Mum pruned the camellia bush and the coprosmas. They were getting too big and in the way. I didn't plant them though, so she can't blame me. So our driveway and side of the house is looking a bit shorn.
I'm thinking of putting lots of bromeliads there as they seem to do well. I can get a whole lot free from my brothers. Also the thing about bromeliads is they won't grow so high you have to keep pruning them.
I moved the convovulus mauritania to the back garden as it doesn't seem to be growing much in the rock garden. It's about the third time I've moved it so far. They say it's good for dry areas but..just doesn't seem to grow or trail like it should, or at least not in the pictures where it's meant to be this award winning plant.
I'm taking a leaf out of Lynda Hallinan's book and decide I ought to make a list of my top crops and my flop crops. Or rather, my best and worst plants.
Top/Best
Dusty Miller
doing really well in the flower bed
Motherwort
Has just spread and become a good sized bush big enough for the chickens to hide under
Violets/pansies
cheerfully gracing the edges
Sweet Alyssum
Keeps appearing and thriving
Curly Carex
these little tufts of grass just look cute
Helichrysum/Licorice plant
Thrives in the hanging basket
Abutilon
I love these chinese lanterns swinging in the breeze
Flop/Worst
Spinach
Initially did well but kept wilting, after it was cut it didn't do well growing back. Meh.
Metrosideros 'Tahiti'
Didn't grow much at all, and then dried up.
Flower carpet Rose
Grew back. ack. Thorns.
Mexican Orange Blossom
Where are the blossoms??
Passionfruit
Not much passion..
Vincas
Some websites said they were indestructible, and good ground cover, but chickens demolished them too
Creeping Fig
Thought this would be a lovely plant to climb up the side of the house..it shrivelled and died.
Sunday, 29 November 2015
Friday, 27 November 2015
Birds, Bees and Barbecue
We had a lovely spring celebration. I'm still eating all those sausages.
Magic Maize the magician was fantastic. Good show, as was Bunny the storytelling librarian.
Karyn made Rhubarb iced tea, and we had a bring and swap seedling table, digging for treasure, and the neighbourhood turned out for some impressive gardening tips and tricks.
Tip - no need to water potatoes until they flower now, then water.
Tip - carpet is good mulch.
Tip - moneymaker tomatoes are best.
Tip- invite your local MPs to your garden parties
So its been 5 years at Woodside..I wasn't there when it started but it has come a long way from being a bare 25m plot. The fennel is flourishing and the comfrey is flowering along with borage, calendula, nasturtium and other herbs. And...peas are now a success where they had no shows before. Trick - sow them as seedlings not direct, or they will get eaten by slugs and birds.
In other news my garden is coming along and the sweet peas are setting seed now. I see fresh spring growth everywhere, the apple tree, the hydrangeas, the tea leaf tree, the jacaranda, the frangipani. I had evening primrose blooming. Love carnation and love chrysanthemums. Whangarei hibiscus. The abutilons are nodding in agreement. Statice has blooms. And red clover is poking through.
I love it.
We have duck visitors, a mummy duck and a daddy duck. Mary has taken to laying her eggs underneath the motherwort plant. Martha prefers the money tree as her secret hiding place. My lined hanging baskets with plastic bags trick appears to be working. And there's a new venus fly trap on the window sill. In Snowy's bed, I have snuck in three baby's breath gypsophilias.
Next door have copied us and put in solar lights by their new wooden deck that change colour. Sparky sits as sentinel, like a sphinx guarding the entrance. He is the same colour as the deck.
Christmas is just around the corner..this weekend has been the beginning of Santa parades. One of my neighbours has put up their christmas decorations and lights already. It doesn't matter, our feijoas are already in bloom with their pohutakawa like blossoms. So we don't need fake pine trees and tinsel. I think this year I'm just going to hang up socks on my tree. I mean they COULD go on the washing line, but to celebrate Silly Season, they look better on a tree.
Magic Maize the magician was fantastic. Good show, as was Bunny the storytelling librarian.
Karyn made Rhubarb iced tea, and we had a bring and swap seedling table, digging for treasure, and the neighbourhood turned out for some impressive gardening tips and tricks.
