Borlotti beans: wonderfully tasty and homegrownGrow your own food! But be patient – this is how long it will take. The chart looks at how long you can expect to wait for your vegetables to grow from seed. These are estimated times – climate, soil conditions, water supply, different cultivars, farming methods can all give different results.

There’s no time like the present to start growing food, especially when you see how long it takes for veges to grow. The economy is going insane, nobody knows what’s going to happen… you need a little security in your life. Being able to grow food to feed your family is really the best security you can get. Then you know that if you lose your job, or the supermarkets run out, or your country goes bankrupt you can eat.

It’s a baseline to work from – you need to eat. If you grow your own food (or even just some of it) :

—  it will save you money;
—  it will give you mana, strength, self-worth;
—  it will give you better health, keep you active, help you lose weight.

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Zucchini Blossom End RotSo I was wondering why the zucchini plants growing in one bed were half the size of the ones growing in another. The answer became apparent as the zucchs set. The soil in one bed is lacking in calcium. The signs being a nasty little problem called Blossom End Rot.

I’m ok with it as I’m drowning in zucchini at the moment and I’m choosing to see this as a valuable garden lesson. Still, I don’t like to see unhappy plants. I’ll be laying them to rest in the compost and adding lime and crushed egg shells to the soil, reapplying mulch and hoping for better healthier plants next time around. I’ll do a soil test in the future to see if I got it right.

Zucchini Blossom End Rot is not your friend! Make sure you look after your soil and avoid these problems!

St John's WortIt’s a beautiful sunny, summer day and my garden is rocking right now. I’ve been in a fairly lazy mood pottering around, taking some photos, pulling some weeds. It’s been a great day. My St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is looking fantastic . The bright yellow flowers are looking resplendent. Today I’m going to bottle some of that golden goodness and make a tincture.

St John’s wort has been used centuries as a healing and magical herb. It’s been talked about a lot over the last decade due to it’s use as a treatment for depression. St John’s wort is also incredibly effective as an antibiotic and to heal neuralgic headaches and external injuries, burns and bruises. And that’s what I’ll be using my tincture for.

More on St John’s wort, how to grow, harvest, infuse and use it with lots of pretty pictures after the jump….

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Brussels sproutsSo I’ve been getting all angsty about my Brussels sprouts Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera. It turns out I planted them at the wrong time – curse you garden stores with attractive looking punnets. Apparently, I should be planting them now instead of 3 months ago.

Second thing I got wrong – they require a much firmer soil then the bed they are in right now. Well-limed, well-drained, well-firmed is the advice I’ve just received on the topic. Apparently, they’re a bit fussy. But I reckon these babies are going to be sooo worth it.

I realise this can be a very contentious issue. They are one of the least liked vegetables. But I think Brussels sprouts have just had really bad press. They’re delicious when grown well and cooked properly, with a really nice nutty flavour.

More on the joys of Brussels sprouting with recipes and nutritional info after the jump… Read more

Angelica archangelicaYesterday was an absolutely gorgeous Labour Day, which saw me spring cleaning the garden. My medicinal herb garden got a general weed and several species avoided strangulation by the kikuyu, St John’s wort and violets which are running mad. The calendula got tidied up and the chamomile is doing well. And it’s really nice to see my bloodwort, comfrey, goldenrod and marshmallow making stellar returns.

I planted out my shallots and transplanted the Jerusalem artichokes to somewhere a bit more agreeable.So they don’t interfere with my more valuable root crops – good garlic is extremely important.

I have angelica Angelica archangelica going crazy in random places all over the garden so I need to find some uses. I might need to try this angelica liquer and all 17 of these angelica recipes to try to get it back under control. Now is time to harvest the stems, but I’ll keep plenty on to get some of the roots in autumn. Plants for a Future has a great write-up on it. I love that project!

More gardening adventures after the jump…
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Last week, I went to the most inspiring talk. None of this doom and gloom the world is ending stuff that you’d expect from any talk concerned with Peak Oil. Instead, David Blume described how we can take control of our fuel needs by growing it ourselves, or with the help of neighbours with Community Supported Ethanol.

David stresses that almost everything that can be made from oil can be made from plants. This stuff is pretty near and dear to the hearts and minds of the LovePlantLife team. We’ll be doing lots of follow-up on this one.

Notes on David’s talk on how Alcohol can be a gas, why biofuels don’t steal food from hungry mouths, how we can grow our own fuel and other additional benefits after the jump. Read more

Heather Flores is a green garden goddess. She has a vision – for lawns to give way to gardens and those gardens to feed and sustain communities. And she’s written down the blueprint for this garden revolution in Food not Lawns: How turn your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighbourhood into a Community.

Food not Lawns starts by putting you in the right headspace, a good non-preachy ‘why you should’. Flores then kicks into a really sound overview of the practical elements – how to gain ground, the water cycle, the living soil, plants, polycultures and seed stewardship. All this in a really friendly, engaging style. Then we go beyond the garden, reaching out into the community and working together, for and with the next generation.

More review and lots of links after the jump…

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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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