Buckwheat flower (fagopyrum esculentum). Image: Su Leslie 2019
According to Culpepper’s English Physician and Complete Herbal, buckwheat also “provoketh urine, increaseth milk, and looseneth the belly.”
And to think, I just planted it to attract the bees.
Friday Flowers
First flowering. Lime-scented geranium (Pelargonium nervosum). Image: Su Leslie 2019
Image: Su Leslie 2019One of the more unusual gardens included in the Taranaki Garden Festival was actually a cemetery — Te Henui Cemetery.
On the edge of New Plymouth’s CBD, Te Henui is the city’s oldest cemetery, with graves dating back to 1861. It occupies almost 10 hectares (24 acres) and is extensively planted with fruit and ornamental trees, while flower beds bring colour, texture and fragrance to the (mostly heritage) plots.
Image: Su Leslie 2019
Image: Su Leslie 2019
Image: Su Leslie 2019Large-scale maintenance is done by the council’s park’s’ staff, but the magnificent flower-plantings are entirely due to the efforts of a small group of volunteers.
Image: Su Leslie 2019
Image: Su Leslie 2019
Image: Su Leslie 2019
Su Leslie 2019I find cemeteries fascinating; sad and poignant, and full of glimpses into other people’s lives and families. Sadly, in New Zealand at least, I don’t often find them beautiful. Graves that are lovingly tended by partners and children quickly become neglected as generations pass on. Many of us don’t know even where our grandparents and other members of the wider whanau are buried, let alone have the ability to visit and care for their graves.
Through their wonderful gardening efforts, the volunteers at Te Henui are dissolving time and distance. The beautiful, tranquil, contemplative space that they maintain and watch over helps connect the present and the past, and remind us all of our humanity.
Image: Su Leslie 2019
Image: Su Leslie 2019
It hasn’t been much of a week for walking, so I was extra-grateful for the absence of rain yesterday morning. Not a long walk, but enough to see what is happening in the “street-of-beautifully-kept-gardens.”
Lots of the camellia flowers are gone — lost to the wind and rain. But the single rhododendron that I can photograph without actually trespassing is looking really good.
Regular Random is a photography project hosted by Desley at desleyjane pictures. There are two versions:
Version 1:
Version 2:
And since it’s Friday … #fridayflowers
Yuzu blossom and fruit bud. Image: Su Leslie 1019
The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world. — Michael Pollan
Rain and blossom; spring at my place. Image: Su Leslie 2019
The first clematis flowers this season. Image: Su Leslie 2019
“Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity.” — John Ruskin
Friday Flowers
Raindrop on manuka flower. Image: Su Leslie 2019
The first six months of 2019 were the driest on record in Auckland, and now August is looking like being the wettest — with rain on 19 of 23 days, and more to come.
I’ve stopped worrying about parched soil and the water level in our tank, but I think I might need some taller gumboots (wellies, rain boots, Regenstiefel, botas de lluvia; whatever they’re called in your part of the world).
And of course raindrops on flower petals are rather pretty.
Manuka flower. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Manuka flower. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Friday Flowers
Struggling to find many flowers that have survived the last week’s rain and wind. Image: Su Leslie 2019
