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It’s a Garden Update..

February 25, 2021 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Hasn’t the weather been glorious of late! We have definitely been soaking it up and making the most of it. I do love Autumn but I know that it can hit us ever so suddenly and it’s all over rover before the togs have even dried on the washing line!

Tomato gardening — _{A good bunch of toms ready for this warm sun to ripen them.}

I’m hoping the good weather lasts long enough for my tomatoes to ripen. I must admit I got a little despondent with all the crap weather we were having that I kind of neglected my tomatoes and some of my plants went hell for leather creating laterals and beautiful bushiness, at the expense of my fruit. I gave them all a trim last week and I have a couple of mighty plants with a mere two tomatoes growing, gah! A good reminder lesson to keep those laterals (the growth in-between the main stem and branches) pinched out and to trim off excess leaves (so the toms get the warmth of the sunshine to ripen).

Agria potatoes — *_{The best roasting potatoes out there; Agria}*

I got a bit slack in mounding up my potatoes this year too, but I’m pretty happy with the harvest all the same. Red Rascals, big beautiful Agria and Matariki (they’re still in the ground). Potatoes are such a winning crop to grow, home grown organic potatoes taste so much better and the satisfaction of digging them up.. it’s good for the soul! If you grow them in containers it’s pretty good for the ego too. You just tip them out and you feel oh so clever for not having to get your hands dirty!

After harvesting your potatoes from the garden grow some mustard in it place to cleanse the soil and keep it nicely covered for winter. As long as my potatoes don’t get scab I grow them in the same plot for three years, so mustard is really important for my particular garden.

The herb garden has been going off, and the bees are LOVING it. They filled up on motherwort, then catnip, now they’re onto the oregano. Always the borage, and white sage has been there for them all summer too.

White sage plants have been more popular than ever this season and I am coming near to the end of my stock, unfortunately there will be a good few people missing out, I’m sorry!! I have re-homed 170 white sage plants so far this season, phew!

Full moon tomorrow, I have my spring bulbs ready to plant out, where exactly will be todays job! If you haven’t checked out what to do this month in the garden according to Maramataka Māori, I’ve worked it all out for you here.

Maramataka Māori for February 2021

February 8, 2021 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Maramataka Māori, gardening by the moon NZ

Haere mai! Welcome to my first “what you ought to do in your garden according to Maramataka Maōri for this month” guide. I will eventually think of a more nifty title!

Now, when I say February, I actually mean Huitanguru, the ninth month of the Māori year, which begins on the night of the New Moon (Whiro), this year that is the 12th February. I follow the Ātiawa version of Maramataka.

Please take mind that these are not hard and fast rules by any means, take into consideration your climate and what the weather is doing. You know your garden best and this ain’t gospel! If you have not read anything of mine regarding Maramataka I recommend you read this article here.

So without further ado, let’s get into it!

Whiro, 12th February

This is a time to plan; think about where you’re going to put all the seeds you sowed during last quarter or what you will sow for your autumn and winter crops. Generally though, whilst the moon is hidden, duck down yourself, put your feet up and relax.

Haohaoata, 14th February

If you weren’t able to get seeds sown during last quarter (did coincide with kids going back to school after all – or in our case, Unschoolers Camp in Foxton) today is the day to do it. Think not just about what you want to grow to eat but also cover crops/green manure crops like mustard (especially where solancae/nightshade family were growing) buckwheat and phacelia. It seems early but flowers and herbs for Autumn and Spring need to be sown now too – think hollyhock, calendula, chamomile and sweet pea. Coriander and dill.

Tamatea angaanga, 18th February

If the weather is playing nice (it can be unpredictable at this moon phase) it’s a good day for harvesting crops/seeds etc that require drying and storing (read, herbs, beans, corn, garlic/onion, potatoes).

Huna, 22 February

If you want to go woo woo – this is a beautiful night to give your appreciation to the ocean and the god of the sea, atua Tangaroa.

Māwharu, 23 February

The best day (very early morning or early evening) for foliar feeding your plants.

