EEK, I'm a day late with this one! It took me hours to wrap up the #gardenjournal challenge (though it was a pleasure) and that happened to fall on a Wednesday, so that kinda took priority. But I hate to miss the biweekly challenge, so I had to make sure it went out. Plus, I had to award last fortnight's winners!
First of all, last week's winners! Both @goldenoakfarm and
@ciadanmea win this week - I enjoyed both your Halloween themed comments! Check your wallet and much green thumbed love to you both.
This Week's Challenge: Unusual!
This 'unusual' comment challenge asks us to write about the most unusual thing that has happened in your garden. For example, you could write about:
- an unusual plant that self seeded
- a rare plant that grew
- an unusual event that happened in your garden, such as a meteorite, the appearance of gnomes, a UFO or maybe just something less crazy but still... well, wierd!
- an unusual habit you undertake in your garden
Hope you have fun with this comment challenge. Don't forget you simply CAN'T win unless you engage with the comments of others, so do return later - leave the tab with this post open for a few days so you can remind yourself. This community prides itself on connecting to other wonderful people and makes this place a great place to be, so give it your best!
Encouraging the following Hive Gardeners to join in!
@plantstoplanks @sofs-su @nikv @owasco @umirais @buckaroobaby @farm-mom @thebigsweed @polesinns @andrastia @multifacetas @porters @amygoodrich @fanyokami @isdarmady @phoenixwren @anafae @tanjakolader @yolithy24 @andrastia @minismallholding @goldenoakfarm @sanjeevm
@ciadanmea @kennyroy @simplymike @dodovietnam @babeltrips @trangbaby @kaelci @shanibeer @proto26 @ifarmgirl @artemislives @edprivat @meesterboom @momogrow @attn @luckylaica @blingit @traisto @fotostef @tydynrain @hindavi @steven-patrick @vibeof100monkeys @samstonehill @anttn @friendlymoose @jacksonizer @ciadanmea @tuocchu @gertu
With Love,
Join The Hive Garden Community! The HIVE GARDEN COMMUNITY supports gardening, homesteading, cannabis growers, permaculture and other garden related content. Delegations to the curation account, @gardenhive, are welcome! Find our community here!
Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here!
An unusual event happen in my small garden at home just recently. My newly planted bell pepper seedlings strangely vanished, what was left was the middle part down to the root. No other trace, not even a single leaf. So I did a little detective work.
At first, I suspected that the goats around might have eaten it all because they could easily get in since our house fence is no good. I even throw small stones at the goats for them to go far away ( how rude, right?) I was just pissed off.
When I went back to the house, my 4-year-old son, Cedrick, with scissors in his hand, excitedly told me " come, mama, weeds there..." ( he could not speak fluently yet😊) He pointed to the garbage bin.
To cut the story short, I have finally found the culprit. It was my son who cut my precious bell pepper plants off and throw them away. 😥
I just hug him. It's my fault. I always let him help me in cleaning and cutting the weeds off in our small garden. So, he cuts off everything! 😅
Oh the innocent goats!!! 😂😂
And you just hugged your son but threw stones at the goats... Haha I'm just kidding, maybe you should have prepared his favourite as well.
I mean, your dear son was trying to help his mummy out 🥰 but didn't realize he was doing it wrongly haha.
Hahaha ... I can't dare to punish my son, I talked to him about what he did to my plant. I am not sure if he understood either. 😂
Don't worry @merit.ahama, I did not hit the goats anyway, I did it to scare them. But I felt sorry for the goats...hehe...
Haha I understand
How is your son? Say me well to him 😊
He's well 🥰 thank you so much
...energetic as he is! If you haven't read my blog about him... I invite you to read it if you have free time😊...
Oh I definitely will read it soon 😊
What a great helper you have in your garden! He was just doing his job, conscientious young man with a great sense of responsibility!
Indeed, my little handyman @sofs-su ... always helps me with everything I do but do it wrongly sometimes...hahaha
Awww, poor bell pepper and how cute your son must have looked when he was showing you the "weeds" hahaha! But I believe he will soon learn to differentiate a weed from a plant :)
Very cute indeed🥰 and I hope so @ifarmgirl 🤣 before he cuts off all my plants.
Hehe, it's amusing when kids do that. At one time while my nephews and nieces were visiting (they were 8 and 9 y/o), they ran around the backyard, stepping on our green veggies thinking they were nothing but weeds, lol!
Oh no they didn't! I would have been mad!
We had to introduce them to the plants. They know better this time around :)
Maybe your son is possesed by a goat? 😂🐐 that's cute ... You can't stay mad at him for trying to help!
Hahaha... Yeah right, @riverflows, how can I be mad at a cutie patootie who just wanted to help me clean my garden? 😅 It is clean indeed, everything was cut off🤣
Haha how sweet!
