Bees and other beautiful things

I read recently, that sadly, the Clarence River area has been affected by the virus Varroa that kills off bees. How sad that is, the best honey in NZ comes from our back country. Life as we know it pales without the bees!. Of course we need bees for pollination, and it is Natures way of doing its best to maintain balance around us.
... Today, right here in the city, I watched my borage, comfrey and lavender plants, as the bees hummed  around the flowers, bouncing in, doing their business, then moving on. It wasnt a lot of bees at all, just a handful, and the odd darling bumblebee. I love watching them. I enjoy their happy humming.  Long live the bees. I hope.

There are flower buds smothering the plants here, from the citrus right through to the strawberries and the broad beans. Not a lot of pollination going on yet though. My companion plants are a bit slower to flower this year, but theyre getting there. A lot of them have been self sown, and are just starting to stretch their heads up, buds unfurling. Theres Red opium poppy, some soldier poppies, beautiful blue borage and a handful of others. New ones this year include Nigella, Snapdragon, more Granny Bonnets, and Delphinium and the gorgeous Cleome. Foxgloves have finally set their flowers free from the tall flower spikes, and Im loving their speckled throats.  The sunflowers we sprinkled in a few spots are shooting upward, Im hoping they will cope with the wind, given one of the new locations is quite exposed. At worst, I can tie them to some bamboo til they gain strength...

We have seeds setting on some Swedes, some black Kale, Leeks, Walking Onions, St Valery Carrot, and some mesculun varieties. Im loving the new Valerian and pretty Pineapple sage. Even the echinacea is poking its wee head up from the soil. We have red, white and black currants on the bushes, just waiting for more sun... I love this time of year... and blueberries... we have them growing too! (Not nearly enough to satisfy this lot, but I have plans for more bushes!)

Eating out the garden has commenced, we have a few culinary herbs that are helping things along, and of course plenty of lettuce... which I am giving away whereever I can because there is no way we can eat them all... Plenty of potatoes which along with the yams are doing their thing. The early potatoes are just beginning to develop their flowers, and I cant wait to see

So there we go, no photos this time, life has just gotten quite busy and Im finding time in the garden to be really scarce but most enjoyable. I still cant believe some of the things Ive found to be growing successfully. This gardening thing is really cool :-)

Love to All
E BUTTERFLY
XXXXXXXXX

Planning and Planting - Almost that time again!~

Its almost planting time again!
I love this time of year.  The days have been very long while it has been wet, but Ive dug over some of the front garden and Ive made a list, and checked it twice (or more!)
I just cant wait to get out there, seeds in hand.
Im waiting to see if some of the cuttings Ive taken will actually grow, and Ive sprinkled some seeds around the place in the hope theyll spring forth and liven up the bare spots in the garden as companion plants (marigolds and calendula). I see borage is coming up already, also bulbs - some narcissus, to remind us that Spring isnt far away. The hollyhocks and poppies will be fantastic.

I cant wait for tomato season. I miss fresh tomatoes, basil and lettuce... but it wont be long and the lettuce will be back... I have frilled cos raising its head already, and buttercrunch have just sprouted. The new mesculun bed is looking promising amongst the little sticks Ive also planted, to keep cats out.

If we get some harsh frosts, I have made little cloches out of drink bottles, so ... hopefully theyll help.
Im starting off seeds inside too. The school are doing Scarlet Runner beans, per child, and a Sunflower plant, per child as they learn about seeds, Spring and nutrition.  Im glad I can pass the seeds along, its a good thing. Just wish I could do more.
The class gardens are going to be dug over at the end of the month, and then we can get going with the planting!

I had some lemon and kowhai seeds in the fridge, and have taken them out to get them started. I nicked the end of each kowhai seed, and will they take off quite nicely after that. I have about a dozen three inch high seedlings from last Summer, so maybe I will make good progress with these ones too. The lemon seeds are a bit stubborn, but they seem to kick off once it gets warmer. Last years lemon pips are now small but healthy trees - about two inches tall. Yes, I know... slow. But hey, Im not going anywhere, I have time to wait and watch them grow...
Then theres the Quince seeds. Theyve started to germinate. Fingers crossed I can get them to grow too.

