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Edible flowers

Edible Flowers For Beauty and Health Hi everyone, we hope you are enjoying the beautiful spring weather. It has been fantastic for our new gardens, and they are growing amazingly. Here at Harmony Gardens and Grub, we are building an off-grid living space and kitchen, and we are building gardens to provide produce. Our gardens are not certified organic, but all our plants are grown in organic conditions. We do not use any pesticides or herbicides, not even slug pellets! We work with the cycl...

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Super Sunflowers

It is definitely spring here in the Southern Hemisphere, and a great time to be adding flowers and colour to your garden. I love this time of year, I love seeing all the flowers popping out and blossoming, and I am always excited to start off my own sunflower seeds. Sunflowers can be sown from seed, from August to January. I usually like to start mine off indoors, behind glass, at the very end of winter. However this year I have been able to sow them straight into pots, and put them in a pl...

When Life Gives You More Lemons…..

Spring is well underway, the equinox has just passed, and everything is growing amazingly. Lemons are still available in vast abundance, and it is a perfect time to stock up your freezer, fridge and tins with some delicious, home made lemony goodness. Lemons are full of vitamin C, so they are fantastic for chasing off any lingering winter chills and bugs, and boosting our immune systems. They also have other health benefits too. According to the website www.healthline.com,lemons can:He...

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It’s Matariki

It is approaching Matariki here in Aotearoa. At this time of year, the Matariki star cluster can be seen in our southern skies. This is a very special time of the year for Māori, as it signifies a new year, new plans, and a time to let go of all that no longer serves you. From a health and well-being perspective, it is a fantastic time to look at our diet, and habits, and identify things that are holding us back from achieving our health goals. One thing that might be getting in our way, i...

Garlic Goodness

For those of us living in the Southern Hemisphere, it has now passed Winter Solstice, and the shortest day. We are living in our winter, which is the time for colds, flus and viruses to go around. However, thanks to Mother Nature, there are many plants to boost our immune system, help us stay healthy, and help us ward off any nasty infections.Garlic is one of those plants, and it is easy to grow in your garden, even if you are a first time gardener. You can grow it in a garden bed, or in pots an...

More rain!

There is a saying, that you should save things up “for a rainy day”. Well, I think that rainy day has properly arrived! This year has been incredibly wet, with cataclysmic weather events, and unseasonable levels of rainfall. This can play havoc with a garden, and it is often frustrating to be stuck inside, watching the plants get soggier and soggier. These rainy days are good days to get into all those jobs that you have saved up for a rainy day. It is good to have some mental activity ...

Perfectly Persimmons

It is late autumn, and the perfect time for harvesting and eating persimmons. These are one of my favourite fruits, and I always associate them with my birthday, which is around this time of year. Persimmons generally come in two kinds - astringent and non-astringent. Astringent persimmons contain higher levels of tannins, and need to be ripened before they are pleasant to eat. Non-astringent persimmons still contain tannins, but are far less astringent before ripening, and lose most of the...

The Wonders of Rocket!

Rocket is an amazing addition to the garden, and it provides abundance of greenery all year round. It establishes itself quickly and spreads rapidly, so it is a great garden filler. The leaves are great for salads, wilted greens, and pesto. The flowers make a pretty edible addition to salads and a beautiful garnish. It is also known as arugula, and it has a strong, peppery flavour which can turn bitter as the leaves get older. When picking rocket, make sure you pick the leaves which are green an...

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Sunflowers and their meaning

What is the symbolic meaning of a sunflower?What does a sunflower symbolise? Sunflowers symbolise loyalty, adoration. I grow sunflowers every year, in memory of those who have passed. They are the symbol of hope. They also help to protect against harmful effects of radiation....