An honest mistake from a miniature helper :)
See, so sweet right @fotostef? 🤣 I love my bell peppers but I love my little man more and most..💞
I can't get angry!...haha
He will learn slowly give him some time.😊
Yeah,he will soon...💞 Thank you @hindavi for dropping by🥰
Well the most unusual thing in the farm, that I can think of, happened a few months ago. I wrote about it in this post so I'll just copy myself and put it here too!
I was at the herb garden, yesterday, and the most extraordinary thing happened. In the beginning everything looked normal. The few vegetables that we finally planted among the herbs, are growing, I was checking for any flaws at the irrigation system and a little sparrow was casually sitting on a path. So far so good.
When I came near to the sparrow, she moved away with small leaps (I took an arbitrary decision to refer to the little bird as a she). I figured that she might has hurt her wing, or something and I continued my work a bit further. But a few minutes later I was again in front of her, having done a big circle and approaching from the other side. This time she was hardly moving.
It was obvious that she had a problem and I sat on the ground, right next to her, trying to figure out what I could do to help. She was breathing heavily, as heavy as it can be the breathing of a tiny bird, and as I was about to take her into my hand, she had one last breath, I think it is called a death rattle and just died.
I know that it was just a small bird that I had never seen before and what I am about to say will sound silly, but I felt tears in my eyes and a heaviness on my heart. Obviously I didn't took any pictures, it didn't even cross my mind. I just sat there, looking at her lifeless body and thinking
what are the odds, of witnessing something like that?
I kept thinking of that tiny creature, even after I buried her and returned home. Was it a sign and if yes, what could it mean? Was it just a random episode of life with no specific meaning? I really can't tell. Anyway I am lousy on reading the signs but I know that this little incident, somehow felt important. Probably that's why I took my camera today to create a few images that felt fitting and I am writing all about it!
When there is life death follows. I am reminded of death everyday in some form or the other of late. I always think it as eternity preparing me for another life far from this Earth.
What a beautiful thought.
Of course you are right @sofs-su. But this one got me really off guard.
What a moving moment. Interactions with dying creatures that cross your path can really make you pause to contemplate. I'm not sure it did have a symbolic meaning, only that it was a moment in time where you got chance to ponder life and death and the beauty of the world and it's creatures, which is magical enough. Thanks for sharing this beautiful story and the way you describe it really resonates.
Thank you @riverflows. I felt it as an important moment and I thought that sharing it here was the right thing to do!
O wow, @fotostef - I was just scrolling down the comments, thinking what to write about... and remembered a similar incident with a bird - just then I read your post here... What a coincidence further to our individual stories!
Really?
And I thought that it was a very unlikely thing to happen!
what do you think caused the sparrow to die, I'm curious why the sparrow could be among your plants before it died @fotostef
I couldn't know @umirais, it seemed like a natural death, though.
Wow brother, what an experience! You were like her guardian that stood watch as she moved into her next domain. 😁🙏💚✨
I am still wondering if I have found her or if she have found me! Either way it was a memorable moment!
Perhaps it was a bit of both. Maybe your inner openness and willingness allowed the experience to unfold. A memorable experience indeed! 😁 🙏 💚 ✨
This was very sad @fotostef ... However, the little bird incident in your garden would have been a reminder for us to live the most every day while we are still alive. Death is something unpredictable, we can never make it stop.
Of course death is unpredictable, that's why sometimes it catches us by surprise!
Yeah, true @fotostef .., That is why we should strive to make the most of each day and do the best things that can make us happy.
And also, I learned to live each day like it's my last. Struggles are always present but let us not make them consume us. Let's continue to do good and be kind to all creatures.
The sad story @fotostef. But nature is nature it plays its role. You have a very kind sensitive heart it is important.
Thank you @hindavi
I understand that death is only natural and there was nothing violent in the passing away of this little bird but still, it was a moving moment!
Somebody took away one of my plant , never thought, people would steal plants 😀. Definitely someone internal to our block only, because they must be knowing there is CCTV on the ground floor.
Happens all the time for me, thieves lurk around everywhere. This time it was the goats, they grabbed a pot of frangipani on which some singonium had wrapped itself and dragged the two half way down the lane. My neighbour saved them for before they got run over by cars going down our lane.
I never knew goats ate frangipani bushes.
Weird, evil goats!
Hahah evil goats!!! What a pain they can be.
My husband brought home a baby goat from market once. We called it Petal. It cried for days so we rang the people and they took it back 😂😂🐐🐐
Goats cry too?
Now, I think all this is getting more weirder and unusual 😂 I hope I don't get to witness a goat cry... I mean, why was it crying?
You should have brought the mother as well 😄
Haha!! That must had been annoying.
Petal soft and cries like a baby too!
Goats are weird, crazy weird I mean.