Rākaunui + Rākaumatohi, 27th (full moon) + 28th February

Full moon energy a go-go! A good day to plant plants out ~ especially root veges like carrot, beetroot, parsnips, turnips and swedes. Have you got any spring bulbs yet? Plant them during these two days.

Oike, 1st March

A give back moon, give your love (aroha) and appreciation to Papatūānuku and all that she gives you ~ what can you give back apart from caring for your patch of earth?

Korekore, 3rd March – 5th March

Take it easy my friends because we’re coming up to last quarter and if you want to be well set up for Autumn, Winter and Spring…Last quarter is going to be well busy!

Tangaroa piri a mua (Last Quarter), 6th March

Hold onto your hats people, we have five days of productive activity before we get near the next New Moon…

If you’ve got it in you, this is what you need to be doing for this months last quarter;

Sow seeds, think of your greens; spinach, chard, miners lettuce, corn salad.
Prick out seedlings, transplant and weed.
Harvest, dry and store seeds, including your beans.
Should have all your onion, garlic and shallots out and storing well. Check they’re all in a dry place and not going soft in any places.
Spray roses with seaweed, make sure the roots are well moist and give ’em a liquid feed.
Sow anemones and ranuculi for winter flowering.
Finish planting all your spring bulbs (esp if in cool climate NZ)
Water and feed your dahlias
Take geranium cuttings
If you haven’t already; prune apricots, peaches and plums, best to do this after your trees have fruited and before the cold sets in, to avoid silver leaf.

Get this all done by Thursday the 11th March you’ll be away laughing and relaxing for the New Moon period.

Hope you have found this useful! xx

Dried Herb Update

January 24, 2021 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

I’ve changed my system, I’ve updated my dried herb listings and I even have a couple of new herbs available… Whoop whoop!

Dried nettle, NZ Stoneygroundherbs — *_{Lesser nettle (Urtica urens)}*

My original game plan from the inception of Stoney Ground Herbs was to grow herbs en masse to dry and have available for the home herbalist and professional herbalist alike. I have made various discoveries over time about demand for certain herbs, the sort of quantities that tea makers are looking for and; that it’s quite a thankless task as a product to sell…..!

As an example, I will hand pick each chamomile flower, I will get a whole basket full, I then dry it, it looks stunning, smells stunning and weighs nothing!

german chamomile, dried, baby balm, uses — *_{German Chamomile}*

Then someone will ask if they could “just” get 500g of chamomile. 500grams is a shat load of dried herb! Even if I did have 500g of any herb the price I would charge is out of a lot of people’s ball park~ and my prices have probably been too low for the amount of mahi (work) that goes into growing, thriving, harvesting (non machine), drying, processing + packaging the herb.

There are people whom totally appreciate the work, the product, the fact that it is locally (NZ) grown and organic and that they’re supporting a small business. Hell, I would’ve given up a long time ago if it weren’t for these people. But I also appreciate that it’s actually quite hard to get your head around what sort of volume you’ll be getting for the quantity requested.

This is where we welcome my new way of selling dried herb…

I will now be selling my herbs by volume in these fabulous biodegradable pottles. I have two sizes available, 24oz and 12oz.

The smaller pottle will be useful for one off medicinal balms, tinctures, syrups and for single blend teas or a component of a blended tea. The larger pottle for the true lovers of the particular herb or those that have a particular need for a fair share of herb.

Dried self heal, NZ Stoneygroundherbs — *_{Self heal}*

New dried herbs available are Self heal (Prunella vulgaris), Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), and Sage (Salvia officinalis). Think healing balms, teas, natural remedies, medicine making.

I have a new format for my listings and one of the biggest changes is transparency. You can see exactly how much you will be getting, you will know what part of the herb you’re getting, whether it’s available, potential uses and you will know when it was harvested. Check it out here, using Motherwort as an example.

Some people have trouble on my website locating what dried herbs I have, we’re working on this. In the meantime, if you are on your mobile; go to the three lines underneath my logo, that will take you to a drop down menu, beside Dried herbs there is a wee + sign, press that and you’ll get another drop down menu with the individual listings (press on them to see the details). If you’re on desktop/laptop, hover your cursor over Dried herbs to see the drop down menu. If you click directly on Dried herbs you’ll see my tikanga for my dried herbs, which is always interesting to know eh!

