Bouquets and Garden Musings

 

One of the things I really love about summer is all the flowers that I can grow in my garden and pick for bouquets for the house or for friends.  Over winter my garden doesn't get much sun, so is usually pretty bare of anything pretty.

This year I have grown my dahlias, and even though people say they are easy care, they are finicky at times, they wilt with not much water, rot with too much water, ants seem to like making nests in the tubers, so they die,  and they succumb to mildew.

Zinnias, I find to be much hardier, and pretty easy to grow from seed, and the flowers are interesting all the way through the blooming process.  I love the range of colours and sizes.  Cactus type zinnias are my new favourites.

this summer I have have also tried growing :

- aster, which are quite long lasting when picked, and I will be getting more colours for next summer, - -- phlox, creme brulee a pinky beige coloured flower

- calendula which was pretty easy to grow from seed

- coreopsis, not such a great germination rate but I'll persevere with these next summer.

Next summer I'm going to relocate all my dahlia tubers and plant more zinnias and aster in their spaces.

Winter garden plans have seen me buy more daffodilt bulbs for growing in pots on my deck, much as I'm not really a fan of yellow flowers, I do like their cheery welcoming glow when I see them first thing in the morning  or after work as the brighten up my deck area.

Things Here Lately

 

From the travel files  

• The Scout and I had a weekend away in Coromandel town.  We booked into a lovely Airbnb, that had chooks (fresh eggs), friendly dogs, a goat and cat.  Lovely little garden nooks and garden art too. We ventured into the morning market, ate out  and just relaxed, read and walked.

From around my neighbourhood 

•   Spring is upon, I love it when the flowering crabapple and acacia trees are in bloom

From the sewing room

•  This is the Kingfisher top from The Sewing Revival.  Perfect for those smaller pieces of fabric.

From the garden

• Slim pickings this time of year, the jasmine gets foraged from the coastal banks of my neighbourhood walkways, as does the pink Queen Anne's lace.  I'm currently topping up the flower beds with fresh soil, and have lots of zinnias and new to me summer flowers sprouting away from seeds.

Happy weekending to you all.

Blooming Bouquets

 

Over the past couple of months I have really been enjoying picking fresh flowers from my garden and turning them into bouquets.  Having fresh flowers in the house is one of my little luxuries, and I love, that in summer  they are plentiful in my garden to do this. 

The majority of my bouquets are bright and jam packed with mainly zinnias and dahlias, and foliage. However lately I have been inspired by the works of Katherine English, and her slightly looser bouquets featuring, foraged grasses, seed heads and twiggy branches, as well as beautiful flowers giving them a more ethereal natural look.  I haven't quite mastered this type of arrangement yet, I think I may also have to visit a few opshops/thrift stores for some different types of vases, which may help them look a little more organic and less arranged.

I'm trying to think what I can plant in my garden that will bloom over winter so I can still have flowers inside, I suspect there will be the odd little bunch of gerbera or lillies purchased from the supermarket and added to some foraged finds.

Some other  inspiring flower farmers and florists are:  

Gabriela Salazar

Field of Roses

Lucy Hunter

Sean A. Pritchard

Christin Geall

Floret Flower Farm

A New Year and a January Round Up

     

A belated happy new year, even though it's halfway through February already.

January was a pretty lazy month, some time off over Christmas and New year, lots of books were read, no sewing was done, though I did purchase some fabric. My dahlias and zinnias have finally started flowering and I am loving having big bright bouquets in my house.  I've hiked, and continued my daily walks, paddle boarded, and went on a holiday with The Scout to Mangiwhai.   Most excitingly I have booked myself a trip to Brisbane later in the year.

Lets see what February brings.

Things Here Lately

 

 

There have been lots of things keeping me busy lately, I'm finding I don't really have time for detailed blog posts on everything, so here's a snippet of what is happening in my life when I'm not at work.

• I'm still making blocks for the new quilt I've designed.  There is a very rough plan drafted out, (which will no doubt be added or subtracted to) I have made a few epp blocks which will be appliqued to low volume fabrics. I absolutely adore how this mandolin block turned out.  It will be the biggest block on my quilt.

• My sewjo has returned, I've made some very basic but extremely useful black rayon culottes. These were drafted off an expensive pair I had bought and literally worn out,  I'm currently wearing them at work today, and with a stretch fabric waistband, they are very comfortable. 

• Another fantail top.  I fell in love with the floral fabric when I saw it in an online shop.  It was a little pricey, so I bought just enough to be able to use them as sleeves in a solid coloured top.  

• A beautiful cookbook finally turned up for me at the library - Saffron Swirls and Cardamom Dust, so far I've made two very delicious sweet treats from it - Persian Love Cake and Chocolate Cardamom puddings.   I've put the book on my Christmas list because I liked it so much.

• I still find time to read, usually lunchbreaks at work or last thing at night before I go to sleep.  Both of these books were wonderful reads.  

• While there is not much blooming in my garden at present, dahlia tubers have been planted, and zinnia seeds sprinkled in anticipation of a hopefully extremely flowery summer garden. These beautiful crabapple blossoms were flowering during one of my neighbourhood walks.

** Apologies for the slightly blurry clothing shots, It's harder to find a resident teen at home these days willing to take photos with a real camera, so I'm usually resorting to self timer selfies on my mobile phone.

21/22 Sculpture Trail

 

Reservoirs by Richard Mathieson

Brise Soleil (after Jane Drew) by Natalie Guy

Atua Wahine  - Indigenous Clay Artists Collective

Fragile Tree, Fragile Future by Lynden Over & Christine Robb

Operation Ranch Hand by Bernie Harfleet & Turtle Sarten

Flowers of the Chaste Tree

Miss B and I visited the Auckland Botanic Gardens and wandered part of the Sculpture Trail.  We definitely didn't see all of it, it was just way too hot.  These are some of my favourite sclptures and flowers that I saw.