Ferns and Grass

Went to the Oratia Native Plant Nursery yesterday and bought two ferns - an asplenium obfastusm and a blechnum.  Which if you know your ferns are very cool ferns to have but to most people they are just ferns. I was actually looking for Shining Spleenwort but they didn't have any in stock. The fronds are shiny and it does well in dry shade, while the blechnum has an orangey tinge and is ok with sun.

Mum came with me and tried to stop me buying these ferns claiming we had enough plants already. Well she gave me a christmas pay packet and then tried to stop me spending it. So I said I will just plant them at church or the Waitakere Gardens. This changed her mind quick.

Why more ferns? Because ferns like to have other fronds I mean friends not just all the same. See my garden is becoming very biodiverse not just bog standard landscaper paint by numbers.

Mum was given a Michelia by my brothers but she said it was too big. It is rather huge size and they have nowhere to plant it. People if you going to buy plants please plant them somewhere not leave them in their pots to become root bound, dry out and then die. I have the same issue at work where lots of plants are left over yet, because of time limits of the job I cannot plant them all and so they are left in their trays to die. It is because people think lawns are more important. But truth be told I do not care too much about lawns because I don't really see oldies romping barefoot in the grass. There is even fake lawn for them to play bowls and petanque on and if really pushed maybe they could join a golf course. But I don't want to be mowing lawns when I could be gardening. Next thing they might be asking us to wash windows.

Maybe I will just say for health and safety reasons I am going deaf from noisy lawnmowing and can I please have a quieter job tending plants. Perhaps in the new year. I'm still annoyed with whoever mowed over the hydrangeas at church so I might just make a display with stalks of paspalum grass because we have no flowers.

The Art of Frugal Hedonism

I didn't go to any Boxing Day sale as my body said it needed rest. Besides, usually sales are on every weekend anyway so I don't know that the Boxing Day ones are any different, except for trying to clear the tinsel and chocolates from the shelves. I ended up spending most of my Christmas pay packet on petrol...and food for lunch.

However I did buy hopefully my last 'Wonder Weeder' and have hooked it onto my belt with a carabiner since I've lost about three so far out of my pocket.

Next gardening item on agenda is sausages for Mitre 10 sausage sizzle but given the paperwork wonder if it's such a good idea, we may need a council permit, observe Health and Safety Regulations (still no safety shoes!) and to pay a $50 bond before we sizzle any sausages. I didn't know this and I'm not sure I have the time to go buying sausages the night before since they have to be kept somewhere...and to sell at least enough to pay for the bond...! We aren't allowed to sizzle chicken it has to be sausages. I thought of sweetcorn on the cob but no it has to be pre-cooked sausages. Which I am not the biggest fan of. I thought maybe instead of sizzling sausages could we just ask Mitre 10 to give us more wood for raised beds as the money raised from sizzling sausages will just be buying wood from them anyway. And we still have to buy sausages, which Mitre 10 do not sell...

Besides, wouldn't it be more fun to have a bbq at my house and if people want to donate money in return for bbq supper that could work? They could have salads and drinks and it wouldn't be just sausages... and they wouldn't have to shop at Mitre 10. Maybe I am just being lazy and don't want to be selling sausages to hungry shoppers when I could be...sharing bbq with friends.

It was like when we were asked to keep a shop at the library. I don't want to sell cards and jewellery. Why can't people just borrow the jewellery and have the cards for free. I am the worst salesperson, and I don't enjoy being a cashier. The world wants me to be a consumer I suppose but honestly I don't have the time or inclination to be wandering around shops aimlessly buying anything that takes my fancy, fingering merchandise and being sold things I don't need. Also I don't really have the money, but even if I did, I wouldn't be spending it just because I can.