Tip - no need to water potatoes until they flower now, then water.
Tip - carpet is good mulch.
Tip - moneymaker tomatoes are best.
Tip- invite your local MPs to your garden parties
So its been 5 years at Woodside..I wasn't there when it started but it has come a long way from being a bare 25m plot. The fennel is flourishing and the comfrey is flowering along with borage, calendula, nasturtium and other herbs. And...peas are now a success where they had no shows before. Trick - sow them as seedlings not direct, or they will get eaten by slugs and birds.
In other news my garden is coming along and the sweet peas are setting seed now. I see fresh spring growth everywhere, the apple tree, the hydrangeas, the tea leaf tree, the jacaranda, the frangipani. I had evening primrose blooming. Love carnation and love chrysanthemums. Whangarei hibiscus. The abutilons are nodding in agreement. Statice has blooms. And red clover is poking through.
I love it.
We have duck visitors, a mummy duck and a daddy duck. Mary has taken to laying her eggs underneath the motherwort plant. Martha prefers the money tree as her secret hiding place. My lined hanging baskets with plastic bags trick appears to be working. And there's a new venus fly trap on the window sill. In Snowy's bed, I have snuck in three baby's breath gypsophilias.
Next door have copied us and put in solar lights by their new wooden deck that change colour. Sparky sits as sentinel, like a sphinx guarding the entrance. He is the same colour as the deck.
Christmas is just around the corner..this weekend has been the beginning of Santa parades. One of my neighbours has put up their christmas decorations and lights already. It doesn't matter, our feijoas are already in bloom with their pohutakawa like blossoms. So we don't need fake pine trees and tinsel. I think this year I'm just going to hang up socks on my tree. I mean they COULD go on the washing line, but to celebrate Silly Season, they look better on a tree.
Thursday, 19 November 2015
Advertising
I don't usually place adverts on my blog but I just want to tell you that you are welcome to come along to this. See you there!
I may have a party later on in my own garden when the weather fines up for BBQ.
I may have a party later on in my own garden when the weather fines up for BBQ.
Friday, 13 November 2015
Busy Bee
Boy its starting to get hot!
Working Bee today, I managed to replant my choko in the corner and hopefully it will spread and give us lots of chokos. Nicole put more lettuces in and I'm going to sow more pumpkins. I took my gourd seeds over but the arch is still not up..and they need support.
The iceplant I planted as a cutting has become a mass of pink flower. I don't have much luck with it here but I'm going to try again by taking more cuttings.
I was watching Kew Gardens BBC series the other night and they have a wintergarden too that is like the Auckland Domains, and they too have a giant stinky arum. Over 150 gardeners work there and they put on Go Wild festivals and other such events, there are arborists, herbalists, designers, carpenters, greenhouse managers, nurserymen and women, horticulturalists like Alan Titchmarsh is an alumni (and presents the show).
Maybe I could wangle a working holiday job at the Kew? What could I be, head flowergirl or something?
I once tried applying as an apprentice for Auckland Council working at the Domain but heard nothing (as per usual). I expect they wanted someone who can drive a truck at least, and be out in all weathers. So much for being a working girl. Handmaidens unite, we would at least would like some corn to eat while we are busy treading it out. What do you think we live on, air?
I don't know. I sometimes think its ironic that women are the ones who do all the work, but we are the ones that don't see a cent (or corncob). And then people who don't come to volunteer at all in the garden, steal our leeks and garlic and trample on our corn. The cheek!
So we were busy putting back all the plants someone had pulled out in a fit of rage just for the hell of it. Note to garden marauder...next time, please pull out the WEEDS instead of the crops.
Working Bee today, I managed to replant my choko in the corner and hopefully it will spread and give us lots of chokos. Nicole put more lettuces in and I'm going to sow more pumpkins. I took my gourd seeds over but the arch is still not up..and they need support.
The iceplant I planted as a cutting has become a mass of pink flower. I don't have much luck with it here but I'm going to try again by taking more cuttings.
