It's September.
Technically not the first day of spring but getting closer..
It rained heavily this morning and my boggy patch was small pond. I managed to plant some penstemons I found at Pak n'Save and also a sack of potatoes, that had started 'chitting' or budding, an early variety called 'Nectar'. I planted the potatoes in a tub that had come with the magnolia, and buried them in hay. I'm going for the no dig, no soil method. They should be ready by December for christmas potato salad!
It reminded me that faith is like potatoes. You can't see them, but they are there and it's growing. And one day you will dig them up and hold them in your hot little hands. Also, faith is good to eat, like hot chips. When they're ready. And maybe faith can be mashed. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.
Thanks Angus Buchan, for that little parable.
So, if all goes to plan, Christmas will be bumper crop! I expect a harvest of more than 10 seed potatoes that I put in.
I'm also planning on going to this workshop at Palmers Planet to see the bug man, Ruud Kleinpaaste. He's going to talk about his favourite topic, creepy crawlies in the garden. He was hosting on Palmers Garden show for many years. There's a new show called 'Get Growing' which I must set aside time for on Fridays on the sky channel. Lynda Hallinan and her mates are hosting that one.
I'm seriously thinking of installing raised beds but where to get the raised beds from and what to make them out of? Macrocarpa? Pongas? Bricks? Bamboo? Corrugated iron? Not tyres, I already have those.
Of course we have raised beds at the community gardens but I'm not good with knocking together timber. I remember my very first garden was a herb raised bed that I made out of bricks. It had lamb's ears, chamomile and thyme in it, as I wanted to make it like a seat. But all my bricks have disappeared? The garden was dismantled when my brothers ripped out the garden with their box and rose garden makeover. Maybe the bricks are under the house?
I remember my second garden I made out the front that was a circle of bricks and had lavender, hebe, and I think a lemon tree in the middle. Then I remember buying a swan plant or was it a buddelia from the garden centre and mum chucking it out as she said it was a weed. I was really sore at her for that. My garden became overgrown and that too succumbed to my brother's grandoise plans.
But now that they have their own house in leafy suburbs of Epsom I can garden in peace.
