I tackled the clump of chives today. One clump has now become six.
They are now potted up and cut back to about 10cm. Now what do I do with a whole bunch of chives? Can it be used in potato salad? Or mash?
Another dilemma is, how to eat all those feijoas? The trees are fruiting, everyday we gather them. They are delicious, and in my opinion much nicer and less mushier than kiwifruit.
The chickens attacked my sweet pea pots. So I put some in the lily and daisy garden tyre enclosure that has chicken wire. They can't peck at them there. It looks like I may need to invest in some more netting or wire, but I don't want to do that just yet. I'm planning on growing morning glories in spring to cover that chain link fence.
We had some rain today, and wind. As I was shopping at Pak n' Save I was very tempted to buy a bunch of delphinium seedlings. They have seedlings you can just pop n'grow like you can pak n'save.
As I was eyeing them an elder approached me and asked if I was a garden girl. Why yes I was. He chatted with me about his antirrhinums for a bit while considering buying some cauliflower...but he mused, what would he do with six cauliflowers?
He must have been living alone...he also said they were a bit expensive. I looked at the palms selling for $15 each. No..I came here for groceries not plants! I willed myself to keep walking. So what if Prince Charles garden has masses of delphiniums - he can afford them! They seem like a lot of work plus they need to be staked but they do look gorgeous. I will have to be content with my lupins, although, its meant to be green crop and dug in BEFORE they flower.
From the library I borrowed a book on herbs and another american book on 'new age gardens' that had lots of pictures. Apparently, those editors of those glossy House and Garden magazines are wising up and realising they can't spend all their money on lawns and water bills in sunny California. I roll my eyes.
It's ok, Aucklanders aren't fooling themselves that they can all have English Country Gardens either, even though we are in the temperate zone, we have high humidity and volcanic rock, well the lucky ones. Out west we have clay, clay and more clay. Perfect for growing grapevines. We also have sea breezes.
Our stony soil means rock gardens are excellent here. After all, Auckland was built on an isthmus of dormant volcanoes. Work with what you've got, I say.