My Permaculture teaching is rubbing off and have now started reading another of the core texts - 'The Art of Frugal Hedonism'. It's about how we really don't need to buy stuff to be happy.You can be happy NOT buying stuff.  Of course I already knew this and it's probably preaching to a choir but it's nice to be affirmed in your thinking, to declare that shopping really is a drag and to say no next time anyone tries to drag me to a mall of no return.

Anyone who's ever tried to garden or clean house for a hoarder will be put off indulgent shopping forever. As well as those people who don't bother taking the price tags off their plants, or buy the plants then just leave them in their pots to die cos they have nowhere to plant them. There are so many people out there who would appreciate being given a plant who have none and if you have so many that you leaving them there to die in their pots then maybe think a bit more carefully before you go out shopping!

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (and ladies)

Hallelujah its raining!
Christmas day was full on at my brother's home with both sides of the family over for lunch and then dinner, but I did manage to fit in naptime so I do feel rested, today is Boxing Day and then it's back to work (groan), the only thing is...so tempting to go to Boxing Day sales since Mum gave me my pay packet yesterday for the year. Of course I have been a good daughter!
She also gave me a lunch bag and matching notebook which I will use for work.  And dad paid my AA membership. I don't know why it always falls near christmas to renew, that can be annoying. My sister does not even have a car and lives in London yet Dad still pays for her AA membership anyway which I am not sure why since the AA doesn't really need to be called out to London.

So with money in my wallet I can make my shopping list before I go out. I can't buy safety shoes however until after 8 January.

Petrol for car
Flowers and herbs for edging church garden bed - alyssum, thyme, candytuft, lobelia, gazania, petunias
Wonder weeder (keep losing these!)
Toolbelt
Decent spade for making holes - the straight sided ones aren't the best for clay, needs to be rounded
Aromatherapy fig and olive lotion for dry hands
Orchid for mum
Paper shredder
Outdoor rug
Mulch
Vases and pots
Lavender 'grosso'
Sausages (for Mitre 10 sausage sizzle)
Water cooler flask
Darn tough socks

One gift someone gave me for Christmas was some black fishnet stockings. I have no idea who gave them to me as the tag didn't say. Santa must have got his lists mixed up as, I had not asked for them..? Sure I am a working girl but not THAT kind of working girl.  But I suppose I can use them to -- go fishing or tie up trees. They aren't big enough to cover the grapevine! Or maybe catch butterflies with them. Maybe Santa thought I needed some hose, but wrong kind of hosiery!

Home time, garden time

I was too tired to water last night, after being left on my own to do a display bed at what I thought was following somewhat garbled instructions and then finding it was all wrong. And having to redo it again. Um..does it matter if the red begonias are next to the white begonias, I thought it was a red triangle of begonias and white inside, and the other guy mixed them up? Also taking out the small begonias and putting in bigger begonias well how small is too small and what you meant to do just chuck them, won't they grow bigger anyway? Oh no, don't plant them there its too high, well I was just planting them where you placed them. They have to be all in straight lines but how do you know its a straight line when the whole bed is crooked.

After being sworn at and told I was incompetent I was just about to leave and go eat my cookie instead. But, I had no way of getting home.  My bottle of water was in the ute and it was locked cos the other guy had the key. And he was nowhere to be found, unless you want to wander a huge apartment property with no trees in 27 degree humid heat. Oh can't you just drink out of the hose. Well how do you know it hasn't been sprayed with Roundup. Why do you wear gloves real gardeners don't need gloves. Just back off mate!
Ok so we deal with poo and cigarette butts in gardens and we are touching them with our bare hands and sometimes there isn't a clean tap for miles. And then maybe you need a break and you are eating with your hands because I don't see a table and knives and forks or chopsticks anywhere to sit down.

It wasn't even my display bed anyway. If you want a job done the way you want it done, don't tell someone else to do it give them unclear instructions then go away and then when they do it wrong blame them. Do it yourself! Give them the right tools! I had someone moan to me they got their child to do weeding and complained well they didn't get the weeds out properly. Well did you actually show them how, and give them the right tools to do it? Some weeds are tough you can't just yank them out with your bare hands. And did you give them enough time to do the job, or compensation at the end?

