Discovering chives, nasturtiums and wild strawberries

Since our presentation last week I have made a number of lovely discoveries!

I spent some time in my backyard yesterday afternoon pruning and clearing and cultivating the produce in our vege boxes. I was busy planting some of the organic beans and cherry tomatoes (the same ones we handed out at our presentation) when I came across chives and wild strawberries.

Well, I initially thought that the chives was grass (whoops!) and that the wild strawbs were weeds (double whoops!). I realised that the chives couldn't possibly be grass with the roots they had (and they smelled quite strong) and my husband came to the rescue of the wild strawbs.

And while he was helping me identify the strawbs, he introduced me to nasturtiums, which to my surprise, he informed me, are edible!  

So we ate some nasturtiums from our garden, while I cleared some space for our chives and staked our wild strawbs with the hopes that they'll produce fruit. 


I also had to lengthen the supporting trellis for my organic pea as it had grown too tall for the original trellis! Very excited to see that growth. I'm going to have conniptions when they start to flower and pea pods spring up!

I'm also so very glad that my personal connections with this project are continuing beyond the life of our assessment :)

My peas growing into their pods

One of the underpinning themes of our investigation is determining if engagement with the learning experience will foster a behaviour change. To this end we have decided to plot our mood levels when we water, weed or otherwise tend to our plants. Because what better way to foster change than to build a personal connect with what we're doing?

So each morning, I wander down to the garden beds  (in my slippers and PJs mind you), water each plant and make notes about their appearance. On Sundays and Wednesdays I measure their growth as well. Then I decide how I'm feeling based on this activity.

Upon reflection, I've noticed that my moods generally correlate with the 'important' things that are happening that day - uni assessment, field placement, tutoring, lazing around.

But the days I note a change in my plants (so, usually Sundays and Wednesdays), well I cannot contain my excitement! When I observed that the vines from my pea plants had started to curl around their stands, I rushed out and took some photos; I was that excited!

I've also found that I am talking about my peas. A lot. To my husband. To Jess and Shirin. To my family. To my friends outside of uni. I've started to make predictions in the back of mind about what will happen when I go out the next morning. I'm also secretly hoping for a particular plant to be the 'best'. And I cannot wait until pea pods start growing. Now *that* will be an exciting day! :)

Sustainability choice creeps up on me

Today marks Day 15 of our Fair Test where we've each been growing a plant of choice (Jess is growing lettuce, Shirin is growing rocket and I'm growing peas) and testing which fertiliser (organic vs. non-organic) grows the best produce.

Today I went down to my garden bed and discovered something fabulous! I was so excited, I had to grab the camera to capture what I think represents 'nature as art'. The vines on my peas have started to wrap around their stands! This happened over night and I'm so excited by it. My plants are growing and doing what they need to survive by reaching out to something and holding on so tightly. So beautiful!

I couldn't help but take photos of the vines to share on our blog.

And then as I was focusing on the vines, I noticed the beautiful patterns than were emerging on the bigger leaves of the plant.

Exposure to readings for our Art class has really opened my eyes to creativity all around me - even in nature. And yes, I took some close up photos of the leaves as well ...

Look at the detail, isn't it amazing?! Literally splashes of colour.

And then you know what else happened? Well I couldn't stop taking photos there, I ended up walking around the garden and taking photos of everything I could find that interested me or that had depth of colour or line that I'd never really paid much attention to before.

In our back garden we have some mango trees and some garden boxes that we're growing a whole host of veges in. While in our front garden we've got rose beds and lavender bushes lining our verandah and side fence. When I was taking photos of the lavender it got me wondering how I can use the lavender in our home. A little side research project for me to look into because we do buy lavender products and how great would it be if I could use what we're growing in our garden instead? Adding my little contribution to making sustainable and environmental choices.

And there you have it - a personal connection to art, nature and making sustainable choices as a result of a fair test experiment. Who would have guessed? :)