Better Living With Plants -- Grow, Eat and be Merry
Images left to right from top: comfrey leaf; thyme; dill flowers; dried hops flowers; St John’s wort flowers; potted kawakawa; broad-leaved plantain; yarrow flowers; yarrow leaves; lemon balm; feverfew; aloe vera; peppermint. There are masses of websites with info on medicinal herbs and quite frankly most of them are rubbish. Written by writers, not by [...]
Holstein Freisian dairy cow – there’s 4.4 million of them in New Zealand. Image from Wikipedia. This is not a diatribe against cows, as previously stated I really do like the beasties. So news is out that National seek to allow the introduction of genetically engineered organisms into New Zealand. You know New Zealand–that previous [...]
Lettuce is by far the world’s favourite salad green. The Egyptians were growing it way back in 4500 BC and it’s been the darling of the salad and the sandwich ever since. There is an incredible array of lettuce available for the discerning gardener – colour, style, leaf-form and grace. Only a disappointing sample can [...]
Ever ready to take up the challenge of getting someone excited about gardening and growing food, I offered to look after my neighbour’s sweet little one-year-old, Tora while I was planting my green garden the other day. The kid was hanging out, looking for a good time while all her mum really wanted to do [...]
Grow 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 [...]
It’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 [...]
You can tell that summer and the festive season are here. It’s difficult to miss with the tell-tale red lights of the pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa) signalling the way. The pohutukawa is also known as the New Zealand Christmas Tree because of the beautiful crimson display that flares at the end of November and right through [...]
So 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 [...]
