Beating the Winter Blues

Light bulbs

Early Spring has arrived with the tulips lighting up the driveway- red for stop and look at me, amber for slow dow - though there are no green tulips for GO - more and more flowers are appearing every day. Waking up from the winter slumber with chilly mornings hasn't been easy, especially in the valley in an uncarpeted, non-heat pumped home, but we survived. Or nearly all, mum was a bit touch and go and had a bout in the Wainamu Ward where at least it was warm and Daisy the cat was there.

My car battery died, but it got replaced, though I still haven't been able to get down to Woodside since its a bit of a trek in mud and cold to pick winter veges. Of which we have barely any in my garden since dad said no to any more garden space taking up room on the lawn. At most a sprinkling of chives but even parsley has struggled. The tangelos were sour this year, so I chucked them into the ball pit which was the bottom of the garden. I am planning on turning the compost down there to empty the bins and then level it. 

Brother Leyton arrived with brand-spanking new Stihl hedge trimmer, and left buxus trimmings all over the lawn on the weekend, though now our hedges are back to their lego-brick shape.

Early spring has meant I've been able to pull together a posy with mostly hellebores, forget me nots, camellias, grape muscari and freesias. No daffodils yet - all the narcissi have been eaten by slimy caterpillars now we no longer have a chicken. I've also had to oat mulch other bulbs to protect them from slugs. GardenPost had a $1 lily bulb sale so I'm waiting on more to add to the garden, my previous parcel is now sprouting in their pots.

The kaffir lime tree leaves turned yellow, a decidley un-lime colour! Even after feeding it sequestron, so am thinking it's too cold to absorb much nutrients at the moment. 

Good news though, the return of the Big G to New GardenLand means I have an extra helper and it will be the only time I have her for at least ten days in the garden and get to be the boss instead of the other way round. She'll boss me around in all other areas except the garden haha. 

Loretta and I went to another weekend art workshop where we poured acrylics on canvas to make flower paintings. Though nothing compares to the real thing. Roll on spring! 

 

La Mas Ceramics Studio

 Garden Club had an outing, a Saturday morning workshop at La Mas Ceramics Studio in Kelston. Thera, our secretary, was a ceramics nut and booked us in for a bout of indoor creativity. We painted ceramics of our choosing to be fired in the big kiln to possibly be revealed at the next club night. 

Our garden grumbles were the same - can't do anything in this cold, wet, dark winter. This is why club nights are now put on recess during July and August. It only took about 60 years to make this decision...

Meanwhile at Woodside Community Garden, which I haven't set foot in for a the past two months, is desperate to get me back in on the same morning. Though they haven't called any meetings either, and Garden Club had already organised their Wintergarden and Ceramics outings. So I just go where I've already been booked in. 

I sometimes forget that I'm meant to be a faithful stalwart who sticks and commits to something every time the doors open. Though I find I'm actually fickle as the weather and not like a rock people supposedly can rely on. Being singleminded has its benefits, though it also means you can't just suddenly change your mind. Only crazy people say one thing and do another. If only Auckland weather was reliable. But people also forget it's not like Friendly Feilding, where the town is completely flat and everyone knows their neighbours. Or Windy Wellington, that revolves around a Beehive. Or even Cultured Christchurch, which has an underground crime scene and above ground cardboard Cathedral. In Awkward Auckland, you may have to cross a bridge over troubled waters to get places, or ford a stream, or go around a dormant volcano, cut through the bush, and navigate the tides and inlets of the harbour, or travel through a tunnel, an in and around a dozen or so bridges around Spaghetti Junction whilst changing five lanes to get to a turn off ramp, then fight for the last carpark. On a good day, the sun is shining and you can actually see where you are going. On a bad day, it's like the movie the Labyrinth. It's just easier to stay at home. That's why Aucklanders didn't mind the lockdowns so much compared to the rest of the country. 

I'm just sayin'.

So anyway, I had my ceramic craft fix and painted myself a little shell which I am going to either hold soap or tea light candles in, or maybe potpourri or pearls or glass beads. Thera painted a snail, Karen a conch, Grace had a dragonfly, Bev had a cat, and Cenny a lemon tree wall plaque. If you want to paint and glaze your own garden ornaments, here's the place. Resident ceramic artist Marilyn said she must have supplied everybody in West Auckland with a glazed ceramic wall gecko for the past 25 years. 

