Starry Starry Night

 It's Matariki weekend and we got our first frost this morning. -1.4 degrees celcius and -4.2 on the grass!

The skies have been clear that has been great for stargazing. Matariki is just one of the 9 stars in the cluster whanau. I thought there were 7, but it seems two more have been added when I wasn't looking. 

Because stars aren't always easy to spot amongst all the other stars I just tend to look for the moon instead. I should be keeping track, my moon calendar helps me, though at the moment I have not been doing much in the garden, just weeding here and there.

Woodside is offering grapefruit, and I'm harvesting the last of the tangelos from the old tree. My dwarf Seminole is laden, but they seem quite pale. I hope they'll be ok though the tag did say NOT to let it fruit in the first year. 

It's Mum's birthday today, she would have been 78. We went and had yum cha at the Lucky Fortune. Sometimes I wonder if I'm experiencing a Freaky Friday - swapping bodies with my mum and now I know what it's like to be her, older and (hopefully) wiser. 

Cleopatra magnolia has just budded and will bloom in a few days, the petals are already showing their glorious cerise pink. Dutch Iris is still blooming, and we have jonquils and bergenias. 

Sad news is our neighbour Lorraine has passed away on Monday morning. She was 87. Instead of flowers, we will give requested snacks to the hospital ward she was in. Lorraine was an original resident of Riverpark along with husband Dave, and their two daughters. She was baking us feijoa muffins all throughout the season and has always been our very good across the road neighbour. 

And so we've been remembering many who've passed on during Matariki. It looks like the heavens are much brighter because of them. 

Haere ra.

 

Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows

 I don't know about the lollipops but we've had sunshine and rainbows in the garden. The dutch iris has flowered early and there have been a few jonquils pop up. It's now coming into winter as the autumn leaves keep falling. Dad picks them up and puts them into the rubbish bin. 

I've put in an order of 103 packets of seeds for Garden Club. It will be fun sorting them out, as fun as it can be when they all look the same as they are from King Seed and Kings don't put photos or pictures of what's inside on their seed packets.

I'm dividing up the peace lily that MOTAT gave us, well Dad when Mum was ill, as its outgrown its pot, so far, I can get at least six more to pot out of one clump. I have discovered compressed seed and potting mix - it comes in blocks or cubes and all you need to do is add water, and voila you have 9 litres of potting mix from 1kg block that you don't have to strain your back for when taking it to the car. This could be a game changer for my gardening practice!

Otherwise there's not much to report. Made another batch of comfrey fertiliser. Still feeding worms. Hung netting over the leggy echium in hopes the sweet peas will climb all over it. Visited the New Lynn library, and discovered they had a seed library there. Was offered several packs of seed for free, so now I have them to sow as well. 

JoAnne gave me a blueberry bush for my birthday. I have planted in a pot and wonder if I should buy a companion for it for pollination purposes. 

I've put my name down and am now on the Hospice flower roster, so I need to get creative. I know how to do a posy bowl arrangement, but that is about the extent of it. So we shall see, I have a block of floral foam, secateurs and a wild imagination. What can I do that will pass muster? 

Getting Older

 I am getting older today.

My garden is getting younger though as I've now got seeds, and am doing a seed fundraiser for Garden Club. We are hoping to get to 100 packets and then the profits can go to running our club, that has been going for over 65 years. This year will be the 66th!

So since last update I have been busy making umpteenth feijoa crumbles. Dad has been diligently picking up the fallen feijoas so the lawn is clear to mow. He picks up EVERY single one, no matter how small. I have given them away to friends, neighbours, family and even garden club members who often already have feijoas. 

I cleared the last lot last night but who knows today may yield some more. 

In other news comfrey tea barrel has been emptied and restarted again. I've had to add some citronella incense to it to repel any bugs, and might add neem oil to the mix. Also geranium leaves. Because it can get smelly. 

Tangelo tree has fruits, even though half has been cut down because of borer, luckily I have a dwarf tangelo on flying dragon rootstock in a large garden tub waiting in the wings. 

I've rearranged the pots a little and had to tidy up everything in anticipation of the Cylclone Vaianu that just missed us and devastated the Hawkes Bay instead. It's always a joy to rearrange things though as I like everything to be pleasing to the eye as much as I can, and to make the garden easier to work in, but it all takes time and will never ever be finished, as plants change with every season. 

This reminds me I am getting older today and mum wants me to be happy. I still have sad days but being in my garden makes me happy and after so long neglecting it I have rediscovered my garden mojo, so I cherish the time I'm able to spend recovering from two years of caretaking. Plants are so much easier than humans as they are constantly rejuvenating. 

So if anyone asks me what I'm doing with my life I say I am not drifting, I'm grounded and doing my garden. Eventually it will bear fruit and have so much abundance that I can't keep it all to myself and offer it to you. 

Happy Feijoa!

 New Gardenland is teeming with feijoas. Our favourite time of year. They make everyone smile, and are the fruit that keeps on giving and giving and giving...

The Plant King

 I've been trying to catch up the garden - harvesting, pruning, tidying, rearranging, decorating, sweeping...

It's raining at the moment and I've been busy the past couple of weeks preparing the comfrey tea, cutting down the mugwort after the grapes had been harvested, harvesting some of the olives, clearing the corner of pots.

The corner jungle mess is now a new orderly corner of mother-in-laws tongue or snake plant in rows, and gastria in the gaps, and now a hypostes plant or spotty plant to you - I found this at Rogers for $12 which had four different variegations in one pot. 

