Skip to main content

Flowers in my garden

I've never been a flower gardener, my garden is all about eating, however I do recognise the importance of flowers in the vege garden for attracting bees and beneficial insects.  I think there's three kinds of flowers in my garden at the moment:
  1. The perennials: things like comfrey, arrowroot, sage, and lavender are flowering at the moment and they are the good flowers, because they let you know that the plant is happy enough in its surroundings to flower for you.
  2. The annuals: these are the bad flowers, these make you think "oh crap, you're bolting to seed and I haven't planted any seeds yet to replace you".  At the moment that would be the parsley and the broccoli, and over the past few months have also included lettuce and rocket.  The only consolation is at least you get to keep the seeds!  And they do look rather pretty.
  3. The plants that you actually want to flower: plants like peas, beans zucchini and tomato that you NEED to flower so you can grow your veges (of course then they're technically fruit) and I've indulged and planted some marigolds, calendula and nasturtiums, they so cheerful, and supposed to be good for the soil in various ways themselves :)
top row: lavender, comfrey, arrowroot, marigold, pea, bottom row: broccoli, sage, tomato, bean and zucchini
What's flowering in your garden at the moment?

 Read more about seed saving here.
Labels:

Comments

  1. FrogdancerNovember 28, 2011 at 6:44 AM

    I've planted borage this year for the first time to attract bees. Their flowers are apparently really pretty in ice cubes over summer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. gullygunyahNovember 28, 2011 at 6:11 PM

    I have just found your blog and could not stop reading till I reached the start. I loved the story about the purple balls on the fence post. I nearly fell on the floor in fits of laughter.
    But seriously I don't think I've read a more interesting blog about self sufficiency(especially the cattle info) and the challenges it brings. Thankyou so much for sharing your experience.
    Mike

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 29, 2011 at 8:13 PM

    Oh Liz, I haven't had a chance to get near the computer for a few weeks or so to check blogs and wow. Thankyou for so many wonderful links and facts - I love the 'how many people can fit on earth; link.
    I will be lurking in moments spare around here absorbing all this wonderful information - Thanks
    Emily

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks, I appreciate all your comments, suggestions and questions, but I don't always get time to reply right away. If you need me to reply personally to a question, please leave your email address in the comment or in your profile, or email me directly on eight.acres.liz at gmail.com

Popular posts from this blog

The new Eight Acres website is live!

Very soon this blogspot address will automatically redirect to the new Eight Acres site, but in the meantime, you can check it out here .  You will find all my soaps, ebooks and beeswax/honey products there, as well as the blog (needs a tidy up, but its all there!).  I will be gradually updating all my social media links and updating and sharing blog posts over the next few months.  I'm very excited to share this new website with you!
4 comments
Read more

Farm update - August 2017

Its been cold this month, and very nice to have the fire going every night.  Here's a photo of my boy in his cape, great for late night woofing at things.  Most of July we were either preparing for the butcher to come or putting meat away.  Its always a big job, but its only once a year, and its all done now.  My lovely neighbour came over to help, so it was fun to have the company and work together.  Taz was a champion once again as she helped us to move cattle in the yards ready to load for the market.  Gus is not at that level yet and had to stay home (he cries when he gets left behind, but he just gets in the way and scatters the cattle).  We have had a few sprinkles of rain here and there, but also plenty of cold nights, so the grass is mostly dead and dry, waiting for the warmer weather to revive our summer-active pasture. Gus in his cape Taz after she helped to move cattle Food and cooking It was all about beef in July and we are v...
2 comments
Read more

Neem oil for insect control

** Sign up for my weekly email updates here , you will find out more about soap and our farmlife, straight to your inbox, never miss a post!  New soap website and shop opening soon.... I also make neem soap, neem insect repellent and neem salve, all available in my Etsy shop .** A few weeks ago now I was watering the garden just after dark, torch in one hand, hose in the other, when I was attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes (mozzies).  I could feel them biting me, but there wasn’t much I could do with both hands in use and I really needed to finish watering.  When I came inside I found that I had several bites on each leg between the top of my gumboots and the bottom of my shorts.  These proceeded to itch, swell and annoy me for several days. At this time of year, when the mozzies start biting, as I do have such a terrible reaction to the bites, I usually reach for my bottle of conventional insect repellent, typically containing DEET (N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamid...
21 comments
Read more