I was watching Kew Gardens BBC series the other night and they have a wintergarden too that is like the Auckland Domains, and they too have a giant stinky arum. Over 150 gardeners work there and they put on Go Wild festivals and other such events, there are arborists, herbalists, designers, carpenters, greenhouse managers, nurserymen and women, horticulturalists like Alan Titchmarsh is an alumni (and presents the show).
Maybe I could wangle a working holiday job at the Kew? What could I be, head flowergirl or something?
I once tried applying as an apprentice for Auckland Council working at the Domain but heard nothing (as per usual). I expect they wanted someone who can drive a truck at least, and be out in all weathers. So much for being a working girl. Handmaidens unite, we would at least would like some corn to eat while we are busy treading it out. What do you think we live on, air?
I don't know. I sometimes think its ironic that women are the ones who do all the work, but we are the ones that don't see a cent (or corncob). And then people who don't come to volunteer at all in the garden, steal our leeks and garlic and trample on our corn. The cheek!
So we were busy putting back all the plants someone had pulled out in a fit of rage just for the hell of it. Note to garden marauder...next time, please pull out the WEEDS instead of the crops.
Thursday, 12 November 2015
Nipplewort?!
Yes there is such a plant and I found the yellow weedy flowery thing wasn't Evening Primrose at all but a weed called Nipplewort that has taken over my garden. I pulled them all out today.
It is called Nipplewort because the flower buds look like nipples!
I don't think its good for anything, and it does exude a milky sap and is a bit hairy. How did they get there? I don't remember seeing them before, and I'm sure I didn't deliberately sow a whole lot of weeds. I am going to blame Kings Seeds for this one. It must have been one of those random seeds in one of those wildflower mixes. Remember when they said their echium wasn't a weed? Wrongo.
Anyway, I'm not going to listen to these so called expert gardeners anymore. What do they know, they are only seed merchants. One time, we went on a field trip to King Seeds in Katikati. I was expecting to see all different kinds of plants growing from the seeds there to trial them, but it was just a big warehouse with buckets of seeds ready to be put into packets that they got from somewhere else. I was disappointed.
Apparently they used to be in Avondale but moved to Katikati for some reason, when they were in Avondale they would grow the plants from seed so you could see what you were getting. They had herbs and flowers.
I have planted out some parsley and spring onions in the mangers and moved the sweet alyssum and some sweet peas to the flowerbeds. I have also potted up the rest of the capsicums as Joanne gave me some buckets.
Working bee tomorrow..Jacqui is calling another meeting as we need to get this spring celebration underway! 'Tis the season....
It is called Nipplewort because the flower buds look like nipples!
I don't think its good for anything, and it does exude a milky sap and is a bit hairy. How did they get there? I don't remember seeing them before, and I'm sure I didn't deliberately sow a whole lot of weeds. I am going to blame Kings Seeds for this one. It must have been one of those random seeds in one of those wildflower mixes. Remember when they said their echium wasn't a weed? Wrongo.
Anyway, I'm not going to listen to these so called expert gardeners anymore. What do they know, they are only seed merchants. One time, we went on a field trip to King Seeds in Katikati. I was expecting to see all different kinds of plants growing from the seeds there to trial them, but it was just a big warehouse with buckets of seeds ready to be put into packets that they got from somewhere else. I was disappointed.
Apparently they used to be in Avondale but moved to Katikati for some reason, when they were in Avondale they would grow the plants from seed so you could see what you were getting. They had herbs and flowers.
I have planted out some parsley and spring onions in the mangers and moved the sweet alyssum and some sweet peas to the flowerbeds. I have also potted up the rest of the capsicums as Joanne gave me some buckets.
Working bee tomorrow..Jacqui is calling another meeting as we need to get this spring celebration underway! 'Tis the season....
Tuesday, 10 November 2015
Jobs keep growing
1. replant the mangers with parsley, herbs, and other dry tolerant plants.
2. capsicums in buckets
3. water woodside potatoes
4. fence the back border
5. think of something to add height to the sunny rock garden
6. rip out the vietnamese mint as taking over, relocate to the back
7. or relocate ginger lily rhizomes to the back border
8. plant jasmine
9. take more photos, hibiscus bloomed pinky-red
10. mark out sundial, there must be a good cheap working one somewhere...
