My garden must survive for two whole weeks while I'm away.
Sorry rambling garden, I must love you and leave you while heading to Australia to check out their hellfire pit and congratulate myself for being born in a green and pleasant Auckland.
When I return, after a few days at sea, I will be checking out Siberia, I mean, Dunedin, for its Chinese Garden, and even may make a motor car detour into to Hamilton for their Garden Art Festival. My further forays into botany include so far identifying succulents, watching four episodes of Te Radar's Patch, reading the past five years worth of January issues of NZ Gardener, watching Gardening Top Tips - tip - use a string for a straight row and always soak a plant in water before planting out...and searching for that elusive hammock. Mitre 10 has promise, but one needs a special nut and bolt and a handy man to secure each end.
My garden books are going to be left on the shelf while I'm away.
This is my pile to read -
The Gardenist
Mind Your Peas and Cucumbers
The Renovated Transitional Bungalow Garden
Cacti and Succulents
Know your Lillies
Pressed Flowers
A Vision of Eden
What I learned From God While Gardening
A years worth of Weekend Gardener Magazines
Care-Free Plants
Good Ideas for Your Garden
Gardening For Pleasure
Scratching For a Living
Look after yourselves, plants!
Sunday 17 January 2016
Saturday 16 January 2016
Forgot the hammock
I was looking for a shoe rack instead. But no luck. The Warehouse seems really expensive now as they've gone back to regular prices.
It was getting hot and I was tired and I really needed to get those ferns in the ground. I went to Kings and bought container mix and seaweed and moss magic mulch.
The fern babies are now in the ground, or actually on top of the ground as I just dumped the magic mulch in first and laid container mix on top. It's too hot to dig and there's no point.
Mum walked past and said what are you doing?? Like I was committing a crime.
Keeping New Zealand Beautiful?
She muttered away to herself but I didn't hear her muttering. It's a pity she can speak English for if she didn't I wouldn't be able to understand anything and then can easily ignore her.
Next door must grow something! We need shade. I think they ought to grow Nikau Palms along the boundary. That would be cool. Then they could also swing a hammock. Sparky the cat could sit in it.
I must somehow hint to them that they would be keeping New Zealand Beautiful if they planted some native trees.
Where's Xanthe White* when you need her?
*NZ landscape gardener with extraordinary flair for designing homegrown gardens and a cool name.
It was getting hot and I was tired and I really needed to get those ferns in the ground. I went to Kings and bought container mix and seaweed and moss magic mulch.
The fern babies are now in the ground, or actually on top of the ground as I just dumped the magic mulch in first and laid container mix on top. It's too hot to dig and there's no point.
Mum walked past and said what are you doing?? Like I was committing a crime.
Keeping New Zealand Beautiful?
She muttered away to herself but I didn't hear her muttering. It's a pity she can speak English for if she didn't I wouldn't be able to understand anything and then can easily ignore her.
Next door must grow something! We need shade. I think they ought to grow Nikau Palms along the boundary. That would be cool. Then they could also swing a hammock. Sparky the cat could sit in it.
I must somehow hint to them that they would be keeping New Zealand Beautiful if they planted some native trees.
Where's Xanthe White* when you need her?
*NZ landscape gardener with extraordinary flair for designing homegrown gardens and a cool name.
Thursday 14 January 2016
Hammock weather
I long for a hammock and may be buying one this weekend as think I have a place to hang it - between the tangelo tree and the deck.
It's nice to sit in the shade and sip a cool drink. But my parents think the sun is good and benign and no shade is wonderful. They go without hats and don't bother covering up when the sun is at its zenith.
Beth gave me tonnes of tree ferns but I have no soil or compost to plant them in. The rocky garden bed is dry as dust, I think I will have to just heap compost on top but I don't like that Dad placed plastic underneath it all, so what soil there is is not getting any air. I will have to rip the entire lot out.
Honestly he makes more work for me, plus he pulled out all my pansies and violas thinking they were weeds.
How can I expect to grow anything when there's nothing to grow in?