The Fun Guy You Don’t Want at Your Party

January 21, 2021 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

So here we are in the middle of summer and there’s a few of us already dealing with fungal issues in the garden.

The higher rainfall we’re having but still relatively warm temperatures create the perfect humid storm for fungi like powdery mildew.

Powdery mildew shows as grey splodges on the topside of leaves and usually doesn’t rear it’s ugly head til the end of the season when plants are tired and there’s a bit more moisture (Autumn) in the air. Your cucurbits, ie. zucchini, pumpkin, cucumber etc are the most susceptible. Greenhouse/tunnel house plants can fall victim too if there’s not enough air flow.

SGH powdery mildew — _{Powdery mildew on some white sage plants} 😮

I’ve been getting it on my potted white sage which is a horrifying first for me!

Let’s go through the battle plan together. Unfortunately once you have powdery mildew you can’t reverse its course, the best you can do is pick off the affected leaves and try to curb the spread. This is why it’s a worry to have PM now – if it’s the end of the season you have your main harvest already and the plants are going to be pulled out soon anyway.

Fungicides;

Are used to prevent fungus diseases in plants and animals. Chemical sulphur based products are widely used, but not on my watch here.

In the past, I have used watered down milk at a ratio of about 30% milk 70% water, sprayed on susceptible plants in the early evening.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) is traditionally used in the food industry to inhibit mould but is also used with success in the horticulture industry and is one of the main ingredients in EM, which many of our beloved gardeners use; Kath Irvine of Edible Backyard (the Edible Backyard link will take you to how Kath is tackling rust, another fun guy you don’t want at your party), Kay Baxter of Koanga Gardens, Setha of Setha Seeds for example.

Getting a fungicide that is also going to give your plants a boost like EM is pretty much win win hey!

Another product you can use is a trichoderma based application which helps the plants turn on their defence mechanisms and helps from the roots up. Daltons has a product, “Organic Bioinoculant Powder” that is easily accessible from Bunnings.

Or you can try to make your own fungicide using botanicals like I have… Black elder (Sambucus nigra) leaves contain a weak hydrocyanic acid (that’s why we don’t eat any green part of the elder plant people!). Thyme and lavender also have anti-fungal and anti-bacterial actions. Peppermint, geranium, lemongrass and of course manuka/tea tree have antifungal properties also that can be utilised in a homemade spray.

Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) — _Soapwort

How I went about it; I grabbed a handful of elder leaves, chopped them up, I also chopped up a nice big comfrey leaf for some nutrition and soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) leaves and stems as a surfactant (a surfactant helps the goodies stick to the leaves, might nab some aphids while it’s at it too!). I then covered them with water and simmered for about 20 minutes, let cool, strained and watered it down in my 1 litre sprayer…

Making a botanical fungicide — *_{All in a pot; a pot that never gets used for food}*

Now, learn from my mistakes!! You know how on hair dye packets or skin products they recommend that you test first on a patch of skin or a couple of strands of hair (who actually does that??) well I highly recommend that you do a similar thing before spraying a made up spray willy nilly. Because I actually ended up burning a lot of leaves with my concoction, I made it waaaay to strong, I watered it down with only 1 litre of water when I should’ve watered it down with at least 4 litres of water. Blimey!

So if you go the way of making your own, general recipe is;

1 cup of fresh herb chopped or 1/4 C of dried herb
Simmered in water that covers the herb
Strain and water down with 4-5litres of water

Alternatively you can use the same quantity of herbs but instead of simmering you can blend the herbs together (I would only do this if you have a blender for non-food purposes) then soak it all in 4-5litres of water.

So I can’t show you before and after photos- because remember, no fungicide is a fixer – just a preventer. There are also other pro-active things to do if you’re tackling fungi, taking off the bottom leaves of plants or any other leaves that you see that might restrict airflow, if you’re dealing with potted plants, spread them out so no leaves are touching, eliminate any areas that will create humidity.

