Drying statice

 I haven't really had the motivation to look after that garden lately, thanks to a certain dog deciding that he now likes to use my flower garden as a toilet and sandpit! Because of that I plan to do a really simple fence around it, the wobblier the better since he is afraid of that type of fence. 

Regardless, I have flowers to collect and dry for the flower girls at my sister in laws wedding and the statice are doing great (and thankfully not bushy enough to be Archie's choice of toilet). Ordinarily I hang them to dry from from the kitchen blinds using these hooks and curtain rings. It works great for small things like paper daisies, but I picked way too many so these sock hangers now have a new job! 

Statice seem to grow well here, plus they are a lovely perennial plant so I think I'll be planting lots more, and looking into some different varieties.

Flower pit

 My "flower pit" is the new trench for the septic that the previous owners put in before we bought. You can see in this post how it was just bare dirt with lots of weeds. It took me awhile to weed it and then cover it using a round bale of hay. Silly me forgot to take a photo of it in winter when my flowers were looking beautiful, so you get to see it now in summer after the winter flowers have all died off.

All the winter bulbs have died down, but there were freesia, anemone and sparaxis planted. The best performing were the petunias which are still going strong, the snapdragons were beautiful and a couple are trying to hang on. The paper daisies are still flowering well but the wind from all the storms is knocking them around and now the zinnias are starting to flower.

Not the best idea, but I cleared a row and scattered a mix of seeds, they're sprouting, but so are lots of weeds and I'm not familiar enough with my seeds (or the weeds here) to tell them apart.

From now on I will only be sowing one type of seed at a time, and will also sprout some in one of my self watering juice bottle planters on the windowsill. This way I can learn what the plant looks like vs weeds. Handy now, but also in the future when they self sow everywhere.

And as an added bonus, we have extended Archie's yard so he now has access to the pit which has helped with the wildlife eating my seedlings (and even the flowers)!

One sunflower bloomed

 One of the first things I planted when we moved was a whole heap of sunflower seeds, and the rabbits ate most of them. Only one survived long enough to have a full bloom free of nibbles, then it got chewed one night, leaving just enough stem to put in a bottle of water.

Thankfully it is still happy enough and the native bees are absolutely loving it - obviously my next project is some fencing around the flower pit!

Calendula Flowers

 Normally I collect and dry calendula flowers so I can use them to make my own hand balm. But then this flower opened and I decided these ones need to become seed so I can always grow this particular one.

And then the next one opened on a rainy day and it was even prettier, especially with all the rain droplets!

Sunflowers

 It seems like all the bugs like sunflowers, not only the pollinators loving the flowers, but also whichever critters enjoy eating them as seedlings. Needless to say I was very happy that these two have bloomed - and one of them has lots of extra flowers on it's stalk.

Since photos weren't showing all the cute little native bees I thought I'd try sharing a video.

Now that the seeds have formed, the rosellas have been enjoying the free feed, although I bet they wish the dog would stop noticing them!

Spring flowers

 My garden is beautiful at the moment, there are so many flowers in our area that the bees seem to be visiting only their favourites and ignoring everything else. Luckily there are lots of other bugs pollinating the other plants.

I never see the bees on these so I brought some inside and attempted a flower arrangement.

There are going to be a bigger variety of cut flowers in my future garden, and more attempts at flower arranging!

Orchids October 2022

 My orchids are very happy at the moment, even after an unusually wet winter! I've got 6 in flower at the currently and I've noticed a flower spike forming on another plant. Whenever I put in a lot of effort to care for them, I end up killing them, so now I leave them under the mango tree and they are so much happier! Other than the keikis (baby orchids), I only occasionally water and add slow release fertiliser.

Venus Fly Trap Flower

I bought another venus fly trap last year and surprisingly I've kept it alive! I have tried and failed so many times, I'd love to repot it into something nicer but I'm not brave enough yet. I was so excited when I first noticed the flower spike and it feels like I've been waiting forever to see the flower open!

And as usual I didn't notice the tiny little bug until I was looking at the photos of my computer, it still has a few buds to open so I'll be able to enjoy these cute little flowers for awhile.

Orchids

I have a little collection of orchids, well not so little I suppose since I have told myself not to buy anymore! You would think since I have so many that I knew how to look after them, but a lot of it is simply luck - as in it is lucky that they like to be left alone! After researching why they weren't flowering I did find out they prefer a bit of sun during winter - and they don't need as much shade as I thought. So after I moved them into the bee garden I have been finding surprise flowers more often, in fact I just found three orchids with new flower spikes!

I really need to remember to take nice photos of the orchids when they're flowering. Most of my orchid photos are of me holding the id tag in front of each orchid in case the tag fades or gets lost, or they're just really bad photos!

