Collecting Flowers for Tea

What nature gives I shall not waste...

Collecting flowers over the weekend, just before the wild Melbourne wind thrashes them around. I'm not planning to make more oil infusion for the near future so these will be dried for tea.

Super fragrant rose, Pope John Paul II. It's humongous as well. They are growing bigger every year.

I believe these are called Double Delight. They are not as fragrant but have pretty colours.

Lot of Calendula of course, they grow like weed in the garden, beneficial weed of course. They are also easy to control/weed out and if the flowers are collected early, then the seed spread can be minimised.

My trustee Lavender bushes that keep giving. The bees love them to bits and I have to trim them to keep the bees from scraping my son.

I gave the Calendula a bit of a wash in cold water before drying them lightly with tea towel and arranging them in drying tray.

I got to the roses before the bugs did so minimal washing went into this, only a bit of wipe with tea towels to shop away the odd bugs.

I also trimmed my Japanese Buxus and propagating more of them from the semi hard stems. I managed to get around a dozen new rooted cuttings last time, transplanted them, only to get the pulled out. They are positioned at the very front of the garden so I'm guessing it could be dogs. Anyways, I've propagated them successfully a few times so I'm sure I can do it again. But they take ages!!

Beneficial Plant, Lavender. Good for us and the bees.

My trustee Lavender bushes that keep on giving. Not only they give me their flowers but the stems can be propagated. I just love these plants as they are beneficial for the bees and bugs in the garden and they are beneficial for us as well. 

I collected a few flowers this morning, while leaving some for the bees.

Nurtured Lavender stem cuttings growing over winter:

Lots of roots and ready for transplant:

Covid-19 Home Schooling and Our Occasional Visits to the Garden.

We are now in the month of July and I'm busy working on my super late posts from May and June. This post is dedicated to the beginning of home schooling experience that all parents and children experienced (and probably will experience again some time soon). 

Home schooling and working from home meant we got to sneaked out to the garden during the day and enjoyed whatever gifts nature gave us. For us, it was the bunch of Chrysanthemum plants that were blooming with flowers. I planted two types, one with pink and white flowers and another with the bright yellow flowers. At the time the photo was taken I had an intention to document the gradual blooms but pregnancy sickness didn't agree with my plan, so I only managed to capture these 2 shots of the very beginning of the blooming process.

Another favourite of mine is the Calendula flowers. These bright orange flowers are heavenly gift, not only because of the very much needed splash of colours during our gloomy winter months in Melbourne, but the skin calming and healing properties. 

 And the Lavender flowers are our frequent harvest to make into tea and oil infusion.

We reserved Fridays to accomplish the weekly art school projects. The topic for this particular project is collage. My son foraged the garden to collect different leaves and flowers. His work reminded me of how blessed we are with the Melbourne weather (despite the occasional freezing temperature) that we still get a lot of colours from nature from the bright green leaves to the pinks and oranges of flowers.

Making Homemade Olive Oil Infusion from Organic Home Grown Flowers and Herbs

Infusing Olive oil with different herbs and flowers is simple but yet rewarding activity. The oil can be used for all sorts of things from cooking to natural homemade beauty treatment. I use them heavily for soap making and salve making (mixing them with melted beeswax).

The Rosemary bushes at the front garden have been thriving and needed a bit of a prune. I took this opportunity to take a few sprigs for propagation, drying for cooking and a few for the oil infusion.

Rosemary infusing in Olive oil.

Lavender is another beneficial floral infusion that I use for soap and salve. I gathered this from the front garden, but still leaving a large amount for the bees to indulge in.

Lavender flowers infusing in Olive oil.

There is no fresh roses at the moment in the garden, but I use dried rose petals that I kept from last spring and picked a few fresh Calendula flowers for this infusion. All parts of the Calendula flowers are used in this.

Dried Rose Petals and Calendula Flowers infusing in Olive oil.

Lastly, the Violet plants have been growing like weeds in the back garden. I found one way to control this is to keep picking the fresh flowers before they had the opportunity to seed. The leaves of this plant is also beneficial. I use this mainly for eczema salve and it works like a charm.

Violet Flowers and Leaves infusing in Olive oil.

This is a fun and simple activity with so much benefit. And remember to always try to grow your own plants without the use of chemical. This will minimise your chance of getting any allergic reaction from the infused oil application on your skin.

Not only beneficial, but looks pretty too.

Autumn Front Garden Clean Up and Preparation for Winter Crops Planting

As the weather is cooling down here in Melbourne, I thought it was a great opportunity to do a bit of clean up and preparation for my various garden beds for winter planting.

My first priority is the small section right in front of my entrance door. This section was previously occupied by Geranium plants, but I decided to utilise this small patch for an additional garden bed for vegetables. So, this is now my Garden Bed 6. I cleaned up the middle part of the section to make way for Brassicas, such as Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage and Cauliflower.

