Last year I decided to expand my gardening prowess from my normal repertoire of things that never seemed to grow, and I never seemed to eat. For instance, I grew silver beet, lots of it, but don’t really have any recipes gagging for silver beet, and I still have some childhood horror stories of the liberal silver beet use by Mum and Dad. My therapist is working through this with me.

So, one day I had a grand idea. I decided to try growing some things that I truly love. It’s interesting to note that these things never seem to be available at Bunnings Warehouse or garden nurseries. And I figured, even if these alternate things all die, if I had a little success, I would be loving the outcome. It’s a win win all round I say!

So I ordered the following from Green Harvest Organic Gardening Supplies:

• Asparagus (most sprouted, but all died)
• Galangal (I am SO sad that this died, so so sad)
• Lemongrass (YEAH, it all survived, and is amazingly beautiful. Very slow growing, so I haven’t eaten any yet)
• Ginger – survived, just. I won’t even try and harvest it this year, but it’s growning
• Turmeric – as per above. I think I buried it too deep in the pot, or put too much mulch on top
• Comfrey – it grew wonderfully, but unfortunately I forgot where I planted it all, mistook half of it for a weed and removed it – OOPs
• Horseraddish – today I pulled my first horseraddish out. This stuff grew in the hottest parts of the garden, and survived all summer. Amazing. Also amazingly deep root system
• Waterchestnuts – I had a gorgeous bowl I grew them in. I just loved watching these grow. And excitingly, I harvested some. There is now about 6 or 7 in the place of the one I planted. A good return on investment I say!

So, the outcome is this – half of my experiment worked, half didn’t. Whatever! I have lemongrass, horseraddish, waterchestnuts, ginger. Cool! And, to be honest, when you love something, you take so much more interest in it.

Today I cut up the horseraddish root and comfrey, and stuck lots of it around the garden. They are both deep rooted plants, so they don’t need watering at all. I can’t wait to try the horseraddish – might be a good remedy for the cold that I am developing!

The other weekend I was sitting on the train with my family (something we rarely get to do) after a trip into the city to buy a tea pot (I am sure another blog will surface about tea when I get around to it). Anyway…it was a pleasant morning, and I was thinking about the ‘cook up’ I had planned for the rest of the day so that I can survive the working week.

It was then that I noticed something move against the scalp of my 5 year old’s head, and it was then that the focus of the rest of my afternoon was redesigned for me.

Head lice….eeeerrrrrgggghhhhh. Just thinking about them makes the hairs on the back of my neck creep and gives me the urge to scratch an itch that suddenly appears on my scalp. Even if someone else tells you that their child has nits, suddenly you start to feel your own scalp feeling itchy. Heck…mine is feeling itchy right now as I write.

This was my first ever experience with head lice. I guess I have gotten off pretty lightly prior to this. I have wondered in the past what they actually look like, as I have never actually seen them, but after much discussion with a girlfriend who’s children have had head lice, I was pretty certain most of my previous run ins were just my brain being CONVINCED I had them and all of the associated itching that you feel propelled to do. No lice/nits comb came up with any evidence though.

But this time, as I gazed down, I could see two small dark insects crawling about Jasmine’s scalp. Without wanting to alarm Jasmine (who was having a wonderful time on the train), or repulse the rest of the passengers into a subconscious scalp itching frenzy, I mentioned to Tom that “we need to get the SPECIAL comb onto someone’s hair when we get home”.

Sadly, I must say, Tom isn’t great when you try to spell something out to him. His brain just doesn’t work that way. It’s not that he can’t spell, but if I say I have I C E C R E A M in the fridge (because I don’t want the kids to know), he gets all flustered with me. Maybe it’s because his first language isn’t English, or maybe he can’t see the word you are spelling and needs me to say it. Anyway….after three attempts at trying to convey the message that could eloquently be phrased as “Jasmine has f&@king head lice in her hair” I gave up and sat in silence, prayed that the train trip would end soon, and tried not to itch.

One thing that concerns me about conventional head lice treatments sold in the pharmacy or supermarket is that the ingredients sound like you are attempting chemical warfare on a your youngster’s scalp. I just don’t feel like I want to go there.

First things first I smothered the hair in conditioner and used the lice comb. This stuns the head lice (of which I found two), and removes some of the eggs.

So I turned to my aromatherapy books and oils. I have a myriad of aromatherapy books, and I recall seeing a head lice treatment in there somewhere, and sure enough, there are a myriad of recipes you can choose. The treatment I chose came from Aromatherapy Blends for Life by Judith White (which is no longer in print).

