Monday 22 July 2013

Happy berries


Summer is a happy season; a period filled with colours, warmth, fresh air and flowery smells and of course it's the harvest season! And together with the harvest, it is also a growing and reproduction time for plants. By now the strawberries have all been eaten by us, and the raspberries are the next ones to consume. De-li-cious! And in one month, the blackberries are most likely ripe to make our berry summer complete.

Did you know that these three types of berries are very easy to multiply? You don't have to do anything for it, they make new plants themselves every year. Just sit and wait, and next year you have the double amount of plants and the year after that a huge harvest of berries! With the following description you can help your strawberry and raspberry mothers to reproduce:
Strawberries make sprigs with one or two baby plants. You can lead them to a place where they can grow without getting in the way, put them a little deeper in the ground to root, and when they have developed proficient roots, you can cut the babies from the mother plant. You can also replace/replant them by then.
Blackberries and raspberries also make baby plants, but underneath the ground. If a raspberry shoot is growing somewhere where it is not desired, you can cut it off and plant it somewhere else. Make sure you cut the shoot off deep enough; dig a little hole around the shoot and make sure you include some baby roots with the plant when you cut it off from the mother plant. We wish you a happy summer with loads of berries and baby plants!

Monday 15 July 2013

Mad tea party

Last weekend we put our tea and herbs-blogs into practice: we went to Madnes festival with the Lucky People Center and shared fresh tea with the festival people. We brought herbs from our garden, picked flowers around the festival and filled the table with vintage teapots and -cups. The visitors could choose between two teas: an anti-hangover tea (appropriate for this festival) with lemon balm to calm the head and body, ginger against nausea and mint against bad drinking breath and stomach problems. The other tea consisted of cinnamon, cloves and fennel, for a happy tummy and good digestive. It was great to share our knowledge, meet interested people and to make everyone feel relaxed and happy. Sure to be continued!