Monthly Archives: February 2017

In a previous post I wrote about some notes I had written in a notebook, about my homeless assistant working on his own volition at times, to finish my garden perimeter without being paid… how for that reason, among others, like people offering me money and entertaining my ideas in farming teas, like Solid Green Consulting and this awesome ebike on loan that I ride on, like the lady from 6 degrees East who gifted me with an apron to garden in, and these printing guys from Art in Martin that insisted on printing some labels and my disclaimer, and others bringing plants and seeds or whatever I needed along my gypsying path, I got up to continue day after day, making the garden at Pirates.  I did this quite regularly over a year, and the previous 6 months on the other side of Pirates.  I have done a lot of work alone in this garden, while my heart broke and while my heart awoke, because of how people responded to my reality in different ways (their own perceptions often left me awakened) leaving me in some weird way refreshed, drained or changed, at times.  Creating this garden has been an incredible journey for me and I am certain that it offers, in itself, a space of love and healing for anyone that spends a bit of time in it.  I see how it brings together people from various groups and lifestyles, its quite a beautiful community event once a month next to this garden… the Garden Harvest Swap.  Please follow the pages and the interactive gardening @ Pirates page as well for regular inspiration.

When I came to Johannesburg I was recovering from a traumatic experience.  I was supposed to be taking medication for very bad depression, which unfortunately made me feel like bugs were crawling under my skin, all over my body for a few hours, I couldn’t sleep for days and felt like pulling off my own skin, it was an itchy irritation I will never forget… I decided not to take more of it and spoke to God alot – inner voice, intuition, whatever you call it – through my panic attacks instead.  This was the beginning of my journey with natural medicine, intuition being the first, the second being celery ;-)

One might laugh at the thought of intuition being part of or a form of natural medicine.  In a dictionary, I have in my possession, Intuition or that which is known intuitively is defined as truth obtained by internal apprehension without the aid of perception or the reasoning powers.  I like to believe that intuitively we all know that living foods straight from our backyards are more beneficial to our bodies, and that the same goes for medicine too.  Medicinal tea is one of the oldest medicines known to us, and herbologists were labeled witches and burnt at the stake some time ago for a reason.  I believe that in that time our perception of value or capacity changes as well, and our intuition literally went out the window as far as medicine from our backyards goes, when we stopped listening to our bodies out of fear and went to doctors instead.

I used teas to deal with my anxiety and depression, with my memory brain functions, with my immune system, with my muscular system, with my sleep patterns too… I encourage people to buy seeds, to make cuttings, to plant their own medicinal teas, AND I have a range of my own from the Art of Craft garden at Pirates Sports Club in Greenside.  My range is limited, because I am not farming, as in farming the way most think of farming.  The garden is about 100 square meters, if that much already.  I kept expanding it and now I am just maintaining it, I have had two of the most persistent volunteers I’ve ever met assist me in the garden with experimenting with making kale treats, transplanting and moving things like some bottles etc, Joanna and Bianca (Bianca is the tall one) are seen in the picture below in the garden.  Please feel free to say hello and give them a personal welcome to the garden if you see them.  Bianca has made fantastic basil pesto, and something with rocket I think, and Joanna likes to make clay and semi precious stone jewellery and wind-chimes, and has just disappeared with some fresh kale today….

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We are aiming at generating an income from it by selling artwork and garden treats like the basil pesto, potted plants from thinning out areas in the garden, the following is a list, an ever-growing list of what is growing in the garden (please contact me directly for an updated version or a list of available tea remedies).  Things are for sale this Sunday at the Pirates Sports Club at the Vegetarian market, it’s a new market so bring ten or so friends ;-)  I will be in the garden, should anyone want some plants and not find their way my number is 072 146 9017.

Thank you for growing with us, and helping us keep growing in advance ;-)