Now credit where credit is due, an Instagram friend https://www.instagram.com/the_bro_cam/ gave me heaps of inspiration and information about fungicides and integrated pest and fungal management, this guy is super passionate about it and super knowledgeable about it too, this article I’ve written here has merely skimmed the surface of what he knows and what he shared with me!

So go people, this weather is demanding us to be pro-active in the garden, go while there’s a break in this damn rain!

If you have your own recipe that you’ve used with success let us all know in the comments~

Kia ora!

January 12, 2021 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Kia ora folk! Hoo-wee! Feels like I haven’t been here in a while, happy new year and all that jazz!

My negligence here, hmm, no let’s word that differently… My concentration has been taken up by a few other things. Firstly the whole Christmas and New Years thing; I was quite pleased once it was all over to be honest, it was nice it was fun, but always takes a bit of extra-curricular planning and hyped expectations, especially if you have kids!

_{Not the most complimentary shot of any of us, but here’s our family in Whakatāne way for Christmas}

Secondly, it is drying season and with this weather being so higgedly piggedly working out the ideal times to harvest my herbs and know that they will dry in premium time, takes a bit of forethought. White sage season has also begun, this is when I go through my wait list, send out emails 20 at a time, wait for responses, get plants ready, freak out that I’m not going to cut it or my plants aren’t, know that I’m fine, check that I’ve been paid, send them out….and repeat!

Vegie garden maintaining, staking, de-lateraling tomatoes, weeding… at least I’ve hardly had to water, thanks grey days…not!

But mainly, I’ve been a bit pre-occupied with a new project; it’s an expansion on Stoney Ground Herbs but well, almost a whole ‘nother beast. I can’t really say too much about it yet but it’s going to be really cool and I’m super excited. There’s a whole lot of work involved (it’s huge!), but fortunately I’m a team player and I’ve got people on my side working on the products, the developments, the technical parts and the ‘keep SandRa real’ parts! So if I’m a bit quiet, this is what I’m doing… But be ready for some noise!

In the meantime here’s some photos of the gardens and I promise I will get back onto the blog writing wagon!

Hope your gardens are flourishing too!

Golden plum tree — Oh, and it’s the start of preserving season, our Golden Plum tree has been over zealous in its generosity, I can’t keep up!

Clary sage, Salvia sclarea 'Turkenstanica' — Clary sage, Salvia sclarea ‘Turkenstanica’. Looking gorgeous, smelling even better, the smell gets stronger as the flowers age.

Vegie garden — OK, maybe I haven’t been that busy weeding…it’s on the to-do list! Zucchini, borlotti beans, corn (somewhere) and spaghetti squash.

Tomato — Nip out the growth that happens between the main stem and the main branches.. this is what’s called “delateraling”, makes for a stronger plant and better fruit.

Container gardening — I’ve been experimenting with container gardening…

Honey — Harvested a couple of frames of honey a couple of weeks ago, very exciting, very messy, very rewarding!

Wrapping up

December 4, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Well folks, this coming Monday is my last day of sending plants until after the new year.

Couriers are super busy during December and it’s just not possible for them to be as careful with the plants as I (and you) would like them to be. Trust me, I’ve learnt this the hard way (some unfortunate customers learnt this too 😭).

Market wise, I was supposed to be doing Mauriceville Market this Sunday but I’ve had to pull out due to the kids and I getting a cold this week. I was hoping I’d be better by Sunday, but still snotty and have a cough and it is not the done thing to leave the bubble when crook. Bit gutted, but hey, that’s life. I will be at the Greytown Market on the 20th Dec, perfect timing to get your kokedama Xmas gifts!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by StoneyGroundHerbs (@stoneygroundherbs)

_{I just wanted the picture not all the other stuff! This was from a few weeks ago..}

I must admit I have sold out of a lot of herb plants already this season, it’s always so hard to know how many propagations to make and then you never know how many will strike from year to year. It’s been great that so many people are jumping onto the herb wagon though, they are such wonderful resilient plants to have in the garden.