Roger advised me to give this one a good drink when I got home. He said a cyclone was coming, but it has thankfully missed Henderson.

Twins have harvested dozens of se gwa, or chinese okra to you. They are sort of like ribbed cucumbers, with spongy dry texture inside that soaks up the water. They are good in stir fries, with wood ear and prawns and onions. The vines have taken over their plot of volcanic soil at Epsom. 

Justin and Katherina gave Sis a potted antherium for Christmas. It was near dying when I went over last night so gave it some emergency buckets of water bath. It has now revived and will live to see another day. 

I went to the Lantern Festival, and got a bit inspired so now there are lanterns in my garden. I have two hot air balloons, some twinkly coloured solar lights and lots of citronella tea light candles. It is the Year of the Horse, so maybe I should think about getting some horse manure. Will have to take a trip to the Massey Pony Club. Actually we should all be thinking about getting horses now the price of fuel has sky rocketed. Thank you New World Order. I so wanted it to go up just after I had bought a new petrol driven car....

I have bought a new dwarf Tangelo Seminole. And a dwarf satsuma mandarin tree has been ordered. Kings had a sale on, cheaper than Rogers could you believe?? I have put some more Dutch Iris in. Miss Saigon and another Blue variety I can't remember the name of at the moment. But I do know there is one called Lion King which I gave to my Lion King mad friend. 

Otherwise things carry on as usual in my Kingdom of Plants. Or should it be Queendom. Now that I am Queen Bee of 41 Riverpark? 

Fresh Start

 After a year or two of dormancy, and sad goodbyes - Uncle Danny, Mum, Toyota Funcargo..Book Fridge, I'm slowly reawakening the garden. 

The hedges need trimming, but otherwise the lawn is still being mowed and am keeping up with maintanence. I harvested 3 trayfuls of grapes, which had a bumper crop this year.

Update - Leyton trimmed the hedge with the power trimmer, so all the hedges are now razor sharp and rectangular/boxy. 

I have a new car! That can fit loads of plants and sacks of compost!

Dusty now has catnip, which she duly squashed, and some catmint. 

Lobelias are brightening up my pots, and I've put in more spring onions, courtesy of Taiping. 

New books include 'We can do Hard Things', 'Cats with Jobs' 'The New Zealand Road Code' and a pile of circulating library books. I made thai buttercup soup. 

Watermelons are on sale by the road. 

Garden Club is gearing up for another year. 

I drove to the Honey Centre in Warkworth, and wanted to bring some bees back, but ended up with ginger honey and lavender beeswax. Glennis got crowned 'Queen Bee'.  Fresh fruit berry icecreams are on sale in Swanson. 

Makutu Link had an open day where I saw eels being fed raw eggs. My friend Nicole is now a jobbing gardener. I'm not accepting outside work currently...have too much housework to do. 

Pat from Garden club turned 93. 

All in all things are looking brighter for 2026. 😎

Spring Forth

 Time goes by. I had a very dark seasonal depression but now spring is here. I only want to think on things lovely (love keeps no record of wrongs) and so spring flowers come forth again like they do every year even with the unseasonal weather. Yet it keeps creeping in regardless. 

And so holding forth on climate change...I am really just not used to drastic change and fear I won't be able to adapt. I loved gardening but I felt like I'd neglected everything. I don't understand what's happened maybe I miss the chickens and Mummy Cat although Dusty enjoys the garden...something inside me has not adjusted, whether it's the moon cycles or being all out of sync. Living without a car has also been a bit of a shock. I guess it's the lack of mobility, that I should have appreciated having two legs and not be rooted like plants are. However I have craved stability all my life and thought I had it in the garden. 

Now the neighbours down the back have moved out and the trees (and privet) have been cleared, while my other neighbours are now growing in vege pods.

We had a planting day on our side of the reserve though I was quite dismayed at all the weeds sprung up and unable to do much about them. To say we were unaffected by the floods I don't know we may not have had our house flooded but all of Auckland is has now become very damp. New housing is going up everywhere. All I know is without air  or movement in the soil or wetlands to capture excess moisture everything is kind of in flux. Aren't gardens all about change anyway?

So what made me the expert. I am not the expert. I've just had a very bad year of not feeling garden vibes and really want to get back into the swing of things, though change all around me is inevitable. I had just learned that leaky homes are because of not just untreated timber but because the pines that were harvested for timber back then were too young saplings and their wood was too soft. So I wondered if there was some kind of Gardening/Harvesting Standards Code as well that everyone is ignoring.  With all the pine forest and mills closing due to high electricity prices I can't help but wonder about the impact of all the tree felling has had on the land. Yes let the light in, and yes NZ needs to export its logs somewhere and for sure trees and cars and roads don't mix well but I thought with all this mud and clay the new homes would surely be built out of earth instead of timber and not leak so much. But then what do I really know about houses or land. Why do I pontificate as if I could be in charge of the planet?  Now I feel like I haven't been because I've just been out of touch with the garden.  I have been rambling on about *my* Eden but need to get back in touch or grafted in somewhere. 

I want to live again not feel out of sorts though everyone seems to be starting over. And so it is. Plants are a lot more resilient than given credit for and I do wish my green thumbs would return...why am I not feeling it, all I know all of creation is groaning for redemption. So I am writing this to remind myself not to give up!  For God made everything beautiful in it's time and spring is a reminder that the lilies of the field do not toil or spin, yet He has clothed us far richer than Solomon.