December 2011 Bloom Day

16 Dec 2011 7 Comments

by Gwen in gardening, snapshots Tags: , , , ,

Yesterday was the Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day! I had this post ready to go and then my internet went down. *shakes fist* Every month on the 15th, GBBD is hosted over at May Dreams’ Gardens! :) You should definitely click through to see what’s blooming all over the world today.

Crystal apple cucumber flower

My cyrstal apple cucumbers are putting out flowers left and right! They’re still only babies, though, so I might pinch them off.

Snow pea flower

Snow peas are out of control!  My tummy likes it. :)

English thyme flower

Some thyme flowering beside my little sage plant! :) Cute flowers.

Scarlet runner bean flower

My scarlet runner beans! Lovely color against the green!  Very festive.

Nemophilia baby blue eyes flower

My nemophilia flowers are going crazy, too.  They’re funny, floppy little things and I’m really loving them!  So are the bees.  Lots of bumble bees and honey bees out on sunny days!  Unfortunately it’s going to rain the next five days or so. Sigh.

What’s blooming in your garden?  Or in your house? :)

A snapshot sort of Sunday

04 Dec 2011 12 Comments

by Gwen in gardening, snapshots Tags: , , ,

I know I haven’t posted much this week, but hopefully next week will be different! Definitely feeling better now.

Things are really taking off in my garden, whether I feel good or not! I look back on pictures of only couple weeks ago and things are so much bigger than they were before.  I guess when you see it everyday, you don’t notice the change that much.

Marigolds

I love, love, love these marigolds.  Not all of the ones I have are this kind and I have no idea what they are, but they’re so fiery!

Stuff is bigger!

See?  Stuff is really bigger!  I’m not making this up.  I need to get some more potting mix so I can put those tall tomatoes in their own big pots where they’ll be nice and happy.

Cystal Apple Cucumber

My smallest crystal apple cucumber plant is trying to get going already, and she’s not even planted in a garden bed yet!  Well, she wasn’t when I took this picture.  I had a head of lettuce mysteriously wilt on me suddenly, so the cucumbers got that spot!

Royal gala apple tree

And look at this little guy! He’s almost doubled his height in a few weeks.  Good work, Mr. Appletree!

MMMM yum.

My strawberry plants seem very happy, too.  I should be able to pick these in a couple days!  Strawberry shortcake, here I come.  You know those little sponge cake cups you can buy to make strawberry shortcake in the US?  Can’t find them here.  Guess I’ll have to make my own somehow…or maybe I’ll do cupcakes.  I’m starting to drool just thinking about it.

The first flower!

I saved the best picture for last (in my opinion, anyway).  My first nemophilia flower opened yesterday!  I watched the flower bud over a few hours and the last time I checked on it, it had opened!  Since then, a few more have opened up in that tire and in the back, there are a few out there, too!  I’m so excited :)  They’re so dainty.  I know I crowded them pretty badly in the tires, but I’m hoping that the tires are deep enough for them to forgive me.

How are your gardens looking? If it’s winter where you are, I hope you’re snuggled up nice and warm!

A snapshot sort of Sunday

31 Oct 2011 2 Comments

by Gwen in food, snapshots Tags: , , , ,

Ack, I’m behind a day!  And I just missed Sunday in the US by 40 minutes, so I can’t even act like I did it because of that either.

I blame Wellington for making my allergies go nuts and me being too meh to get this together yesterday.  I finally have my nose back today! The amount of nose that I usually have, anyway, which is to say probably half a nose?  I am allergic to cats, but more of other cats than my own cats.

On to the pictures!

Airport poppy

Pretty flowers at the airport! :) They looked like poppies, but I could be wrong?

Airport poppy

I really loved their colors! So vibrant :) Spring is definitely here!

Blue skies

I’m glad I remembered my sunglasses on this trip.  Usually I forget them, and end up getting bad headaches if I’m in the sun too much.

Office nerf gun arsenal

Obviously, our office is not a normal office by any means.  This is the fully-stocked nerf gun cabinet.  I choose to remain unarmed, as folks don’t tend to aim at unarmed coworkers as much!

Rainy Wellington morning

The second morning I was there, it was foggy and rainy, but I didn’t mind.  It was nice to stand outside, protected by an overhang, and listen to the birds greet the day.

Shya and Dauny

The later half of my trip, I stayed with some expectant friends & their kitties so I could attend their not-baby-shower party!

Jackolantern

The gathering was Halloween-themed!  Pumpkins (they were squash) were carved, and glorious spooky snacks were made!

Stuffed date cockroaches

Cream cheese & walnut-stuffed  cockroaches (dates) were my favorite.

Peanutbutter eyeballs

These white chocolate-covered peanut butter & rice cereal balls went down a treat, too.

Bat wings

I was too chicken to try the bat wings after I saw what color they were.  Very impressive!

Mystery flower

And there were pretty flowers there, too!  I’m unsure what kind this is, but it caught my eye and wanted its picture taken.

I had a really lovely time in Wellington :) I’m so lucky that my job can be done from home, but it’s nice to get to see everyone in the office once in a while and catch up with friends!

How was your weekend?  Doing anything for Halloween?