Kitchen Window Herb Drying

I like to grow calendula flowers which I use to make calendula infused oil for my hand balm - I use the instructions from grow forage cook ferment.

For infused oils they need to be dried first, I do have a dehydrator which is great if I have enough to fill it. So when my plants are just starting to flower I bring them inside and hang them up either until dry or there are enough to fill the dehydrator.

I was originally using one of those portable peg hangers that you can dry all your socks on. Not very attractive, or all that easy to hang in my kitchen!

So I opted for a tension rod across my kitchen window, shower curtain rings and curtain hooks from Ikea.

It is out of the way, looks so much better and if I ever need more room I can add hooks, or even a second tension rod. It also now uses what was technically wasted space and we can still open the window and blind without moving the rod.

Most herbs and flowers hang well from the clips. For collecting seed to dry out I use paper bags. The red mesh onion bag is currently holding sugar snap peas, purple snow peas and beans for seed saving.

Native Bees

I found out about native bees many years ago and have been a little obsessed with them. We have planted lots more flowering plants and I have planted a small vegetable garden with flowers in between each crop.

Two years ago I started making a dedicated bee garden and we bought our first stingless bee hive from a local man who really knows his stuff! His hives are so well made and they look lovely in our garden.

Tetragonula Hockingsi

Then a few months later we bought our second hive in a huge log, to go in our completed bee garden - next to the chicken coop. (I love my crazy paving using random bricks and pavers)

Left to Right - Tetragonula Hockingsi, Austroplebeia

Then last year I extended the bee garden across where the chickens were so I could make room for yet another hive!

Left to Right - Tetragonula Hockingsi, Tetragonula Carbonaria, Austroplebeia

And then, once the hives are full I can add an empty hive to the front and hopefully end up with a new hive. This is called an eduction, the other way is to split the hive.

The bee garden has also become my orchid garden as they both enjoy shady summers and more sun in winter. I have shade cloth over this area that I remove once the weather cools down.

Mother's Day Kokedama

I had a tough time deciding what to make for mother's day presents, I'm finding it harder to not just make the same thing year after year. Lukily I saw a DIY video for making kokedama gifts for mother's day.

It was actually quite a fun little project, a little awkward, but worth it in the end. I did a practice run at home with a spider plant and cotton twine before I decided to go out and buy all the materials. It is still going strong, which is surprising since I don't give it a soak every week like I'm supposed to (and when I do, I tend to forget to take it out until the next day).

I chose to use the lovely zygo cactus, which flowered not long after mother's day. Being a cactus they seem to do well as a kokedama.

Summer Flowers 2016

I realised it has been quite awhile since I've posted photos of my flowers. There aren't many at the moment, it has been pretty hot this summer - I think that is the reason my callas are only just starting to pop up (they are supposed to flower in Summer, technically it is now Autumn). Hopefully there is still a chance they will flower.

A lot of these are new flowers I've added to my garden as we are thinking about getting a native bee hive. After researching I'm trying to add lots of white and yellow flowers and I will now try to avoid the red flowers as bees don't see red.

Here's hoping I have lots more beautiful flowers to share soon!

Woodburned Knife Block

Every time I go to Ikea, there are so many things I want to buy and by the time I get to the register I'm dreading the total. So I mentally take note of all the things I want so I can think about it for awhile before buying.

One of those items was their RETRÄTT Knife Block - an item I don't actually need since I already have a knife set with a block. Plus I wanted to burn a design on it and I wasn't sure if I could due to the lacquer.

Eventually I bought it of course, then it sat on my desk for ages because every design I tried to draw on it just wasn't right. Until I decided to get out my flower stencils and draw a few of those on. Then googled flower drawings and sketched a few of those in the gaps. So I started burning, drawing in more flowers, stems and leaves, then burning some more until I was happy.

Because of the lacquer, my pencil drawings rubbed off very quickly so I had no choice but to draw and burn flower by flower. Ordinarily I like my projects to be perfectly planned, but luckily this one turned out great and most importantly I enjoyed doing it.

Tissue Paper Flowers

My grandma gave me a flower punch for my birthday, which happened to be around the same time that I found this tissue paper flower project on the Fiskars website.

This is one of those projects that I, for some reason, just made more and more of without any plan of what I am going to do with them!

They look really pretty individually, so for now I will just keep filling up the box until I figure out how I want to use them. Either way, it is another good project to work on while watching tv.

I reused some of the tissue paper from gifts I have received, so perhaps I will continue the gift wrapping theme and use these flowers rather than the stick on bows I normally buy.

Origami Cyclamen Flowers

For March I chose to try out the Cyclamen origami flowers from my book "Origami Flowers: Popular Blossoms and Creative Bouquets".

The cyclamen is a cute little flower, and I did once have a live plant - but I didn't do so well at keeping it alive. Besides that, indoor plants don't tend to live very long with indoor cats!

