Inge Leonora-den Ouden

Nicole Alderman wrote:Inge, your journal entries are so beautiful! They are such an inspiration, and such a delight to look at!

Thank you Nicole.

I need to make a photo of my journaling materials, and the bag/pouch they're in.
I can tell you: the watercolour sketchbook is the biggest thing in the bag.
I have a small plastic watercolour palette with 7 colours in it (I filled from tubes, Daniel Smith, the best watercolours I know).
Three watercolour brushes: 1 flat large (1 cm width), 1 pointed medium and 1 pointed small.
1 pencil I use for the first sketchlines and 1 permanent ink fineliner for drawing lines and writing (I do have more pens with me, but they're not really needed).

The first page I showed, with the insects in Spring, I made at home using coloured pencils.

I also have a 'sit mat' in the bag. But if possible I take a (Helinox) camping chair with me.

There's plenty of Good King Henry growing in my allotment garden (it was planted there by someone who rented it before me). So It's growing there, but I hardly do anything with it. That's because it's fibery, tough, and there are other plants (even 'weeds') growing there that have a much better taste.

But now I see here something interesting: put a black bucket over it before it starts growing. That's an experiment I want to do!
I hope I won't forget. And then (next Spring) I can show you photos and tell you more ...

Before this year started I bought myself a luxurious watercolour sketchbook. The idea was this would become my Nature Journal. I thought I would draw/paint a page in it at least every week ...
Okay, maybe once a month ... Anyway: I did paint a few pages in it. And there's still plenty left for next year!


Spring. The tiny creatures enjoy the warm-ish sunny weather.


An old oak at the edge of the nature reserve near Mantinge (Drenthe, NL).


Serviceberry tree in full bloom. Springendal in the region Twente (close to the German border in NL).


'Old arm' (cut-off meander) of the river Vecht near Vilsteren (Overijssel, NL).


In my back yard.


Old farmhouse (Saxon style), oak tree and fence in the village of Meppen, Drenthe.

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:...
Sorry, y'all. Using baby white pine and Douglas Fir for these. All the stuff I've felled for this project is found on the acre I'm stewarding.

Okay, all from the acre you're stewarding...  If you plant some Willows now, and feed them your 'willow candy', in a few years you'll have the new willow branches you need to replace the Pine/Fir when you repair your roof.

a Dutch door! Yes, I think that's really Dutch (I mean: from this country where I live). Old houses (not only farmhouses) have such doors. When you ring the bell (or knock) the person inside opens only the upper half.

What I wanted to say was: why all 'staples' together in one bed? I think a polyculture can have one staple together with some other vegetables. Maybe a combination of leafy vegetable, root vegetable, fruit vegetable, edible flower together in one bed?

Eino Kenttä wrote:Then our experiences with aardaker are quite similar. Less than vigorous is a good description. ...

Aardaker (Lathyrus tuberosus) is growing well in my allotment garden. Beautiful pink flowers. But not much of roots to harvest ...

Eino Kenttä wrote:The first experiment has been made: co-growing potatoes with creeping bellflower. The results are decidedly promising. They seem to play nice. In the end I didn't even bother to suppress the bellflower around the potatoes, since the potato plants got up above the main level of the bellflower leaves quite quickly. The harvest of the two potato plants in the tiny test bed didn't seem worse than the average harvest per plant in the rest of the potato beds. There was also a smaller, but tasty, harvest of creeping bellflower roots, even though I replanted the biggest, best-looking roots for next year.

Since it's the first year, the results are somewhat uncertain. For instance, in the event that the bellflower would turn out to be allelopathic, the substances responsible for it might take some time to build up enough in the soil to harm the potatoes. Also, the relative quality of the soil in the test bed compared to the main potato beds is uncertain, and both will hopefully keep improving in coming years. Still, it is a very good start.

I'll call Root Year 1 a success. Next year we'll see how well the bellflower grows with buckwheat. Possibly also quinoa, which will replace amaranth in the plan, since we've tried amaranth for three years now, and it hasn't done much of anything. Quinoa, on the other hand, looks a bit promising. I plan to keep the creeping bellflower confined to the test bed for two more years, in case it plans to start wreaking havoc, before allowing it in any part of the main beds. To be continued...

Never thought of that. The Campanula (bellflower) is growing like weed in my back garden! So I can plant potatoes in that same bed. I'll try it next year (if I don't forget). And maybe amaranth too.

Jim Sayers wrote:...
Something that continues to come back year after year self sown is ground cherries.  I planted  purple variety about 6 years ago and every year I have plenty come up and fruit.  They are just now getting their papery husk fruits.  We have made small hand pies with them.  It’s an odd little savory tomato like fruit that needs sugar if going for dessert use.
...  

Now I finally understand what 'ground cherries' are! Because you mention the papery husk. In Dutch they are known with several different names, depending on the variety (the ones with the orange husk are 'lampionplant' and most people don't know there's an edible berry inside). But all of them are 'Physalis' (botanical name).

When I read about 'ground cherries' I always thought they were small cherries growing from a low shrub-like Prunus.

Thank you, Esteban, for the explanation and the photos.