I was in the front garden yesterday pulling up some weeds. I find when the ground is wet the weeds come up easier. My grandad always said a weed is a flower in the wrong place.

Here is a photo I took yesterday of our flowering cherry out the front. It has the most beautiful flowers, the shame is they don't smell and they go so quickly.

Lovely photos Annmarie, it all looks so healthy.

I am growing in a pot, Stevia.

I actually use very little sugar but thought that perhaps a few leaves of this plant 

when cooking fruit- rhubarb, might sweeten it a little or perhaps in a rice pudding

This is one subject that at present I am locked out of. I love working in the garden and we have a freezer full of summer produce, but being so weak I can't start the mower and the lawns could definitely do with a good trim. Fortunately, with most of the North Island in the grip of a drought, the only plants growing well are weeds. Although we are settled into autumn, daytime temp's are still clocking around 20 degrees, but this drops to about twelve (on average) during the evenings.

One town in the central North Island, and not that far from where Michael lives, clocked up a minus 8 frost last week, and they were welcome to it.

Where the army like to play their war games Michael, Waiouru?

As the crow flies that is not too far from you, over the Gentle Annie's if I recall correctly, although I have never done the trip myself.

doreen said:

I am growing in a pot, Stevia.

I actually use very little sugar but thought that perhaps a few leaves of this plant 

when cooking fruit- rhubarb, might sweeten it a little or perhaps in a rice pudding

I must see if I can find some Stevia or its seeds when I'm out next. I don't like to use too much sugar. I often put honey in things to sweeten them, like last year when I cooked a lot of apple and blackberry for pies, and then used some of the apple for apple sauce. Thanks for that Doreen.

doreen said:

I would look for a plant from a reliable Gardener as I think it is a little late for planting seeds.

Honey is of course a very healthy sweetner but I doubt if we will have any honey this year.

I could have bought 16 kilos of sugar for what I paid for the stevia but it isn't a case of money

but calories.

I shall try this year  in November to bring the plant inside and try to keep it growing.

I don't know how big your plant is Doreen, but if I were you I would be propagating some cuttings now. If you have some young shoots about 3″ long or maybe 5 leaves. I always try to do this because then you have a back up plant and if you have too many plants you can give them to your friends. Which means if you ever kill your own plant one of your friends will be able to give you a cutting back.

I've just taken some softwood cuttings of spiraea, 3 diffrent types. One I had with yellow foliage and pink flowers, one I gave my mum, larger with green foliage and white flowers, and one from my nextdoor neighbour with yellow, orange and red foliage with pink flowers. I've got about 4 cuttings of each in a pot with a plastic bag over them to make a cloche and I've put it on a window sill in the house.

doreen said:

even though I do like to support the gardeners in their difficult job.

I like to support the local garden centre (nursery). But plants are quite expensive and by sharing you can get more variety. I found in the past I was given lots of plants, mostly quite common ones that you would see in most gardens, and then I could buy more unusal plants from the nursery or Wisley. Being a member of the RHS we can get seeds from them. I've not taken it up yet because I don't have anywhere to grow them where I could give them a reasonable chance of surviving, and I would feel bad if I planted the seeds and they died.

I quickly drank my coffee because this is the sky- full of rain clouds

doreen said:

PS Tewed / Stewed / Sauer ????!!!! spelling

Stewed / Sour

Post edited 3:35 pm – 12th May 10 by annmarie

doreen said:

I quickly drank my coffee because this is the sky- full of rain clouds

Yesterday we had skies like that but they never came to anything and in the evening the sun came out and it looked lovely, but cold. Today again one minute it's sunny and the next cloudy. We are meant to get some rain but whether we will or not is anyone's guess. Here in the UK last night we had the coldest May night since 1994!

I forgot to ask, what are you knitting?