Oh my, hahaha! This gif made me LOL and too bad you had to send Petal back.😂
Lol
Evil goats indeed 😂
Evil goats indeed! right from the pits of hell. 🤣
Oh shit! 😂😂
Oh I experienced it too! One day I woke up and while having my morning coffee I realised that some of my pots are missing. Someone helped themselves to 2 of my hanging pots with fruits, one new rose which I haven't planted yet and my favourite vintage water can! That last one actually made me cry 😢
Ouch! So sorry about that last one that made you cry 😢
It was a special watering can. My brother gave it to me. He used to work in recycling centre and be would bring me all kinds of unusual things. I’ve never found a watering can like this anywhere else. It even featured in one of my articles
Awww 🥺🥺
The write up in the image got me emotional
Sorry you lost it dear
I hope you a replacement soon
It’s ok sis. It was couple years ago. I’m still looking for a can like this one and my friend is looking for it to for me. Hopefully one day 💙
Yeah, hopefully one day 🙂
❤
Haha even I never thought so until your unusual story, now we've got to get some security for plants as well 😂
And some plant police!!
😂😂😂
Very important
I was so angry that, I was actually trying to evaluate if we can fit some low cost CC TV on the roof top 🙃 Some people usually steal few flowers, but then stealing the entire pot horrified me.
🤣🤣🤣
A low cost Cctv? I can't stop laughing at that... It would be even more unusual to do that 😂
And to laugh more, my son who is in class 10, was telling me, he will explore the possibilities to check, if we can use an old smart phone and put it as CCTV 😁 That actually chilled me.
He said what? Oh my goodness! This is so hilarious... And to think that I'm actually thinking of it's possibilities that way, I'm freaking myself out 😂😂
Oh that's not cool - stealing a plant. On the flip side, what a credit to you that you have plants other people envy. 😄
Lol what a way to console him 😅
Omg do you treat everyone as a suspect now?
There are some suspects, not all, but then little I can do, without a search warrant.
😂😂😂
I don't want to imagine the much you would have done with a search warrant 😅
The Indian neighbors do sometimes it is usual.
Taking a peak in, I can't help but notice and participate in this challenge! Many an odd occurrence have happened in my garden, both indoors and outdoors!
The earliest one I can remember is when I filled the entire space with pinto beans but, come harvest, all the beans were small, spherical, and pure white. I still actively grow these! One time one of these started behaving like a scarlet runner bean complete with multitudes of trees flowers but they were too late and fruit did not set. I have not been able to recreate this...
Much more recently, perhaps manifested by my gnome-mania, I dreamt I saw an ecstatic gnome waving at me from the garden. One night around midnight, I sat out in the garden to wait for a friend who would pick me up. I think I heard some low pitched voices and a "great big" little bellow coming from the raspberries.
I also do have an unusual habit when I'm gardening. So without further ado, welcome to...
Naked Gardening
with proto26
Sometimes I say that in my head, haha!
Naked gardening is a great way to really vibe with your plants.
Just kidding. I don't know what that kind of show would be about 😅
You probably have a million questions now!
No, I don't do that outside!
It's more an issue of my short attention span when going to and from my bedroom and the bathroom (2 of the greenest realms in the kingdom, and they border each other).
Soon I hope to compile everything that has happened since late summer into one big update post! I'm dying to share my exploits with the #1 blockchain garden community!
That's a rather amazing experience with the pinto/white beans! So interesting! On the subject of naked gardening, I do that (and everything else too)! I live naked and barefooted in a 16-acre, off-grid, clothing-optional, food-forest intentional community way out in the jungles of Lower Puna, in far East Big Island, Hawai'i, and I very rarely wear any clothes at all. I need direct connection with Earth and Nature for my own wellbeing and happiness, and to live in a place where my whole being is honored. I've basically lived, and gardened naked, my entire time living on the Big Island (all of it in the wilds of Lower Puna) for the past four years, seven months, and thirteen days, and I am so incredibly grateful to be able to live in this way! 😁🙏💚✨
Do birds ever land on your doodle? :P
Hahaha...not yet, though animals generally love me, so I wouldn't put it past them! 😉🤣😂😅😁🙏💚✨
Hahaha not everything wants to land on or grow on our doodles! >.<
What a way to live! Sounds truly wholesome and good! Dare I say, something about it just feels right?
That's exactly it! It very wholesome and feels very right! I truly love actually being able to live naked for years! Most can't say that, sadly! 😁🙏💚✨
Mmmm mm: I wish that I lived in a less public place/ conservative culture, where my natural body in the garden would be appreciated... My dream is to be running down a garden path barefoot under the stars and moon, and leaping freely into a big natural pool; when I sell my magical Italian arthouse, I'll be creating that dream somewhere where there is no-one to intrude! I love hearing about your beautiful escapades, dear @tydynrain - and thank you for bringing up the subject of #nakedgardening, @proto26 ! @exoexplorer - I thought of you, when reading about naked gardening! :-D
If you create that Clare, it's me that will be intruding!
