Nature's Hands

It's watermelon time 💚

In my happy place growing trees from seeds and cuttings.

Vegetables the Syntropic way 💚 With 16 mm rain in nearly mid June and temperatures rising again fast to 28° the whole garden is bound to explode 😁 From left to right in the picture (some plants are hidden behind the others) Peppers, onions, beans, sunflowers, basil, tomatoes, tobacco, courgettes, dill, sweet potato, beetroot, aubergine, chili. They receive filtered sun through the lemon trees. Want to learn more about Syntropic Agroforest? This YouTube explains it very well: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_W7YYTyNnWc&feature=shared&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2no8QxlJy6uUempPKvAiHj30cPrXxZu-PCXelZrSQV6Fk8uhNADgM-ygs_aem_Ab1AFhRBSkRUMPp2-nVGbmhD143m47P4LESZu3tBjcC-R0h4w-LMn-EMofDQwCLwOb2rrsm6YCztys2dcpffQ4SS

Dragon fruit (or Pitaya) in the wild climbs into a tree and makes its flowers and fruits in the top. Dragon fruit in production grows on a support pole where it can wrap its air roots around and at the top the plant starts hanging down. Dragon fruit in my new farm grows in dead mandarin trees that will give them the right support and they can't grow very tall. Fingers crossed that our winters are not too cold for this cactus!

Catalunya It's been dry for a long time. The occasional few drops of rain didn't do much at all. So this year there was no way I could start the winter vegetable garden after the summer. I started the seeds in pots and kept them growing until finally in December some rain fell. After the full moon I planted out the broccoli, beans, cauliflower, lettuce and herbs. Throughout January and February we had little bits of rain, just enough to keep the garden going.

I create another beauty beyond the moonlight, this side of dreams, a sharp, piercing, parallel language aestheticpoems.com

Kangaroo apple. I discovered this plant only last spring when friends introduced me to it. Originally from New Zealand, it is family of the nightshade. It produces fruits, berries of around 3 cm which can only be eaten once they have fallen off the shrub. The first few flowers appeared just last week when the temperature was rising. This is a heat loving plant. The striking purple is just 'my kind' of color 💜

Now that the summer garden is in full bloom and the time for planting is over, it's time to start thinking about the winter garden.This may sounds strange but there is plenty to do while enjoying the summer harvest. Start planning which winter vegetables you want to grow and where. Make sure you don't grow brassicas on the same patch as last winter. Beans would be a better choice. Empty spaces in the garden can be mulched with manure and thick layers of dry leaves and straw to protect the soil from the burning sun and to create a rich top layer for winter. Ideal for potatoes in August. On the trellises where now the tomatoes are growing, climbing beans can go after summer. If you don't have animals, summer is the time to go collect goat/sheep/horse manure and make a pile in a shady place in your garden. Water regularly. Check your seeds and see if you need to order more. The winter nursery starts already in August! Happy summer 🌞

Home💚 Natural gardening is so much more than just not applying chemicals. It starts with a huge soil preparation, placing plants exactly where they belong, choosing the right plants for your climate. It also means natural living for us as the soil in which we deposit is the soil that feeds the plants that feeds us. Compost toilet, awareness which products to bring home (think plastic and cleaning products) and also building natural. We hand build our house with cob, using the clay and sand from our own land. Wood used is either from our forest or locally reclaimed. Making sure the circle of living and growing is clean from start to finish.

Spring is here 🌼 We are building different trellises from the cane that grows here in the dry river beds. This trellis is for tomatoes. The plants are planted on a little slope, watering is done in the lowest part. Tomatoes make roots easily all along their stem, so you can plant the young plants quite deep. The straw mulch is to prevent drying out of the topsoil which is easily done here with hot sun and spring winds.

Walking as nature has designed. Super happy with my new barefoot shoes https://xeroshoes.com/go/Mischa Being barefoot can help with lower back pain because it helps you walk naturally, the way human beings are built to walk. When you do that, you use your glutes and hamstrings as the prime movers. Using them makes them stronger, and stronger glutes and hamstrings support your lower back. Walking barefoot isn’t for everyone or everywhere. Sometimes surfaces are too hot or cold, sometimes there are sharp objects around that can pose a risk of injuries, sometimes you want to go into a restaurant. That’s why they created these barefoot shoes, to give you an experience as close as possible to running or walking barefoot while still having shoes on your feet. When you wear typical (running) shoes with padded, elevated heels, the elevation makes it more likely that you’ll land heel-first, and the padding makes it harder to get the feedback that you need to not put this extra force into your body. Landing on your heel, especially with a foot position in front of the knee and the knee almost straight, sends a shock through the joints — the ankle, the knee, the hip, and up the spine. Walking barefoot reduces the likelihood that you’ll land on your heel… because, frankly, it hurts. Instead, what people naturally do is start landing on their forefoot or midfoot, with a bent knee and the ankle not in front of the knee. This reduces the force going through your joints, allowing you to use the muscles, ligaments, and tendons the way they’re meant to be used, as natural springs, shock absorbers, and joint protectors. Many podiatrists grasp the benefits of walking barefoot and recommend it as a cure for plantar fasciitis (inflammation of the foot tissue, heel pain) Many chiropractors and orthopedic physicians recommend walking barefoot to cure lower back pain. The barefoot shoes are designed with a thin, flexible sole and a roomy toe box that let your feet move naturally. You can get the same kinds of health benefits as walking barefoot.

Catalonië So many orange fields here and not even half of them gets harvested. The cost of labour doesn't weigh up against the selling price. So they just fall of the trees and are left to rot. What a waste.. We were lucky to be allowed into the fields and take what we wanted for free. After that we distributed as much as we could but strangely enough there wasn't much enthusiasm for it. Despite being free! What's wrong here? The farmer wants a fair price, the buyers want a fair price but the in between men seems to want too much. The buyers prefer to buy them in the supermarkets for convenience instead of driving a few km to get them free. Such a strange world. Well, we have our freezer full of golden orange juice, lucky us 💛