News has filtered through to me of the death of Isabel Shipard. Her book on herbs is a great resource and well worth having in the library of anyone interested in herbs.
In the plethora of herbal books for the lay person her work stands out for its first rate information. The closest I came to Isabel was doing the Pindari Herbs course with her understudy Jayne.
Last November it was a great pleasure to have the Herbal medicine students from Om Shanti College rambling through the garden. Having been used to my own workshops in the garden it was good to hear people interacting with the herbs while I was working on other things. The garden loves company and people interacting with it.
Steve Allen their trainer, showed them the wonder of herbs and botany. The students braved a monsoonal downpour which pulped all written material exposed to it in seconds.
The student’s sense of humour was sorely tested as their assessment sheets became smudged ink and illegible. Later on in the evening a party returned to the farm as a ford in the road was too deep for them to cross. We sat around in the lounge and talked while sipping on some home-made chai – great memories.
Have a look at the faces of these people. They are the next generation of herbalists.
Looking forward to having the class out again this year 2015.
Botany day 2014 Steve Allen
Here you can see a schisandra plant I have grown from seed. I am still finding my way in what these plants need for strong growth. The Chi berry farm in America is situated on river flats so maybe fertile deep soils are what it desires. These plants are two years old and are still in pots.
This coming season I will fertilise with some worm wee – liquid run off from worm baths. Its the wonder tonic for just about anything in the plant kingdom.
It will be a good day when they fruit and produce berries for harvest. My American species of Schisandra described in another post has not germinated at all – sigh.
Schisandra root system