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End of Two Eras

December 15, 2018 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Tomorrow (16th Dec) I’m at the Greytown Country Market; it most likely will be my last market ever (I will still be selling my plants etc online).

I’m also turning 40 tomorrow.

To be frank with you, whomever you are, things have not gone well for Stoney Ground Herbs since moving here (been here over a year now, ‘here’ being Eketahuna). I’m quite sad about this. I know I should be saying things like “I’m moving into another phase of my life” or something else that doesn’t imply that my business is going to shit and I’ve been losing money for two years now. But today I can’t be arsed, I’m just a bit down about it all. I really thought that this year things would come together and be amazing. This is my fifth season and the boat is sailing away from me.

It’s true that Eke has a different climate and I’m still getting my head and ways around how to garden with crap weather. But it’s more that I haven’t got a weekly market to go to where people like/appreciate my plants enough for it be worth my while travelling to said imaginary market and paying the stall fee.

Online sales have been VERY slow this year, sure there’s lots of white sage lovers out there but I’m sorry, I don’t want to base my business on one plant, one fickle slow growing plant at that!

I still absolutely love herbs and I love sharing my knowledge but with all of the above I’m another small business going under. Do I wind this website up? I’m not sure, I’m not entirely sure that a lot of people read my blog anyway, are you still reading this?? Well done you and thanks. Should I even publish this? What if this is just a wee glitch? What if I’m being too honest or am I not honest enough? Maybe I’m not trying hard enough. Or should I just embrace that whole I’m turning forty thing and not give a fuck?

So there we have it. I’m a gonna go make my birthday cake and maybe I’ll see you at Greytown.

P.S. It’s not all doom and gloom, honest, I’ll post a much chipper entry before Xmas!

Christmas Deadline

December 7, 2018 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Kia ora folks, just a heads up that this is your last week to order plants until the new year. It’s too risky sending plants during the xmas rush, couriers are way too busy to take the care with plants that I prefer. So hustle hustle!

Unrelenting rain and lame sun

October 8, 2017 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

As winter settles in again (as it bloody well seems) things are not going as planned or as usual this year, I’m not a farmer but this article backs me up for my situation here of lots of rain, too many grey days, not enough sun…

Manawatu Farmers Sick of Unrelenting Rain

So due to circumstances beyond my control I’m not doing tomatoes this year. I sowed them. They all germinated. They grew. Then they stopped. Even the ones that I’ve kept in the greenhouse. I’m pretty freakin’ gutted but it is not within my abilities to create more sunshine, damn me not being a weather witch!

Pretty fricken dismal, these seedlings are 5 weeks old

There may be some available later on but certainly none by Labour Weekend unless a miracle happens. I’m supposed to start the markets next weekend (14/10/17) but I’m going to hold off til Labour Weekend and focus on my daughters birthday.

I’ve grown tomatoes from seed for years and have never had this happen to me, which made me question what I was doing differently/wrong. A little bit of research though, ok, a lot! Mainly took me to forums where people have had the same problem and was put down to not enough sunshine at a critical time of their young life (to give them the oomphf to keep growing). Makes sense; seedlings are trying to find their roots and need the power and energy from the sun to do that, adult established plants have the reserves in their root system to keep on trucking. And the weather here in Foxton/Manawatu has been quite frankly, shit. When the sun has come out, it’s been glorious some days but most days it’s not that spring bloom sun, you know the one? The one that everyone else is probably having!! And I hope to by gawd that Eketahuna is having!!

Heat Pads and Mashers

August 21, 2017 By SandRa Timmins 4 Comments

Well, I’ve learnt a very important lesson this week.

Cheap is not always choice and check your voltage output….

About four weeks ago I bought two heat pads directly from China; I had done my research (or so I had thought) and had worked out that this was my cheapest option if I wanted a heat pad to help with my seed propagation.

I had looked at home built options ~ I really wanted to make a heat pad out of fairy lights like this..

Go here to find the instructions on how to make one. Personally I could not find incandescent fairy lights or to be precise, incandescent rope lights in NZ. We’re all about LED and solar here. I could’ve got some through Ebay but with the dollar conversion and postage it certainly wasn’t the cheap option that it obviously is if you’re handy and living in the US.

I looked at the possibility of using an electric blanket but turns out that’s just downright dangerous – really?! Yeah, electric blankets are not made to be on 24/7 and I can’t risk burning the house down!

Which left me with the only foreseeable option of getting an actual heat pad. In New Zealand they range in price from $39-$83. But I could get heat pads for $19 I discovered, direct from China. Too good to be true?

You betcha! I patiently waited three weeks for them to arrive (I bought two). I knew that I would probably need an international plug for them but was sure I had one already… It didn’t fit so bought two from the local hardware store ($18). Excitedly I sowed a bunch of seeds that would appreciate the heat; white sage, cumin, basils.. and set it all up with plastic over top to keep the heat in.