This flower was a little difficult to shape at the end, but they still turned out pretty cute! I do wonder if a thinner paper might work better for this flower - either way I quite like this particular origami flower.

Origami flowers I have made from this book:

January: Balloon Flower

February: Blue Star

Origami Blue Star Flowers

Today I was planning a post for the newest origami flower I learnt to make using my book "Origami Flowers: Popular Blossoms and Creative Bouquets" when I realised that I didn't post about the ones I learnt to make last month!

In January I tried out the Balloon flowers, and in February I opted for the Blue Star flowers.

This flower is a little awkward to make, but they turned out quite cute! I don't have the correct type of paper for the leaves, but my memo paper is great to practice origami with!

I am also doing a lot better with the floral tape, so I guess it was just me and not the tape that had issues!

If you are interested in origami flowers, keep checking back as I'm hoping to complete a new flower from this book each month of 2013!

Origami Balloon Flowers

One of many ideas I had for my wedding was to make an origami flower bouquet so I asked my dad to buy me the book "Origami Flowers: Popular Blossoms and Creative Bouquets" by Hiromi Hayashi. 

I attempted a few of the flowers, failed and promptly gave up as I just didn't have the time to work at it. After going through my boxes of books and finding this one again, I decided that I would like to work my way through this book and create all of the flowers! 

For my first flower attempt I chose the balloon flower as it looked relatively easy and only used one sheet of paper. 

So once I got the cutting of the paper correct, I found this flower to be pretty easy to do. They turned out alright which is the main thing! 

I made this rainbow bunch of origami 'get well soon' balloon flowers for my SIL. 

I didn't wrap any paper leaves into the stems, but there are templates in this book that you can trace and cut. I was having problems with my floral tape, I don't know if it was the tape or just me - either way I guess I will find out when I buy a new roll. The instructions said to use a piece of yellow floral tape for the center but I didn't have any so I just rolled strips of yellow paper around it. 

Hopefully I do this well for the next flower I choose!

Spring Flowers 2012

Even though it is freezing and windy in QLD today, the flowers are reminder that it is indeed spring! 

I thought I would share some photos of the beautiful flowers that have opened up and added some colour to my garden. 

I can't wait to pick the tomatoes off this beefsteak tomato plant, I also have a roma tomato plant that is still going strong since last year! 

I have no idea what this little shrub is, but I noticed it has these cute little flowers on them - I keep meaning to try and ID it. 

My cat mint looks great covered in purple flowers - this is the first time I have planted it in the garden and it looks far better than my previous attempts at growing it in a pot! 

Strawberry flowers - the best flowers since they are followed by delicious strawberries. 

A yellow calendula which has finally settled into the garden. 

This is an aloe vera flower spike - in front of the huge ponytail palm. Now that my front garden is looking good I have started on this mess of a garden bed - don't plant horrible vines in your garden that have huge seed pods! 

Some of my succulents are flowering and making a big mess. 

This bottlebrush is attracting rainbow lorikeets and little finches. 

My geisha girl is happily flowering and seems quite happy to be in the ground and out of its pot. 

I have recently moved my jasmine from a pot to the front yard. It must have settled in already as it has started flowering. 

I'm not positive but I think this plant is a jade which has these pretty little flower spikes. Unfortunately these form tiny succulent leaves which break off in the wind and start growing wherever they land. 

And I have saved the best for last - my beautiful hippeastrums. I recently divided up all the bulbs I had from my multiple pots so I could plant some into my front garden. This is my biggest bulb and I was quite surprised at how quickly it sent up a flower spike. It currently has four open flowers and another two buds waiting to open - last year it had a total of five flowers. At this stage none of my other bulbs have sent up a flower spike. 

I hope you are enjoying all the beautiful spring flowers!

Sweet Potatoes

Did you know it is really easy to grow sweet potatoes? I grew them by accident!

We have a garden bed in our front yard which I decided would be great for veggies, so I started collecting kitchen scraps and burying them in the garden bed as we have really sandy soil. I had a couple of sweet potatoes that were getting a bit old so I buried them in there. So of course one of them starts growing really well! 

These sweet potatoes are the third crop I have dug up!

I have started taking note of the dates I dig them up as it is hard to tell what's happening underground. So far it seems that it takes 2 - 3 months to get good sized sweet potatoes. When digging them up you need to be careful as it is easy to knock the little sweet potatoes off the plant. If you notice raised patches of soil, chances are you have some sweet potatoes nearly ready.

I only allow my sweet potato plant to grow in area about 100cm x 60cm. I have to trim the plant regularly to keep it that size. You can use your cuttings to make new plants or you can eat the leaves like spinach/asian greens in stir fries.

Aren't the sweet potato flowers beautiful! Look for them in the morning.

Yep, I still get excited when my plants grow fruit, veg or even flowers!