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Seed Sowing 101

September 10, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

The moon is right (Maramataka), it’s still a little chilly (here anyway), but spring is trying it’s best and now is a good time to get cracking on seed sowing.

This is a real quick post with lots of photos of dirt, just to give you the basics of seed sowing if you’re new to the game (warning, this game can be addictive!)…

So, use seed raising mix, unfortunately not all seed raising mixes are made equally, if you’re reaching for the cheap bag be prepared to fish out the large pieces of bark, the real fine stuff is the best, personally, my favourite is Daltons organic seed raising mix.

Fill up your container, usually a flat tray with at least 4 cm depth, then water your medium (medium being your seed raising mix).

Arrange your seeds, or if they’re very fine, sprinkle.. if they’re super fine, mix the seed with sand for an even distribution.

Label. Don’t trust yourself to remember what it is that you sowed next to that other really memorable seed, especially true if you’re sowing different types of tomatos.

When it comes to covering your seed you don’t want to cover it with any more than the seed is big. I have re-written this sentence many times, my brain can’t work out how to word it better! Hopefully these pictures of pea seeds help! For the fine seeds, vermiculite is the bees knees, failing that, the finest of the fine seed raising mix, sieve it if you have to,

Then pat it gently, you’re making sure that the seed is connected to the soil. Then gently spray with water.

Where you’re going to put them now depends on your current climate and what you’ve sown. For me, cold inland, most will be going on my heat pads, some in the glasshouse. (Go to this post here about heat pads)

Keep your seeds moist, by either spraying or watering from the bottom. Watering with a water can is a bit a rough at this stage. And eventually you’ll have trays of little seedlings and a heart full of pride! Have fun and don’t be shy to talk to your seeds to help them grow… Haha! There’s a (completely un-scientific) theory actually that basil seeds grow best if you verbally abuse them, maybe use them to vent your frustrations!

Mid Winter Xmas Market

July 14, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Happy Matariki everyone! Hope you are doing lovely things with your whānau, remembering loved ones that have crossed over and excited about the new year…

*If you’re not sure what Matariki is about, click here to find out more*

I’m a little excited about this coming weekend because I’m going to be at a market and I NEVER have done a market at this time of year. The lovely little township of Greytown is currently having having a mid-winter Christmas celebration these school holidays and us regular stall holders at the Greytown Country Market are having a market this Saturday, the 18th July at the Town Hall.

*photo courtesy of* https://www.greytownvillage.com/

I will have a small selection of herbs (a lot of my herbs go to ground at this time of year) as well as freshly made kokedama for your indoor pleasure. I may even have some Chicken Winter Booster blends available.

kokedama will be for sale at the Greytown Market this Saturday, the 18th July 2020 — *An example of kokedama*

Would absolutely love to see your shining faces, if I don’t know you please introduce yourself! If anyone whom has previously bought a kokedama off me and want it to have a tickle up give me a heads up and I’ll bring some gear with me and I can do it there.

Looking forward to it!

Happy Balding Hens

May 19, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

I’ve been having fun lately making up herbal concoctions for our flock of ladies.

bantam rooster with a rose comb, natural chicken keeping — *Ice is our bantam rooster with a rose comb. Peaches is a buff orpington x*

We currently have 33 chooks (four of those are roosters) and 15 chicks. Too many really but we are a family of five and we like our eggs!

mixed breed pullets, natural chicken keeping — *Some young-uns*

They free-range around our property when they’re not locked up at night, so they’re pretty lucky and have access to green pastures, tasty weeds and if they’re really naughty fresh fruit and vegetables from the garden!

free range chickens — *Blue, our blue orpington x silkie, looking gorgeous*

Right now though most of them are molting so just to give them an extra boost I’ve formulated a herbal crumble supplement..

When chickens are moulting they need vitamin A, folic acid and zinc for feather growth. As well as extra protein, warmth (circulation) and they’re a little down in the dumps and exposed, so some immunity support as well. They won’t be laying eggs as their energy is going into feather growth rather than egg production, so expect empty nests.

Moulting chicken herbal blend — *She’s like a shadow of her former self*

In my Moulting Blend (yep, it has a capitalised title because it’s going to be up for sale soon) I have…

Flaxseeds… folic acid (B9), feather growth
Garlic… warming, protection from infection, vit A
Parsley… vit A, protein, feather growth
Dill seed… high protein
Mint… feather growth, digestive health
Star anise… warming, anti-microbial
Seaweed… all round health, zinc

Moulting is a natural thing to happen to your chooks, usually yearly and usually in autumn. You can’t stop it and you can’t speed up the re-growth but you can make sure they’re getting a bit of a boost in the vitamins and minerals they need to supplement their normal balanced feed.

