Sunflower Feast

I love sunflowers "just because."

They are bright and they make me happy. They have faces that smile as they look down on me.

But I also love sunflowers for all the critters they attract to my garden. I have had much joy taking photos of ladybugs, flies, bees, ants, sunflowers and beetles climbing over my sunflowers.

Lately my backyard garden has been looking all kinds of shaggy because we are in transition to the cooler months of the year. The sunflowers are drooping. The once bright yellow petals are turning brown and falling off.

But this brings a different kind of happiness. For one, the plants coming to the end of their cycle and producing seeds is it's own kind of gorgeousness. One of my favourite hashtags on Instagram is #lovelydeadcrap. The feed is filled with amazing photographs of decaying plants, which is often overlooked as a source of beauty.

For another, the seeds the plants produce are a source of food for critters like squirrels and birds.

This morning the sunflower stalks moved and swayed but not from the breeze. There are a dozen little birds feasting on the sunflower seeds that are exposed. We don't see as many little birds as we used to, so this is a welcome sight.

We have seen chickadees, finches and sparrows swooping in and dashing away. We don't need a bird feeder because we have nature's bird feeder. It makes me happy that I decided against pulling up most of the sunflowers to make room for my fall garden.

Image source

Gardening brings such joy year round.

If you are on Instagram, I'm crustyroll35. Let's connect!

Wordless Wednesday: Sunflower Love

There are so many great reasons to grow sunflowers, but to be honest, I grow them because they make me happy.

DIY Salve with Plantain

For many reasons, I feel like I come alive in the summer. One part of the season that I do not enjoy, and I know I'm not alone in this regard, is bug bites. Not only do I dislike the itch and sting, but it is compounded by the fact that my daughters hate them and often refuse to go outside because of them. There are many products on the store shelves for bug bites, but in my quest to make my own and avoid unnecessary packaging and potentially harmful ingredients, this summer I have made my own skin salve, with the key ingredient being plantain. I also fits in nicely with my one little word for the year, make.

Plantain is a very hardy plant and grows almost anywhere, especially in lawns along concrete path and driveways. Most people think it as a weed and pull it up, but it is edible and can be used as a topical application for skin irritations like bug bites, stings, rashes and cuts. I have some growing in my raised garden beds and as long as it doesn't take over, I leave it.

Sometimes when I'm watering my garden in the morning I get mosquito bites, so I just grab a leaf of the plantain, crumple it (some people suggest chewing it) to release the moisture inside and directly apply to the itchy spot. Within 5-10 minutes the itch and sting is gone. 

I like to have salve with me when I go out with my daughters, and I want to have some when the growing season is over, so I made some plantain salve. I'm happy to report that it works as well as directly applying the leaf. 

I apologize for the approximations in my recipe below. I just played around different recipes  until I had the consistency I liked. Because I use coconut oil that can be very soft to liquid in warm temperatures, I added a little more beeswax to help keep the salve in more solid form during warm summer weather.

Ingredients and Materials:

• approximately 1 to 1 1/2 cups dry plantain leaves, chopped 
• approximately 1 1/2 cups oil (I like coconut oil for skin care)
• approximately 1-2 tablespoons beeswax 
• essential oil of choice (I like tea tree oil for it's curing properties)
• glass jar (I use mason jars)
• fine strainer or cheese cloth
• containers for the completed salve
• double boiler or pot and stainless steel bowl or crock pot

Method:

• Harvest the plantain leaves. If you must wash them, make sure they are dry so that the salve will last longer. Chop them into small pieces.

• Place oil on the plantain leaves in a glass jar. Completely mix together.

• Place the jar in a pot or crock pot with enough water to come almost to the top of the oil. Gently heat the mixture on very low heat for about 12 hours. I wasn't home long enough to do this in one go so I split the heating over two days. 

I added a cloth under my mason jar in the crock pot
so the glass wouldn't have direct heat on it.

• Strain the plantain leaves from the oil and allow the oil to cool completely. 

• Using a double boiler or pot of water and stainless steel bowl, melt the beeswax and add the plantain oil. Thoroughly mix. Add a few drops of essential oil of choice. 

• Pour into small glass jars or stainless steel jars. Leave it to cool completely and store for future use. 

The salve is cooled and ready for use, which I have already
done with the salve in the mason jar. You can see how
hard my mixture is (had to use my finger to scape it) but
if you like it softer just use less beeswax. 

Spot the Pollinator: Honey Bees

With the hot summer weather many things in my garden are starting to bolt. One positive of my plants going to flower is seed saving. Another is all the bees that the flowers are attracting to my garden, and I need them to pollinate my summer squash, tomatoes and cucumbers. But on a purely happiness level, seeing the bees makes me smile.

I'm a little bit obsessed with bees, and when I see them I have to stop and take a photo of them. My kids and husband are getting a little bit tired of waiting for me to get the perfect shot, which sometimes is a challenge armed with just my iPhone.

I saw the bumble bee and honey bee when we were at Granville Island
this weekend. In fact, there were so many bees here that the air was buzzing. 

