Dear reader,

We're having an amazing winter of cold nights, but very warm days after the frosts in the Southern hemisphere.  While I hear from Ian (my brother) and Malene (my sister-in-law) in Denmark that they are having an amazingly hot and dry summer in the northern hemisphere.  We and all life including the plants have to adjust and adapt to these different weather patterns.  I've been covering my delicate plants from the frosts like the semi dwarf avocado with its fifteen fruit, the marconi red capsicum as I want to carry it over to next season, the small mandarin and my new sweet granadilla passionfruits (more about this below).  But the weeds don't mind the frosts and many are thriving in this winter weather.  The nasturtiums which bridge weed/garden plant are the only things to be killed by the cold icy nights.  I'm also delighted to see the kikuyu grass looking yellowed, bent over and sorry for itself. 

I ran a successful workshop from my own garden last month and I'm running another

Edible Winter Weeds Workshop Sunday 8th July - short notice I know! 10am - 2pm with some treats to enjoy like sorrel soup, yacon slices in lemon juice, dandelion root, kawakawa, cacao warming tonic, orange and magenta spreen bliss balls and of course a delicious smoothie. You're invited to bring along finger food to share as well.
Please spread the word and if you'd like to book go HERE.

South Island workshop

Nelson
Sunday 16th September 10-1pm at the Brook Community Gardens, Tantragee Road, Nelson. To book go HERE

My latest blog is on the concept of Crop Swap and how this movement began.  I describe how it works and all about our group in the Bay of Plenty.  Read it here

Continuing the theme of correct identification.

Can you distinguish between the 'weeds' in the photo above? Chickweed Stellaria media and Milk weed or Spurge Euphobia peplus are growing in the patch of wild plants from where I gather chickweed.  As you can see there are other leaves there that look very similar in colour and leaf shape but are not chickweed. Chickweed (very edible as a salad, pesto and smoothie plant) is on the left and milk weed, spurge or Euphorbia (non edible, in fact burns) on the right. I have met two people who had burning mouths for two days after inadvertently eating this plant. It is however, very good to apply to the skin to burn off warts and surface skin cancer (not deep melanomas).

Another view of chickweed on the left and milkweed on the right.  There are actually two stems of chickweed (just to confuse you) and one of milkweed.

Here you can see how different the two plants are inside their stems.  Chickweed (left) has a stretchy thread inside and milkweed on the right contains a white milky latex.  Because it oozes out like that it is easy to apply directly on top of a wart or other blemish.  It will burn surrounding skin if you apply it beyond your wart.

When picking my chickweed I have to be very careful to check that no milkweed has been gathered with the chickweed as it is so easy to do.  It means picking stem by stem in a patch as thick as mine. 

I hope this helps you identify two of the plants that grow so commonly in our gardens.

This is my latest experiment of soaking milkweed or Euphorbia and dock in water to then I will apply it back on the garden.  I met a man at the Te Puna kindergarten workshop who shared with us that he soaks his weeds and then returns the water to the ground he took them from.  In his experiment the bed where he used his 'weed water',  weeds did not grow and the bed where he didn't apply weed water grew weeds. (He learned at the workshop that many he'd soaked were edible). I've heard that milkweed or Euphorbia contains boron, so if this idea works I should be giving the soil boron when I use this weed water on the bed.  I'll let you know how this goes.  The dock I've had in this water for quite a while, but instead of dying it is growing roots showing its love of wet places!!  I'll have to cover this container and make it dark to stop these plants growing.

Happen Films have created another amazing look into the lives of people doing the extraordinary.  See it here

About the film from the Creators Jordan & Antoinette.

Creatures of Place is an insight into the wonderful world of Artist as Family: Meg Ulman, Patrick Jones, and their youngest son, Woody. Living on an urban 1/4-acre section in a small Australian town, Meg and Patrick have designed their property using permaculture principals. They grow most of their own food, don’t own cars and ride their bikes instead, use very little electricity, and forage food and materials from their local forest. We found their story super inspiring and we think you will too!

Winter view of my Chadwick Road garden.  I have oats as a green cover, although I intend to harvest some to dry and use as tea.  I also have two rows of strong looking broadbean plants.  Under the covers are onions and beetroot, brassicas, celery (trying to beat the blackspot from getting on the leaves) and lettuces.
I have sown sweet peas to climb up the archway and there are seedling snow peas emerging at the base of the tipi.  In the foreground are radishes that I didn't eat and which have huge roots.  I've roasted a couple but it is the tops I use.

I was recently given these Sweet Grenadilla plants Passiflora ligularis. The fruit is orange to yellow coloured with small light markings. It has a round shape with a tip ending in the stem. The fruit is between 6.5 and 8 cm long and between 5.1 and 7 cm in diameter. The outer shell is hard and slippery, and has soft padding on the interior to protect the seeds. The seeds, which are hard and black, are surrounded by a gelatinous sphere of transparent pulp. The pulp is the edible part of the fruit and has a soft sweet taste. It is very aromatic and contains vitamins A, C, and K, phosphorus, iron, and calcium. The main producers are Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil (where it is known as maracujá doce or "sweet passionfruit"), South Africa, Rwanda and Kenya.  I'm looking forward to these producing fruits.  I'll have to put up some wire-netting for them to climb onto.

Above are the Sweet Grenadilla fruits.

The above photo is of lush mizuna Brassica rapa.  These are self sown from plants I let go to seed.   I love it when plants reproduce themselves - they grow where they want and when they want.  Mizuna is very cold tolerant and I eat the young leaves raw in salads and smoothies and stir fry the older leaves or add to soups.  It is a fantastic green to have during winter.  Mizuna originates from China and Japan where they like it pickled.  It has a mild peppery taste and is very decorative to look at.

My strawberry planter boxes on the wall were repaired I thought. But the bottom of the top one above could no longer handle the weight (My gardening buddies and I put a thin layer of stones under the black plastic for drainage) and it wants to fall down.  So we strapped it up with wire.  The black containers below collected the water last season when the boxes were not lined with black plastic and the water used to run straight through.  I've put a hole at each end of the black plastic for drainage.  I painted the boxes and I think they look quite smart.

However the top planter box on this second set of two fell on the bottom one.  Obviously too rotten.  So it is moved along and can sit on the ground for now.

I picked this cauliflower yesterday and had to take a photo of its perfection.  Isn't it a beauty! It tasted good too. We ate half of it and lots of leaves at a family gathering last night.

On that note I'll leave you this time and wish you health, abundance and joy in your gardens!

Julia