have the holes plugged. I bought a 4 x 4 raised garden with a tent enclosure to try out this year to see if I could grow veggies without having to worry about the deer. It is inside my cedar fence. It had worked well so far, I was leaving the windows at the top of the tend unzipped to keep them cooler in the summer and for air circulation. So, this morning I woke up, and the deer (I know which one it is because my Ring Camera picked her up last night) found an opening in my fence and jumped in. Then, she crawled through the unzipped window of my garden tent and mowed every single plant down to the ground. The tent was intact, but there were hoof prints in the dirt! Damned deer! I cannot believe she didn't rip it. I'm guessing she only had her upper body in there.

Lactuca serriola is going to be your true wild lettuce that the eclectic herbal doctors of the 1700s and 1800s used.

As promised, I got my little maize patch in my first of summer. We'll see if this stuff does what it says on the tin.

In all fairness, I was able to get together a fairly decent soil considering our poor desert soil.

The best is about 12 inches deep. So, the rest is up to the monsoon rains. This is a xeric corn experiment. We'll see what happens. No irrigation and no cheating allowed. Just rain.

Maize Patch is Planted - 6/20/21

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My great uncle put up a fence 10ft high chain link thinking surely that would keep the deer out. I kid you not, those deer cleared that fence without any problem. He was furious. Lol.

Now, here's how you do it if you're a real Hopi.

Do they worry about good soil? Heck, no. They just put 'em in that sand and bota-bing-bota-boom.

Why? Because skilz.

Solstice begins in two hours and ends on the afternoon of the 22nd this year. I'd get in all your summer planting before Strawberry moon on the 24th if you can. You should be good for around the first of October.

Till the day shall breathe, till my shadows flee, spin, my Lover, and leap like a roe or a young hart on the mountains of Bether. - Song of Songs 2:17

We had a light frost a few nights ago but everything seems to be recovering pretty well. The zucchini seemed to be the most affected.
I am a terrible gardener because I have a hard time calling anything a weed...I leave the milkweed for the butterflies, the sunchokes (which are horrible) in case all the other crops fail, the lambs quarter for salads, the motherwort and some others for medicine. I am trying to work on getting some perennial things growing around the perimeter, raspberries, blackberries, hazelnuts, currants, elderberry. This year our area is having a real struggle with gypsy moth caterpillars..my poor apple tree is struggling, but loaded with fruit. I think they ate the apricots because the tree was loaded and I can't find any fruits on it now.

(milkweed growing out of oregano)

https://imgur.com/W5PtxVy

lambs quarter

https://imgur.com/a/YwmEyAu

comfrey

https://imgur.com/a/73t4Ojp

gypsy moth caterpillar

https://imgur.com/a/rX5boDs

Here we often use two rows of fencing about 3 feet apart, They can't easily jump one and then the next. I have a single 8' fence and it seems to work pretty well. We have 2 feet of chicken wire around the bottom with 6 inches buried in the ground.

The herb section is looking blue ribbon, Drinking Buddy.

Especially the Comfrey. Any fertilizers on them?

The chickens are free range so maybe? and nothing on the comfrey, but the garden has a little well aged sheep manure. I've been working it 7 years now and have not put anything on it.

We've got loads of herbs growing, lemon balm, mints, basil, sage, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, lavender, catnip and a few others

https://imgur.com/TckpSKP

Today was jam day

https://imgur.com/Lvw7IOO