It’s Springtime, so I have so many favourites it’s hard to choose. All month I’ve been loving Freesias and Daffodils and Iris and the Plum blossom. Lately the White flowered Angel’s Fishing Rod has been waving beautifully in the wind and the Mignonette is smelling very sweet and is attracting bees.
Continue reading “Favourite plants at the end of September – Angel’s Fishing Rod and Mignonette”
The Moonglow and Golden Grape tomatoes are up in the greenhouse. These are the special healthy orange tomatoes; I saved seed from them last year. They are good for you to eat raw, they don’t need cooking to have good levels of lycopene. The golden Grape are small in every way, the seeds are small, and the seedlings are tiny compared to the Moonglow.
Continue reading “Seeds are up, and more chiles on the hot pad”
This week I was attracted to bright red Rose hips next to new leaves glowing red as the sun shone through them, all against the shining dark green of older leaves.
Continue reading “Old and new – rose hips, poppies, and freesias”
It’s been pouring steadily all day. Rivers of water are running down the drive and puddles are forming all across the lawn. It’s 7pm and we have had 64 mm so far today, so if it keeps on like this it will be 3 inches by midnight.
It’s been sunny and Bees and Bumble Bee Queens have been out and hitting their favourite flowers. The plum blossom is full out, but the favourites right now are the Rosemary and the Cistus Bennett’s White.
Sweet potatoes or Kumara as they are called in NZ come in a few different types, from quite dry to sweet and moist. We eat them several times a week either roasted, mashed, as wedges or occasionally as chips, which are wonderful but fattening and a bit of effort to make. The leaves are also good in stir fries.
This weekend I planted more seeds: tomatoes Bloody Butcher and more Beefsteak select, as well as capsicum Topepo, and coloured bell peppers. None of the seeds from the previous week had popped up yet.
The rhubarb flower had to be chopped off anyway, so it became the centre of my vase of flowers for ‘In a Vase on Monday’ at Cathy’s Rambling in the Garden.
It’s a beautiful clear morning and the sun is up at 6:45. Soon we will go on to Daylight Saving. It should be a good day for pumping water up to the top tanks. Lots of sunlight for pumping and lots of water in the lower tanks.
Continue reading “Sun, starlings, seed potatoes and summer bulbs”
I don’t feel bad taking flowers away from the garden this week, the wind and rain are going to trash the first Freesias, there are lots of daffodils, and the tulips will be over by next week. Bringing them back to the city means I can enjoy them for a bit more time.
Continue reading “In a Vase on Monday – saving blooms from the weather”
Absent Gardener 