I so understand! It's really important to me to live in a place surrounded by nature, and where the wholeness of our beautiful Humanity is deeply and fully accepted, appreciated, and celebrated! It's so curious to me that the word 'conservative', which means conserving what works, came to be so associated with fear, guilt, and shame around our most basic and natural foundational human elements. To me living naked is most conservative of all...😂!
Your dream sounds so beautiful @clareartista, and I have no doubt that you will create that for yourself! I'm really grateful that you (and others) appreciate what I share about my life, and especially around nakedness, as that's such a very important aspect of my beloved human experience.
Thank you so much for your kind words and your appreciation! Thanks also to @proto26 for brining up the subject! Naked gardening (and living!) is the best gardening! 😁🙏💚✨
YeS!! 😍😍😍😍🌟🌟🌟🌟🌿🌿🌿🌿
Super big smile on my face! 😁😊
Who would have thought that with the powers of HIve, you could get a gardener from the south of Australia to imagine you naked in your plant kingdom. Thanks for that. As long as you don't stay still long enough for a vine to wrap around it...
And yeah where the bloody hell have you been!!!!! Do we have to wait til the Dec challenge?
That's funny about the beans... I love how seeds can have stories attached to them!
Hmm. If I start drafting it up now, I could very well end up with a masterpiece by December. And rather fitting as an end of year wrap up, too! Maybe I'll do that.
Plants latching themselves onto my extremities is a very real concern, considering how slow I move about. Lichen will start to grow on me first maybe on my elbows and knees and I'll pretty much become an ent.
I love the idea of you becoming an ENT!
I don't own a garden but I've once witnessed a neighbour who owns one screaming at the top of her voice that someone uprooted a plant of hers and re planted it 😂
It was very unusual to see her scream that high, and she just wasn't making much sense with her accusation... I mean, why would someone just go uproot and replant someone else's plant?
Maybe it was for some experiments 🤣
That is HILARIOUS... How strange and funny!!!
Haha it was even more hilarious when I was witnessing the whole situation 😅
Haha!😆
Haha 😂 Maybe someone knew she wouldn’t like it and did it on purpose. Alternatively she was a mad woman 😉😅
Ouch!
You just made me have a rethink about what really happened that day 😂😂
So funny
Haha 😂 We can create all kinds of funny stories from your description 😁
No doubt about that
I'm in the creation phase now 😂
How about you combine both of our stories together into a ‘purple spell unrooted the plant of a mad woman’ 😂😂😂
Oh my goodness!
You're so crazy with ideas and to think that I like the idea, I'm crazier... I know 😩😂
Let's see how things go then, will notify you if I'm able to write it out
This is so funny... I can't believe your neighbor could scream like that just because of the uprooted plant that plant would have very significant😂. In our neighborhood, we only hear screaming ( all-out) only if the house is on fire😂
Oh you see what I'm saying? There was no fire... It was just her plants that weren't even stolen but replanted well for her 😂😂
🤣Maybe she was experimenting to see how high her voice could get. Lol
Okay, that's another possible reason 😂😂
😂🤣
I wasn't sure about sharing this, but I was thinking first of this story... then after reading @fotostef's post, thought it was such a coincidence!
Back when I lived in Findhorn village, near the big spiritual community - my nextdoor neighbour asked me to pop into her garden whilst she was away for the afternoon, because the last of the baby ducks that she had was very poorly... The others in that litter had already passed on (all had been very weak) and she had hopes for this one, taking very good care of it, but it was fading away...
I went out after I knew she'd left the house, and sat next to the wee thing, praying over it and wishing it well, and guiding it to pass on as and when was right for it...
The sun was going further down, and the wee thing was failing, evidently. I watched over the wee sweetheart until he passed... and a particularly poignant thing occurred: just as he seemed to take his last wee breath, all the surrounding cacophony of birdsong and animal noises (we were in the middle of a big row of gardens between fishermen's cottages) went completely silent.
I held my breath... and a few seconds later, everything started up again; the consistent buzz of a multitude of wildlife. I was awed indeed. Maybe if I hadn't been so tuned in to the little one, it might not have registered, but for ALL the wildlife to suddenly be quiet and then stay quiet for some moments - it was astonishing, truly.
I also felt very emotional as I cared for the duckling dying, as I have felt with any animal I've cared for who has passed in my presence: a strong sense of their letting go of accumulated charge or all the feeling they've built up in their lives - or that they've absorbed from us. It felt strange to be so very affected by such a wee creature that I hadn't known well personally, but it was a blessing.
Oh wow you lived at Findhorn? I've heard so much about that place!
And gosh what a stunning story. It might just weave itself into a fiction of my own - or something like it, as it has that narrative quality...a magic realism of sorts precisely because you wouldn't expect it. I just told Jamie that story (he's a bird lover too) and he was equally moved.