I’m giving my girls about a teaspoon each, every 4 days.

*Moulting mama, Star & chick (Barred rock x)*

Other things you can do to help them through this awkward phase is to feed them sprouted alfalfa and cat meat/kibble (as in cat food – not minced cat! 😮)

Rooster and hen — *Hei Hei, ironically the rooster not the chicken (hei hei is Māori for chicken) and Cocoa Pops*

If this is a product you may be interested in for your own flock do let me know in the comments section or via the contact form. Would be handy to be able to gauge interest…

Other potions in the pipeline is a boosted vaseline lotion for scaley leg mite, a golden layer health blend, worming blend and a chick blend…

Fire Cider

March 15, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Obviously there’s a lot of shit going on in the world at the moment, I’m quite sure I don’t need to go into it. I just want to note though, I’m terribly gutted I’m going to be missing the Violent Femmes concert next week, at least its postponed and not cancelled, there’s hope yet!

Fire Cider, freshly made — *I could stare at this for hours! Our brew made.*

The kids and I made fire cider today. Something I’ve been meaning to do every year but just never quite get round to it, today felt like the day though. Tell you what, I now feel more prepped than what a roomful of toilet paper would make me feel..here’s a (what I thought at the time) funny/interesting article about the whole toilet paper thing from the NZ Herald.

Fresh herbs to go into fire cider — *Some of the herbs that went into the brew*

I didn’t follow any recipe but many ideas. Basically, we just walked around the property and collected anything and everything that we know have great/wonderous/many properties. Then raided our apothecary for dried goods and freezer for ginger and chillies.

Prepping for fire cider, real life learners — *Prepping for fire cider, my real life learners!*

Here’s what’s in our witches brew…

Dried elderberries
Dried Orange slices
Dried Horopito
Dried Motherwort
Dried Bay leaves
Cloves
Powdered tumeric (would’ve used fresh but really wanted to make it NOW)
Sliced red onion
Sliced fresh ginger
Chillies
Garlic, lots
Fresh herbs…..
Sage
Nettle
Nasturtium leaves
Rosemary
Yarrow
Thyme
Peppermint
Oregano
Lemon verbena
Chive flowers
Lemon peel

*Apparently the process warranted goggles!*

I wasn’t thinking about flavour at all, just potency and what I had available! Oh, so this was all topped up with my homemade apple cider vinegar. The kids have always loved making potions so it was fun for them to be part of a real life process (tinctures aren’t too much of a process).

*Jakob and Industrial Fusion cleaver making short work of the ginger*

I’ll steep it for 6-8 weeks (in a dark warm place, so it’s sharing space with my brewing fruit wines), sieve it, bottle it and proceed to take a tablespoon of it everyday..hope like hell it’s a little palatable!

Do it people, I highly recommend it, I know I haven’t gone into a whole lot of detail but I also know that Instagram and probably a whole host of other social networks are riddled with fire cider recipes right now, no shame in jumping on the band wagon with this one! If you do want more details from me just comment below..

Stay healthy beautiful people, grow more herbs and eat more herbs. I am actually going to have herb plants to sell throughout the year now, that’ll be my next post and I’ll let you know what I’ll have available… Xx

End of Season

March 4, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Just a quick note to say that I’m all sold out of herb plants for the season but I would still love to hear from you of what you’re after. It gives me a good idea on how much to propagate through the autumn and winter months.

I still have kokedama plants available, I will be at Martiborough Fair this Saturday (7th March 2020), tagging along with Industrial Fusion. I will also be at the Kimbolton Sculpture Festival on the 4th April. Perhaps somehow I’ll even work out how to sell my kokedama here on my website!

Corkscrew rush (Juncus effusus "Spiralis") kokedama — Corkscrew rush (Juncus effusus “Spiralis”) kokedama

OK, hope you’re getting a bit of rain at the moment wherever you are…and a bit of dryness if you’re down south!

(If you are getting a smattering of rain, water your garden, this is the time to do it so that whatever rain comes actually gets absorbed through to the roots.)

A Thank You and Happy New Year!

December 28, 2019 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Well me oh my, I totally dropped the ball this December for writing here on my blog.

I’m still in existence!

Just been super busy with markets, kids, gardens, visitors, birthdays, Xmas and a massive dried herb order. And now it’s nearly the start of a new decade!