So aside from looking after my plants and gardens (and prepping for Greytown market) it’s my time to relax and get into the Xmas spirit with the kids, you know a little bit of summer would help getting into that spirit though! We haven’t even thought about what summer clothes we have for this season let alone have thoughts about going for a swim, brrrrrr!

In the new year we’ll be full steam ahead with white sage plants going to new homes, so if you’re on my wait list; the time is coming! Not all my plants are ready at the same time and so I don’t get overwhelmed, I do work through the list in the order of people contacting me as the plants become ready (ie. big enough to send). The list is long this year (every year it’s longer than the last) so if you’ve recently contacted me or thinking of contacting me I cannot guarantee you plants, if you do miss out though I put you at the top of the list for next season. I hope that made sense!

What is Your Garden Expressing?

November 22, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

How does your garden reflect your personality?

garden personalities — _{South side garden}

Think about it, have a look around. Does it?

Your garden may be only in its beginnings, but the designs you’ve put in, the plants you’re choosing, the foundations are what you’re after hey?

OK, what annoys you about your garden?

What about the gardens you’re attracted to? These ones may not be your way – but you love the look of them – do they reflect your partner or wannabe partner?

Our gardens can teach us more than just the nature of plant growth and what they can provide for us…

My garden is wild. A client came to buy some plants and looked around saying “Wow! It’s like herbs in their natural environment, a free range garden” I loved that-thank you Suzanne! (And it’s exactly how I home educate/unschool my children – reflection #1). It looks messy (reflection #2). It is messy (part of reflection #2).

Part of main garden in late Nov — _{Free range garden}

I prefer my beds to be curved like nature (reflection #3) but have had to make straight linear beds in some cases (reflection #4 on my “domestication”) if they grow outside of their lines though… so be it (reflection #5, I tried, honest, but not meant to be!).

In so saying, I have more than several gardens and can express the different aspects of my personality in different gardens. I am lucky.

Now that you’ve looked at your own, look at those nearest and dearest to you (or complete strangers!). What does it say? What could you ascertain about their inner selves? Or inner desires?

Ohhh deep!

_{This is not my garden, but I love it! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Komyozenji_temple_garden_3.JPG#/media/File:Komyozenji_temple_garden_3.JPG}

Let’s Talk About White Sage

November 1, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

White sage, Salvia apiana, is native to California U.S.A. There it grows wild on the desert plains; I would love to continue on to say “where they thrive and grow undisturbed” but sadly they are getting seriously disturbed.

With the advent of the new age trend of “smudge sticks” the plants are being un-sustainably harvested, or stolen, for profit. To the point where the people whom have used white sage traditionally (the Native Americans) and still use it for their smudging ceremonies, are not able to wild harvest it due to protection orders put in place to stop this indiscriminate harvesting. This article here will tell you all about it in more depth…https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7jkma/the-white-sage-black-market-v27n3

Fortunately, people are becoming aware and businesses like Mountain Rose Herbs are now sourcing their white sage from a sustainable source, read the article here. https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/procuring-organic-cultivated-white-sage There’s some pretty amazing photos of some pretty amazing bushes in there too!

Fortunately there are also people like you, whom grow your own white sage. Selling white sage for me, feels like I’m helping in some way, helping white sage’s ancestors stand strong again, unharmed, empowering people to grow and dry their own.

Which brings me to something else close to my heart… This is the cultural appropriation of the term “smudging”.

Smudging is a sacred ceremony practised by Indigenous Peoples of North America. It involves a group of people, a shaman, singing, chanting, praying – yes it involves burning white sage (or other herbs), to clear and cleanse an area and/or person- but it is not just that, it is so much more.

When you use white sage to clear negativity from your house, your aura or your crystals, it is totally fine and valid, but you are possibly not “smudging”, you are smoke cleansing. So it’s just a matter of changing your vocab. Instead of “smudge sticks” say “smoke cleansing wands” (I think it sounds so much prettier too!). Instead of “smudging”, “smoke cleanse”.

This article here explains it in depth, including the history of this practise and how it was used to repress the Indigenous people (by making it illegal). https://fashionista.com/2019/11/burning-sage-cultural-appropriation.