Not much else happening on the gardening front...but its a time of promise. Soon, little butterfly, soon!! :)
Loving the sunshine, even these cooler days with no wind are great.
Watching the Olympics is a good excuse to stay inside :-)

Love to all,
EB
XX

Diggin Deep... Dirt Flyin! Seed sowing begins...

Im delighted by the weather.
However as I write, it has changed drastically, the wind is blowing furiously out there and Im picking there will be rain to follow. But today was gorgeous... Oh wait, Ive sent Mr 12 out to check. No - no wet stuff, very cold though, and bright skies...It has to clear up quick cos the past couple of days have been awesome.

Blue Borage

Heading back into the garden has meant weeding ensued everywhere. Ive dug, weeded and shovelled, composted, weeded some more, and been covered from head to foot with goodness knows what - and I loved it :)
I can barely walk for sore muscles, of course, but its done.

Starting off... 

The final dose of horse poo has gone into the compost, the raggle-taggle ends of the spent tansy, echinacea (*Magnus*), stevia, borage costmary and anise hyssop are cut back, and Ive seen the first Spring bulbs burst into flower. Theyre brave. Im sure there will be a back-lash of cold stuff still to come, say mid September - lots of wet weather - is that Spring showers maybe?

Last year we had a couple of drops of snow about then too, didnt we? I cant remember exactly, but I know once I mention the seeds Ive sprinkled, the weather will hone in...

The lettuces will grow through the year and this year I have lots -  I have a mix of  Ice King, Canasta, Frilled Cos, Buttercrunch and Danyelle - oh and a red one - Red Flame.
I cant wait for the mesculun to spring up again. Missy cant wait for the new carrot seeds to arrive. Ive dug out all of our last years varieties (St Valery, Nutri Red and Paris Ball), and the onions (Purplette, Borettana and a bunching onion) will follow tomorrow.

*Pams Choice*



Ive found so many precious little sprigs of this and that throughout the garden. 

I sprinkled foxglove seed last year - *Pams Choice* and they have only now made themselves known. Theres red opium poppies self-sown everywhere, but thats hardly surprising given the number we had last year and they have a lot of seed per head, the bumblebees love them! and Im delighted that the Echinacea has successfully split into five parts, so I will encourage the honey bees everywhere with some pretty pink shows. I would like to add more blue borage to that, some orange and yellow calendulas that self seed, red french marigold for companion gardening, and ... oh so many other plants. I want drifts of colour this year. I worked on the vegetable garden last year, this year Im encouraging the flowers for bees, but also for picking.

Calendula - Pot Marigold

Berry Berry Nice... Oranges & lemons...
Lots of strawberries have self-sown, jumping from clump to clump as they do. Im quite fond of them, as there doesnt seem to be a lot to weed around them. We have some nodules on the sticks that are rumoured to be black currant bushes so I think thats great news...
We have three of those, and four blue berries. A couple of red currants and a zillion boysenberries and raspberries... Im cutting back some of the canes, so I can hand them on to others to enjoy and we can avoid looking like a bramble farm. The boysenberries take no prisoners. I keep reminding myself its the berries I want, so I have to bear with the scratches,  and boy they do scratch!

Hazelnut trees with buds!

I think the most astonishing thing Ive seen, is under cover, the mandarin fruits have coloured up, making a pretty show. We got 12 off one, and have about another 7 to come off another tree. Theyre rather small, but taste ok. Success :) The oranges are still small, and rather hard, and Im going to remove them so the goodness can go back into the plants. The lemons have got through the winter so far, so good, and Im pleased to say, theyre fruiting well. I have seen flowers on two of them. Yahoo!

Have a whole new pile of firewood to chop. Im sure thats what I have children for, no?
Oddly enough, theyre all busy when I mention firewood, so Im getting a man in to do it *evil grin*.
He may or may not know about it yet. Ok, so he will know once he reads this.

Leeks

Ive had a big crop of swedes this year, although I wasnt sure what it was that I was growing. Im not sure Im going to be so successful giving them away, as noone likes them. To some, theyre cattle fodder, to others, they have bad memories of how they were given swedes as a child - usually the method of cooking them was what was awful. Its a shame, the humble swede is a good base for stew or soup. Handy to have IF YOU LIKE THEM, not so easy to give away if you dont :)
The lesson there is - Grow what you will use. Got that. Tick!


Well thats about it from me for now...
Im going to go out and see if I can find my washing. Im picking it will be about three blocks away now with that wind.