This time last year I was feeling a bit dark about the future of Stoney Ground Herbs. seems the universe was listening and responded with a “Hell no!”.

Amazing and fun opportunities have come come up for SGH this past year, and you, my fellow herb geeks and plant lovers are part of that. So thank you for reading here, thank you for buying my plants, thank you for being the wild crazy nature based spirit riders that a lot of you are (I’m not alone!) and thank you for the balancers. ✨

I hope your gardens are thriving, it’s been a funny season here at Plum Tree Cottage (we recently discovered our property has a name!). We’re about 2-4 weeks behind in usual flowering/ripening times.

Early Duffs plums, a little late in ripening — **These plums are usually ready by Christmas day, another week or so to go this year**

I’m still getting used to this cool climate gardening, still finding out what works and what doesn’t, more often than not, the hard way! Ironically the sun is becoming a challenge as well. I’ve briefly mentioned this before and it is something I intend to go into further. But for now, briefly again, a lot of the herbs that traditionally thrive in full sun are starting to find it a little tu meke (too much) with its intensity.

Luckily, herbs are incredibly adaptable and we too are adaptable~ if we have to change our gardening styles or ideas and beliefs, or even just move our plants around, so be it.

We Must Grow!

The year 2020 astrologically wise seems to be focused on transformative energy, ‘destruction and rebuilding’. **

Tūngia te ururua kia tupu whakaritorito te tupu o te harakeke

Set the overgrown bush alight, and the new flax shoots will spring up.

A whaktaukī about clearing away what is bad so that the good can flourish.

Stay grounded, keep your hands in the earth, listen to your song, peace, grow.

Happy New Year!

xx SandRa

**For full astrological forecast for 2020 go here to Forever Conscious.

Hang! That’s a nice Kokedama!

November 5, 2019 By SandRa Timmins 2 Comments

The naturalisation process of kokedama, how to look after your kokedama. — **Rex begonia in kokedama finery**

So, what is this kokedama that I keep going on about?

Kokedama is a Japanese art form like how bonsai is. “Koke” means moss and “dama” means ball (or jewel). Japanese dictionary.

苔玉

A plant has its roots surrounded by a soil medium then it is wrapped in sphagnum moss and bound by twine. The plant can then be hung or placed on a special dish or structure.

They look stunning, they’re eco-friendly (as long as the sphagnum moss has been sustainably harvested and no peat has been used in the soil medium. That’s a tick and a tick for me and I even use fair trade organic hemp for my twine) and more often than not they contain houseplants for, obviously, inside. If you don’t know how much of a good thing that is, you need to read my article here on indoor plants.

how to look after your kokedama. — **Bird’s nest fern getting a misting**

Kokedama are super easy to look after too. To know when to water your plant you just check the weight of the ball, when it feels light it’s time to water. You water by placing your kokedama in a bowl or sink of water that comes about half way up the ball. Let it soak it up for about 10-30mins, then take it out and squeeze the ball, let it drain a bit then hang back up! A lot of plants like a bit of misting here and there, ferns especially. You can mist the ball too in-between waterings’.

Things can get hairy. Literally. A soft sort of white down can appear on your ball. This is really quite normal and will not harm any person or pet. You can rub it off next time you water it and maybe look at how much air circulation your kokedama is getting.

The sphagnum moss may start greening up too. It’s all part of the naturalisation process. The twine will eventually degrade and roots may appear through the moss. But by this time (1-2 years we’re talking) the roots will be holding the shape of the ball, it’s not going to all fall to pieces!

So what to do… you can wait to see what happens, it will eventually build its own little eco-system and come out the other end looking beautiful, or you can put another layer of sphagnum moss over the ball and re-twine it or staple in pieces of fancy/wild moss over the “unsightly” bits.

Whatever the case, they are worth it for the pleasure that they can give you as well as their aesthetic and architectural presence in your home, patio, courtyard or deck.

At the moment I’m only selling my kokedamas at markets. Just need to work out packaging and how to make sure I have plants available online as well as at my markets. I’d love to know if you would be interested in purchasing kokedama off me, let me know through the comments section or the contact form on the right~

Coming Near You Soon!

November 1, 2019 By SandRa Timmins 3 Comments

We had a an imposed computer free week this past week (it spontaneously broke, as computers do and had a bit of a wait for a replacement). It felt a lot longer than a week! We have our phones of course which are pretty clever (and now I’m on Instagram!) but there are a few things that are easier (or preferred) to do on the computer. Emailing, updating website, listening to music! I’m one of those people that find it hard to concentrate if I don’t have music on, I’m sure I’m not the only one…. Eh?