I got home and thought should I do some gardening? I pruned the tangelo, which was sour this season, of all the dead branches. Several tuis feed on the surrounding Dragon's Gold kowhai and now can land on its branches. The Orchid Show was also on this weekend, now at Te Atatu Peninsula, which was always a treat to go to. But I am NOT joining their club. That's takes a certain amount of obssession to be an orchid fancier (and glasshouse money, which I don't have) and the Prize winning Orchid people have a sort of crazed look about them. I know the kind, as depicted in the book/movie the Orchid Thief. It's a cult. Once you buy one orchid, you'll want them all and become a shameless exhibitor of the most coveted showgirls in the world of plants and then you've reached the point of no return. 

Foraging Life

 I've been reading a memoir called Foraging Life by Helen Lehndorf, from the 'Naki. She doesn't mention a word about the famous Rhododendron Garden Festival or even the con-current fringe garden festival although it seems people from around her parts are also permaculture nerds like me. 

Her book has several recipes made from weeds and fruits foraged in the wild places that are just the norm for those who live in the Wild West. 

My mum is a forager too. When inorganic collection day comes around, she'd be the first to pick things up from the side of the road, and we frequent Henderson's dozen op shops, looking for that elusive serendiptious item that cannot be bought for love or money online. This also applies to wild chestnuts, feijoas, dandelions, onion weed, kawakawa, pinecones and anything else nature gives us for free.

My neighbour goes one better, she dumpster dives, and sometimes I have to stop her from rescuing food from rubbish bins and on Fridays when it's rubbish day I make myself scarce because I know she'd be tempted to look in everyone's bins to see what they are throwing out, there might be something edible. 

Initially it was something to be ashamed of that we were gleaners and picked things off the ground and ate them that others have discarded and dropped, but now it has become a badge of honour, to say we are saving planet from potential imploding from all the things we keep putting into the landfill and down the drain.

This has given me a perverse idea, to dig a giant hole in the backyard and encourage people to drop their excess money they don't want in it. After all they can't eat it. It's a bit useless. When its full I will just put dirt on the top and level it again with some turf, and then in maybe 30 years time (I plan to still be around) when I do need some extra cash, I can just dig it up. 

Or I could just plant potatoes. 

Actually, I have been hoping for a break in the weather so I can sow sunflowers, and the snow peas (a bit late) and the packet of wildflower seeds from Gardenpost. Although, good news, I have found a new school library AND it will now receive some plant love too. So maybe I can just put my money plants by the doors. It looks like this school doesn't receive free school lunches either so I have my work cut out for me, unless we do a deal with the another school which DOES receive school lunches and eat their leftovers? 

I am counting on Countdown, or maybe Fresh Choice or even New World to provide us with some donations that we can somehow convert into books and materials for the library. Times are tough and I don't want to beg. I can sing for my supper though. Though looking at the field, it too looks like a potential rice paddy/shrimp farm though I must ignore such silly notions and buy my lunch from the nearest KFC/bakery like everyone else. 

My brothers recent drama ($4000 worth of garden tool equipment, gone, after his garden shed got broken into) has left him a bit reeling and I am also a bit sad because actually I was wanting to borrow the waterblaster and hedgetrimmer one weekend for New Gardenland. 'Borrow' not 'steal and never return it'. My brother did not operate a garden tool lending library though and failed to barcode and stamp his tools so, I guess nothing can be done about that...

Fairy Dust

 Weather has been wet as usual, and weather reports say we haven't had a week without rain in Aucks this year. If it's not raining, its drizzling or cloudy, or showery and the moments of sunshine aren't enough to dry out everything so anyone doing laundry has to pick and choose their days or let it all pile up. 

It's like we are lockdown again except it isn't COVID anymore but simply being plagued with rain. Or maybe just the winter blues. Some people claim they have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and get prescribed either Vitamin D tablets or if they can afford it, trips to sunnier climes, like Fiji and Raro. 

All this rain is very good for the water table. Maybe this will sustain is in times of Summer droughts. All I know is if the puddles don't dry out we're in for damp, dank mould and mildew and possibly outbreaks of TB and general miasma. 

The problems is we are on an an isthmus and the only way out of Auckland is up North or to the South, if you go further East you end up in the bogs and fens of Thames and if you go West you crash into the surf at Piha, if you aren't hit by landslides down Scenic Drive. 

I have been plotting my escape, the easiest route for me would be to go up North (rather than brave the motorway South to the airport) however, thing is I can't take my garden with me. Also I feel it would be a faithless act to up and leave for greener (or drier?)  pastures just because of a bit of rain. Also if I stay, why not turn the backyard into a rice paddy? Mum might be pleased to have homegrown rice instead of importing the precious commodity from Thailand. 

My solution is to scatter fairy dust over everything, i.e gypsum aka Calcium Sulphate in hopes that the clay will accept this attempt to bind and poke holes in it so the water can drain and perhaps form underground caves underneath the garden. Could work. 