I get told by one to weed this way, and then by another to weed that way. Use the hoe. No don't use the hoe pull it out by hand. Um, isn't any wonder I am confused. Don't wear gloves. But then why are we given gloves to wear by the boss. Why don't I just walk round naked and bare feet then. You only give me one t-shirt as uniform so if I end up smelling really bad at the end of the week cos you only give me one t-shirt who's fault is that? And the safety shop was closed till 8 January. My nagging did not result in any safety shoes purchase after all. I get told to nag my team leader cos the manager doesn't want to deal with any of these issues.

What are you doing after work?
I just said I'm going home. I don't care if you going off to drink in town by yourself. Why would I even want to do that with you? That's your choice. I'm going home.

Praise the Lord we have a long weekend where I am going home and not going to think about work. Oh and by the way isn't it someone's birthday we need to remember. (Actually it's not cos He wasn't even born on that day). I bet his mother was probably thinking her husband a bit nuts to go all the way to Bethlehem on  a donkey while she was pregnant when she could have stayed at home, cos they had nowhere to stay either. Good planning Joseph. He didn't think to book ahead did he? No worries we'll just stay in the barn. Traffic is heavy but we will go at the busiest time of year cos we just have to pay our taxes. Hurry up woman do as I say.  Ok well Mary was too tired to argue I expect. Men!

Love your Neighbourhood

Well it's Saturday and for once I have a free day. So many possiblities. Mum came with me to water the garden last night at Woodside and harvested some tong ho (it's a leafy green) but she did have her eyes on the courgettes/zuchinni and asked if she could take one, but I said well, maybe leave it for others as you don't work in this garden.

She ok with taking the weeds nobody else eats. They sell them at the market and aren't as fresh. Mum also placed the jasmine she bought on the deck and said it was for my brother. Who already has one.
I'm not envious but why is she giving a plant that cost $17 to my brother who already bought one when we don't have that plant here? Oh but its not as big as the one she bought. So I figured if Leyton doesn't want the small one since mums giving him a bigger one, he might let me have it?
It's ok I know daughters aren't given anything special...we just have to be content with crumbs from the table but sometimes I feel like I can't live on crumbs.

I have applied for Ecomatters Love your Neighbourhood funding for our church garden to get underway in the new year so fingers crossed that goes through. We also need to be thinking of the Mitre 10 sausage sizzle fundraising we booked for Woodside. I was at Mitre 10 yesterday and had a walk round the garden centre, it seems the place is booming. Every thing is in flower, it's a riot. The front of the store is loaded with sacks of compost. I tried to look for lavendar 'grosso' but couldn't find it, there's princess lavender, and ghost lavender, but no 'grosso'. Maybe Kings has it, haven't looked there yet.

I have been reading 'The Humanure Handbook' by Joseph Jenkins. It's all about composting your own manure, the stuff that comes out of your rear end. Now after reading that book, which is packed full of information that it makes my head hurt a little, I feel a bit guilty everytime I go use the flush toilet. All that water flushed away that could have been used for the garden! And free manure for the compost! They had a compost toilet at Earthsong eco village but I'm not sure how they work that system whether it's someones job to empty it or it composts directly where it is, but I do know Cathy Angell told me I couldn't use it if I was on antibiotics or other medication. I did wwoofing once staying out near Bethell's and the property did have a brand new composting toilet that was perched up a bank and the compost would be collected beneath the retaining wall but I did remember the owner saying it was expensive to build one.

Basically how it works is you do your business in a bucket, cover it with sawdust (from fresh lumber, not treated) or some other organic material, and then when its full empty it into a hot compost pile, cover it, let it sit for a year or so, and voila compost for your garden. Sounds simple to me, but wonder how in reality people are going to learn new toilet habits when we are so used to using flush ones.

