Month: February 2018
In a Vase on Monday – Phormium and Dahlias, Orange and Yellows
Often I only notice flax flowers when the Tuis are drinking the nectar, but this one is from a pot by the door of the greenhouse, so the deep orange of the flowers and the dark brown-purple stem caught my eye. It’s unfortunately disappearing into the background in my photo.
The single Dahlias with dark leaves are a mix of Keith Hammett Dahlias and their children. The bees love them the best, so I rarely pick them.
Continue reading “In a Vase on Monday – Phormium and Dahlias, Orange and Yellows”
Buckwheat for Bees
I am pretty happy with my buckwheat. After the extra hot spring weather brought early flowering on many trees and shrubs, I wanted to make sure the bees didn’t go hungry later in the summer. I sowed the buckwheat seed in an area of soil which had been dug and flattened for the septic tank runoff, but won’t be completed with the drainage until the plumbing is finished later in the year. We had a couple good rains, and 4 weeks later the first flowers were out and filled with bees every morning. A rainy and hot month later the plants are almost as tall as me and full of flowers.
Buckwheat only releases nectar in the morning, so the bees seem to be very business like and efficient in harvesting. They carry a good amount of pale yellow-green pollen as well.
In a Vase on Monday – Dahlias Again
I know this is repetitive, but the Akita Dahlias are doing amazingly well, and I had to rescue them from the lawnmower chewing them up for flopping onto the path. Here are a few different ages of flower, mixed with the dark red dahlias rescued from the dump. You can see how they get more yellow as they age, losing the contrast between the creamy tips of the petals and the dark base.
Peak Bruschetta
Finally, enough big tomatoes! We have had a grafted sweet100 giving us buckets of little tomatoes since November, but I was late getting the big toms in so we have been on Bruschetta rationing until now.
I like bruschetta to have one thick slice of raw tomato covering a full piece of sourdough toasted on the barbecue with olive oil and balsamic, topped with basil and Parmesan. This is the best way to appreciate the lovely patterns on the inside of these big tomatoes, but it’s very messy to eat.
Sultry Weather
Restios, young Kowhai trees and Kapuka (Griselinia littoralis) in front of an unusual light on the water. It looks tropical, which is what our weather has been like this last month.
Mid Summer
I’m still madly busy, so much so that I spent a rare weekend in the city, worrying that the birds would feast on my first really big tomatoes. As it turns out, they left the really big ones alone, and there is plenty for all of us – we are really into bruschetta season now. It was raining all weekend anyway, we have had almost 4 inches – 92 mm of rain since we were here 2 weeks ago.
The first windows are in the barn house – so exciting! We are oiling more redwood weatherboards this week, and looking after vegetables in any spare time.
Here are a few photos – these are from mid January.
In a Vase on Monday – Dahlias
I’ve been madly busy with work and fruit and vegetables and weeds so it’s actually Tuesday, Waitangi Day here in New Zealand. This lovely coral pink dahlia showed up a week ago and I haven’t been able to find out what it is. I think I bought it a couple years ago and planted it in a place which was too shady, and then moved it last year. It’s obviously happy in full sun and new soil.
Akita when it’s like this is the Dahlia I wanted – half open I like it – I don’t like it so much when it gets full open and huge. The plums are Louisa and Satsuma, which I am drying for winter snacks.
Early Spring flowers are starting to show up in the Northern Hemisphere vases, which coincides with shortening days here and thoughts of bulb planting. Check them out at Rambling in the Garden.
Absent Gardener 