I did, @riverflows - for a few years, in and around the community there... It has some very interesting history and creation story, though there are a lot of egos and lack of groundedness there, and I had some experience too of not being held well, when participating in group workshops... Humanity has a lot to learn about 'intentional' community! Yes, this moment was powerful, as all moments with dying folk or animals have been - there are so many sacred Gifts to be received through death. 🙏🤗
Has there ever been a community that didn't hit this point? I despair of us living together harmoniously sometimes. Yes, we have a lot to learn. It seems we start with good intentions and then get caught up in bollocks.
We had heard so much about Findhorn over the years. What a shame it didn't hold you as it should.
Super wow @clareartista! That you had this amazing experience, and had the sensitivity to notice it, is incredibly special! Talk about the interconnection of life! How breathtakingly beautiful! Thank you for sharing this! 😁🙏💚✨
Thank you so much for this enthusiastic response, dear @tydynrain - it means a lot... yes, it was very beautiful and moving - and a download seemed to be Gifted to me, about how conscious the Universe is, through Nature. :-) Our existence is so Blessed, eh. 🙏 🤗
Absolutely! How could I not respond with awe?!? Everything is sacred and alive. We (all consciousness, all existence) are blessed beyond even our ability to comprehend. 😁🙏💚✨
Indeed; beyond the limited-and-constricted capacity to comprehend, for sure! I feel lucid moments into that fullness of comprehension, when there is One-ness and no separation: full immersion in Sentience-activated! Then I know Blessed!
Very good clarification, indeed! Yes, it's not that we don't innately and inherently have the capacity to comprehend, more that our conditioned perspectives have been massively limited. We are everything in gloriously unique individualized expression, dancing worlds into being, as we forever unfold our infinity! 😁🙏💚✨
Amazing similarity indeed!
As vague as it is, death is a very intense moment and if you care enough to notice, you can definitely feel it. Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Personally I am kind of relieved to read that someone else had similar thoughts and feelings on a similar situation!
Aw yes, I've had many experiences around death that have changed my life 🙏🌟 It is very important that we share such stories, eh... It gives our life so much more meaning 🌈
Greetings growers 🌻❤
My garden, a mystical place that is green and serene , potatoes grow as far as eye can see ... Two legendary stone headed guardians protect this land - Luno and Titus.
😌 Thank you for the opportunity.
Kind regards.
Aiden.space.bar
What bizarre heads - I think @proto26 would like these!
How did you know‽
Potatoes are lovely to grow! I see 2 of yours have petrified, ascended, and become sentient! LOVE IT! I love the uniqueness that everybody's own little personal touches add to a garden!
Hehe. Thank you . those unique touches are what makes a garden special indeed 🌻. I appreciate your comment and your time ❤
When I first moved into my new house, there were a few flowers, but most I planted myself. When summer came everything was flowering in purple! The plants that were already there as well as new ones I planted thinking I’m planting blue and white, everything was purple. I thought someone cast a purple spell on me and my garden 😉💙
A purple spell? 😅
I just thought of myself writing a fictional story about spells that are purple... So weird but it would be creative 😁
Maybe we could have tagged your garden to be "The Purple Garden" what do you say?
I say ‘hell, yeah!’ 😂😂😂 Write the story and I’ll provide you with pictures of the purple flowers in my garden 😂
😂😂
Let me think about it 🤣
Haha! I’m looking forward to it 😁
Perhaps someone really did as a way to welcome you to your new home :)
😂😂😂
That's funny
That’s a nice thought 🤔🥰
Hello @riverflows, a few days ago when I went to the garden, I found something unusual, I was fascinated by a very melodious sound, an unusual sound. I tried to find the source of the sound, I thought it was the sound of a finches or just the sound of a mouse. I crept slowly and found the origin of the sound from behind the leaves of the aquatic plants in the pond. Turns out it was a frog sound. This is the first time I have seen a yellow frog with a sweet voice. I only know the kind of green frog that has a sweet voice, but it doesn't look like it's a green frog, because the frog I found is yellow.
Oh gosh how sweet!! You know, when I was in Indonesia and other parts of Asia I was amazed at how different the frogs sounded! One sounded like 'wang, waannnnggg'. We laugh about the wang wang frog to this day! Our frogs sound like 'pobble bonk, pobble bonk' and that's exactly what they are called -- pobblebonk frogs!
Pobblebonk frogs,they have beautiful voices like they are in concert @riverflows
There is a particular tree growing here at GaiaYoga Gardens, Muntingia calabura, which has vernacular names of Jamaica cherry or strawberry tree, with delicious edible and nutritious fruit and medicinal leaves that I've used often in my medicinal tea blends. It's a beautiful, fast-growing tree in its own family, Muntingiaceae, that has been surprisingly and frustratingly challenging to propagate here.
In my four years living here, I've only been able to successfully propagate this tree two times, and both times via root suckers. While the tree does produce copious amounts of fruit, with many thousands of very tiny seeds in each fruit, and the seeds do sprout pretty easily, the seedlings are very tiny, and remain tiny for quite a long time before finally beginning to grow larger. Because of this, in this part of Hawai'i, with the frequent and intense rains and very fast-growing plants, no area of ground remains uncovered by vegetation for long, so the tiny seedlings just can't seem to live long enough to actually grow larger.