In other news the morning glory has flowered and its purple with star shaped swirls. I may be buying a shoe rack as that makes a good pot stand for the deck. Mum said my cousin had thrown out a christmas tree and did I want it. What does she think I am, three years old? What would I do with a fake christmas tree? In summer?
Anyway with slight annoyance I said no thanks.
Parents...they just don't understand.
It's nice to sit in the shade and sip a cool drink. But my parents think the sun is good and benign and no shade is wonderful. They go without hats and don't bother covering up when the sun is at its zenith.
Beth gave me tonnes of tree ferns but I have no soil or compost to plant them in. The rocky garden bed is dry as dust, I think I will have to just heap compost on top but I don't like that Dad placed plastic underneath it all, so what soil there is is not getting any air. I will have to rip the entire lot out.
Honestly he makes more work for me, plus he pulled out all my pansies and violas thinking they were weeds.
How can I expect to grow anything when there's nothing to grow in?
In other news the morning glory has flowered and its purple with star shaped swirls. I may be buying a shoe rack as that makes a good pot stand for the deck. Mum said my cousin had thrown out a christmas tree and did I want it. What does she think I am, three years old? What would I do with a fake christmas tree? In summer?
Anyway with slight annoyance I said no thanks.
Parents...they just don't understand.
Monday 11 January 2016
Goodbye Lord of the Flies
Yellow sunset coprosma is no more. Dad sawed it to the ground. Now there is a bare patch where it used to be, and surprise, some nerine bulbs are buried there.
No more flies! And wasps!
I now need to make a short list of what could go there, not another spreading shrub, maybe just more bulbs, or bromeliads, succulents, ferns.
Shortlist -
boston ivy to cover the brick wall
cistus rock rose
hydrangea
lambs ears
carex
daylilies
hen and chickens ferns
creeping thyme
hibiscus
busy lizzies
lavender
We had a lot of rain over the last few days and it's been hot and humid. I won't plant till autumn as its hard to establish plants now until the cooler weather.
No more flies! And wasps!
I now need to make a short list of what could go there, not another spreading shrub, maybe just more bulbs, or bromeliads, succulents, ferns.
Shortlist -
boston ivy to cover the brick wall
cistus rock rose
hydrangea
lambs ears
carex
daylilies
hen and chickens ferns
creeping thyme
hibiscus
busy lizzies
lavender
We had a lot of rain over the last few days and it's been hot and humid. I won't plant till autumn as its hard to establish plants now until the cooler weather.
Thursday 7 January 2016
More weeds?
Yesterday I dropped into Kings and bought another willow obelisk, some aquatics seaweed liquid fertiliser and a lychnis or rose campion plant.
I have another morning glory to climb up the obelisk, the ones near the arch have got flowers already and making their way up. I gave my garden a good dose of liquid fertiliser and decided I'm going to use this instead of Thrive because I want to go organic plus its good for the earthworms and beneficial fungi. I put short hose fittings on my taps so that I don't have to lift my water can up to the tap each time I want to fill it up.
The rose campion has gone near the front of the back border, and I've put my chili peppers in pots there to take advantage of the sun, now that the chicory has gone. There was a root but not sure if I will roast it as I don't know if the result will justify 8 hours in the oven.
And now the rain has come down - hooray. Walking around my garden there's still some things to do, I notice the coprosmas which I didn't plant and often need pruning aren't looking so great and the colours are clashing with our red brick house. One is yellow with splotchy variegated foliage and the other seems to can't make up its mind to be be green or cream colours. The yellow one especially I notice has got buds but it attracts flies! And I don't think they are the beneficial kind, they look like ordinary house flies to me. It doesn't smell that I notice, but I don't like it. They buzz around the bush and it's not really a good look. So I am thinking of cutting it down and removing it all together, both of them and planting something else more pleasing to the eyes and senses - and plants that don't attract flies!
I googled it and found that coprosma is considered a weed in Australia. Great. More weeds! So my visitor was right, my garden is full of weeds. And I thought they were ordinary plants. Even though this one is native.
Well, nothing for it, It will have to come out. I think mum may be pleased for once that I'm doing something like removing plants. She thinks we have far too many already. I lost the battle with the flower carpet roses and let them live, but I caged them so they can't scratch anybody.
