So much for summer – we’ve been inundated with misty overcast horrible grey days and the wind has knocked the stuffing out of my plants. First sunny dry day, I’ll be out there cut things back, allowing air to circulate, clearing out detritus and generally cleaning up. I suspect I’ll also need a bucket-load of mildew spray. I have some courgettes that will be gagging for it.
* 1 teaspoon baking soda * 1 cup milk * 1 cup water
Mix together and spray liberally.
A sensational, virtual round the world gardening trip has been orchestrated over at gardeningtipsnideas.com by Stuart. And the dear man has chosen to include LovePlantLife as one of the 80 destinations. I’m so smiley!
Off to grab a glass of wine and do some sightseeing, all from the comfort of my couch and without damaging my credit card. I love being on holiday!
Since Boxing Day is synonymous with shopping here in New Zealand, I thought it appropriate to post this amazing window display for London’s Selfridges created by Matthew Plummer Fernandez.
I’ve always had a thing for geometry – how it looks rather than the mathematics, that stuffs way above me. But what I really dig is the analogy Plummer Fernandez used:
“I looked at the role of the shop window as a piece of architecture and found myself comparing it to the function of flowers; the part of a larger organism that is responsible for attracting other living species for its survival. Flowers have perfected the art of attraction by stimulating its target’s sense of sight, smell, touch and taste. With this in mind I adopted design traits from flowers such as the geometry behind the window’s complex form. Research into Phyllotaxis (the arrangement of florets) was key to solving the shape, followed by the calculation of folding templates for all 169 segments.”
The name Apifera is a botanical term given to flowers that are specialised in attracting bees.
Read more about the construction at Yatzer.
The cleverest idea I’ve seen for a enviro-friendly Christmas business Rent A Living Christmas Tree.
(via the lovely Garden Rooms people.)
It must be a difficult time of year for refugee families, separated from and often fearing for the safety of loved ones overseas. Spurred on by a request by Refugee Services, I’ve decided to give the gift of gardening this Christmas. And would like to invite you all to join me.
Request from Wellington Refugees as Survivors:
This is a Colombian family (parents and 3 primary school children in NZ, with 3 grown up children still in Colombia) who arrived earlier. Shortly after their arrival the father was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He has nearly finished his 4th round of Chemo Therapy and will have major surgery in January 2010, followed by more Chemo Therapy. He describes himself as a “hard worker” and enjoys gardening. He has developed a huge vegetable garden in his (HNZ) backyard (including composting organic rubbish) for which he would love to have some of his own garden tools (currently he borrows).
Do any of you have a spare hoe, fork, spade that you no longer need? Also a hammer and some new garden gloves.
I’d like to help this family out and get them the gardening tools they require. I’m assuming there are other families who would also be wanting such things so I’d like to collect any garden tools you have left over and disperse them to those who need them. I’ll also contribute a large amount of vegetable and flower seed. Can anyone help?
Fascinated as I am with the industrial uses of plants and how they can be used to do almost everything, I don’t write a lot about these things simply because my scientific knowledge isn’t really… And I’d hate to get it wrong. But in moments like this, I can point you to people who are way cleverer than me.
Heather is way cleverer than me. She’s an industrial chemist and blogger at Oil is for… The blog is a really informative look at what oil can actually be used for and how we can put it to better use than simply burning it.
Recently, Heather took a look at bubblewrap and how poly lactic acid (PLA) bubblewrap can be made from starchy crops such as silverbeet and corn. There’s also a bit of disturbing news for pineapple lump lovers such as myself.
What really grabbed me was Oranges are for oil. It quickly looks at some of the industrial uses of orange waste from juice production:
– vitamin A,
– paint ingredients,
– gelling agents,
– cellulose for cellophane and fuel,
– synthetic rubber,
– food oil,
– activated charcoal.
Another one for the feedreader, folks! Oil is for…
(via StarCooked)
Gush! I just bought myself an early christmas present – a pair of Youngstown women’s garden gloves. And they’re ridiculously kickass!
I have girly hands. They spend most of their time typing or writing or doing inside things. They do a lot of gardening too but are, well, girly and get cuts and knocks and so on and so on. I also don’t have a lot of manual strength but in these things I feel like a ninja.
They fit really well, are machine washable and have this great little wrist strap. There is also a terry towelling bit below the thumb so that I can swat sweat, insects or dirt off my face – softly. Reinforcing in the palms, thumbs and over the knuckles just makes me feel like I can do anything. And they’re so comfortable that I just wore them around the supermarket.
I bought mine at Bunnings Porirua for NZ$32. You can get them online at Amazon.com or through the Youngstown Glove Company website.
I just gave my very first powerpoint presentation – an 80 slide extravaganza on the whys, wherefores and wonderment of food forests, all in 33 minutes. And I’m quite pleased at how well it went.
It was a really fantastic chance to talk about things I’m really passionate about food, plants and pretty things. All done in support of the establishment of a Kapiti Food Forest for the community.
I used the Presentation Zen approach with only a handful of words per slide and filled with lots of really lovely images. And I’ll be shaping the presentation into a series of blog posts to appear here over summer. Exciting things are happening…
I needed a little Friday afternoon smile. Thanks Christoph Niemann for your lessons in Bio-Diversity.
In completely un-plant related news, check out his book The Pet Dragon.