Love to You
E Butterfly
XXXXXXX

The History of Carrots
- The carrot museum... Yes, theres a museum :)

Happy Shortest Day...

It sure is Winter!

After the last fortnight, I think cabin fever is rife around here. Ive been knitting some beanies to help ward away the cold!
Its been so wet and cold, snow, rain, sleet, hail, watery sun. We've had The works!
I keep telling myself that this is good. And this too shall pass :)  It means all the soil in the garden gets cleansed, and all the bad things in it get washed away, then it gets frozen so the soil is clean and ready to go in the Spring. I just dont like wet feet. Or Icy sidewalks, Soggy socks, holes in gumboots... yuk :)

We've had a lot of illness in our schools these past two weeks, and its worrying that our children dont have the strong immune systems they might have once. We as parents, need to work on that. Fresh fruit and Veggies. Expensive as ever at this time of the year, when we dont have them in great supply in the garden (Im down to onions, toms (inside) and Silverbeet! ... even if the local supermarket has 1kg of frozen veg for just 99.c - an awesome special - its a good start though.
The Intermediate school my son goes to gave Flu injections free this year. A first. Oddly, they have been down to just 7 at school out of 30 last Friday! Its a worry! After speaking to his teacher, she hasnt had a full complement of 32 in about a month.

Cant wait to start the new seasons growing.
It seems ages since I went out for a morning in the Garden. Ive pulled it all out, the citrus and pots are under cover, waiting for some warmth, which, without being too hopeful may happen this weekend if the weather man has it right :)


There are the odd eqs still happening too, but theyre getting smaller, less often, and wide spread. We share them with a lot of other parts of New Zealand at the moment, and... even Melbourne, Australia. Poor Sods, its scary.
No matter what size, when you least expect it, it is SCARY.


So yeah, Happy Shortest Day.
This means we are half way to Spring? I sure hope so...
Did you plant your Garlic? ... Do you have plans for your new seasons Garden? Ive finally listed some seeds on a local auction site, but Im also giving them away where I can, it makes good sense.
Herbs, Vegetables... dont forget the companion planting...Marigolds, calendula, tansy, and lots more... Then theres mulch and compost, a light fertilizer, working into the soil while you work at keeping warm inside!

Thats me for now,
Stay Warm, stay safe,
Roll On Spring...
XX
EB

Happy Days Are Here Again...Aloe, Aloe... Vera?

Yeah!It is a good day. For a Tuesday!
The birds are singing - or were singing - seeing its Dark Just Now.
And it was a good day in the Garden.
With my
 Darling
Mr EB.
Side By Side.
Him with the Man Saw, Me with the piddly wee bendable thing (ugh!)
We cut and slashed, hacked and ripped out some scraggly plum type trees that have never done much
except make a mess. We talked as we hacked, planned, dreamed, schemed.
Now I have a corner for my new compost bin. A big 'un!
Now to move the contents of the old piles into the new bin...
Guess who gets to help with that job... Boys? :-)
Why have two gorgeous teens unless they can do menial tasks for you and then tell you they love you?
Ha! They havent heard my demands yet, but I guess I ll need bribery too :-)

So after the compost bin is in place, filled with glorious rotting stuff, I can start shopping for Worms.
Yes! A Worm farm. Im looking forward to long, fat, skinny, slimy, grubby wormies! I love it!
And then, the next on the list, is the extension of the herb garden, down the length of the property.
And grubbing the new ground for the vege garden
Selecting some seeds to start sprouting for Spring - Petunias, Snapdragon and Phlox,
Repotting the Aloe babies into their own pots
... I feel like a new mother - they have sprouted babies everywhere again!
I think I ll have upward of 30 Aloe Vera plants after this next lot are repotted.
Where to put them, is the question? Running out of places... Might have to Trademe some.

So onward to Wednesday...
Love to All
EBUTTERFLY
XXXXXXXX

Making a List of Things to Do... Frugal Plans

Firstly, THANK YOU Sarah at Kiwi Mummy Blogs. 

We got accepted to be on their blog list. I hope that will mean more views, some comments... 

Glad to be there! 

Awesome reading others blogs too!