Burning herbs for spiritual purposes is not unique to Native Americans, in Scotland they call it “Saining“, Aboriginies in Australia have “Smoking Ceremonies”, Catholics have “censers”. And white sage is certainly not the only herb you can burn, do take mind that there are some herbs that are toxic to burn and others that frankly just don’t smell nice and you may as well burn some cardboard!

If you are not growing your own herbs do check where your herbs come from as sadly it is not just white sage that is in danger in its natural habitat, many medicinal herbs also fall victim to unscrupulous profiteers.

Other very interesting articles to read if you so desire… https://unitedplantsavers.org/what-is-going-on-with-white-sage/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smudging

About how to grow white sage read thi s article here..

A Balm for the Emotions

October 26, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

If you have lemon balm in your garden and have done for a while, you most likely have quite a few lemon balm plants in your garden, and then some!

If that is the case for you, it is easy to forget how amazing and splendid this plant is, or maybe you didn’t know? Or maybe you do! Then you may read on whilst nodding your head in a knowingly pleased fashion.

Lemon balm, sweet balm or just balm (or Bawne in olde English), Latin name Melissa officinalis.

Melissa is from the Greek word signifying ‘bee’. Bee keepers would (and still can) rub their hives with balm to attract bees and to keep bees together. Plus bees love lemon balm flowers (for more bee loving plants read this post here).

But medicinally and historically what lemon balm has been used for is melancholy and long life.

*_{Ruin of Carmelite Church in Famagusta, Cyprus}*

Carmelite Water, a closely guarded recipe made by monks in France (in the way back and when) has lemon balm as its main ingredient along with lemon peel, nutmeg and angelica root (ahh, don’t be fooled by the water part… ‘water’ is wine- as wine is water for some of us!).

Learning Herbs has a great article about Carmelite Water along with their recipe if you want to give it a crack.

Mrs M. Grieve reckons it is highly useful against nervous headache and neuralgic affections. Just steeping lemon balm with a bottle of white wine can “comfort the heart and driveth away melancholy and sadness”

Paracelus said that “essence of balm given in Canary wine every morning will renew youth, strengthen the brain, relieve languishing nature and prevent baldness” If that’s your excuse to drink wine every morning Paracelus you strike a good argument!

I’ve had days where I’ve felt a little blah, a bit dark… and I get a definite lift if I munch on a lemon balm leaf, well maybe not so much a lift but a forgetfulness as in “hmm, that’s right, I was feeling down before, ha! wonder what about?”.

You can dry lemon balm but I find that the scent doesn’t really remain and it’s better to use it fresh if possible.

Lemon balm also has wonderful anti-viral properties, particually effective against herpes simplex, more commonly known as cold sores.

Cold sore ointment diy — *_{Cold sore ointment/balm}*

I’m blessed to not get cold sores but my boys do now and again so I made up a balm that goes onto their cold sores at first tingle. Works a treat. Article and recipe can be found here (goodness, written back in 2015!).

To grow lemon balm it likes a shady to semi shady spot and plenty of moisture, though it’s pretty adaptable and can handle being neglected (as long as it’s in the right spot!). If you don’t want it to self seed all around the show then nip out the flowers as soon as you see them. Optimum harvest time is late spring and throughout summer.

So I hope you can now look at your lemon balm with new appreciation or you’re now well excited about getting lemon balm into your life! Click here to see availability of Lemon Balm.

Pleasing The Bee’s Knees ~ Herbs to Grow for Bees

October 3, 2020 By SandRa Timmins 2 Comments

If you hadn’t heard the news, I’m now the very proud, very amateur, owner of a beehive and a humming colony of busy ladies and lazy males! I am on a quick learning curve to say the least (it was an unexpected but very gratefully received surprise gift).

In the past I’ve had people buy herbs off me specifically for the bees and I have had a fair idea of what herbs would be best~ but now my interest has double folded and I’m looking at a lot of my plants in a new light!