11. keep eye on sunflower seedlings
I was reading a book about Luther Burbank yesterday called 'Gardens of Invention' and how he bred plants and improved varieties of potatoes, crossed a plum with an apricot (called a plumcot), grew fruit trees that fruited faster by grafting, and tried to patent his creations. Scientists tried to lionise him but all he was trying to make a living out of his passion, it wasn't really something nobody can do, it's just he had the patience to experiment.
This was all in sunny california, Santa Rosa where it all happened, that's why California is famous for its citrus, grapes, and every other new fangled variety of plant. Because it doesn't snow there. I don't know that we have a Luther Burbank type figure who became as famous as Thomas Edison or Henry Ford in America as inventors. But there is one guy that keeps cropping up in gardening circles with plants he breeds especially carnations and sweet peas and that is Keith Hammett.
I have got sweet peas all along the fence and they are all bicolor old-fashioned ones except for one or two of the spencer variety. I must say it's pretty and we have masses of them. I am hoping that they will self sow freely and picking them every two days to bring in the house. I don't know that I can improve on nature by cross pollinating the different kinds but apparently everyone's tried to grow a yellow sweet pea and failed, just like the elusive blue rose. So maybe some things aren't to be tampered with. Sweet peas are to my mind always pink or purple or both, not yellow and roses will always be red, or pink, yellow and white but never blue. A blue rose would be sad, like an imitation hydrangea and a yellow sweet pea would be like a trying to steal a march on a kowhai.
3. water woodside potatoes
4. fence the back border
5. think of something to add height to the sunny rock garden
6. rip out the vietnamese mint as taking over, relocate to the back
7. or relocate ginger lily rhizomes to the back border
9. take more photos, hibiscus bloomed pinky-red
10. mark out sundial, there must be a good cheap working one somewhere...
11. keep eye on sunflower seedlings
I was reading a book about Luther Burbank yesterday called 'Gardens of Invention' and how he bred plants and improved varieties of potatoes, crossed a plum with an apricot (called a plumcot), grew fruit trees that fruited faster by grafting, and tried to patent his creations. Scientists tried to lionise him but all he was trying to make a living out of his passion, it wasn't really something nobody can do, it's just he had the patience to experiment.
This was all in sunny california, Santa Rosa where it all happened, that's why California is famous for its citrus, grapes, and every other new fangled variety of plant. Because it doesn't snow there. I don't know that we have a Luther Burbank type figure who became as famous as Thomas Edison or Henry Ford in America as inventors. But there is one guy that keeps cropping up in gardening circles with plants he breeds especially carnations and sweet peas and that is Keith Hammett.
I have got sweet peas all along the fence and they are all bicolor old-fashioned ones except for one or two of the spencer variety. I must say it's pretty and we have masses of them. I am hoping that they will self sow freely and picking them every two days to bring in the house. I don't know that I can improve on nature by cross pollinating the different kinds but apparently everyone's tried to grow a yellow sweet pea and failed, just like the elusive blue rose. So maybe some things aren't to be tampered with. Sweet peas are to my mind always pink or purple or both, not yellow and roses will always be red, or pink, yellow and white but never blue. A blue rose would be sad, like an imitation hydrangea and a yellow sweet pea would be like a trying to steal a march on a kowhai.
Saturday, 7 November 2015
I want to be 'Royal'
So goes the song. Prince Charles and Camilla are visiting New Zealand. I heard they were down in Dunedin and were in Nelson, wonder if they coming up to Auckland?
If so, will he come to Henderson? I need to ask him something. Would he mind visiting our community garden, which, by the way, is organic? I'm sure he would know a thing or two about companion plants. But..I am chagrinned because I missed out on a sundial AGAIN. It was on trade-me, the reserve was $50. I was going to bid but then completely forgot. I ended up spending that amount or thereabouts anyway on plants for our church as we got four neglected hanging baskets. So I put in strawberries, petunias and we had marigolds. (Thanks Joanne for your help!)
I really like Prince Charles' sundial garden such a clever idea. Even though he didn't need to buy the sundial himself he got given it. Apparently he is always been given gifts so much so that one part of his garden is dedicated to a wall of all the things people have given him, like sculptures and such.