Hmm, Got my Serious Face on tonight.
Somehow deep thinking always gives me a headache :-)
I want to start getting ahead in my plans, start targetting things, so Ive made *The List*.
I would like to move things out of town to our own land... I need some clear direction to where we are going, so Im adding things I need to do, to make this possible.
THE REALITY IS... oh I hate that phrase... but the reality IS, that it is going to take me a while to get organized... so along the way, I want to achieve some other *life things* too.

*Plant more herbs... 
*Buy Seeds Often 
*Want to make my chicken coop
*Put up some Outside lights (hehe, so I can garden deep into the night?)
*Get some timer switches for our new heaters (for Winter)
*Get rid of the Clutter that accumulates
*Down-size... Everywhere!
*Get better organized so I can cope with my financials throughout the year... We dont do too bad, but I can always do better, Im sure of it.
*Buy myself a new camera. --- really, this should be at the top of the list, Im emotionally bereft without it!
*Get guitar lessons so I can learn with Mr 10.5yrs who is learning at school
*Make myself a recipe book, somewhere all my recipes will be all together, not on pieces of paper or files on disks etc... Get it TOGETHER!
*Make a song book for Miss 4 so we can sing together, and she can learn to read too.
*Blog more... Get out More... Make more Friends... Influence More People? LOL no, its been done, but the idea is a good one!
*Buy myself a new (laptop?) computer. One that I can take to bed... town... the riverbank... etc.
*Sleep better, longer... and wake up beautiful? LOL right.
* Ressurect my massage bed so I can have clients at home again. I miss therapeutic massage...and the smell of lavender oil. Its lovely when your house always smells pleasant.

So theres some other financial stuff to add to the list, but its boring... ok, its important too, but all-in-all, I just want to downsize. I want to be able to move out of here and not take the clutter too :-) Is this possible? I guess time will tell...

Another one of my wishes for my list, is to better try to LISTEN. Im trying to understand better where my teenagers are at, and sometimes its too easy to SPEAK instead of LISTEN... I found this link, its inspirational...
BEING LOVING OR BEING RIGHT by Hilary Smith

So thats it! -  Friday night, and we are ensconced watching American Idol. Well, not really actually. I am on here blogging, and as I look behind me, The Lad is reading some heavy looking read by Bernard Cornwell. Little Miss Muffet is asleep. She didnt sleep well last night, and subsided early. Hmmm. I just heard an enormous yawn. hehe. It wont be long and it will be me on my lonesome...

Sleep well,
Have a GREAT weekend.
EButterfly

Choosing to Grow Your Own...

The boys and I are going to start some seedlings this week. We all enjoy doing these things, and it makes sense when there are so many of us, to grow our own salad greens and veggies.
Last year I saved seed from almost anything I could find, and that will pay off - I have a big seed bank, Im quite excited about watching things grow from seed.
It can be  expensive to find pots for everything, but we have a great tip -  stock up your plastic pie containers for seedlings. It is a great way of potting things til they are big enough to plant out... They are usually only good for one use, but the plastic is recyclable.

 I have my cyclamens in a pie container on the windowsill in our bathroom and they are doing great.

Who would have thought eating meat pies would pay such attractive dividends??

Another great way of keeping your salad greens handy is this...
Plant them in a bath!  It is excellent on our farm, it keeps the rabbits (mostly) at bay, and its easy on the back for weeding! Also, if you have herb gardens, you can plant your culinary herbs in one, your medicinal in another... Brilliaaaaant!!! (Baz has such wonderful ideas!)

Winter Weeks... Soup, Saving Seed and other stuff...

<--- This is Santolina or Cotton Lavender Isnt that beautiful? - a real silvery Beauty. Nature is so clever!

Another week comes to an end, and I realize Winter is here. (Christchurch city, New Zealand, Southern Hemisphere - we are back to front!)
I was up very early this morning, and the sky was as clear as a bell, the air very fresh, almost freezing. The sky was so beautiful, dont you just love seeing the stars out twinkling happily?

The Southern Cross is so easy to see here, even in the city - there it was, just out my back door and up, up ... up quite a bit really.

Soup has been on the agenda this week - 'cos weve had rain and lots of it. Soup is part of our Winter tradition, theres nothing as comforting as a big bowl of veggies with *soldiers* - buttered toast, cut into lengths, to dip into your bowl. Yes, I recall my own mother having our soup ready for us when we got home if it was raining. Funny how you remember things, and they invoke memories - it was soup with soldiers, and the smell of wet wool (school uniform, included a woollen jersey AND if you were of the female persuasion, a big woollen kilt that weighed heavy and clung to your legs when wet!)