Upcycling in my garden

11 Sep 2011 3 Comments

by Gwen in gardening Tags: , , , , , ,

Earlier today I saw an email come through from my local freecycle group. If you’re not familiar with freecycle, it’s a mailing list/message board where folks can offer items they want to get rid of, or post about items they need/want. The rules of our local freecycle group clearly state that the purpose of the group is to keep things from ending up in the dump, so you see a good amount of large appliances and beds and such making their way through. Today, however, the email I saw had me seriously rolling my eyes — someone asked for a wii. A Nintendo Wii. Really? I don’t think anyone has an extra one of those lying around.

I’ve gotten a lot of cool stuff from freecycle in the past year, and have found homes for many of our old items (beds, fish tank stands, books) through the group as well. I find it almost as handy as trademe! You have to be particularly fast with freecycle, though. I saw a pack of Terry Pratchett books offered once and I replied within two minutes of the email arriving. I was 10th in line to get them if everyone else before me fell through! You’ll often see people asking for scrabble letters or broken plates to use in making new things like jewellery or mosaics, which I think is pretty darn nifty. Upcycling is definitely awesome!

I know I started off on a tangent, but many folks use their freecycle items to upcycle! See, I have a transition! I wanted to show you guys the upcycled tires that I’ll be planting my flowers and herbs in this year:

Look! It's pretty!

Not so tired-looking, eh? Harhar!

You have to admit this thing looks pretty cool. And the best part is, I got 4 for under $40! I bought two last month and two this month, and I hope I can get them filled up with some compost & soil to give my flowers and herbs a good place to grow! They should look really cool once planted :)

I have excellent gardening news, too! My manager’s husband has a wood-working business, and he makes raised garden beds! I highly recommend his work — we have a trestle table from him and I absolutely love it.  If you want to look him up, he’s got a trademe store.

New garden beds coming soon!

I’ve ordered two garden beds from him, and plan on putting both in front of the house instead of on the side (the side gets zero to no sun whatsoever!) Hurray for wooden raised garden beds (made from sustainable sources) and not ones made with plasterboard!

I also have a confession to make. I have planted many, many seeds into my little seedling trays. It was so warm out on the day I did it, I thought it would be safe! Mother nature is laughing now, because the weather the past two days has been cloudy and grey :( They’re living in our tv cabinet tonight, where it’s nice and warm until I can get them into a sunny spot where the kittens won’t knock them over!

I’ll leave you with this from Recyclart:

Flower Bed

Love the pun, and it’s so pretty ^_^ Do you have anything at home that’s been upcycled?

It has begun!

08 Sep 2011 3 Comments

by Gwen in gardening Tags: , , , ,

I’ve ordered my seeds for the veggie garden this year and I can’t wait till they’re here! Even the grocery store seems to be beating me at getting things planted. Last time I was there, there were tomato plants and strawberry plants on sale already. I couldn’t help but get two strawberry plants to bring home. They can be friends with the three that live here already from previous tenants.

Note to self: replant existing strawberry plants after you’ve drilled holes in the plastic trough they’re in so they can drain properly and not smell like stagnant swamp water.

Here’s the list of what’s to come:

Veggies:

  • A rainbow mix of heirloom tomatoes (couldn’t decide on which variety to get)
  • A rainbow mix of heirloom cherry tomatoes (same deal)
  • Sweet jingle bell peppers (capsicums for you kiwis reading)ZOMG Purple carrots!
  • Eggplant – Golden egg variety
  • Lettuce – Red salad bowl variety (sort of like red oak leaves you get in mixed lettuce bags)
  • Lettuce – Little gem (a boston variety known for small head size)
  • Bean – King of blues variety (they’re PURPLE)
  • Bean – Scarlet runner variety
  • Snow Peas
  • Sugarsnap Peas (a variety that will hopefully climb)
  • Carrot – Purple dragon (see pic)
  • Cucumber – Crystal apple variety

Ch-ch-ch-chia!Herbs:

  • Thyme – French Summer
  • Catnip (yay for kitties!)
  • Basil – Mini greek (think chia pets!)
  • Sage
  • Parsley – Italian (flat leaf)

Flowers:

  • Sweet pea (apparently these smell awesome)
  • Nemophilia snowstorm (pretty!)

Exciting times! :) While looking for these pics, I found the site where the person I’m purchasing seeds from must purchase her seeds (www.kingseeds.co.nz)! Nice profit margin — maybe I should sell seeds on the side. Glad I stumbled upon the site, though! They have another color of nemophilia that will look awesome in contrast with the one I ordered, and the lady I’m buying from isn’t selling that kind.

A bit of bad news on the gardening front happened yesterday, though. :( I went out to dig out the raised garden bed on the side of our house and while I was digging out the millions of potatoes that live in it, one of the sides of the gardening bed crumbled to bits. It turns out that the sides of it are made from plaster board (sort of like thin drywall for you Americans), of all things! I really have no idea what possessed the maker of said raised bed to use that…I don’t think it’d be very good for growing vegetables in. I guess that was a blessing in disguise, though — looking at new raised beds. Hopefully I can grab one that won’t break our bank, and maybe stick it somewhere else instead of on the side of the house!

I think I’ve babbled enough for today ;) Until next time!

 

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