What to plant there instead? Well there's all sorts of possibilities, more ferns, perhaps. New guinea impatiens. Another fruit salad plant??? Something permanent. I was tempted to buy a banana plant and have it in the back but it may be killed by frost and I don't want to risk it. Plus we don't have any monkeys that can gather the bananas for us.
I have another morning glory to climb up the obelisk, the ones near the arch have got flowers already and making their way up. I gave my garden a good dose of liquid fertiliser and decided I'm going to use this instead of Thrive because I want to go organic plus its good for the earthworms and beneficial fungi. I put short hose fittings on my taps so that I don't have to lift my water can up to the tap each time I want to fill it up.
The rose campion has gone near the front of the back border, and I've put my chili peppers in pots there to take advantage of the sun, now that the chicory has gone. There was a root but not sure if I will roast it as I don't know if the result will justify 8 hours in the oven.
And now the rain has come down - hooray. Walking around my garden there's still some things to do, I notice the coprosmas which I didn't plant and often need pruning aren't looking so great and the colours are clashing with our red brick house. One is yellow with splotchy variegated foliage and the other seems to can't make up its mind to be be green or cream colours. The yellow one especially I notice has got buds but it attracts flies! And I don't think they are the beneficial kind, they look like ordinary house flies to me. It doesn't smell that I notice, but I don't like it. They buzz around the bush and it's not really a good look. So I am thinking of cutting it down and removing it all together, both of them and planting something else more pleasing to the eyes and senses - and plants that don't attract flies!
I googled it and found that coprosma is considered a weed in Australia. Great. More weeds! So my visitor was right, my garden is full of weeds. And I thought they were ordinary plants. Even though this one is native.
Well, nothing for it, It will have to come out. I think mum may be pleased for once that I'm doing something like removing plants. She thinks we have far too many already. I lost the battle with the flower carpet roses and let them live, but I caged them so they can't scratch anybody.
What to plant there instead? Well there's all sorts of possibilities, more ferns, perhaps. New guinea impatiens. Another fruit salad plant??? Something permanent. I was tempted to buy a banana plant and have it in the back but it may be killed by frost and I don't want to risk it. Plus we don't have any monkeys that can gather the bananas for us.
Wednesday 6 January 2016
Weed identification
Well I found out that the blue daisy plant that is growing like a weed in the backyard is called chicory. And that if I dig it up and roast the roots and then drink the tea, it will be good for my inner health. So I am going to try that.
I was a bit concerned I had these beautiful blue flowers but as someone who shall remain nameless pointed out, isn't that a weed? And I was insulted. Well all plants that grow in Auckland are considered weeds, I argued. Of course it must have been in the packet of wildflower seeds and the only one that really sprouted because I sure don't recall planting that one especially.
It will be sad to remove it as it's one of the prettiest weeds I've ever grown. Nipplewort can't hold a candle to it, even though I mistook it for evening primrose.
Apparently you can eat the leaves in salad but they will taste very bitter. I'm not a fan of salad greens unless it's coleslaw. I don't do rabbit food. If you give a chinese person salad, they'll put it in a wok and stir fry it. We as a people don't really do the whole raw food thing.
In other news, bonus..my friend went to Kings to buy some plants for her garden and she snagged a voucher for me, if I buy $50 worth from there I get $10 off. So...since I haven't been to Kings in over a week I'm sure there will be some new interesting plants I hadn't seen before.
If not I can always buy compost or stock up on sheep pellets or maybe another fern. There will need to be a plant to go where the chicory is growing as it grew quite tall and when I harvest it there will be a big gap and a decent sized ready made hole.
I was a bit concerned I had these beautiful blue flowers but as someone who shall remain nameless pointed out, isn't that a weed? And I was insulted. Well all plants that grow in Auckland are considered weeds, I argued. Of course it must have been in the packet of wildflower seeds and the only one that really sprouted because I sure don't recall planting that one especially.
It will be sad to remove it as it's one of the prettiest weeds I've ever grown. Nipplewort can't hold a candle to it, even though I mistook it for evening primrose.
