You know onion weed is there if you walk through a patch or mow it as it lets off a strong smell of garlic or onions.  It’s flourishing now in September in NZ and my little patch of it  has just sent up beautiful bell shaped flowers (that look similar to snowflakes (most people call […] Read more

  Cleavers also known as biddy-bid, goosegrass or sticky willie is flourishing at this time of year in August and September in New Zealand. It is a scrambling, weak-stemmed annual considered a nuisance because it can smother other plants. The rough, scratchy stems and leaves cling to neighbouring plants by hook-like stiff hairs. The seedpods […] Read more

Down in the Manawatu on our dairy farm grew a few clumps of this crinkly grey leafed plant in the sandy soil of our orchard.  I always wondered about it and was delighted when I discovered it is a healing plant. In Tauranga it grows on the pasture slopes of Mauao or Mount Maunganui. Horehound […] Read more

At the end of April this year 2019 I visited my brother John and his family in Camden, Sydney.  The last time I visited them (they’ve been here many times) they were in Oakdale, so I hadn’t been to this home on a semi-rural property.  The house is nestled in among tall gum trees in […] Read more

Why an article about parsley you may be asking, surely it’s a herb not a weed?  In a garden I look after parsley has become a ‘weed’ in a shrub border and I’ve been told to pull the plants out.  However, I sneakily leave some to munch while gardening and I think it is decorative.  […] Read more

I love this wild, imposing 2m plant that grows in a group with spreading rhizomes.  It is perennial with narrow, pointed leaves dull green on the top and lighter grey green underneath, evocative of the light of the silvery moon.  The reddish brown flowers are small, and actually look like buds that don’t open to […] Read more

Wild fennel: Foeniculum vulgare, Sweet fennel: Foeniculum vulgare var.  dulce Bronze fennel: Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’ Everyone knows fennel – it grows on roadsides and waste places, reaches 2m tall has feathery leaves and smells of aniseed.  Some believe it poisonous, but actually it is very edible and delicious grown in a clean environment. Right now […] Read more

Happy New Year Everyone!! This is my first post for 2019. Japanese Wineberry or Wild Raspberry –Rubus phoenicolasius.  Those of you who live in the countryside may know and perhaps curse  this rambunctious plant called Japanese wineberry or wild raspberry.  Its protecting the land but also an opportunist with its vicious thorny stems, but it […] Read more

Gotu Kola Centella asiatica is a weedy, creeping, perennial herb in the carrot or Apiaceae family.  Also known as Pennyweed or Pennywort it has kidney-shaped leaves with indented edges up to 5 cm across, that grow on tall stems.  These stems also spread and root at the nodes. The flowers are white to pink and […] Read more

My garden is full of flowers, giving me the idea to turn them into a slice.   Oat and flower petal slice INGREDIENTS 1 cup diced flower petals (I forgot to dice them up) 1/2 cup coconut oil 1/4 cup honey 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon cardamom 1-2 tsp of lemon […] Read more