For the border, on the right we have a few Lavender plants that are doing well and have been attracting lots of local solitary bees. They are doing a great job in pollinating my crops. The Geraniums that were planted in the middle of this section had been moved to the back row. The left border has been allocated for the annual Zinnias (the ones with pink flower) and I sprinkled Marigold seeds as well. The front row has a few Chrysanthemum plants that have been doing well after I propagated them from cuttings.

The next section that I cleaned up was the half circle garden bed at the front of the house. This section was originally planned for flowers, but the vegetable plants had ever so slowly crept in. I discovered that this section has the best morning sun exposure and thought it would be an awesome spot for a few veggies. So, this is now my Garden Bed 5. In Spring 2019, I planted Zucchini, Pumpkin, Broccoli and Tomatoes here. I didn't pull them out, I just cleared some of the dead leaves to open the space. Also, a few months ago, I transplanted some of the Strawberry runners here and they have been doing quite well after the transplant.

The plan for this bed is Strawberry plants to remain at the front most, followed by Marigold and Chives (apparently great companion plants for Strawberry). I sprinkled a few Cos Lettuce seeds behind them and followed by the Borage plants at the back.

I haven't pulled out the Zucchini plants yet, as they are still flowering and fruiting at the moment. So, I wanted to extend their growing time as much as I can. So, I sprinkled the Marigold and Lettuce seeds around them.

 

The same goes with the Tomatoes and Pumpkin. Both are still looking like they can still produce, so, I left them be for the time being:

Looking forward to harvesting these tomatoes.

The next section that I really wanted to clean up (because it's so messy) is the section  under the Olive tree. I planted Poppy plants around the tree in Spring 2019 and the seed pods had spread seeds everywhere. So, Poppy seedlings had grown all over the place. I've been waiting for them to get to a manageable size for transplant. The left side of this section now has a few Lavender plants that I propagated from cuttings. 

I haven't harvested the Red Cabbage and Cauliflower yet, but I will be soon. I have also cleared up the front part of this section for a few Japanese Buxus plants that I'm still propagating from cuttings. I'm hoping they will be ready for planting in a few weeks.

The Poppy seedlings transplanted to the right spot:

The left side of this section was previously occupied by row of Calendula plants. I pulled out the old plants, collected the seedlings and moved them to the back row:

And with that done, all the work I planned to do at the front garden was accomplished. I really hope I will see lots of new seedlings popping out soon, especially the Lettuce.

Sunflower Seeds Harvest and Cuttings

Some of the early planted sunflowers are ready for harvest and I had some spare time this evening to check and collect them. These flowers had brought joy to myself and also passer-bys as I noticed quite a few people stopped to observe and admire the flowers when they walked pass. It's really awesome to see others enjoying these flowers as much as I do. 

I took a few cuttings of the Bay tree, Lavender and Chrysanthemum as well:

These sunflowers are the ones planted at the backyard, so, not visible to passer-bys. They are still at the peak of their flowering period:

Managed to catch the dramatic ray of evening sun there. 

One solitary bee is still very busy working collecting nectar from dahlia bloom:

Bay tree cuttings:

They have since been trimmed down and the leaves are drying to be used in cooking.

The Lavender and Chrysanthemum cuttings:

LittleMsGreenies Return with Garden Update 2019

LittleMsGreenies had returned with Spring 2019 garden update after a long break. The garden had grown and changed a bit. I figured out the sun pattern and the best spots for certain plants.

The front garden has new brick edging which I recently installed. 

This year, the half circle section has a pair of tower of nasturtium and snow peas, a few bunches of kale, sprouting brocolli and hopefully cauliflower. Also in this section, I'm hoping the geranium and borage will become a permanent fixture to maintain the bees visitors around the garden.

The bees absolutely love the borage flowers.

We've been harvesting snow peas and kale consistently in the last few weeks.

Also at the front garden, I planted Asahi tulip bulbs which had flowered in the last few weeks.

The Tete-a-tete daffodils had not flowered yet. I hope they will come out.

I planted Californian poppies underneath the olive tree and they have finally flowered this year. This had been a long wait for me as they were planted from seeds around 2 years ago.

Some of the calendula flowers had popped out as well. This empty patch is ready for pumpkin seedlings to be planted in the next few weeks.

 

The Lavender plants had grown significantly and produced lots and lots of flowers. I have been harvesting and drying them for tea and homemade shampoo. The bees are also loving them so much and I can sometimes see 6-8 bees hovering around.

In this section, I planted a few kale and lettuce. They grew slower than their fellow plants in the half circle section (a sunnier spot). 

And finally, the giant jade plants at the front door had grown enormously. They had red flowers which attracted the little nectar sucking birds. The pair of planters had filled up and had the spilling over effect that I hoped for.

Stay tuned for more updates on the fruit trees and the four beds crop rotation.