Category: News

After months spent caring for others and navigating the curious times we live in, spring now awaits us with the promise of warmer weather and the joys of new life emerging all around us. Because we look upon spring as a time of birth and renewal, it’s an excellent time for us to examine how we, ourselves, might be nurtured and experience that same sense of renewal in our daily lives.

Self-care has become a common, sometimes overused, buzzword we may hear several times a day, but many times in the course of our busy days, self-care sits on the back burner. The old saying, “You can’t pour from an empty cup,” rings true. We know this. We realize the importance of caring for ourselves in order to better care for others and lead happy, healthy, fulfilling lives, but at day’s end, sometimes we’re just too tired to do anything more than say, “I’ll take care of myself tomorrow.”

While we can’t add extra time to each day, there are a few ways we take a moment here and there for a bit of rest and rejuvenation. We’d like to share a few ways we’ve found to sneak a little self-care into our days:

• Getting up to enjoy the silence. One way to start your day is to get up just a few minutes earlier to enjoy some time alone before the day begins. Sitting quietly and enjoying the new day’s dawning can help us focus and create a framework for things that need to be accomplished. Great plans are often made in solitude.
• Relaxing in an Epsom salt bath. While there is no definitive proof that magnesium is absorbed through the skin, our mothers knew that soaking in Epsom salt can help ease muscle aches, reduce inflammation, and provide stress relief. An old-fashioned Epsom salt foot soak also works wonders for those who spend a lot of time on their feet.
• Taking a walk outdoors. There are so many sources that tell us even a short walk outside can yield enormous health benefits. Getting a bit of exercise and connecting with the sun, the air, the ground, other companions we might meet along the way can truly help improve your day. Just a few minutes outside on your lunch break help you move your body and can also help alleviate stress.
• Engaging in a favorite hobby. Hobbies add interest to our lives and can connect us to others with similar interests. Doing something purely for the joy it brings can be an important way to build self-confidence or express our creativity.
• Journaling is one of the easiest means of self-care one can exercise. Taking a moment to get in touch with ourselves and our feelings and writing them down can be gateway to new perspectives. You can journal about a specific topic like gratitude, or you can just free-write. No matter what your journal holds, it can be a valuable tool in so many ways. Sometimes writing things down can help us release them, if needed, or can help us set our goals and intentions.

These are just a few ideas for self-care, and we’re sure you have some of your own. Our Sisters enjoy spending time outdoors and engaging their senses and some experience the benefits of gentle movement. No matter what method(s) you choose, self-care should remind you that your needs and your means of renewal are important. Fulfilling those needs helps you to be fully present for others and for yourself. As we enter spring, remember not to allow your cup be emptied when there are so many pleasant ways to keep it filled.

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”  Albert Camus

As Jubilee Farm winds down from the holidays and heads into a new year, we dream of blossoms and blooms and turn our thoughts to garden planning. By planning, outlining and picturing how we’d like this year’s permaculture garden to shape up, we can begin our 2025 growing season with greater focus. In addition to being a practical, fun way to use our time indoors, this head start will help us get right to the task in the spring. 

Many of the steps we take can be applied to every home garden, and by sharing what we’re doing in preparation for this year’s growing season, we hope to inspire you to try new plants and new methods at home. 

To begin, we revisited the things that worked and the things that did not in last year’s garden. We’ve analyzed the success or failure of various aspects of our garden to determine what bears repeating for this year. We took stock of the types of seeds we used, how we started them (greenhouse versus direct planting) and we noted what helped or hindered their growth and yield. We identified specific challenges we faced and how to address them. 

Once we completed this general brainstorming, we then plotted out a diagram of our garden. Dividing the garden into smaller sections will help us pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses that lie within the overall garden. For example, we can see that comfrey grows very well in a certain part of the garden; however, there is a physical point where it becomes less fruitful. Noting topographical changes in the garden helps us transition our planting and allows us to utilize our space to its greatest potential. 

We then took a look at the types of perennials we planted last summer. We examined placement, watering frequency, methods and yield. This helps us decide what perennials we want to plant again this year and which ones we want to avoid. Taking stock of how our perennials performed helps us consider new varieties we’d like to try. 

Planning for this year’s garden now gives us time to retool plans as needed and to purchase seeds and arrange for any hardscaping we need to install.

Whether your garden is large or small, you, too, can plan and apply these ideas to your space. With a little foresight, we trust that our garden can be even more beautiful and fruitful in this coming season, and we hope yours will be, too. 

 

 

          As our first year of permaculture gardening draws to a close, we reflect on all we’ve learned about this method of gardening and are eager to begin planning next year’s garden. The fruits of our labors have been many, and much of what we’ve learned can be applied to your home garden. By sharing what we’ve done and learned, we hope to inspire you to try some new things as you plan next year’s garden.

          We’re harvesting our herbs to create a variety of products for home use. We’ve found several herbs, such as chamomile and basil, will re-seed themselves for next year’s crop. Calendula is extremely hardy, and when the flowers die and are dried, they render a significant number of seeds we can use next year. We’ve been astonished to see our comfrey plants happily burst forth and produce beautiful purple flowers enjoyed by bees and hummingbirds. We have been drying the comfrey leaves; the plant’s anti-inflammatory properties will be useful for making a salve. We’ve also been pleased to learn that while lavender flowers are the most desirable part of the plant, the leaves themselves have multiple uses and can be enjoyed long after the plants have flowered.

          In addition to our herbs, we’ve had a vegetable harvest that includes eggplant, cucumber, potatoes, tomatoes and more. The unusually hot weather was a challenge for us, and we are developing solutions to help us increase our yield next year. As with any garden, weeding was a daily task. While somewhat tedious, weeding enabled us to identify changes to the garden on a daily basis and trouble-shoot as necessary.

          In the coming weeks, we’ll prepare our garden for the winter. Fall is every bit as busy for gardeners as the rest of the year, and that holds true for us. In the coming weeks, we’ll plant wildflower seeds for slow germination over the winter. Additionally, we’ll protect our perennials by spreading farm-made mulch, as well as taking stock of our lasagna layered areas. As winter sets in, our time will be spent planning future expansion of the garden, reflecting on lessons learned and continuing study.

          It’s been an exciting time in our garden, and thanks go out to the volunteers who helped us and gave us pointers along the way. We will carry our knowledge and experience into next season, and we’re confident our garden will be bigger and better in 2025.