After Five Years....

After five years of struggling every summer to survive, the abundance of rain this winter has seen my native willow peppermint tree profusely flowering for the very first time. 

Not only is this beauty flowering but she is also towering above me with the growth spurt she has had over the nourishing winter months.

The willow peppermint is one of the gardens medicine plants. 

The leaves, twigs and gum of this plant were used traditionally as medicine and in ceremony. 

The new soft red growth has a peppermint scent when crushed and was used as a poultice and as an antiseptic. 

Once big and bushy enough she will also become home to birds and possums, which is also exciting.

She is also tall enough now to provide shade to the raised garden bed against the relentless summer sun, so, hopefully if I can figure out a way to keep the chickens out of the raised bed I may be at last successful in growing many crops of organic vegetables.......