As I was cleaning out my old nursery here at GaiaYoga, that had not had care in more than five months during the time that I was not here, I was surprised and eleatated to find a more mature seedling of this tree growing in a pot of another plant. This is the first one like this that I've found, so this is super special!
The original plant in the pot had died, so this seedling was all that remained. I up-potted it a few weeks ago, and it's growing well. I'm so happy that I now have a new one of these amazing trees! 😁🙏💚✨
Oh well that's really awesome! I can feel your passion for this little plant and how amazing it grew in such an unexpected place! I have a ridiculous amount of elder weeding up everywhere - if only something would sow itself like this for me!
Yes, I was super excited and surprised to find it! Hehe...and there's probably someone somewhere who is praying that elder would pop up in other places for them! There are actually quite a few cool and interesting plants seeding themselves in the pots of various other plants across my nursery. I'm always doing my best to keep track of them so that I can take them and put them in their own pots! 😁🙏💚✨
Oh, I love this, @tydynrain ! I was writing in a recent blog post on Hive, about having found a few surprises this month, and one was a sage plant that I'd planted half a year ago, and then it was presumed missing in action at least two months back... It popped up amongst the grass as I was clearing it from between the borages and chards... What a joy! I adore sage, and have found it quite hard to grow here!
That puts such a big smile on my face @clareartista! I've had numerous similar experiences of planting something, losing it among other plants, presuming it dead, then having it reappear, as if by magic, quite a bit later! That's such a wonderful surprise and experience! 😁🙏💚✨
I have a really unusual garden habit. Seems like every few weeks I walk out the back door and stop. I look. I pinch myself. And then I mutter.... "Bloody hell! It's fruiting AGAIN??!!"
The mulberry. This poor little tree gets very little care beyond my hacking back the branches so I don't poke my eyes out on the way to the rubbish bin. And an occasional pot of coffee grounds tossed carelessly its way.
I harvest the leaves mercilessly for tea. It gets watered rather a lot from what I think is a hole in a drain pipe somewhere, cos that part of the garden has mosss all year round. 😄
The general wisdom for this part of the world (northern Thailand) is that a mulberry will fruit 2 to maybe 3 times per year.
Mine? 6,7 and just finished her 8th crop. My freezer is overflowing. LOL.
Definitely there are peak crops and kinda afterthought, "why not?" crops - more like a dribble than a burst. But my overwhelming thought is that it's UNUSUAL!!
Grateful, blessed but still continually marveling at this really UNUSUAL garden event.
Yes, white mulberries - Morus alba are very adaptable, tough, forgiving, and prolific trees! We have them here in far East Big Island, Hawai'i, too, and they always seem to be in fruit! I love them so much, and they're wonderfully easy to propagate! I haven't worked with them medicinally in teas yet, but given that they are closely related to Noni, which is super medicinal in both its fruits and its leaves, this info doesn't surprise me! I have to look more into that! Thank you! 😁🙏💚✨
Wow! 8 times! That practical means that you have fresh mulberries almost all year round!!! Compared to the hardly one month that we have in Greece, that's huge :)
And tea from the leaves? I haven't heard of that before. What is it good for?
Lucky you, wish I could have some here. To be honest my lime bush has been fruiting nonstop this year. I feel blessed too.
Oh yeah endless limes here too!
Love it! Can't wonder why when you are busy eating mulberries... Mines yet to bear one and I bet the birds get it!
Awesomeness! Your mulberry tree is very generous. I never thought their leaves can be used for tea.
I use a lot of pebbles in my garden, especially around bonsai plants and succulents. I prefer rust colored, white and grey pebbles around plants.
The bigger rocks always adorn the bonsai plants and weeds take refuge under them.
I need to remove these rocks once in a while to clear out the weeds.
Last month I found a couple of small rocks very smooth and nicely shaped in one of my bonsai pots.
I removed them as usual with my bare hands and they were slimy. Then the pebble moved.
I figured that they were slugs not rocks.
I almost threw up. I just can't stand slugs and with the incessant rains they seem to grow in every pot.
I am never seen without gloves in my garden these days.
I was visiting Germany and saw 4 inch long orange slugs there. Just thinking about it takes all the enjoyment out of running barefoot through a garden.
It sure does. Never seen an orange slug before, would be interesting.
Omg four inches????
YES! Ugg.
Lol... I can feel your disgust just from your comment when you saw that they were slugs.
The rainy days are their vacation days, they are seen almost everywhere 😅
Vacation? More like their life's purpose is give people the creeps. LOL
Yikes, I hate the slime.
Haha creeps indeed
Gives me the shivers.
😬😬😬
Gives me the shivers.. hehe
Oups that wasn't nice at all! Usually I don't get disgust easily, especially in the garden but slugs are very disgusting creatures! And I have spent so many hours trying to remove them from the vegetable garden until I realised that it was hopeless. 😥
@fotostef It wasn't nice at all, I can assure you.