Apparently you can eat the leaves in salad but they will taste very bitter. I'm not a fan of salad greens unless it's coleslaw. I don't do rabbit food. If you give a chinese person salad, they'll put it in a wok and stir fry it. We as a people don't really do the whole raw food thing.
In other news, bonus..my friend went to Kings to buy some plants for her garden and she snagged a voucher for me, if I buy $50 worth from there I get $10 off. So...since I haven't been to Kings in over a week I'm sure there will be some new interesting plants I hadn't seen before.
If not I can always buy compost or stock up on sheep pellets or maybe another fern. There will need to be a plant to go where the chicory is growing as it grew quite tall and when I harvest it there will be a big gap and a decent sized ready made hole.
Saturday 2 January 2016
The ninth day of Christmas
I planted most of Beth's plants she gave me - four tree ferns, two cabbage tree seedlings, a geranium, maidenhairs, the fruit salad plant cutting.
I bought a hanging basket holder from Trade Aid store, and put her cleopatra leaf begonia there. I plan to put more trailing plants there, when I find some potting mix.
Other than that, I did not do too much gardening as it got a good soak over the weekend.
I noticed one of my morning glories has got flowers, it is a brilliant indigo colour. It's twining itself on Fluffy's patch. I am a bit disappointed that the tobacco flowers aren't as highly fragrant as they were purported to be. And because of the rain, my white statice, which was drying nicely before on the plant, got soaked, and now it's no good for any dried flower arrangement. Thankfully I managed to cut the pink ones before the rain.
I don't know if they are melons or pumpkins but the cucurbit vines are spreading, And some sunflowers have come up, a few dwarf ones have already got buds.
Now I am reading a book called 'From the Ground Up' A Food Grower's Education in Life, Love, and the Movement That's Changing the Nation. The nation, being, of course, the US of A...I am 30 pages in and just as I suspected it's a Jewish American Princess who leaves her priveliged home to go live the hippie lifestyle on a commune, then comes back years later, broke and a single mother, to garden her parents place..which in turn starts this whole backyard vege growing fad.
So far, so neurotic.
It has a foreword by Alice Waters. Yea, I don't know who she is either.
Of course, I could write a similar book whilst leaving out my scandalous love-life and introspection but I suspect it might bore you to tears. So I think I may have to include at least some salaciousness to get published these days. Unfortunately, I did not up and join a cult, but I had a close brush with the naturists who live out near the Ranui Community Garden. One time, while out identifying weeds with the Twin Stream people, we came across the Naturist Club as the bush backed on to their property. Wandering Jew was growing everywhere. Someone had left their clothes in the bushes.
There was a hole in the fence. An escapee! We never did find who those clothes belonged to....
I bought a hanging basket holder from Trade Aid store, and put her cleopatra leaf begonia there. I plan to put more trailing plants there, when I find some potting mix.
Other than that, I did not do too much gardening as it got a good soak over the weekend.
I noticed one of my morning glories has got flowers, it is a brilliant indigo colour. It's twining itself on Fluffy's patch. I am a bit disappointed that the tobacco flowers aren't as highly fragrant as they were purported to be. And because of the rain, my white statice, which was drying nicely before on the plant, got soaked, and now it's no good for any dried flower arrangement. Thankfully I managed to cut the pink ones before the rain.
I don't know if they are melons or pumpkins but the cucurbit vines are spreading, And some sunflowers have come up, a few dwarf ones have already got buds.
Now I am reading a book called 'From the Ground Up' A Food Grower's Education in Life, Love, and the Movement That's Changing the Nation. The nation, being, of course, the US of A...I am 30 pages in and just as I suspected it's a Jewish American Princess who leaves her priveliged home to go live the hippie lifestyle on a commune, then comes back years later, broke and a single mother, to garden her parents place..which in turn starts this whole backyard vege growing fad.
So far, so neurotic.
It has a foreword by Alice Waters. Yea, I don't know who she is either.