A Bit of Bee Backstory…

Bees need pollen and nectar. And depending on what time of year it is and what your hive is trying to achieve, sometimes they’re searching for mainly pollen (pollen is their source of protein and is essential for the feeding of larvae) or nectar (nectar is their carb source, it is converted into honey- honey for them to live on, and stored for the cold months when plants are not flowering). Often when searching for nectar they also inadvertently collect pollen~ pollination.

(Photo by **Andreas Trepte, www.avi-fauna.info**)

You can see the pollen stashed on their back legs, nectar is transported in their stomach. It is in the warmer months when lots of flowers are producing the most nectar and this is called “the flow”.

Honey bees also need to collect water for the hive and resin (from trees and buds) to make into propolis.

Many of our native trees are excellent for nectar and pollen, a lot of our fruit trees are great for pollen but some don’t have nectar sweet enough for their taste buds (Pear as an example). But as they say (they being me), there’s a bum for every seat and an insect for every flower!

Bee on cherry plum blossom — *They smother our cherry plum trees though*

In New Zealand we have four different types of bumblebees, 33 ‘native’ bee species and four introduced bee species, one of these being the honey bee.

What Can We Plant for the Bees…

Being a herby person I’m going to focus on herbs that you can grow that the bees will love and appreciate (my idea of herbs is quite broad!). Firstly though, lets acknowledge their amazing visual spectrum which includes the short wavelength ultra violet range which is beyond our mere mortal human eyes. So blues, yellows, light pink/purple and white are more on their radar than reds and oranges. This is quite a cool clip I found on YouTube that shows how bees and butterflies see, I mainly like it for its music!

EARLY SPRING

It’s a pollen a go go in Spring – the Queen has started laying and there are hungry mouths to feed..

A swathe of poppies that bees would love — *Brought to you by the letter P… This is a public garden bed in Masterton*

Poppies; all and any, plant them in large swathes so it’s like a billboard for the bees, advertising food for the needy.
Lacy phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia); often used as green crop- let the bees in before you dig it in
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Honesty (Lunaria annua)
Borage (Borago officinalis)
French lavender (Lavandula dentata)
Let any brassicas you’ve got go to seed- the flowers are an excellent source of nectar
Let your dandelion flower and if you can stand it, the buttercup too.

Plants for bees, flowering kale — *Kale going to seed*

SUMMER ~ The flow is on!

Honey bees are native to the Mediterranean and naturally will go gah gah over thymes, rosemary, sage and oregano. There is also (in no particular order)

Clover
Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium)
Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
Geraniums/Pelargoniums
Rue (Ruta graveolens)
St John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum)
Mint (Mentha sp.)
Catnip (Nepeta cataria)
Catmint (Nepeta mussinii)
Clary Sage (Salvia sclarea)
Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea)
Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)
Chive flowers (Allium schoenoprasum)
Borage (Borago officinalis)
Dandelion
Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)
Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)
Marjoram (Majorana hortensis)
Comfrey
Fennel (Foeniculum sp.)
Lovage (Levisticum officinale)
Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris)
English lavender (Lavandula spica)
Basil (but if you want basil for your own needs wait until the end of the season)

AUTUMN

A lot of salvias wait until autumn to flower or are flowering well into autumn. Sunflowers. All the herbs that are onto their last hurrah/going to seed before dying (annuals like basil and dill) or going to ground (perennials like chives and echinacea etc).

Even if you don’t have hives it’s really important to have flowers in your garden for the bees and all the other pollinators out there. For their health and well being as well as your gardens productivity.

And I really really hope that it goes without saying that the use of pesticides is an absolute no-no and pretty counter-productive if you’re trying to attract pollinators!

Now go to your garden and watch the bees, see what they’re gunning for, watch whether they’re lolling about in pollen or head down supping up the nectar. Wonder at how they see the world and hope that they are as thankful for your garden as you are as thankful for their existence and the food on your table!

References/Recommendations;

Practical Beekeeping in New Zealand by Andrew Matheson & Murray Reid
A Beekeepers Year by Janet Luke (NZ book)
The Bee-Friendly Garden by Kate Frey & Gretchen LeBuhn (US book)
If you’re after all plants specifically for the bees, based in Manawatū is Trees for Bees

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