Friday 29 April 2016

Community garden plot

We're moving back to the city we think of as home in about six weeks. It's exciting, and a bit stressful. And, as we're going to have to rent for at least a year while we build up a down-payment for a house... I'm not going to have much in the way of a garden for that time. This irks me. But, at least it will be mine. All mine, muahahahahahahahahaha*cough* Ahem.

I did manage to luck into a 10x10 plot in a community garden. It's not terribly near our new house, but it is very close to a friend's place, so I'm hoping to mix gardening and tea. It has been difficult trying to contact the community gardens, as none of them have contacted me back, except the one where I got a garden plot. I'm assuming this is because they have long waiting lists and not much volunteer time.

A good friend is sending me some flax seeds. She headed me off at the pass when I bought the wrong kind... There are more than one kind of flax, apparently. One is annual, the other is perennial. The perennial is a hardy garden plant and a good native wildflower. There are two varieties of annual- one which is better for seed and one which is better for fibre. Thankfully, she's sending me the fibre variety, and I'm sharing the perennial with her for her garden. The rest of the perennial kind I'll be spreading on a field this weekend. When the proper fibre kind gets here I'll be spreading it over half my community garden plot. You have to harvest the flax for fibre just after it finishes flowering, but before it sets seed, so I'll leave a patch on one side to grow some seed for next year. Maybe a bit to eat, too, just for the novelty. The flax plants get a bit tough by then, but it might make a nice bit of cordage.

I got permission for this in advance from the garden co-ordinator so I didn't get into any trouble. It was a strange request, but there you go. I'm used to whimsical looks from people.

Then comes the retting (rotting) process. I hear it's kind of smelly...

Friday 22 April 2016

Make a little bee-house in your soul

Wild bees

There are many thousands of varieties of bees besides those which make honey. In Canada we have at least 730, which is only 4% of the approximately 19,000 species world-wide, but only 39 of those reside in Ontario (as far as we know right now, as insects are notoriously difficult to find). (1)

Bees developed from digger wasps, but instead of killing prey for their young they switched to pollen. Bees are almost as old as flowers in the timeline of the earth. Most bee species do not live in colonies, but provide a store of pollen for their young in a safe place where the egg is deposited. The only species native to Canada that rear their young and live in colonies are Bumblebees, which live in abandoned rodent burrows. Of those who do not live in colonies most make their nests in the ground, but a good number of them like the pithy stems of plants, beetle-holes in wood, or other naturally occurring cavities (like snail shells). A few make a nest under rocks.(2)

Friday 15 April 2016

How to build a cheap hoop house

http://doorgarden.com/2008/10/27/50-dollar-hoop-house-green-house/

This is just a link because I've never made one, but these instructions look pretty good, actually.

Friday 8 April 2016

Time for tea- herbal tea blends and recipes


I have a great teapot which has an infuser under the lid, so I can make up a whole pot at a time, but I also use a tea ball for individual cups. Herbal tea usually takes about five minutes to steep. Sweeten with a bit of honey to keep the complex flavour palette.

Peppermint tea-
There isn't much more simple than this. Use one teaspoon of dried or 1 tablespoon fresh leaves per cup.

Lavender tea-
One tablespoon of fresh or dried lavender flowers per cup of water. You can add mint or lemon balm as you like.

Saturday 2 April 2016

How to grow and store your own herbal tea


Some herbs to try-
Mint, Lavender, Lemon verbena, Lemon balm, Thyme, Chamomile, Rosemary, Fennel, Sage, Lemon grass (will grow in a pot and can be over-wintered that way), Rose hips (I've mentioned this before, but they have an amazing amount of vitamin C), Linden tree flowers (harvest before the flower bud opens, and they taste like honey), Hyssop (lovely, fragrant leaves and the bees love the flowers), Clover blossoms,Organic citrus peels (eat the fruit and save the peels from the outside. Trim off the sour, white rind to improve the flavour), Blackberry and raspberry leaves, and Borage (the flowers are sweet and the leaves a bit cucumber-y). If you want to get some nutrition into yourself in early spring try gathering some nettles. They are surprisingly healthy, with vitamin C, B1, K, carotenoids, and a lot of calcium and magnesium and a few other minerals. Use gloves to gather them because of the stinging, but after being immersed in hot water they are safe to handle. Young nettles were commonly chopped up and added to pottages in the spring to help people recover after a winter of less food (and vitamins and minerals). Later in the summer they get too woody and fibrous. In fact, nettles are another source of spinnable fibres and are processed like flax.

How to dry and store herbs and plant material-