What a marvellous change in the weather, cool and breezy......my time of the year!
Much work has been done in the garden over the weekend. I planted out plenty of herbs and veggies, and a few trees and shrubs to boot, we cleaned out the chook pen and placed all the well worked over pea straw around the garden beds and laid out another 4 bales for the girls to de-seed for us.
And I found this pretty little thing........and have no idea what it is!
Any ideas?
There doesnt appear to be any particular smell to the flower, however I noticed the bees love it, so it stays:)
The borage is doing wonderfully.
I cut quite a lot off, including some flowers and have dried for those medicinal things we newbee herbal freaks do :P
You can see some of the carrots in the background, this is the patch I am always raiding when working in the gardens, so sweet!
The Cabbage Tree.....ever heard of it?
The leaves contain a strong fibre, used for making paper, twine, cloth, baskets, thatching, rain capes etc.
The tree produces pink to purple flowers in dense terminal bunches which are highly fragrant.
There are many medicinal uses in tribes around the world, however due to its well documented toxicity, it is not recommended to be used in modern herbal medicine practices today.
The Midyim berries are doing well after all this time, certainly took them some time to settle in. After a year the 3 of them are putting out new shoots.
The midyim fruit is likened by many as the native equivalent to a blueberry. The narrow leaves flush pink with new growth and nestles nicely into the landscape in a partially sunny spot.
Speaking of berries, I also grabbed another blueberry to try (the last one died) and a raspberry to add to the berries collection along the fence.
And of course who can go past the basil?
I dry mountains of this each year and always seem to go through it all by the time planting comes around again.
This versatile herb can be utilised in so many of your recipes.
The amaranth is sending out its flowers, I can't wait to collect this seed. I didn't put anywhere near enough in this year so will have to wait until next, thankfully I have a good few containers of it in store!
The harvesting of this seed is laborious, the seeds are miniscule, but the eating of it makes it all worthwhile!
I found more strawberries at the local garden centre, so of course had to add some more to the strawberry plot. Gives us about 10 plants now, I am hoping to add another 10 or so before its time to pick another crop next year.
Along with an Elephant ears plant and the cabbage tree, I also purchased a Galangal Ginger.
Being from the same family as ginger, it tastes similar but is stronger in flavour with a peppery citrus flavour, absolutely amazing with any type of seafood.
The Chinese system of medicine has traditionally placed great emphasis on the warming potential of the galangal herb; it has been traditionally used in the treatment of abdominal pain, in treating cases of vomiting, as well as in the treatment of persistent hiccups.
Remedies made from the galangal are also used in the treatment of persistent diarrhea
The bactericidal action of a decoction made from the galangal was observed during the course of research trials held in China in 2009, different pathogenic organism such as anthrax could be suppressed and resisted by the galangal.
The effectiveness of the galangal against the fungal organism Candida albicans was observed in the results of a research published in the year 1988, the herb was seen to be distinctly antagonistic to the pathogenic organism
And I just had to grab a couple of delightful carniverous pitcher plants
I have no idea how they will fare, they have been placed around the pond where they can keep their feet wet, if you have any hints please do share:)
And the pavers? We are putting in some drainage, if we ever got heavy downpours it would flood back in towards one of our rooms, so out with the shovel, cement and pavers and in with a good drain to carry any excess away:)
I hope your weekend was a good one, here's to a wonderful week ahead!
