Feng Shui for Plants and People

 

It's chickweed season! This year I did not plant a winter garden. I have silverbeet and red chard growing out of the compost and a flourishing crop of chickweed in all the garden beds. I went out and stood in the meagre winter sun this lunch time, and snipped a bunch of fresh chickweed greens with the kitchen scissors. Thank you edible weeds for flourishing when nothing else is planted. I had the chickweed for lunch on sprouted rye sourdough with hummus and curried egg. Remember the trick with chickweed - snip off the leaves and compost the stems, which are stringy and not fun to eat.

Paul had an extra week off chemo last week to let his angry bowel heal, and yesterday he spent the day in the comfy recliner chair having his second treatment. He has been so well and cheerful over the last week that it's quite difficult to see him go back and start the treatment again. We're hoping for a good week, but we will get what we get, of course. So far, so good. He is cheerful and feeling fine.

We have worked out a diet that is as gentle as possible for his digestive system. He can't have whole grains or fruit or vegies with peels or seeds or anything acidic. Or coffee. Or dairy, except for yoghurt. Or any meat except white fish and a bit of chicken. Or most other things. He is eating lots of vegie soup and avocado on toast. And porridge with apple sauce and yoghurt.

This week I am polishing the manuscript of my first novel and writing a synopsis and a chapter breakdown to send it off to a literary competition. Also, I sewed on a button. This is about as complex as I want life to be at the moment. Oh, I also potted up some jade plants. I snapped off some cuttings a few months ago from a very healthy plant that I noticed poking through someone's fence onto the footpath while I walked the dog one day. The cuttings have been growing roots in a jar of water on my windowsill for at least three months, and yesterday was the day I finally had a moment and took them outside to the potting bench to pot them all up. I will tell you the secret to a happy jade plant. A tiny bit of fertiliser and regular watering. I see so many sad and withered old jade plants in pots at front doors, because apparently they are good for feng shui. These are not succulents you can ignore indefinitely, unlike some sturdy, tough-as-boots ones. For jade plants to provide good feng shui they need love and attention. I will tell you the secret to good feng shui. Give anything love and attention and it will flourish. I flourish with love and attention, like the jade plant.

Do you know what flourishes without attention? Chickweed. Give it attention and it will flourish all over the yard, the neighbourhood and will then take over the world. But I am thankful for it. It quietly provides a carpet of edible green from a garden canvas of absolute neglect.

Thank you for your stories in the comments on the last post. I love to read snippets from your lives. I love to picture Mary's summer garden in Georgia while mine is winter bleak. I love to know that some of you do ironing as a kind of zen meditation and that Chris' granddad dug up his tennis court to make a vegie garden. 

Thanks for your thoughts and kind words. They do mean a lot xx