The Gift Not Intended

 So a bit of a story. Probably about 10-12 years ago, I had collected some black walnuts in the fall. It wasn't tons...maybe a gallon or so of nuts from some wild trees. At the time I was doing an annual presentation to local fourth graders on wild foods and medicines as part of their "pioneer day" activities. I had quite the road show and was always looking for more things for the kids to see and touch - like these black walnuts.

I was always amazed at how disconnected so many kids were with the natural world around them and so I did my best to introduce them to as much as possible in my 45 minutes with each class which included at least 20 minutes of letting them explore everything I brought on their own. This included a foraging game I made up which was always one of the highlights. While many probably forgot what they saw the moment they walked out the door, it made all the work so worthwhile to see the "lights" turn on for some of the children as to what amazing things were right out their own backdoors.

So I stored the nuts but like many older homes (and mine is 160 years old), rodents are a continual issue and they got into the nuts. I pitched the nuts out to the compost bin. "Critters" enjoy my open compost bins and it seems one of them planted one of the walnuts near the foundation of my house -- there are no nearby black walnuts and this is the only time these nuts made it to the compost bin so it didn't take much thought to figure out its origin.

Some time along the way, my husband or I chopped the seedling down at least once as the trunk bears the evidence. But last year it finally dawned on me what the tree was. So I dug it up in this spring, potted it, and will add it to my ever expanding young food forest this fall.

So while I never shared the nuts in my wild plant extravaganza, I did get a tree I always wanted out of it.

Just Take a Breath

Dame's Rocket

While you can certainly use tripods in your botanical photo taking, I find that lugging the extra equipment around and then setting it up destroys the ability to capture the essence of simple beauty and the sincerity of the moment that Mother Nature presented to us. All my nature photography is done without tripods and without "gardening" or otherwise setting up the shot. I take the shots as I find them for I believe that Mother Nature has the best eye for photo composition.

But since all the shots are taken by hand, it requires more - if you'll excuse the pun - focus put into each shot otherwise the result is a fuzzy mess. To do this, isn't hard and it starts with a simple breath. Take a breath and hold it for just the moment it takes for you to snap the picture. Amazingly in that held moment, you become so mindfully aware of your body and its every motion. It is a moment of mindful meditation where you become more aware of the tiniest of details - things that are often below your threshold of awareness. And in that attentiveness, you become still and you become very focused. So with breath held, body stilled, and your attention sharpened, you look to your subject and gently press the camera's button.

Give it a try. What moments of gentle beauty can you capture?


To inspire you, I captured the shot above and the couple below on a ten minute walk this morning...

Apple blossoms (I love the blush of pink)

Banded snail on dandelions

New foliage and flower clusters on wild grape

The Teaching Plant

Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara)

A reoccurring theme in the plant and garden forums I regularly frequent is parents that suddenly become concerned about the toxic plants in their yards and gardens. If you are one of them, I do applaud your concern, but I am sorry to say that there are many toxic plants that share the world with you. There may be ones in your yard, your gardens, the wild spaces around you, the parks you visit and more. And those plants were also in the lawns and gardens of your parents and you have grown to a healthy adulthood in spite of them! Just breathe. Relax. And read on.  

So what is a parent to do? When my own children were tiny toddlers, I did not turn them loose outside unsupervised. I stayed with them, played with them, and taught them. Not only did I protect them from the dangers beyond just poisonous plants that could present themselves to such tiny ones, I developed a much closer bond with my children. What parent wouldn't want that?

As they grew older, more teaching crept in. One of the very first outdoor lessons was plant safety. At the time, bittersweet nightshade grew everywhere at our place. Rather than go crazy trying to obliterate every trace of this toxic plant, as some parents in the forums I read would do, I took an alternate approach. I showed my children the plant with its brilliant red and rather appetizing looking berries. I explained that not all wild plants and berries were edible. In fact, some could make you sick and some could kill you. Their eyes grew big as that thought settled into their brains. The thought scared them - as well it should. I must say, I am not prone to exaggerating or "candy-coating" anything - my children learned that young. If I said it, I meant it and they believed it. They still do. 

So, what did I do next? I taught them how to identify this plant by its distinctive leaves, clusters of fruit, and purple blooms with yellow stamens. They could identify the plant at our home as well as at the parks and hiking trails we visited - places where I certainly could not obliterate every toxic plant that existed! I gave them power over this toxic plant. Further more, I also taught my children to never taste any unknown plant or fruits. They were to treat those plants and fruits as poisonous for they very well might be -- just like that nightshade they learned so well. They were only to eat wild plants and fruits if an adult they trusted (I can't stress how key this is) told them the plant or fruit was safe.

Bittersweet berries

In time and with age, they joined me in picking wild berries, wild herbs, and food from our gardens and u-pick farms. They learned how to identify those plants, when it was ripe, and what parts are usable. When I was absolutely sure they could ID those with no error, they began to pick their own without my direct supervision. My youngest loves picking wild blackcap raspberries, strawberries, and mulberries. Summer is his time for he is a huge berry lover. These skills will stay with them the rest of their lives and I am sure will pass to the next generation.

So my advice? Shield and protect closely when children are too young to accept safety lessons by staying with them outdoors. As they get older, teach them how to be safe rather than trying to "bubble wrap" their world. The lessons will serve them the rest of their life in your yard and way beyond it. That said, I strongly advise you do some research into the ornamental plants you want to add to your gardens. You may wish to avoid highly toxic plants like castor beans and monkshood until your children are much older.  Or avoid them completely if poisonous plants give you pause.

Enjoy your gardens, enjoy your children, and enjoy the living world we are part of!


Be sure to learn more about bittersweet nightshade at the Poison Garden website: http://www.thepoisongarden.co.uk/atoz/solanum_dulcamara.htm

Botanical Medicine Classes

Native Medicine Plant - Joe Pye Weed

My friend, Dr. Les Moore, is offering another series of his Botanical Medicine Certificate Program courses. These classes are excellent if you wish to learn more about medicinal applications of plants. Some of the plants covered are native, wild medicine plants while others are from other places and herbal traditions.

There will be six different classes will be held over a period of five weeks, September 20th – October 18th  2012. Students can elect to take the entire series or individual classes. The guided herb walk for this series will be held at Ganondagan on September 22.

Please contact Classical Formulas for details and registration - their website has full class descriptions and registration information.

Of note, Classical Formulas also now has a Facebook page that you can "like" to get news about upcoming classes, lectures, and workshops as well as daily posts by me about herbal medicine and medicine plants.