I could also invest in a broadfork, or shoes with big spikes in it to aerate the ground, or just commandeer a school rugby team to run roughshod around the lawn, turn it into a mud wrestling pit, and once the ground is throughly rucked over, start planting again. I had this vision when I worked at the Orchards Retirment Village for the neighbouring Glenfield College (battle) fields. I remember saying to my boss look at all that green space we could turn it into an amazing garden. Then the residents of the retirment village would have something beautiful to look at rather than a muddy pasture and two rugby posts. He just thought I was crazy and reminded me that I missed a spot leaf blowing. 

He was no fun. 

Matauranga

As promised, pics of the latest garden trip.  For those who love symmetry and order the Auckland Domain Wintergardens are for you. Planting in grids and colour coordinating your flowers for the mathematically minded Minecrafters amongst us. I can imagine maths books having questions like how many pots of flowers would you need to source per square foot to create bedding displays like this. I remember using string lines to make perfect circles and patterns for car park beds and had it down to a fine art. The heartbreaking thing was pulling them all out again when the display was over. But then this is the reality of mass annual bedding displays. It is the garden equivalent of fast fashion for the 'wow' factor. 

 I'm pleased that a parcel from Garden Post has finally arrived. I have ordered tiger lilies 'Corsage' 'Red life' 'Yellow Bruse' and Oriental lily 'Stargazer'. The instructions said to plant immediately yet I have to wait in between thunder, lightening, hail and wind. Real witchy weather. I don't know who made God mad, but He was sending His judgement down on Henderson today. Thankfully at the end of the storm is a rainbow and the sweet silver song of a ...tui. I recommend wearing gumboots should you ever be struck by lightening and not flying a kite. 

Pat had given me a parcel of seeds to sow including beans, bee and butterfly wildflower mixes, rocket and coriander. I'm still hanging out to plant snow peas if they have not drowned by now. 

Rivercare had their Matariki and Matauranga talk in which they reiterated that schools are the places to get the message out there to be environmentally aware. All Westie schools are somewhere along the awa (Henderson Creek, Opanuku, Hururhuru, Taikata) do water testing and education of what to flush or not flush down the toilet. Apparently our sewerage system is breaking down. Sir Dove Myer Robinson did not forsee the over flows from a population nearing 2 million in the wider Auckland area! To think only a few decades ago Auckland was fledgling city with its outer limits only reachable by tram. It was basically a big village ending in Western Springs and Westmere was 'the West' while Henderson was a small country town that you could only get to by rail. It was also a 'dry' area on one side of the tracks. Te Atatu Peninsula (or Henderson North) was scrubland and wild and there was no motorway or even causeway..everyone travelled along Great North Road from Karangahape until they reached Swanson. And there were Kauri forests all around (before it got cut down for Auckland's houses and then all the gum dug out). So far, so progress. 

Queen Street was just a ditch and the way to get down to the harbour was on your waka, imagine if the Pakeha settlers had their original dream and the centre of town was actually Cornwallis. I try not to look into the past so much but now I've lived long enough to say to youngsters well it was not always like this. I remember when....and they look at me incredulously as if I've just jumped out of a tardis and travelled back in time. I've started singing a waiata E Karanga E te iwi E 'Pomaria E' in the mornings just to be grounded. This is my turangawaewae the land filled with so much we loved and lost.  The apple trees are still growing as I've put them back to remind me of those days of yore when Henderson was a Garden of Eden of orchards and vineyards and the apple man would go door to door bringing Granny Smiths, Golden Delicious and Braeburns when the fruit was just there for the picking and the cats play and are buried when they die in the pet cemeteries of our yards. 

 

Warm Wintergardens

 Our garden club visited the Auckland Wintergardens on Saturday. I took Pat, Cenny and Paula in my car and Barbara, Janette, Thera, Bev and Linda came in another. Our club seemed to have shrunk a bit over winter but we made the effort and was nice to see each other during the daytime! And the wintergardens too. 

The windows of the glasshouses had recently been cleaned and restored so everything was looking new and to my mind, a bit TOO new. I did miss the lichen and the wildlife and the cat that used to nap in the tropical house, where all the vines had been cleared away, it seemed they had put fresh plants in or rearranged it. 

The temperate house was full of cyclamen, cinerarias, ornamental kale, and golden daffodils that had heavy heads. The ladies exclaimed over sisikyou lewisia (we looked it up) a succulent that looked like an aeonium but had a dainty flower. 