Ingredients

• Eucalyptus – 2 drops
• Thyme – 2 drops
• Tea tree – 1 drop
• Lime – 2 drops
• Lemon – 1 drop

• 40mls of Jojoba massage base oil – this oil is wonderful as it doesn’t go rancid, and is beautiful for warming and using for facials or hair treatments

What you will need

• Vapouriser – us this to heat your massage base oil, and add your essential oils to it. Yes, you can do this with massage base oils, it heats them just slightly

• Basting brush – from the kitchen – I prefer the natural bristle instead of silicone

What to do

1. Heat the oil in the vapouriser
2. Add the essential oils
3. Baste onto the hair, making sure you get the roots and all sections of the hair
4. Leave in your hair for 20 mins or more – I got Jasmine to do some colouring – if you wish wrap a towel around the hair to stop oil from being spread around your walls/furniture
5. Wash out the oil and shampoo – you might need to shampoo a few times, as the hair will be oily

Jasmine was terrified of what I was about to do to her, with a vapouriser and candle blazing, and a basting brush poised to attack her head (or maybe it was the ‘die nits die’ look I had in my eyes) but when I started to apply the oil to her hair, she relaxed back and really enjoyed it. We had a nice mother/daughter time together, giving her a deluxe hair treatment, and it smelt divine. So, all in all, it was rather pleasant and the end of the day, and no nasty chemicals – just natural ones.

The following week, I repeated the treatment. This time we both looked forward to it. There weren’t any lice in Jasmine’s hair, but a few random nits attached to the hair shaft that I perhaps missed in my first treatment (they hadn’t grown in size, so I suspect round 1 killed them). Today I checked again, and her hair is clear. It’s been three weeks since the second treatment, so I am pretty happy with the results.

Ok, I have been blogging for a few months now, so I think I can open up to you. It’s time we got down and dirty and I confess something…something some of you may already know, but some of you may not.

Maybe I should feel embarrassed by this, but I am not. I can honestly look you straight in the eye and proudly say ‘I have worms!’ I have had worms for a few years now actually. Some times they have got a bit too hot and died off, but then they eventually grow back. Right now, I have got them bad.

I got the worms from my husband. He is so thoughtful like that. I got them with a worm farm for Xmas 2 years ago (’07) and I couldn’t have been more excited with my gift (I am obviously not offended by the practical gift, won’t see me banging you on the head if you give me a Scanpan!). It isn’t everyday you get 10 000 new friends.

We killed two birds with one stone, as my kids had been asking for a pet for ages, so we just told them the worms were pets. This worked for at least 11 months with Jasmine. She would get a worm and hug it, talk to it and walk it around for ages, until I would feel sorry for the poor thing and rescue it from pending dehydration. It all fell apart for her one day (literally) when a worm she was loving intensely broke in half. I quickly threw it in the compost telling Jasmine not to pull her worms at both ends as they might break. Next minute, from the inside of the house I heard an almighty sobbing. I ran out thinking she might have severed a limb or something. She was just devastated that she had hurt a worm. Bless her!

I know many of you understand the wonders of worms, but I decided to blog about this because a surprising number of people don’t. A workmate Joelyn visited my house the other day and was amazed at how lush my garden looked. She asked me if I do anything ‘special’ to it, and I don’t, other than recycled food scraps from my worms and guinea pigs, and occasionally talking to my plants (out of earshot of the neighbours of course).

Why are worms so great?

Worms recycle your kitchen scraps, and for this they give you castings and worm wee, which are both incredibly concentrated fertilisers for your garden.

Add 1 cup of worm wee to 9 litres of water and you have a strong liquid fertiliser.

Imagine if everyone recycled their food scraps instead of placing them in the rubbish. Gardens around would reap the benefit, soil would be replenished, and you would be feeding your garden instead of having to spend precious dollars on fertilisers.

What makes a worm happy?

Worms love to eat mostly your left over kitchen scraps. They are vegen, so no meat or cheese (although some people put everything in there)! Also, they don’t like citrus, or to get onion breath. Other than that, you can give most kitchen scraps to your worms.

There are some weirder things they do love, including:

• tea bags
• egg cartons, pizza boxes
• egg shells.

Does (garden) size matter?

Worms aren’t finicky about how big their house is. You can buy worm farms on the market which are like delux 3 storey condos, but equally, your worms can be just as happy in a wheelbarrow with a hessian sack over it. As long as they don’t get water logged or to hot, and can hide from the birds.

Also, it doesn’t matter how big a garden you might have. Even if you just had a patio of plants, worms would recycle your food scraps into free fertiliser. Your plants will love you for it. And if you don’t have plants, then maybe you neighbour does. It’s the perfect gift for a patch of local soil, somewhere anywhere but the tip.

Does it smell?