I thought, huh funny thing to have a sundial in an English garden. You'd think he'd be given a rain gauge instead. Which, by the way, we have already as our garden doubles as Henderson's weather centre. But I'm really not sure Dad has all the proper meteorological equipment, for example, there is no weathervane, nor sun dial, nor stonehenge. He's just got a rain gauge and temperature box, which records the maximum, the minimum, and the humidity at 9 o'clock each day.
Well, if any of his valets and butlers and footmen or Camilla's ladies in waiting are reading this, maybe they could do a secret detour after a day of shaking hands and smiling and come round my way. Because I'm sorry I missed Prince Harry last time he visited.
If so, will he come to Henderson? I need to ask him something. Would he mind visiting our community garden, which, by the way, is organic? I'm sure he would know a thing or two about companion plants. But..I am chagrinned because I missed out on a sundial AGAIN. It was on trade-me, the reserve was $50. I was going to bid but then completely forgot. I ended up spending that amount or thereabouts anyway on plants for our church as we got four neglected hanging baskets. So I put in strawberries, petunias and we had marigolds. (Thanks Joanne for your help!)
I really like Prince Charles' sundial garden such a clever idea. Even though he didn't need to buy the sundial himself he got given it. Apparently he is always been given gifts so much so that one part of his garden is dedicated to a wall of all the things people have given him, like sculptures and such.
I thought, huh funny thing to have a sundial in an English garden. You'd think he'd be given a rain gauge instead. Which, by the way, we have already as our garden doubles as Henderson's weather centre. But I'm really not sure Dad has all the proper meteorological equipment, for example, there is no weathervane, nor sun dial, nor stonehenge. He's just got a rain gauge and temperature box, which records the maximum, the minimum, and the humidity at 9 o'clock each day.
Well, if any of his valets and butlers and footmen or Camilla's ladies in waiting are reading this, maybe they could do a secret detour after a day of shaking hands and smiling and come round my way. Because I'm sorry I missed Prince Harry last time he visited.
Friday, 6 November 2015
Spring celebration
I've got a lot to do today.
We are having a spring celebration down at Woodside on Saturday 28 November from 10-2 and I need to prepare some seedlings for guests to take away and plant.
I've got sunflower, beans, pumpkins and gourds to sow. Each pot will have a special label to remind gardeners to come garden with others down at the garden.
We are also planning a sausage sizzle, a treasure hunt/dig, an entertainer, iced herbal teas, music, and prizes.
I have to find some bee headbands for us to wear.
Also later we plan to have tai chi dance down at the gardens for a few weeks.
In my own garden everything's in bloom! I saw my first red poppy spring up, and there's snow in summer flowering, sweet pea, chrysanthemum, calendula, masses of phacelia, the bees are having a ball.
I also decided to put some ginger lily down the back next to the loquat as there's heaps growing now at the front and I think it prefers shade. I need to get some mulch or pebbles so the chickens don't keep digging there..or some more wire.
It's a gorgeous day today but the only thing I really hate is this hay fever again. Privet is gone, but that doesn't stop the pollen from the grass. Ach.
We are having a spring celebration down at Woodside on Saturday 28 November from 10-2 and I need to prepare some seedlings for guests to take away and plant.
I've got sunflower, beans, pumpkins and gourds to sow. Each pot will have a special label to remind gardeners to come garden with others down at the garden.
We are also planning a sausage sizzle, a treasure hunt/dig, an entertainer, iced herbal teas, music, and prizes.
I have to find some bee headbands for us to wear.
Also later we plan to have tai chi dance down at the gardens for a few weeks.
In my own garden everything's in bloom! I saw my first red poppy spring up, and there's snow in summer flowering, sweet pea, chrysanthemum, calendula, masses of phacelia, the bees are having a ball.
I also decided to put some ginger lily down the back next to the loquat as there's heaps growing now at the front and I think it prefers shade. I need to get some mulch or pebbles so the chickens don't keep digging there..or some more wire.
It's a gorgeous day today but the only thing I really hate is this hay fever again. Privet is gone, but that doesn't stop the pollen from the grass. Ach.
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