Like you I am not one who finds critters in the garden creepy, I often go after them photographing them. However, slugs are a different breed lol .
True, I too can't just get rid of them here on the third floor of my house.
Omg that's so gross!!!! It must have given you a fright... Moving pebbles would freak me out too 😂
Slugs are some of those I don't like to see around but they are plenty especially during the rainy season.
Plant theft has always been a thing, recently here,I guess some people were so broke they couldn't afford to buy vegetable leaves in the market.before we knew it the literally plucked almost all the pumpkin leaves we had at the backyard.
Oh no, I've heard that happen a lot on Hive actually... Poeple must be really desperate
..
That one is normal my dear, pumpkins grown by a gardener isn't owned by the gardener here in Nigeria 😂
It's for everybody living around 🤣
Looool
It's normal in Thailand too that anything grown in the garden, unless it's behind a big locked fence, is for common use. Old Thai grandmas walk the neighbourhood to pluck and pick tender shoots to tuck into the wok. I find it really sweet and kinda like an extension of natural foraging behaviour.
Oh that's so sweet
You're in Thailand, cool 😊
I guess it's normal everywhere for plants not locked away are for everyone's use 😅
Thanks for the award! I am surprised, as it was such a simple theme...
Anything wierd or unusual happen at your place?
I tried to think of something, but nothing came to mind. Not weird or unusual, just stuff like the groundhog climbing the gate (which he's done for 2 years now) or getting the soil balanced enough the potato plants killed the potato bug larva. But I've already written about those often...
I can't even imagine groundhogs so that's bonkers for me!!!!! And yay for your soil - that would be unusual round here!
When my husband first moved to Australia he was anticipating all kinds of weirdness,plus snakes of course. One day he noticed something under the native grass by the birdbath. Omg honey, he said... Are these snake eggs??? No honey, just ordinary eggs, I said. The chickens had been laying there without us noticing. He must have been totally freaked out and didn't think. To this day we call eggs 'sneggs' - snake eggs.
Another time he saw this strange ectoplasmic goo in one of my pots. Freaked him out. It was just bloated water crystals that I had put in the soil to stop the plants drying out 😂
We did see a fireball shoot across the sky once, standing in the garden looking at the stars...
LOL! Your hubby is amusing and easily freaked out hehe!
Sneggs are elongated and a lot smaller than chicken eggs. Didn't know about this until we found 3 which we thought were something else so we intended to keep them on a pot with soil until my old man told us they were snake eggs haha! We immediately threw them far away.
Omg I showed that to jamie lmao. I can imagine you CHUCKING those as far as you could!!!!!
The husband brought them to the farthest he could get them :D
Sneggs. That's funny. 😄 We DO have lots of snakes eggs here, to the point of the local facebook snake identification group now also happily identifying snake EGGS if you post your pics. ie are these likely to be 35 baby & deadly vipers or cobras about to hatch, or will they more likely be useful rat snakes (the name speaks for itself) or pretty vine snakes who help keep the frog population manageable.
That's so freaky. I guess Jamie was right to be alert but I've teased him relentlessly for years about it 😂
Haha 😂 I love the sneggs story! Very funny 😆
Lol... He was expecting something weird that even the normal became weird to him... Snake eggs? Oh my goodness! 😂
I hope I don't get a knock on the head when I mistakenly call eggs "sneggs" here 😁
Hahah yes he's used to Australia now so his brain has returned 😂
Haha that's expected
I can understand the man, when fear comes rational thought flies out of the window.
I hope he eats sneggs now for breakfast and has conquered his fears.
I hate snakes one of the few critters I hate. I can get a bit paranoid around them too.
Oh yes we are always alert for snakesbut have never had them in garden so I'm not worried about that too much...
That's so funny 🤣 snegg - snake eggs!
The most unusual thing that happened in my garden three years ago was when I planted a turnip weighing 180 grams to grow its leaves. Here in Pakistan, we make a delicious and healthy dish using turnip and radish leaves, which is known as "Saag." I told my husband that I want to experiment to see if the turnip leaves really grow this way. I had no prior experience with gardening, as the entire garden was being taken care of by my father-in-law, who helped me with my experiment. The next thing I did was throw some tomato seeds on the mud in my terrace garden, too. I still remember my father-in-law smiling when he advised me, "You come back and check your work after one month." "I myself will take care of your experiment, so you don't need to worry."
When I returned after one month, it was such a pleasant surprise to see the turnip leaves, which had grown so well. When we were about to cut the leaves, my husband said, "Why don't we just pull out the turnip as well?" to which I agreed. Many of you won't believe it, but it's true. When we pulled the turnip out, it had grown to the size of almost a football!