Of course, I could write a similar book whilst leaving out my scandalous love-life and introspection but I suspect it might bore you to tears. So I think I may have to include at least some salaciousness to get published these days. Unfortunately, I did not up and join a cult, but I had a close brush with the naturists who live out near the Ranui Community Garden. One time, while out identifying weeds with the Twin Stream people, we came across the Naturist Club as the bush backed on to their property. Wandering Jew was growing everywhere. Someone had left their clothes in the bushes.
There was a hole in the fence. An escapee! We never did find who those clothes belonged to....
Friday 1 January 2016
The eighth day of Christmas
Happy New Year! 20 sweet 16!
Well, as predicted, the weather turned to rain and camping holidays all over the country are washed out. But that's ok, because I get a break from watering my garden!
I have now some mini tree ferns to plant, I think they may turn out to be giant mamakus but can't be too sure. So am pondering where to place them. Maybe Sock's bed.
I also am looking for a macrame hanging basket holder that hangs the pot at eye level so I don't have to reach too high to water my plant. I plant to put a trailing plant in there, I was given lots of succulents and so that may be my next task.
My Poor Knights Lily got wet feet and didn't like it so she started turning red and spotty, and the leaves fell off, so that there is really only one shoot left. I had repotted her and moved her to the terrace under the eaves of the house but not sure if she will grow back. And she was expensive too. Sigh.
But the regal lilies are doing fine and their trumpet blossoms are spectacular. One of them has seven blooms and smells divine. A real triumph. I would definitely recommend this plant. They like a shady corner or to grow through other plants, and as they are bulbs not too damp, they come up really well and reliably bloom just before Christmas Day. I have got a book called 'Know your Lilies' so will get round to reading that one day.
And good news my wish came true and I was given a fruit salad plant, which is now down by the chicken's house. I hope the cutting will take, I just love the leaves.
Have been watching the rest of the National Trust Garden documentary, and the last episode was of Hidcote Manor garden, which is the quintessential English country garden, although it was really planted by an American. They are very into topiary and I think maybe I could do some on my box hedges but not sure what shape, they had birds at Hidcote that got rather plump as they kept growing...
When you start gardening I find that one day you find yourself naked without a pair of secateurs as you have suddenly turned into Edward Scissorhands and become this eccentric recluse who can't stop taking cuttings and shearing plants. If only we had the power to make it snow. If I had more box or yew, I think I would shape them into leafmen, since we don't have snow in Auckland to make snowmen.
Well, as predicted, the weather turned to rain and camping holidays all over the country are washed out. But that's ok, because I get a break from watering my garden!
I have now some mini tree ferns to plant, I think they may turn out to be giant mamakus but can't be too sure. So am pondering where to place them. Maybe Sock's bed.
I also am looking for a macrame hanging basket holder that hangs the pot at eye level so I don't have to reach too high to water my plant. I plant to put a trailing plant in there, I was given lots of succulents and so that may be my next task.
My Poor Knights Lily got wet feet and didn't like it so she started turning red and spotty, and the leaves fell off, so that there is really only one shoot left. I had repotted her and moved her to the terrace under the eaves of the house but not sure if she will grow back. And she was expensive too. Sigh.
But the regal lilies are doing fine and their trumpet blossoms are spectacular. One of them has seven blooms and smells divine. A real triumph. I would definitely recommend this plant. They like a shady corner or to grow through other plants, and as they are bulbs not too damp, they come up really well and reliably bloom just before Christmas Day. I have got a book called 'Know your Lilies' so will get round to reading that one day.
And good news my wish came true and I was given a fruit salad plant, which is now down by the chicken's house. I hope the cutting will take, I just love the leaves.
Have been watching the rest of the National Trust Garden documentary, and the last episode was of Hidcote Manor garden, which is the quintessential English country garden, although it was really planted by an American. They are very into topiary and I think maybe I could do some on my box hedges but not sure what shape, they had birds at Hidcote that got rather plump as they kept growing...
When you start gardening I find that one day you find yourself naked without a pair of secateurs as you have suddenly turned into Edward Scissorhands and become this eccentric recluse who can't stop taking cuttings and shearing plants. If only we had the power to make it snow. If I had more box or yew, I think I would shape them into leafmen, since we don't have snow in Auckland to make snowmen.
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