When the Herbalist gardens
September 24th, 2025
The dining table is covered in seedlings, the tomatoes have had their second potting on and I planted the curcubits too early again.
This week though it is the Dandelions (Taraxacum officinalis) that are dominating the tunnel house – so many flowers. I love making noodles out of the flowering stalks.
To prepare? Remove the flowers from each stalk, simmer just covered in boiling water for 5 mins. Serve with grated cheese. (From Around the World in 80 Plants by Stephen Barstow.)
They make a delicious lunch and give your liver a mild Spring toning.
August 18th, 2025
I started planting seeds a week or so ago. Withania somnifera, Ashwagandha, Glycyrrhiza glabra Licorice, Chillies, Peppers and Tomatoes. They live on my Kitchen table until ready for pricking out. The Roma tomatoes are up already. All is looking good in the garden, I have picked a number of different greens (Chinese Mustard, Spinach, the first of the Sprouting Broccoli, Kale, Winter cress, Winter Purslane, Parsley – the more the better, see the photo), for a Tofu stir fry tonight. This along with Ginger, Turmeric, Chilli, Garlic, Onion, Mushrooms, Carrots and Turnip, stir fried into olive oil with an addition of Miso and Tomato paste broth when the greens are added, makes for a delicious meal. I didn’t used to eat a lot of Tofu, know it to be ‘cold’ food needing the heat of the Ginger and Chilli. Being of the age when taking care of my bones is important I read a piece of good research that says the oestrogen promoting constituents in Soy have a greater affinity for bones, I decided to include it once or twice a week. No Soy milk though – it was never a traditional food and is really hard to digest. Nga mihi.
When the Herbalist Gardens July 23rd, 2025
I am preparing a new course called ‘Plant Immersion, Incubation and Inspiration’ that offers study of Plants to the next layer, beyond introductory or first level courses. It also weaves various threads together from ‘Ways of Seeing’ (holistic compared to analytical), ‘Plants for Families’, special preparations for plants like Ginger – Zingiber officinalis. It is the closer focus on Ginger that had me looking at the Supermarket to find a rhizome that had a potential growing tip. (See photo). I will lie the rhizome horizontally, almost covered with potting mix and keep the pot in my warm living room until sprouted.
| When the Herbalist Gardens… July 5th, 2025 |
It is now 2 weeks past Winter Solstice and I have worked out how to order my blogs!
I will also need to index them to make it easier for you to find what is in each post.
This is, of course, the time of year when all the bottling and freezing of fruits and vegetables, drying and preparing herbs for food and medicine, is worth it.
I make a wild winter weed and herb pesto – great to have with bread/crackers and cheese and to have on pasta. Two winter herbs that I include in the pesto and that I add to winter salads are the Wintercress (land cress pictured on the bottom), Barbarea verna, and the Winter Purslane, Claytonia perfoliata (pictured on the top). These are two hassle free, invaluable plants to have in your garden no matter what size your garden is, they will readily self-sow, are easily removed if they decide to grow in an unwanted place.
It is also the time of year I spend a lot of time close to the ground and pour over numerous of books on fungi. I am more interested in what fungi are here on this land, what triggers the fruiting body (the mushroom), where each species grows, what time in Autumn/Winter and what Kinship connections each has.
Stay warm. These inversion layer days, that occur in this area in winter, do make for some time internalize, prepare for Spring and are generally so quiet that I feel my ‘kinship’ connections with all that is in and is of this land, are close. Nga mihi.
June 6th, 2025
Here in Central Otago I plant Garlic around mid May and not the shortest day. The garden gets cold late Autumn. I also plant Broad beans around this time. It is good to have them up before the real cold sets in.
It is time to dig Elecampane Inula helenium, Burdock Arctium Lappa, Horseradish Armoracia rusticana and replant the ‘eyes’ of the Elecampane. As long as there is a root or two attached it will grow. I also dug Valerian roots for the TASHM class to taste. I am one of those who has the opposite reaction to taking any extract of this plant, not calming but neurologically stimulating.
As we move into the dark times I like to keep active in the garden – just a couple of hours daily working around the gardens. I did buy a good pair of winter gloves!
When I first moved here in 2013, it was the drama that unfolded seasonally that delighted me. I finally realised it was the light, the clarity and the brilliance of colour accentuated by the light, that made each season special. This year, as the trees planted are maturing, that brilliant play of light on even the greenist of trees this Autumn, is breathtaking, uplifting, joyful and mysterious. Mysterious, because when I sit in the grove of Silver Birch trees, the yellow on both trees and ground takes me to another place.
When the Herbalist Gardens…
May 1st, 2025
If the fabric between the worlds is thin at this time of year (April 30th/May 1st,) I see through it.
Practically, I collect the berries on a Hawthorn, not the Crataegus monogyna that we use medicinally but a Crataegus chrysocarpa (syn C. jackii). These berries are about 4 times larger than C. monogyna and while they likely do not have quite the medicinal effects they definitely have anthocyanins.
I make a jelly and due to the significant amount of pectin in these fruits, I use 200gm per litre of dripped juice and simmer it down. (Recipes state that equal amounts sugar need to be added.) I should add that before dripping the berries through a jelly bag, I simmer them in water to cover until the berries are soft. I add the jelly to yoghurt for a delicious desert, to the slow cooked Venison dish I make, rarely on toast or muffins. It would be great with crackers and cheese.
When the Herbalist Gardens
April 25th, 2025
A peach coloured sunrise, a last quarter moon with Venus underneath, quite cold and crisp but worth walking in.
It is the Autumn colours in the now maturing garden of Trees, Fruit Trees Herbs and Vegetables that make for enjoyable times there, even though gathering Rosehips can sometimes be a bit like something you need to do rather than want to do.
That, gathering Rosehips, is on the gardening agenda for today. Any later and they will be all be too soft. I carefully pick off the firm ones, it is slow going but an hour or so will be about an eighth of what I need for infusions and oils. See The Rose Conference file in ‘Conferences’ on the menu bar. They are my notes presented at that Conference last November in Cromwell, Central Otago.
Joan Laurence (Cromwell branch of Heritage Roses), showed me how to take Rose cuttings. Take a pencil thin branch cut off below a node on an angle. Cut a length of 30cms across. Trim most of the lower leaves and place in a jar of water for several days before planting in a not too rich but stony or sandy soil medium.
isla burgess 