My children eat soup all up, a really good way to get the dreaded veggies into them, they love it.

(Click on the word SOUP for an easy veggie soup recipe!)

This year with my new dehydrator, Im thinking I should begin to dry as many different types of vegetables and herbs to add to the Soup mix! And to add to stews or other dishes, or for making decoctions and infusions.
What I have done so far, is dry some Santolina (Cotton Lavender) leaf - apparently it is very good for making bunches to keep moths at bay - putting a small bag of leaf into the pockets of your coats when you store them is a great idea. It still smells - but it is a natural kind of smell, as opposed to the smell of moth balls. I have some tansy leaf also, but I wont be using that while Im pregnant as it is one of the herbs that can cause problems with pregnancy.

And I wasnt going to mention it, but *blush* we are 12 weeks and 2 days pregnant. Due on 11 November. Im starting to feel the quickenings, and *Baby* reminds me of how wonderful it is to be a pregnant woman! I am somewhat of a veteran, this being baby number 5... but each and every pregnancy is exciting, Im so fortunate to be keeping well so far. (Fingers crossed!) We have three sons and a daughter, and each has their own ideas about what the new baby might be... Bless them!

Some Links...
While browsing I found this which amused me somewhat.
I dont think Ive ever seen more than two ladybirds at once in any one spot... but this could fix it all --------> LOOK HERE



A great NZ Website that is written by one of the Trademe Mummies from the Parenting Board -----> SLINGBABIES - Jessie has an awesome informative site for using/wearing a sling for carrying our precious babes in - she also reviews different types/styles/labels of sling too... Great Stuff!! I spent ages on here, learning all kinds of things - having your hands free while being able to carry a new baby is awesome and if you dont know where to start, Jessie can help.


Well thats me for now, but I ll be back...

Now - Whats for dinner?


Have a Happy Day!

LEST WE FORGET... and some links...

Ive been browsing, its Friday night, everyone is either off to bed or busy doing their own thing... *hears snoring in the chair*

Heres a link I found to a very interesting site that has old herb monographs... The information is older, but still relevant, especially for those interested in plants and herbal medicine... (I am!)
HERBDATA

Ive spent quite some time looking on this site, I love seeing the old hand drawn or painted pages that show the life cycle of herbs from seeds to plant, root system etc. If only I could paint/sketch like that! ...

An Ironic thing is, Ive just this week purchased a copy of Mrs Grieves *A Modern Herbal* and I see she is also *online* even though the book was first published in 1931 - see HERE
I cant wait to get my copy and have a good read!

Ive also been given a whole stack of Australian GRASS ROOTS magazines from the early seventies and eighties - theres a whole lot of reading in there, about self-sufficiency and doing-it-yourself, on the land mainly... very interesting reading, recipes and feedback. I do wonder if I could milk a goat, and be successful making cheese from said milk... what a challenge for this city gal!

HAPPY ANZAC DAY to those to whom it is relevant

-New Zealanders and Australians and those who lost loved ones...

The flower below is a poppy.

It's a traditional symbol of remembrance for the fallen.

LEST WE FORGET

"In Flanders field the poppies grow..."

Aloes and All...

Hey There ;-) Ive taken a photo of the Aloe vera plants I acquired last week (its probably huge, I better check that!... no, its not now :). They are such attractive plants - their energy is gentle and soothing to me, and I keep going back into the kitchen to take another look at them. Its so surprising to me how quickly they change - there are tiny offshoots coming up all throughout the pots of the new ones.

The elderly gentleman I got the plants from told me they will be happy if I keep them in light not sun - which I had thought they would like, being succulents and me being ignorant :-) The other two plants I had were doing great at the windowsill, so I have put them alongside for now. I can see I may seriously need a plant shed/glass house *hint hint to Papa Bear*

One of my sons who is eight, helped me with making some pots out of newspaper by folding the paper around a plastic drink bottle - not bad! We have them some filled with potting mix and ready to go now - but what to plant?

Im thinking some Herbs - echinacea perhaps, (we have white and purple flowered seeds), and some cuttings - the easier plants maybe - we have some geranium that has some roots from sitting in water for a couple of weeks. Ive also got some winter veggie seeds, so away we go!