There were also signs saying DO NOT TOUCH and beware, the fruits are too hot, and could kill you - the forbidden fruit being super hot chillis/capsicums/bell peppers of course. It's just like the Garden of Eden! (except we were all clothed, because it's winter). We didn't see the stinky arum lily, maybe it was having a nap elsewhere. My favourite cat's tails plants were there though, but the chocolate plant and the bananas had disappeared. Maybe they got eaten. Pink orchids were in bloom, and the hanging baskets had pansies and lachenalias in them. There were curly spider plants. There was water lilies that hadn't appeared yet. 

The fernery also seemed to have been weeded and seemed a bit forlorn, where was the enchantment, and mystery? I didn't hear any birdsong there. Maybe they'll return, but that's what happens when you remove all the insect life it seems. 

Outside Iceland poppies were on the beds, and the fountains were playing. We had a mackerel sky. It was a beautiful day, and after seeing the Wintergardens we had lunch at the kiosk, which was very noisy and busy but I had a nice meal of lamb cutlets and a juicie of fresh fruit, worth the wait so I'm not complaining. Then on the way home Cenny and Paula visited Pats garden which was gorgeous as usual, so all in all we had a lovely time. I'll post some pics later. Though I'm never very good at taking photos possibly someone needs to be a garden photographer, I'm too busy seeing and experiencing everything through my own two eyes. The Wintergardens watch you too because there are  CCTV cameras inside to make sure nobody steals any plants or takes cuttings.....I'm thinking what happens if garden security does catch someone? 

I think maybe they end up in garden jail or thrown in the slough pond. 

Matariki

 Matariki marks the beginning of the gardening year. In Auckland it was 'wet and whiny' according to the Prime Minister, so anyone hoping to get up at dawn to see Matariki Stars rising has a slim chance...after all, we are the Land of the Long White Cloud and often that cloud blocks out the stars, and brings rain. 

A far better indicator would be when the kowhai start blooming, as they are on my Dragons Gold specimens. Some of the are lopped and stunted thanks to Dad's pruning efforts. He doesn't like anything shading his weather station, or blocking the night sky. He's taken photos of the moon and the habour bridge lights, as if in compensation for the lack of garden decoration. 

I haven't made a fuss over Matariki as it has come in the school holidays where it's pyjama day everyday. But it has marked a turning point for a new beginning though who knows what that may be this year. 

I'm somehow supposed to apply all this matauranga (knowledge) to the garden but so far have been failing  as my marama (moon calendar) keeps turning and so far no indication of any change or growth. It's been too wet to prune the buxus, I've only done one bed, my GardenPost lily bulbs I ordered have not arrived, the rain lilies have not appeared even after all that rain, the tangelo needs pruning and feeding, and we haven't been meeting for Garden Club in the evenings. However this Saturday is going to be our day trip to the Wintergardens, and I'm also going to a Rivercare meeting Thursday evening where an ecologist is going to talk about Matariki and Matauranga. 

It was  Miss Asher's birthday (memorial magnolia tree) on July 17 and she is looking stately and in bloom. I've surrounded her with irises this time though none have bloomed yet. Others who've passed on in the past year include Beth and Jane, both women of faith and my best teachers. Beth's geraniums are still growing and I have yet to figure out what to plant for Jane. Jane had her funeral on Thursday and it seems God keeps wanting me to continue her legacy by being Bible teacher in schools. Despite me being NOT one who naturally teaches. I remember when I first taught I was so nervous I was shaking and couldn't speak in front of anyone. They say 'fear of public speaking' is the number one thing and I sure had it (avoided speech contests in school, never acted in stage dramas, never signed up for  talent quests, hated presentations, never spoke a word in class, never wanted any attention to myself, and never got up in assemblies) however that never stopped Jane for believing I had something to offer. I am quite lucky in that I now have a karaoke microphone that could amplify my voice if need be. Karaoke does give you the words to say anyway. Otherwise nobody would ever hear me. Thank you Lord for technology.

The thing with plants is they don't talk. Or maybe they are so quiet we can't hear them.  I guess that's why I like them, they have a secret language all of their own.  If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, is there a sound? The kumara does not speak of its own sweetness. 

I am thinking of a Karaka tree to plant for Jane (although where exactly, I am not sure, perhaps at Edmonton School where she taught?) as she moved from Henderson to Karaka which was a world away (and in some aspects, another town) and that will be something to remember her by. Or maybe a beautiful tree fuchsia Kotutukutu that likes being beside rivers as she used to live near the Henderson Creek.  I'm not always one for staying up and stargazing for Matariki but I'm always observing the native plants during the day.  Belinda Jane Greenslade RIP