I managed to get a second good capture as the bumble bee flew away.

This honey bee was pollinating my cucumbers.

Cilantro bolts very quickly, but it is lovely when it flowers. They are
in the same bed as my zucchinis and bringing the bees like crazy. The
bee is difficult to see in the top middle of the photo. 

I am linking up with The Green Bean Chronicles who is hosting the Spot the Pollinator segment. Pop on over and visit her.







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{this moment}

{this moment} - Inspired by Amanda Soule at SouleMama. 

"A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments."

Spot the Pollinator

We see these butterflies often in the summer, and I notice that many people mistakenly refer to them as monarchs when they see them from a distance. While we may get a few western monarchs here in British Columbia, these are definitely not. The "tail" of the butterfly marks it as a swallowtail butterfly, and this one is a fairly common one here, the tiger swallowtail butterfly.

This particular butterfly enjoyed drinking nectar from my flowers for some time. We were able to get quite close to this one, and were able to watch it elongate its proboscis into flowers several times. It was absolutely fascinating.

I am linking up with The Green Bean Chronicles who is hosting the Spot the Pollinator segment. Pop on over and visit her.

Spot the Pollinator

Everyone is hearing about the importance of pollinators to the world's food systems in the media these days, and the threats to their existence. Most people think about honey bees when they hear pollinators, but there are many other insects who contribute to the pollination of flowers. Along with honey bees, there are hundreds of bees native to North America who carry out the important task of pollination. My lawn is full of digger bees and I am trying to help nurture some mason bees in my backyard. But other insects carry out the act of pollination as well, such as flies, butterflies, moths and beetles.

Are Wasps Pollinators?

One pollinator that most people are unhappy to see are wasps. Yes, they can be aggressive, particularly as the summer comes to an end, when they are grumpy and their food supplies begin to dwindle. Until I spent more time in gardens observing the insects that visit and populate the plants I didn't realize that wasps visit flowers. They may accidentally pollinate when they are hunting their prey in flowers, but it turns out they also drink nectar!

But Aren't Wasps The "Bad Guys"?

I have long been terrified of wasps. I was stung repeatedly, in fact dozens of times at once, when I was a young child and inadvertently disturbed a large wasp nest. As I have become more passionate about organic gardening, however, I have come to appreciate the wasp. The mere sight of them can cause people to scream and run away. But they are an important part of the ecosystem. They are carnivores who hunt for pest insects that may eat our plants. They are everywhere, and as the summer wears on their numbers increase, so if you can't beat them, join them, so to speak. I have even been able to get close enough to some to take their photos, something that I consider quite brave because of wasps' renowned aggression.

Of course I still get frustrated with wasps in the dog days of summer when they swarm around us as we eat our dinner outside. But I have a new appreciation of this much maligned insect.

Spot The Pollinator 

My spot the pollinator photo is a bald faced hornet, taken on my raspberries.

I am linking up with The Green Bean Chronicles who is hosting the Spot the Pollinator segment. Pop on over and visit her.

{this moment}

{this moment} - Inspired by Amanda Soule at SouleMama. 

"A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments."

Cheapskate Composting

If you are curious about composting but are limited by the size of your outdoor space and don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on fancy rotating composting bins, I encourage you to get started now. There is so much plant material available to start you off on your composting journey with the spring garden clean up. Next year you can have your own nutrient rich soil to add to your garden or containers.

I live in a suburban area with limited lot sizes. There isn’t a great deal of space for expansive gardens and the virtually free compost piles. But I also know the benefits of composting. It is possible to make compost in a limited space on a limited budget.

It is the time of year for me to add good quality, nutrient rich organic material to my raised beds. With the wet weather that we get in the pacific northwest, essential nutrients can be washed away. While I do add some commercial fertilizer (mushroom and fish manure) to my soil, I like to add as much of my homemade compost to my garden. Not only am I saving money, I know exactly what has gone into my bins. 

Look at the gorgeous colour!

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Happy Spring!

Yesterday was the first day of spring and here on the west coast you can see signs of it everywhere. The sun is shining, the honey bees are awake, and the flowers are bursting forth with colour.

With all the wet weather we've had here recently I haven't spent much time outside walking around my yard and observing all the changes that are occurring, so the past couple of days have been filled with delightful surprises. 

The mason bees are now outside in their
new home. 

My neighbour's beautiful rhododendron is already blooming.

Our Japanese maple in macro.

One of my favourite spring flowers, the peony, is emerging.

The name of this bush escapes me, but my
daughters think fairies live in the flowers.

I cut the grass for the first time this year. 

The Japanese maple is covered in these
reverse black and red ladybugs.

The ladybugs in macro.

The strawberries are coming back.

My garlic bed is doing very well. Excitement!

The hyacinths are blooming (and I am sneezing).

Daffodils make me happy.

My number one favourite spring flower,
lupins, have begun to grow.

The raspberries have taken over the back
of my garden.

Every year I am grateful for hardy kale, the only
vegetable from my winter garden to survive the
multiple cold snaps we had. 

Happy spring everyone!