Of course it smells…it’s your food decomposed down into readily recyclable means. Anything rotting or decaying smells – but it is the smell free fertiliser! It smells no different to other naturally decomposing things such as seaweed.

I used to live in Rotorua (New Zealand) for sux years, and that smelled of sulphur. Some people find this aroma unbearable, but I think you may have encountered a rotten egg in your day that had far more of a nauseating reaction. Worms give off a natural smell, and they are nowhere near as bad as the decomposing Orca I once saw 1km away on Johanna Beach (I couldn’t get any closer, it was literally the worst thing I have ever smelt), or as bad as foodscraps rotting in a garbage bin (eerrrggghhh).

If you have an enclosed worm farm, you will hardly smell a thing unless you lift the lid.

Are they dirty?

Totally! Worms replenish something that all living things ultimately rely on (yes, even you), and that is soil (aka dirt!). Without healthy, nutrient filled soil, our planet won’t function very well.

What has that got to do with you – especially if you live in a city? Even if you have one square metre of soil, it needs your help. If you eat fruit and vegetables, you will have peels and offcuts, and these belong back in the soil, not in the bin.

Plus, as kids love getting dirty, they are instantly interested in worms. If you get a surprise visit of children who are deemed likely to trash your house (as you don’t have kiddy toys), simply take them out to your worms and let them go digging for them. The kids are happy, the parents are horrified (and bring appropriate toys next time) and your worms have inbuilt survival strategies and will be fine.

Do they like it hot?

Worms operate better when it’s warmer weather, but they don’t like excessive heat – so keep them in the shade. On last years 47 degrees C day mine all died, but fear not, they have eggs, and eventually these hatch and your numbers build up again.

How long does it take worms to recycle your food?

This depends on how much you feed your worms and how many worms you have. If your worms don’t seem to be keeping up with the food you are giving them, back off a bit and put some into a spare bucket. When you see them starting to create castings and build in numbers you can add more food in.

How do I remove the worm castings without loosing all my worms?

Take off the lid for a day, and your shy little friends will move to a lower layer, then simply remove the castings. You will loose one or two worms, but don’t worry, they will reproduce and plenty more will replace them. Yes, that’s right, the worms are having ‘sexy time’ in the worm farm (fascinating if you get to witness it).

What if I go on Holiday? Do I need to get a worm-sitter?

Being a responsible pet owner, when you go away on holidays means you don’t need to find a pet sitter for your worms. Throw an extra bit of food in there and take off. Unless you are leaving for 3 months or more, I wouldn’t worry about it.

How do I get started?

Lots of places sell worm farms these days, or you can make one. You can purchase worms with worm farms, or borrow some worms from a friend. You can even order them over the internet.

Then you have to make the other giant leap and start putting your scraps in a container instead of conveniently into the bin. It’s a small change, but it does take determination and committment to do. It’s so much easier to indiscriminately bin everything without a second thought, but then your garden, and the soil around you will suffer!

While on our Honeymoon, Tom and I had an introduction to wood-fired pizzas. Can I just say that once you have tried homemade food that is wood-fired, it’s hard to look back at anything else.

So, a few years later, when we finally had the priviledge to design our own backyard, it was the key feature we decided to have. (more…)

Day 1

Step 1: Build the oven floor

To build the oven floor: (more…)

If you want a good wood-fired oven – you have to insulate it, and insulate it well!

A well insulated oven can reach temperatures of 500-700 degrees C on the inside. Let’s just say, you can’t achieve or maintain that kind of heat if you don’t. (more…)

The final day is the fun part. You get to put your own artistic touches to the oven (and if you don’t have any arty bones in your body – you can always paint). (more…)

I think Opa Gerrit an amazing man. He grows all of his own vegetables. His vegetable garden is probably twice the size of my backyard (maybe 6 metres by 30 metres), and all year round he tends it. He has the ‘deep smarts’ about growing food that the next generation has completely lost. (more…)

My sister-in-law Rose is the nicest sister-in-law you could ask for. I am actually very surprised that my brother managed to woo her – seeing all he was capable of with me and my sisters involved experimenting on scientific theories involving electric charges. (more…)

A member of my permaculture group, Jenny, offered some of her cherry plums for the picking yesterday, so this morning we found ourselves in Diamond Creek bright and early. Today is forecast to be 39 degrees C, so we tried to beat the heat.

I have never picked plums before (not that it’s difficult), nor have I met Jenny either. This whole notion of sharing what you have so freely is very different to the trade I most of us have become used to. Jenny asked for nothing, but it bought me great pleasure to share the tomato relish I made yesterday. Sharing whatever is abundant in your life not only makes sense, but also brings joy and pleasure. (more…)