Leaf and Lore

04/11/2025

🌱 November Seedling Delivery — Limited Boxes! 🌱

We’re heading into a big month — and not just in the garden! We're moving house at the end of November (send coffee and good vibes 😅), so things will be a wee bit chaotic for a little while.

That means we only have 4 small seedling boxes available this month. If you’d like to get your hands on some gorgeous summer favourites, be quick!

This month’s box includes:
🍅 Tomatoes
🥒 Cucumbers
🌼 Calendula
🫘 Beans
🥬 Lettuce
🍆 Aubergine
…plus a few more leafy treats!

Perfect for kicking off your summer garden 🌞🌿

Check out more info at www.leafandlore.co.nz

Or book your box here 👉 https://www.leafandlore.co.nz/Shop/

Thanks for your patience while we pack up, plant up, and try not to lose a chicken in a moving box 🏡📦💚

29/10/2025

29/10/2025

🌒 Lanterns of the Harvest: From Turnips to Pumpkins

Before Halloween’s pumpkins, villagers carved haunting faces into turnips, beets, and mangelwurzels to keep the night spirits at bay. The glow of these roots lit the path between folklore and modern festivity.
✨ Discover their story on our blog: leafandlore.co.nz/Lore-1/

24/10/2025

Getting ready to sow the next lot of seedlings for Nov and Dec boxes! Will also have flowers, corn, melons and squash and more... 🤩

21/10/2025

🌱 Good news, Waikato gardeners! 🌱

We’ve managed to put together 2 more small Seasonal Seedling Boxes — ready for delivery this Friday morning!

Have a look at the photos to see what could be inside 👀 — all locally grown, spray-free, heirloom varieties, perfect for small gardens, patios, or containers. Every seedling has been raised with care and is ready to burst into life in your garden! (seedlings will vary and are pre-set)

✨ First in, first served! ✨
Get your garden sorted over the long weekend and give these little seedlings a happy new home 🌼

📦 Delivery: Friday morning
💲$30 incl. delivery and gst.
🌿 Click the link here to secure your box! https://buy.stripe.com/eVq00j7Qt3s6fMI6qleUU00

14/10/2025

We’ve officially sold out of our October seedling packs! 💚
A huge thank you to everyone who supported us this month — it means the world.

But don’t worry! Our November packs are growing nicely and will be ready before you know it. 🌱
Pre-order yours today so you don’t miss out on the next batch of fresh, healthy seedlings! 🌼

07/10/2025

🌻A field of sunflowers, all facing the sun, is a striking sight. These flowers, made famous in Van Gogh’s paintings, are admired not only for their beauty but also for the myths and stories attached to them.

One such myth tells of Helios, the Greek sun god, who turned his first love, the sea nymph Clytie, into a sunflower as punishment. Even in this form, she continued to follow the sun across the sky, her head always turned toward him. While the story likely referred originally to marigolds (Calendula officinalis), it became linked with sunflowers over time.

The sunflower we know today was first cultivated in South America, where the Incas saw it as a symbol of the sun. They used its seeds in religious ceremonies, and priestesses wore ornaments and crowns made of gold shaped like sunflowers. Spanish explorers later brought the plant to Europe.

In 1903, Kansas adopted the sunflower as its state flower, describing it as “full of the life and glory of the past, the pride of the present, and richly emblematic of the majesty of a golden future.”

Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin, also praised the sunflower, writing about the way it turns each day to follow the sun’s path across the sky.🌻

02/10/2025

🌱✨ The seedlings are looking super healthy and thriving! We’ve been busy potting them up to give them space to grow, and they will be ready to head out the door just in time for Labour Weekend deliveries 🚚💚

“Spiritual Growth — Many cultures see seedlings as a metaphor for the soul: small, delicate, but with infinite potential if nurtured.” 🌸

It’s always exciting to see these little ones growing strong and knowing they’ll soon be finding their forever gardens 🌿

Who else is counting down to planting time? 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️

💻Head to the website to pre-order yours www.leafandlore.co.nz

27/09/2025

🌿✨ Waikato, your Labour Weekend garden project is sorted! ✨🌿

We’re delivering heirloom, organic, spray-free seedlings across the Waikato* this 24th October 🚐💨 — just in time for Labour Weekend planting. All are grown locally with love by our family in Te Awamutu. 💚

This season’s next box of seedlings include a beautiful mix of vegetables, herbs, and flowers 🌱🌸 — everything you need to fill your garden with flavour, colour, and life.

Each delivery comes with:
🌱 A generous mix of seasonal thriving seedlings
📖 A handy care guide
🌼 A bonus seed packet
🔮 A sprinkle of Leaf & Lore magic

💡 Limited stock available! Head to 👉 www.leafandlore.co.nz
to order before they’re gone.

Let’s make this Labour Weekend about planting, growing, and celebrating the season 🌏✨

*Please see delivery areas on our website.

26/09/2025

🌿Did you know? - In the Ozarks, peppers are said to thrive when planted by someone in a bad mood—after all, peppers are fiery! Some even claim the best results come when a “madman” does the planting. In the American South, African American communities had children sow vegetable seeds, believing that both the seeds and the children would grow together in harmony. In Estonia, peasants would wrap a small stone in a white linen cloth and bury it in the garden, hoping it would lead to strong, tight cabbage heads for sauerkraut. Since artichokes with prickly leaves were unwanted, people would break off the pointed tip of the seed at planting time, believing it would soften the leaves. Ancient traditions often tied planting rituals to spiritual practices: for example, it was thought that if a sower laughed while planting sweetcorn, the kernels would form unevenly on the cob, leaving the harvest disappointing.