After finishing the chicken house a few weeks ago i was keen to get the seating area next to it done because this will further encourage the children and other people to come join us here for cooked food and hot drinks. There is nothing more enjoyable in my opinion as picking produce fresh from the garden and cooking it directly on the BBQ. Or perhaps someone has an ailment and is in need of a fresh medicinal plant for a tea infusion? The less time between picking and ingesting the better. Or simply put, fresh is best.
As with all projects like this i began with a drawing which doesn't always play out exactly but it does help me get an idea for how things are going to look.
Exactly one month ago on Feb 19th the area looked like this with an old collapsed wall and not very inviting seating area.
What to do with all these stones was a question which had me scratching my head for a while but i've worked with stones and mud before, creating a house in the forest, so was confident in making this supporting wall first, just to tidy up the mess from the very old wall which had fallen over.
It also features two new plant pots on the left and right of the raised section 👆 and a step up to the recently claimed kid's zone 👇 which makes it easy enough for a child to get to the top but hopefully too difficult for chickens.
This project was very different to the stone house because i was not limited by a square base, making anything i could imagine possible. Am grateful to my friend in Romania who sent an image of a spiral herb garden just at the right moment to get me thinking about stone spirals and it was for this reason that i chose to have no straight lines in the wall, extending the earth retaining curve out to meet the larger circle of the seating area and create the spiral for the BBQ/seat.
The larger circle of the seating area can be seen better from this angle.
I have a deep respect for the old folk who built their walls without mortar because there is no way i would be able to do this with my current level of skill. Instead i remove stones from the earth and mix it with water to make a mud cement. This may sound crazy but i can assure you it isn't. When built carefully this will hold together for a long time, as demonstrated by my stone house which still has a perfectly solid structure after three years, despite two attempts by the landowner to destroy it.
Here is the spiral wall a few days later with sunflowers planted. I had planned for hibiscus here but chose sunflowers in the end because these will develop faster and give the seating area some more privacy.
I considered the possibility of adding a storage area underneath the BBQ/seat circle but didn't have the right bits at hand so chose in the end to simply fill up the centre with stones, while at the same time adding soil to the 'plant pot' behind it.
You can see the proximity of the seating area to the chicken enclosure. Not far at all and the chickens will of course be welcome to join us in the stone spiral when we are there.
Note how the spiral flows clockwise from the BBQ/seat and out to the rest of the garden.
Here we have the finished base, flat enough to sit comfortably or clean out the ash with ease.
Next i built up the back of the circle to protect from wind and keep the plants behind from getting burned. Things deemed beneficial for BBQ situations will be grown here, such as peppers, chives, basil, parsley & lettuce.
Almost finished now.
I had intended to buy a circular grill but this one which was gifted to us last year works fine and it seems to me that one should always go with it when the pieces of the Great Jigsaw Puzzle just seem to fit together so easily.
It was Esteban's 9th birthday recently and one of my gifts to him was not to be revealed till the end of the day.
I wanted him to be the first person to make a fire here, just as the sun was setting.
Both of them were so very excited to run around and find more wood for the fire.
Working together to arrange the sticks as i have taught them.
It becomes harder and harder to captivate children as they get older so these moments of connection with nature and the elements are really important.
Esteban lit the fire after a brief moment of reflection for the beginning of a new chapter in our lives which is so great and intricately complex that our human minds cannot yet comprehend it.
And so it was done.
I have this piece of metal which can be inserted at times when there is a lot of wind.
The fire was dancing for us perfectly when one of our ex-cats (gifted kitten) came and joined our ceremony.
Here she is pointing out the rosemary and pepper in one of the new planting areas.
And also the jiaogulan, a highly nutritious adaptogen which will grow all over this area by the end of the summer.
Seen more clearly here, it is known as immortal tea because drinking this on a daily basis will improve pretty much any medical problem you have. Such is the nature of an adaptogen.
The children raced around the garden searching for more wood.
Poking at the fire till it started to become dark.
Eventually they had the idea to pick peas fresh from the garden and cook them!
The funny thing is that i didn't even push them towards this. It just comes naturally when the right elements are present.
The peas were cooked and enjoyed by all before a triumphant return home filled with promises of coming to the garden much more regularly in the future. Hallelujah!
That night everyone slept like a baby.
In the morning i rekindled the fire to see if i could make a coffee.
My coffee maker was engulfed in flames but created hot coffee in around one third of the time a gas hob would have done.
Here's me with my wake & bake mug, enjoying the sun & coffee in my stone spiral.
All in all am pretty happy with this design and will work with Sabrina now to make a cushion which fits in here so it can be used as a King's Throne when it is not in use as a BBQ.
It faces the setting sun on the summer solstice and i look forward to sitting here at that time, sending my energy out through the clockwise spiral to the garden beyond.
While i do still have a few more things to do in the seating area before this can be called officially finished, we are at a point now where i can really enjoy this space from which i will begin to plan future projects.
The Spiral Garden is expanding in a way which far exceeds my expectations for it and i can rest assured that all future projects will grow in the same way.
Final thoughts
The main goal with this and the chicken enclosure project was to get the children more interested in the garden so am happy to report this morning they were up 7am wanting to come with me. They were keen to make hot chocolate on the fire! Once this was done Esteban decided he would add his artistic contribution to the chicken enclosure door, just as our friend the cat arrived to say hello.
She loves to sit here watching everyone at work.
Esteban was really getting in to his Flower of Life when the sun blessed us with its first rays.
So happy to see him drawing in this way.
The next mission is to build a rabbit hutch and put it inside the chicken enclosure. The children have agreed to help me with the construction, so once this is done, the rabbits & chickens will arrive and our Summer will be in full swing.
I understand rabbits & chickens will live happily together as long as they get to know each other while they are still young.
Not much else to add other than a warning. Watch out when working with mud in your bare hands for any prolonged period! It will dry them out.
Thanks to the wisdom of people on this platform i have home made calendula oil for this and it is helping a lot.
I leave you with a shot of our 2024 kittens, who are just now starting to explore outside their box. Three of them already have future homes and it won't be long now before every person in this village has one of our cats ;)
Love & Light everyone 🌱
