Forage & Field

07/06/2026

🌿Comfrey Tea 🌿

I've grown comfrey in every garden I've inhabited over the last 30 years. Under fruit trees, in tyres, and as a border between garden and grass. Once upon a time I even made batches of ointment from it. These days however, the chooks get thrown the occasional handful of fresh leaves, and the rest is turned into a lovely brown brew for the garden.

Comfrey is high in potassium, nutrient dense; providing bioavailable minerals, and an organic cost effective way to feed your growing plants. Give it a try!

I fill a 20 litre bucket with chopped comfrey leaves, top it up with water and cover. Its ready to use after about 4-6 weeks, and should be a lovely dark brown tea. Add a good splash to your watering can, along with any other goodies (seaweed, fish fertilizer, molasses etc), top up with water and foliar feed.

Sooo good 👌

06/06/2026

Today I transplanted my matricaria (feverfew) seedlings into their bed. These little babies were grown from seed heads that I collected at the end of summer, sprinkled into potting mix and left to grow on for a few weeks. So easy!

They are the perfect little daisy for mixed bouquets, or are super cute on their own.

I love them!

03/06/2026

It's tulip planting time here in O'Carroll Road 🌷 and this year we are planting our bulbs into crates. I lined the crates with newspaper and leaves, and used Daltons compost and potting mix to fill them up. I will finish off with a layer of mulch.

We pre-ordered our bulbs through Bulbs Direct, and they arrived today looking fat and full of spring promise! Check out their website as they still have lots of lovely ones to purchase.

The crates are handy for short season crops like tulips, and can be tucked into a sunny sheltered spot in the garden until they flower, then easily stacked away again at the end of the season.

I haven't grown any of these varieties before, so it's quite exciting! Hopefully if I have planned it right we will have a good mixture of early, mid and late flowering beauties.

I'll keep you all posted on their growth, fingers crossed its a great harvest!

🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷

03/06/2026

23/05/2026

21/05/2026

Autumn in O'Carroll Road 🍂

The new tunnel house is pumping! Having never had a plastic house of any sort before, it's been exciting to see how fast everything grows, the brocoli will be ready to eat in the next week I reckon, and we are already eating the spring onions and basil.

The downside is that the green caterpillars also love the ambient temperature in there, and I've found a few thrips on the stock plants. Hopefully they will die off once we hit cooler winter temps.

The watering system is working well, but we've decided to put in an extra soaker hose on each side as I'm having to water the plants on the edge of the bed.

The outside beds are getting a revamp with some flash garden edging. It's quite a boggy spot so hopefully raising the beds will give the plants some drainage, especially the dahlias who hate sitting in wet ground.

Happy days! 💚

07/05/2026

I'm making a bouquet for a friends elderly, much loved mum and have discovered quite a few flowers still blooming in the garden. Enough for two pretty Mother's Day bouquets 👌

Please PM if you would like one.

$30 each

Pick up O'Carroll 😀

🌸🌼💐🌸🌼💐

26/04/2026

I'm trying my hand at cover cropping a new bed with a mixture of oats, mustard and lupin 🌿

That's if the seeds survive a squad of hungry pukeko 😬

I've now covered the bed with shade cloth till they sprout, but not before they ate half!

Once the plants have grown but before they flower, I will dig them into the bed and plant seedlings a few weeks later.

Last winter these beds were under plastic to stop weeds taking hold, but I wanted to try a different approach.

See how it goes! 🤞

25/04/2026

21/04/2026

Well that's a wrap from us at Forage and Field 🌿

We would like to say a huge thank you to Maungakaramea Service Station and their lovely staff for stocking and selling our flowers each week. They have helped us do what we love to do; grow flowers and share them with our local community.🌸

As a thanks to those that have purchased our blooms we have stocked Gas Mgk with complimentary end-of-season posies, please stop in and grab yourself one while they last.🌼

We'll be back in early spring with Tulips! See ya then 💐