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!!

Keep Calm and Drink Tea. Lemon and Calendula Tea That Is!

I have been feeling a bit under the weather in the last few days. My tropical genes is struggling with the sudden chilly winter blast this last week. I started to have a bit of sniffle and cough. 

This homemade immunity booster tea is my go to drink to help alleviate the cold symptoms. I made quite a few at the start of winter to prepare for this kind of situation and we have been brewing them as needed. 

I added a few dried Calendula flowers in it. It was very refreshing and I'm glad to report that I am now feeling better.

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.

Alternative Method for Immunity Booster Brew

I tried another method to brew the Immunity Booster herbal drink. This time I cooked them gently on the stove top. Same ingredient as last time, orange, lemon, turmeric, dried orange peel and a few herbs from the garden, dried olive leaves, yarrow and calendula flower:

Immunity Booster Floral Herbal Drink

Just a bit of natural immunity booster in the wake of uncertain times. This is from the batch of orange, lemon and turmeric that I prepared, packed and froze a few weeks ago.

I brewed this for my 5 year old and added some honey. He drank it really fast and said "Yummm!!"

For mine, I added some dried olive leaves, calendula flowers and rose petals.