Fortunately it’s a busy time of year and have been occupied with plenty to do, from the mundane (but satisfying) weeding to having a stall at various markets. This weekend I’m at Te Horo Country Market on the 3rd November. Kapiti people, I’m looking forward to seeing your faces again!

I’m away in Australia the next week for my brothers wedding. It’s in NSW where their temperature lows have been our highs, hoo-wee, wish me luck in avoiding heat stroke!

Soon after I get back I’m at Woodvilles’ Mad Hatters Market, should be fun, 17th November is the date. I’ll have all my selection of herbs, plus dried herbs and my new product, kokedama.

My kokedama has been getting a really good reception. It’s about 50:50 of people that have seen kokedama before. So I’m guessing that 50% of you that are reading this may not of come across kokedama either. So please read my next article and I’ll tell you all about it.

**Goldfish plant (Hypocyrta tropicana) hanging kokedama in my sons room**

One thing that I’ve been absolutely loving is how it attracts children (except when they start batting the hanging ones around!). Most kids just walk on by my stall, plants, boring. But hanging balls of plants makes them stop… “Oh, wow, cool!”…..”Oh, wow, is it a pineapple?” All fun!

So, hope your garden is getting into the spring swing of things, the weeds aren’t getting too tall and you can feel that summer vibe coming~

White sage, purple sage and climbing rosemary

Mahuru Māori

September 6, 2019 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

I am in waay over my head!

So I signed up for for the Mahuru Māori challange that I talked about in my last post here.. Fortunately I said I’d do just one day a week for the month; so on Sundays (my chosen day) all of my communication must be in te reo Māori.

I think I will start my day with a cherry Mōrena! (Morning!) Then say this….

And stay out there for the rest of the day so I don’t have to talk to anyone!

Which is totally chickening out and not stepping up to the plate at all. But, we’ve all got to start somewhere. I am not a fluent speaker of Māori, I don’t even have a good grasp of it. I know LOTS of kupu (words) but putting them into sentences off the top of my head is another story. So my hope is that by doing this it will force me to at least learn, memorise and use phrases that is of use to me and my family. Because that is what Mahuru Māori is all about, getting te reo into more everyday speech and everyday living for all of Aotearoa.

He roa te wā e whakamāuitia ake ai he reo
Languages take time to be revived

If you follow Maramataka Māori….

August 17, 2019 By SandRa Timmins 1 Comment

Me te rangi i whānau ai a Horu

A whakataukī (proverbial expression) for an unpleasant day

For that is what it is today here, which is a shame. For one; I’m sick of the rain and I’m ready for summer now. For two; Today is Rākanui, the day after full moon and according to Maramataka Māori (Māori moon calendar) “He rā tino pai mō te ono kai….” a very good day for planting and general gardening.

If it wasn’t ~~pissing~~ heaving down with rain.

I had grand intentions on doing my spring divisions today, basil mint, soapwort, mint, peppermint, some more bergamot and St John’s wort.

Fortunately, the weather is set to get better by Monday, Takirau māheahea, I have a window from dawn to midday where it is OK to do planting (Rākaumatohi, which is tomorrow is a very good day for planting and fishing – but I don’t think our weather will be complying by then).

I like to do my rooted divisions after the full moon, the plants still have energy in their leaves but that energy is moving down to the roots as the moon starts losing its brightness (waning). Perfect timing for the new plants to settle their roots into their new home and for the mother plant to recover its losses.

Come Tangaroa piri a roto (moon in its last quarter, 24th August) it will be all on for seed sowing. Being in a cool climate zone I’ve learnt that there’s not a lot of point in going crazy with seeds in August, unless they’re destined for the glasshouse or under cover. But Go! temperate NZ, Go!

As an aside, did you know that September is Mahuru Māori? It’s a nationwide challenge to kōrero te reo Māori (for whatever space of time that suits you) to normailise te reo in everyday life. If you get in quick to register you may be eligible to receive resources to help you as well as there being lots of online resources available. My friend did it last year and to promote te reo Māori and her business Dye Happy (beautiful hand dyed yarn) she posted on facebook Māori words for her craft, like “knitting” “yarn” etc, it was really cool. I’m not on facebook anymore, but I think I’ll do the same on here, (but you know, more plant based!) for me and for you~

Kei a koe mō te kawe i te mānuka? (Are you up for the challenge?) Go here for more information and to register for Mahuru Māori.

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苔玉