Must admit I went to bed that night a little apprehensive about leaving a heat source on whilst sleeping. But I reassured myself that at least I’ll be waking up every three hours to smell smoke thanks to my dear darling non-sleeping toddler!

On checking in the morning everything seemed lovely and warm, well warm actually… When I checked in the afternoon, holy crap the soil/seed raising mix was steaming, I whipped out my cheese makers thermometer and once it hit 40C I pulled the plug.

Anyone guessing what’s happening here? You’re either very clever or you’ve had it happen to you (I’m just trying to make myself feel better!)

Yeeep. I got a quick sharp lesson in voltage output. You see the mats were made for the American market which have a voltage output of 110-120v, we here in Aotearoa (and a lot of other countries) have a voltage output of 230v. I sheepishly admit it does mention using a “standard 120v ouput” on the mat. They got me on “standard”, my plugs are pretty standard! One of those moments..

Doh!

It’s actually a miracle that it didn’t overheat and burn itself out within minutes of me plugging it in ~ or burn the house down!

If I want to get any use out of these “cheap” heat pads I need to get a 200v step down voltage converter, which range from $35 (super cheap therefore super dubious) to $299. Average price it seems is about $60. Which would bring my bargain heat pads to an approximate $120 (that’s including the international plugs that I wouldn’t need after all if I got a converter).

Lesson; I should’ve just got the heat pads from NZ, which proberbly would even come with guarantees. And of course I should’ve known better and checked (and known) about the voltage requirements.

Live and learn eh.

So it’s back to the ol’ hot water cupboard for me and my seeds.

Speaking actually of old and seeds, in one of my old propagation books (Published 1950) it talks of using a round patter to firm your seed raising medium in your trays. I’ve always just used the back of my hand. But when I was at the Otaki markets about a month back I happened upon one! Though turns out it’s actually an olde English potato masher… looks like a “patter” to me! Works a treat. Get seed sowing people, the moon is in the right place and Spring is round the corner!

Cows by day, cowboy landscapers by night…

July 9, 2017 By SandRa Timmins 2 Comments

Cows by day….

OMG to quote the teens of today what a sleepless night we had last week..

Our tree filled and garden oasis of a property is surrounded by dairy land. Our landlords farm in fact. Obviously some fencing broke which set a quite large herd of cows free. During the afternoon I headed them away a couple of times with the help of Loki (Bearded collie; he was born for this action!). I thought there might’ve been an evening feed out and the farmer would gather them back in again.

Bahahahahahaha!

Sometime after dinner we hear a clip clop down the driveway. Cows are quite huge hey. There’s nothing like opening your front door to a herd of them as they turn their heads to look at you dolefully, as though you’re the one intruding! We had no way of blocking them out and by this stage it was dark and they were EVERYWHERE; front lawn, orchard, forest, driveway and you betcha, the garden…

Massive beasts outside my window.

..cowboy landscapers by night

I prayed to every known god and goddess that they can have the broad beans but please please please leave my mother herbs alone and don’t knock over all my cuttings. It worked thank freakin’ whatever god heard my call!

I had braced myself for total devastation in the morning… and if I was a lawn fanatic my worst nightmares would’ve come true.

Once was green lawn..

But I’m not a lawn fanatic, quite the opposite in fact so this has presented me with new exciting possibilities! My clary sage patch unfortunately was on their flight path and has been trampled to smithereens, there’s big plug holes in the garlic patch, they’ve pruned the apple trees though I wouldn’t employ them to do it again, bit rough mind! Somehow they side stepped most plants and even left me with my broad beans. We have a whole lot of new tracks through the forest and they’ve cleared potential picnic areas. So all in all, I’m actually grateful for the marauding herd, oh and of course I now have plenty of fresh lovely cow manure, I no longer have to stare longingly at all the poo in the surrounding paddocks!

Here’s some more photos of the cows work…and I’m showing you these so you can see how amazing it’s going to be in three months time. And you know, it’s a bit of a lesson too in how potentially a devastating or even just an inconvenient thing can be a harbinger of growth or change for the good.

Ground is clear now for a herbal ley under the apple trees. Shame about the rough pruning!

Cows like mint

View from up on high

There were red onion seedling in here

That’s the top of the leeks taken care of

Smokin’ Mysteries..

April 29, 2017 By SandRa Timmins 1 Comment

So, for those wondering. the unknown plant that I put a call out for is called Nicotiana langsdorfii. Thanks goes to my friend Hannah Zwartz, gardening extraordinaire!

Nicotiana langsdorfii

Funnily enough, this plant popped up near where the opium poppies popped up ~ was there once a narcotics garden here? What else might pop up??!!

