It’s been nearly a month since I last posted here! The year has gone so fast and sometimes I wish I could slow the days down…
And our magic garden has grown so much!
A few updates:
We have harvested some of our hue (gourds). Yay! Unfortunately a couple have rotted but that’s ok we will still get some hue that we will be able to work with. And they are a perfect size! I will post some photos of these harvested ones on my next post.
Our kamokamo patch has been producing lots of yummy kamokamo and has been the most productive vegetable in our garden to date followed by our self-seeding tomatoes which initially popped up in the backyard and the front. Amazing how seeds can plant themselves! So those are still happening!
And the calendula plants have produced beautiful yellow and orange flowers! We have harvested some and are drying the petals and leaves for future use.
The red unusual looking plant that I still don’t know what it is has grown into a small tree – amazing! I would love to know what it is! Someone got any ideas? Check out the photo.
The dandelions are coming and going as the lawns are mowed and have given us beautiful oil that we made ourselves for Teia’s eczema skin. It is working a treat!
All the flowers are blooming which is fantastic and the sunflowers are growing taller! We probably planted them a bit too late in the season and we have less sun these days but they have come away nicely.
And the harakeke plants that I planted last year have now got one or two extra leaves except for one which was accidently run over by the lawn mower! I have re-planted it and we’ll soon see how hardy these plants actually are. I’m 80% sure it will come away again. I know this plant, it’s very resilient! Even to lawn movers!
I’ve dug up some bulbs to make way for our raspberry vine which we just planted at the end of last year. We probably won’t see fruit until the end of this year so we will wait with baited breath and hungry pukus!
The apples! Yes the apples! We have two trees: one produces green apples and the other red apples and they have given us some really GOOD apples this year. We have made many an apple muffin, crumble and loaf! And they have been good to munch on their own. We are really wrapped with the apples as last year we didn’t get as many.
geranium magic
The fejoa, mandarin and orange trees are doing dandy and we will definitely have oranges again this year. The mandarin tree is still a bit small but there looks like signs of it baring fruit! It was given to us by our neighbour – bless his giving soul!
And the herb garden has been adding a wonderful aroma to the garden! Fennel, marjoram, parsley, mint, chives, lemon balm and thyme are all there! And I recently bought a stevia plant which is now ready to pot!
I can’t remember if I talked about our swan plant in previous posts but initially we had lots of eggs being laid on the plants to turn into caterpillars and then into monarch butterflies. We soon realised that the caterpillars were magically disappearing, they would get to a certain fatness (fat enough to eat!) and then they would disappear.
Just the other day I went to check the plant out and saw a grasshopper in the act, literally stripping the caterpillars’ black and yellow layer back! I was horrified! This is where they were all going! So I have cut the swan plant for now and am allowing for it to come away again. It was full of aphids as well so it’s having a fresh start! And we are going to guard it will our lives this time!
But!
grasshopper
While weeding the garden yesterday, I found a chrysalis! Yes!! Success! After all that time we didn’t think we would be seeing a butterfly from our swan plant – it was a lovely surprise! So we are waiting in anticipation of this butterfly’s awakening and birth into this world…we’ll have video ready!
That’s about it for now – the big update! Next time I won’t leave it for so long although a month is a great time period to see change…until next time and don’t forget to check out my other blogs – Peace 2009 and My Mixed Lolly Bag. See you there.
Peace,
Jo 🙂