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Stoney Ground Herbs

Beautiful, strong herbs for NZ gardeners and herbalists of all levels

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Emerging Spring

September 22, 2019 By SandRa Timmins 1 Comment

Spring (Kōanga) is trying its best, we’ve had some super lovely days (about three, maybe four) and I can feel that it is slightly warming up. My sourdough starter is actually what I use as a temp gauge, once it starts getting looser and needing more feeds (and my bread in the morning has risen superbly) I know it’s getting warmer!

It’s an exciting time of year Spring – all those plants you thought had succumbed to winters harshness start coming back to life (hope you hadn’t dug them out!).

Echinacea popping

Echinacea emrging in spring from dormancy
Breaking free from its dormancy

Southernwood leafing up

Southernwood spring growth
A good time to prune if your plant is leggier than you’d like

Sage growing new leaves

New growth on common sage
I did actually think this one was a goner, yippee for being wrong! (Common sage)

Wild bergamot emerging

Wild bergamot coming back
Hard to believe it will grow so tall!

Peppermint coming up in places un-expected!

Peppermint coming up in spring
Discovered that the roots can go under pathways and come out the other side!

Chives becoming useful again

Chives
Remember chives are perennial, even when they disappear in winter and even after they flower, the chives live on, hoo ra!

Elder leafing up and flower buds showing

Elder budding up
Bring on the flowers! I need those for my xmas “champagne”

And of course all the blossoms. And of course the wind… oh that wind! Took out one of our plum trees, Early Duffs, enough to make a girl cry. We’ve propped it up in hope that we’ll still get some plums for Christmas, my hopes are not high, about as high as our tree is now!

Propped up a plum tree that fell over in the wind
We also needed to get it out of reach from the kune kunes and the chickens!

The wind also took out my glass (plastic) house and all the seedlings inside it. Boy oh boy, that made me ever so slightly livid. Nature huh!

But, making good from bad, I’m using the top frame of the glasshouse over top of one of my garden beds that I’ve just planted my new potatoes in, again, to protect from the pigs and chickens.

Making good from bad
See that steel bar on the ground? So many stones, that’s what I use to dig!

I don’t think I’ve introduced our kunes. They are total trouble, I love them to bits but they need a new home/more land. I fell for the line that kunes don’t root and just graze on grass. Turns out ours love to dig the ground and eat feijoa trees! Seems nobody wants 9 month old rooting kunes when there’s so many oh so cute piglets to purchase though. Ach well, they’re very loving so I’m fairly quick in forgiving them, even if they did eat my whole saffron crop, grrr!

Black and white kune kune
Truffles
Ginger and black kune kune (and blonde bearded collie)
And there’s our Snuffles.. and Loki the dog

Back to the wind. If you have plants in containers remember to keep watering them, plants lose moisture through their leaves as well and the wind can strip them of that moisture in no time.

OK, happy spring sowing!!

Filed Under: Animals, Care and Maintenance Tagged With: chives, echinacea, elder, kune kunes, peppermint, plant protection, plants coming back to life in spring, sage, Southernwood, wild bergamot, wind

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Beautiful, strong herbs
for gardeners
and herbalists
of all levels.

Grown
with passion
and persistence.

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