Though in saying that, this particular variety of tobacco is more decorative than smoke-ative. Unlike my other tobacco plant (Nicotiana tabacum) that I actually did plant, looking glorious at the moment with it coming into flower..

If I actually had intentions of smoking the stuff I would nip that flower off and do some serious research on how I would cure it. To be honest, when I got the plant I thought that I could perhaps dry a few leaves and have a sneaky ciggy now and then (I’m an ex-smoker) but lo and behold it’s not as simple as that unless of course I wanted to poison myself. Without curing your tobacco the nicotine content in the leaves is so sky high you would make yourself seriously sick if you smoked them. We have a case here of my laziness ( I can’t be bothered curing etc) saving my health! But they (the leaves) do make a killer insecticide apparently. I learnt all this from the website here called Leaf Only.

Nicotiana tabacum

So at this stage I’m growing tobacco purely for interest/ornamental purposes, so it’s kind of cool that I have two varieties now!

Identification Crisis

April 16, 2017 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Hey folk, I need your help.. This plant has popped up in my garden (so could be a weed?) and I’m unable to find out what it is.

Common name and botanical name please!

It starts out like this…

Does this…

Then blooms as the topmost photo on quite tall spreading stems.

Has no smell, from the flowers or the crushed leaves

It’s the not knowing you know….

It could be useful for something!…

Thanks in advance you clever people!!

Herb List 2016

October 1, 2016 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Finally I have updated my website with the herbs I have available this year and oh la la it’s so exciting to have this many! They’re all listed under the “Herb Plants” drop down menu. See it? It’s just up there ^ Goes all the way down to White Sage… I’m going to start doing blog posts on the individual herbs for more information on their uses and how to grow them well.

salvia purpurea

Peppermint, mentha piperta

Salvia Officianalis Icterina Variegated Sage Variegated sage culinary - Stoneyground Herbs NZ

salvia icterina

Soapwort (saponaria officinalis)

Catnip (Nepeta cataria) plant for sale, nz

Squashed, but coming back!

Lemon balm, Melissa officinallis

Not only does pineapple sage smell good, the flowers are beauts too

Clary sage, salvia sclarea turkenstein

That’s my mint there in the background, growing with shallots and carrots

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Motherwort, Leonurus cardiaca

Southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum)

French Tarragon, Artemisia dracunculus

Rose Geranium, Pelargonium graveolens

Lemon Thyme, Thymus x citriodorus aureus

And I’m all set to go for the markets on the 15th, yippee!!

No.8 Wire Week Workshops

June 29, 2016 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Come join me at my workshop “Herbs for the Winter Months” for Kapiti Councils N0.8 Wire Week.

I’m at Otaki College on the 17th July and at Kapiti College on the 24th, both 11.30-1pm. There are heaps and I mean heaps of crazy cool workshops to do. Go check it out…

What to expect in mine is lashings of tea (special herbal blends), a good ol chit chat about different herbal preparations and herbs that are super good for those winter ailments. We’ll make a sage tincture for you to take home and you’re going to do your own hard-wood cutting as well so you’ll know exactly how to procur plants for free from your friends, neighbours ~~and public gardens~~ of course not public gardens because that is surely not legal….ahem!

So book yourself in, share the link, tell your anybody and see you there!

Using a Seed Saving Screen

January 19, 2016 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Seed Saving Screens

I recently purchased seed saving screens from Anna at LovePlantLife. I’m quite excited as it’s going to make my life a little simpler and I’m going to multi-task it, as one of the screens is the perfect size for processing culinary herbs.

I’m going to use it on this occasion to process my lemon verbena seeds….

Spent lemon verbena flower spikes

So it’s basically a cake tin with four different mesh dent sized bottoms.

One thing I quickly learned was that you should use a bowl that is bigger than the tin or else this happens….

Oops! The side dropped down and nearly scattered my seed!

(I can hear Anna chuckling from here)

Have two bowls at the ready because you may find you need to transfer your siftings to a smaller screen because seeds and crap have fallen through.

Workout what the aim is; crumble leaves and stems small enough to fall through the gaps so you’re left with seeds or have seeds fall through and the crap can be tossed from off the screen. Guess it depends on the seed and what they’re surrounded by.

You could just use the screen within a bowl..

but it might slip and everything goes into the bowl (if you’re rubbing) or fly (if you’re shaking). You could get your son to hold it for you if you’re rubbing vigorously within the tin, because it does have a tendency to slip around…or get a better bowl! (note to self)

..and he just wanted his photo taken!

All in all it was fun and easy to use and I’m lookung forward to using it more as we come up to seed saving time (and drying herbs time).

Now will lets hope the blighters grow!

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