Drink tea

I drink a lot of tea. It doesn’t seem so next to my British in-laws who seem to constantly sip sugary, milky gumboot tea. But nearly all my fluid intake consists of pots of aromatic gorgeous brews of green or white teas, florally-infused blacks or herbal concoctions. Plants all brewed in water, imparting nutrients, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants into my diet.

For years I’ve been assaulted with messages from the media about how I should be drinking far more pure water, and how drinking tea is bad for girls because it strips away iron from the body, or how tea is so dehydrating because of all the caffeine.

Researchers at Kings College London have thankfully said “poppycock!” to the aforementioned bologne. After reviewing numerous studies on the benefits of drinking tea, they’ve concluded that tea is a superior drink.

Dr Ruxton said: “Drinking tea is actually better for you than drinking water. Water is essentially replacing fluid. Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so it’s got two things going for it.”

As for caffeine in teas being dehydrating, the research team says:

“Studies on caffeine have found very high doses dehydrate and everyone assumes that caffeine-containing beverages dehydrate. But even if you had a really, really strong cup of tea or coffee, which is quite hard to make, you would still have a net gain of fluid.”

I am starting to make my own blends but my favourite source of fine, fine tea is Wellington’s t Leaf T They’re delish!

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Rocket Farming

I may have inadvertently started the potentially great Kapiti Coast rocket (Eruca sativa) weed problem. And I have mixed feelings about it. We simply don’t need any more weeds around this place. But I’m always happy when things self sow, it’s the way things are meant to happen.

The rocket came from certified-organic stock, and I first planted it 2 years ago. It’s been self-seeding regularly which has been fabulous, growing all year round. Now it has started growing in my lawn, proving that it doesn’t need great soil to do well. It’s frost-resistant and drought-tolerant. It does go to seed quickly though.

Many years ago my interest in lettuce waned. It was simply a case of over-use. I was uninspired by salady greeny leafy things until a relative newcomer rocketed into my world and rocked it! Rocket – I love your peppery flavour, the zest you bring into my life. You’re a match made in heaven with tomatoes and you are out of this world with haloumi.

The flowers are really pretty and are a tasty garnish or addition to salads. And a little reading at Plants for a Future suggests that the seeds could make a mustard alternative. The seed yields a semi-drying oil which is a substitute for rapeseed oil. It can also be used for lighting, burning with very little soot. The powdered seed has antibacterial properties.

I love it rocket – it’s one of those plants that deliver on flavour, attractiveness, medicinal and industrial properties. It’s a plant I’ll be nurturing in my garden for a longtime to come.

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I freakin’ love spring!

Genista in full bloom, Gisborne NZ, Sept 18, 2008

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Mulching is sweet

Mulching has got to be my favourite gardening chore. Not only does it smother weeds, thus facilitating the end of one of my least favourite jobs (weeding…I have kikuyu grass, I hate weeding), but is also satisfying some serious chocolate craving. I’m using cocoa husks to mulch my garden and I’m loving it!

I think my plants will too. Cocoa shell mulch contains 2.5% Nitrogen, 1% Phosphate, and 3% Potash.

Cocoa husks, pea straw, the terrors of kikuyu and great reasons to mulch after the jump…

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Call to Spades! Start Somewhere – Start Anywhere

I’ve been gardening now on and off for almost 25 years. Mainly off. This isn’t through a lack of desire to grow healthy food or beautiful flowers. I dream of this a lot. I’m full of wonderful ideas and a huge library of books and bookmarks. I’ve got plenty of seed, a few good tools and lots of land to work my magic on.

You know why I don’t live in the new Eden? One – I’m pretty lazy. Two – I keep being scared off getting started gardening. I’m constantly bombarded with messages:

— You have to plan properly

— You have to get the soil right

— You have to wait until the right time

— You have to have the right tool / spray / fertiliser / method

Well, too frickin bad Mr You-have-to, I’m going all Whatever on you.
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Springy-shiny seeds

It’s a beautiful Spring-shiny day here on the Kapiti Coast. I’m celebrating with a lovely glass of chilled Brown Brother’s Dolcetto-Syrah (to ease the passage from winter reds to summer whites) and planting seeds. It’s just lovely. My nose is filled with berry bouquets and I still retain some dirt below my fingernails, making me feel all like earth goddess and urban-tech sophisticate at the same time. Lovely, I tell you.

So, I’ve scrabbled around and found a whole range of seed and thought it was about time to get some things on the go. Then I can take a serious look at my Kings Seeds catalogue and decide on a few other flavours for the garden.

To dampen my abilities to go overboard, I limit myself to 10 lots (read pots) of seeds at a time. This forces me into planting a diverse garden that doesn’t all come on at once. Since it is so mild here, I can get a really good growing season with a little patience.

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Come here, petal!

LovePlantLife absolutely loves plants. We love the way they taste, how they make us feel, and what they make us want to do. We write about things that take our fancy as long as they are plant-related.

We’re not expert gardeners – in fact quite the opposite. We’re avid readers, learners and doers. We’d love to be doing more but, like most people, we have to balance our romantic ideals of full-time gardening joy with 40 hours + a week work, commuting time, family, friends, housekeeping and other things that always seem far more pressing.

Everyone leads such busy lives and so we’re the type of gardeners that cut us all some slack. Things don’t need to be perfect, nature isn’t. But it is well-balanced. So LovePlantLife maintains that you need to have fun while gardening. Sometimes we have a glass of bubbles while pulling out weeds. We’re advocates of doing garden chores socially – invite your friends over and call all your family in, and have a bbq when you’ve finished. Even start a garden group. You don’t want gardening to be too much like hard work, do you?

Don’t make gardening something you dread! It’s far too special for that.

The LovePlantLifers are also geeks. We do want to know everything we can about plants – they’re so bloody fascinating. So you’ll find a huge amount of research goes in to many of these posts. Botanically-minded, we’re attempting to learn more about botany – we want to know who these plants are, what they do, where they like to hang out and how they interact.

Being human, we also want to know all about ethnobotany – how people interact with and use the plants around them, and economic botany – how we can use them to feed, clothe, heal, sustain us. It’s all part of our master plan to save the world through plants.

Plants are our best resources. Renewable ones at that. Nearly everything we need to survive and thrive can be made from plants. We can live better by understanding the plants around us and making better use of them. We can live cleaner, greener, healthier, safer, happier lives through plants. Gotta love that.

Hopefully, we’ll rock your little plant world! If you ever wanted to know more about flowers, trees, gardening, herbs, food, ethnobotany, or dreamed about pottering around your own beautiful garden or living sustainably – then we hope to bring you a little weekly inspiration, or a little more fodder for your daydreams.

xxx

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We’re Coming…. 

.....and this is what we're going to do when we get here.


Thanks Wordle!
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