Welcome to the weekend

seedy1Alright, I’m prep’ed and ready go. The very first Seedy Sunday happens this very weekend. Apart from the horror of having to get up and talk in front of a group of people and the few technical difficulties we are having with the videos, I’m surprisingly calm.

So a quick list of what I’m taking for the swap table: Shoofly seeds (said to scare off white moth), Marigold seeds (the ones best for nematode control), Pumpkin Jack-be-little (they’re so cute!), Jerusalem artichokes for planting, and some organic produce – lettuce, oregano etc.

Nervous but incredibly excited about the possibilities! I’m really hoping this will be a positive step in building a community of people who share, care and promote gardening and healthy eating. If you are near Kapiti drop on by.

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SHAG’d

kaleI’m exhausted, having spent the day at the Kapiti Sustainable Home and Garden (SHAG) show promoting the heck out of Transition Towns and Seedy Sunday. It’s been a beautiful day. But now I’m a little sunburnt, a little weary, with feet a little sore. Just enough energy left to pour a well-earned wine.

Thrilled to bits about response to Seedy Sunday! Lots of very keen gardeners, a supportive mayor and great reception from other local ‘eco’ groups. Everyone I talked with really liked the idea of getting together and sharing questions and experience about local conditions, pests and practicalities. Yay – getting excited! April 19 – here we come!

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Kowhai ngutu kaka

Kowhai ngutu kaka, kaka beak, Clianthus puniceusSpotted in Saturday’s DomPost, the stunning kowhai ngutu kaka, a.k.a kaka beak or Clianthus puniceus. The article was a little questionable (kaka beak has been nearly extinct in the wild since the 1940s, so there’s hardly any point trying to blame cows or grapes). But it’s nice to see the incredible scarlet flowers get a showing.

It is true however, that the wild population is down to one known plant, on an island in the Kaipara Harbour (which, btw, has no cows or grapes on it). The Maori did their best to move it around the country centuries ago, cultivating it in areas where they lived. Not only was it visually arresting, but the scent was used in body oils. The nectar would have attracted tui, and as a legume it would have contributed to the fertility of the soil.

If it weren’t for its incredible looks, the kowhai ngutu kaka would have died out a long time ago. Luckily, gardener’s have kept this species alive  internationally. Like most pretty things, kowhai ngutu kaka is a bit sensitive – weeds, insects, snails, drought, browsing and wind all do damage – and needs the loving hand of a gardener to help it along. The plant is a beautiful reminder of just how important gardeners can be.

Beautiful image courtesy of, and copyright to David Wall Photography.
More stunning photos of kaka beak at Arkive.

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Maara Kai – From Garden To Plate

Horopito (Pseudowintera colorata)

It used to be commonplace for New Zealand families to grow their own produce and eat from their gardens. Maara Kai is a new series that looks at ways families can restore that connection between the garden and the plate, and premieres on Maori Television on Sunday April 12 at 5pm.

“Many of us come from parents or grandparents who gardened, or used what was available to feed the family, and this is a way of life that still appeals to many people,” says Maara Kai producer Te Hira Henderson. “Many people want to be more sustainable and self-sufficient in how they eat and feed their families. This show encourages people who are keen to make changes to go out and do it.”

Read more

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Ground is Broken for White House Kitchen Garden

Obama White House GardenWASHINGTON (AP) — Twenty-six elementary schoolchildren wielded shovels, rakes, pitchforks and wheelbarrows to help first lady Michelle Obama break ground on the first day of spring for a produce and herb garden on the White House grounds.

Crops to be planted in the coming weeks on the 1,100-square-foot, L-shaped patch near the fountain on the South Lawn include spinach, broccoli, various lettuces, kale and collard greens, assorted herbs and blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.

There will also be a beehive.

Read the rest of the article

(via Transition Towns Kapiti)

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I Love Bees

honeybeeHoney bees are the bee’s knees. They make beeswax, propolis and royal jelly. They also make some of the best tasting stuff on the planet – honey – a complex food containing many minerals and healing properties and contains 75% sugar. You’ve probably heard of it. You should be eating some every day. Bulk buy it – it never spoils.

Honey bees have this other nifty little trick called pollination. Plants use the colourful cues of iridescence to make themselves attractive to bees. Bee pollination is responsible for the growth of all fruits and many vegetables as well as livestock feed – they’re real important. Humans rely on this pollination to a tune estimated at anywhere between $14 billion and $92 billion in the U.S. alone.

But things are looking grim, with hives being decimated by a disease called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Read more

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The Guide to Good Wood

Greenpeace has published it’s Good Wood Guide in time for Christmas shopping. Now you’ll know if that beautiful incense holder that you want to buy for your sister comes from sustainable / responsible sources or not. Thanks guys!

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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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