Then we went to see the place in our terrace garden where I threw the tomato seeds from my kitchen. There we found a small plant about one foot long with tiny red tomatoes. At first, we thought they were cherry tomatoes, but when we tasted one, it had a completely different taste. It was both sour and sweet, but it did not taste like tomato! Maybe it was a new variant!
So these two surprises were very pleasant for us. My father-in-law told us that nature poured some blessings into these two!
This was the most unusual thing to happen in our garden, and it was also the most pleasant at the same time.
Hi, sorry I didn't see this comment earlier. I love garden suprises. That tomato... Did you save the seeds to plant again! I'm familiar with saag. I love Indian food!
Hi @riverflows,
I did not save those tomato seeds. But may be my father-in-law would have done so. I'll ask him and then let you know.
Thank you for your reply.
God bless you.
I should be checking this community more often. It's fun in here.
Anyway, something I considered unusual happened in my garden this year. A few of my plantain plants just began splitting into two from the top as seen in the image below:
The splitting later advanced to the bottom of the plants like this:
The splitting also happened to coincide with when they are supposed to start producing flowers. Others that are planted at the same time have started flowering. My curious mind started looking for answers. Guess what!
They are double-bunch plantains. It seems this attribute made the stem to split, something I have never experienced before with double-bunch plantain. The one I have fruited without the stem splitting like this:
To cut the long story short, the divided stems have each started flowering:
That's really cool. You know I've never even tried a plantain. I eat loads of different foods but that's one thing i haven't had opportunity to try. Oh the comment challenge is always a blast. Sometimes if you are a little late, like this one, there's notuch engagement but in first two days or so it's a blast. New one comes out later today.
Too bad I just published a post today, I would have liked to participate since I have several plants that have self-seeded spontaneously. In the garden it happens with many species such as parsley, Swiss chard, etc.
From what the post says, this contest would expire this week, that is, on Sunday, right?
And I also have some rare plants. Anyway I will be attentive with the next contests.
Greetings and good weekend to the whole team @riverflows
You can still comment though? It's not a post challenge but a comment one 💚
And on the subject of #planttheft, which seems prevalent around the world...! I bought my house here in this Italian medieval quarter when the whole place was relatively abandoned: I bought it for a minimal sum, which suited my 'budget' and I renovated it on literally no funds, so every cent I did spend meant a great deal.
Having no garden initially, I created a beautiful raised bed 'street garden': just about 3 m long by 60 cm or so deep - and running down the steps, getting higher as the steps get lower... anyways; I made huge efforts digging up hard soil from abandoned gardens below, and taking cuttings, wild plants, seeds, flowers etc, to fill it :-D
One of the ONLY bought plants that I planted, was this wee thyme - pot-bound and happy to be set into the new soil beside it's new neighbours. I went out to check it the day after planting, and someone had uprooted it completely - you know how a plant tightly rooted into its pot can easily be pulled up before its roots have taken hold... I WAS LIVID!! It was SUCH A MEAN THING TO DO - and this ONE PLANT that I'd spent a most precious couple of Euros on!! I had no income at the time, and this was meant as a truly big addition to my kitchen and bathroom, as food and medicine!
I was well connected on mainstream social media back in those days: I put out a post, recording the incident and asking the community to call the culprit out and get them to replace it: folks were pretty cynical about that working, but I knew that it had to be one of the old ladies who tootle by for early morning mass every day: no-one else used the Via at that time! I knew that someone must've seen them walking up the street with a herb plant in their hands! And if they were a church person, then they'd have to feel some tinge of having done wrong!
The thyme turned up again the next day!! Dumped rather unceremoniously on the street garden bed, but nevertheless, I replanted it and it grew happily for many years. I was very glad to have called the theft out, and have used mainstream social media as a tool like this many times in the past, to get the collective to correct a wrongdoing. :-)
Oh my goddess that is priceless..m they were clearly guilt ridden enough or god threatened to return it but not enough to replant it 😂 .. coward. I love thyme.. I must weed mine today.
Exactly: they knew I'd be watching out for more #gardentheft, and must've lobbed it in there whilst rushing by... it did make me laugh out loud at how it came back to me, when everyone was saying it was lost forever.... That makesme think also about the time someone knicked all my poppy heads - wah!
Oh no that's what we'd call a dog act here, except I love dogs! Look for a garden with all the poppies, obviously, and nick em back!
It is strange the unusual sweet pod peas grow in this weather and start flowering the poppy never stops blooming and the same with calendula the fallen seeds also started popping up from the ground but definitely,
they don't survive in heavy snow. just the world feels very slow and stopped in gray color last week the sun come out for an hour and disappeared. Tried these photographs that time. The weather forecast is 10 days with no sunshine. tired about this period of a year. But there is always new days and new hopes. This season will go and a new season will come.. greetings to all hive gardeners.🙏😊
All over the world seasons seem off, a little. Crazy floods here and I've had things fail in my garden that don't other years. Strange times. Keep well, warm and cheerful.
Thank you, dear. but take care of yourself and your family. and your garden.