COME INTO MY GARDEN, I'D LIKE THE FLOWERS TO MEET YOU

Half of the adventure of traveling is discovering little nuggets. Meeting the locals. Tasting the fair. Exploring heritage sights and wandering the countryside. I am very good with directions. However, since the advent of the GPS - who I am convinced is a woman - I seem to constantly hit a wrong turn. GPS and I are not friends (although she definitely has her eye on my husband). And so, if we're not in a hurry I give her the day off and simply meander. I love to drive new roads and "stumble" upon treasures.

We recently took two days off to visit friends in a coastal holiday cottage. The night was a shared birthday (mine and two other friends, one of whom turned 50) but during the day we explored a little. The first stop was the lovely RedBerry Farm which will be featured in an upcoming post for the strawberry lovers. En route we literally stumbled on this lovely plant market. Being homesteaders and always on the lookout for new herbs - we stopped.

And so for #marketfriday, initiated by the floral @dswigle, join me for a short but colourful stroll among the gardens.

The prices were unbelievably cheap, which makes for easy(er) spending. We were inspired by the lovely wooden herb stands. Of course we didn't buy any but have ideas of how to use the extra wooden pallets we have lying around.

Considering the low prices of the herbs I was delighted to learn that they only use organic compost and natural pest control methods. For the homesteaders and gardeners who know the "Back to Eden" gardening methods, you'll be interested to see that this is how these plants are also grown. Until, of course they are bagged for sale. Being in such a hot climate it was fascinating to hear how it works. Due to our drought we have not implemented the method but rely on any spare grey water for our limited gardens.

My only disappointment was that they don't have any of the more exotic herbs that I am desperately looking for. Plants have incredible healing power and I long to increase the size and diversity of my herbal gardens.

Perhaps it is overly ambitious of me to add to the herbs in our challenging drought conditions but we can only hope for a break in the weather.....soon. Possibly I have the mentality of the aged Mediteranean villagers. The Greek Proverb states that; "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."

I love that idea. It is one we should all live by. Give life so that the children yet to be born to thrive! While I admire the flowers I only buy practical plants. Herbs that bear sweetly scented flowers as well as give us their medicinal and culinary flavours.

We chose a small gift for the grandparents back home. This poetic Afrikaans quote translate to mean "in granny and grandpa's garden, grandchildren are spoilt". They loved it and have planted the plaque near their gardens pathway.

Back home my helpful little farm boy helped with the re-homing of our little herbs. It took twice as long as he likes to dig out the soil. But he made certain to give them a good soaking. May we all enjoy our life's journey. Despite bad directions and challenging conditions. May we all plant trees to shelter the coming generations.