Well, I hope it happens in the future cos I would like to be able to still enjoy Auckland's beaches. In some other countries the beaches are not free and you have to pay to go to them, and they are crowded and polluted as anything, so if you go for a swim you end up with a rash or looking like the wicked witch of the west, it would be like swimming in the Thames of London when it was just one big sewer. The urban myth is that all the water there has gone through seven people before it gets to the tap.  I heard that in recent years they cleaned it up so much that there are actually now fish living in there. So next time my sister calls from London I might ask her if she has ever tried fishing (or swimming) in the Thames.

Let us not grow weary of well doing

God reminded me that I shouldn't let a small setback get me down, after the mowing of the hydrangeas, and stolen sheep pellets, plus the car crashing into the retaining wall (thought that intersection was meant to be an improvement on the roundabout??)  because Ecomatters got back to me about applying for $500 funding for St Giles church garden and even could give us free native plants next year..hallelujah!

We also could have a rainwater harvest system installed and Compost Collective would be happy to teach composting and worm farming when we have our vege garden underway. The BOM (board of managers) discussed the church garden plans and are considering planting suggestions so its all good.

For a bit of a breather I made tracks to Henderson Baptist to find one of our church flower beds looking a bit neglected, so with helper Joanne managed to tidy, weed and prune, and now it has been watered with new compost mulch and looking much better. The polys and begonia should spring back again hopefully, the spider plants in hanging baskets were trimmed and were hanging on, tough plants they are, doing much better than any annuals. We found another bed out the front that was empty but won't do any planting till autumn/winter as its getting dry and rather late to prepare another bed now.

On home front am continuing to watering gauras workmate John helped me plant, digging through tough maple tree roots, have moved a stepping stone to my new rose/salvia/olive bed, which I can see from my bedroom window, as would like a view other than the neighbour's driveway. I am hoping to find a lavender 'grosso' to plant there as it's a wonderful compact variety that has long stems of flower spikes and doesn't grow all leggy. I have done a makeover of the two verandahs, one we call the deck, as it's wood, and the other is the terrace, as it's concrete. The deck doesn't have any plants except for what's growing below it, but the terrace has lots of pots and a deck chair and am hoping to find an outdoor rug to make the space more inviting.

It's been so hot and at work we are still planting...just put in a new display bed today...the run up to Christmas is hectic and I find myself now being asked to water a Christmas tree everyday, amongst all the tinsel and fake wreaths and baubles. T'is the season...!

One of our temps asked us workers what we did on the weekend, he was horrified when both of us answered 'gardening' thinking that would be the last thing we would want to do on our days off, but it can't be helped. Many people also ask where I am going for the holidays and I just say I'm staying home, I have actually never in my whole life spent Christmas away from home. Besides where else would I go?? Where else would I rather be? Maybe its the people that 'go away' for the holidays that don't really have a home to go to!

Giving up on gardening?

I have days when I think maybe I will just give up gardening since people are going to mow over hydrangeas, say they going to help and then pike out on you, or put weedmat in places where you need to cut a hole if you going to plant anything. I had thought maybe it would be just ok to plant flowers but then when someone says well you just going to have to take them all out again and you get there and people say sure do the garden and then dont give you any tools or plants and then say well we dont like what you planted anyway I just think I'm not going to bother. Also if they steal your sheep pellets. It was like doing the library at one church what a nightmare bureaucracy it was just to  weed books and put more bibles in. Which were free, I might add.

So I figured if people are going to look a gift horse in the mouth I can just go elsewhere and they can have their lawn/wasteland that is now a crash site for drunk drivers (it hit the retaining wall, and was only stopped from crashing into the daycare by the tree) and go where people call me, or pay me rather than think well thats a good neighbourly thing to do when the people in charge would rather you just didn't do anything at all. There are many people that sit on their butts and do nothing in this world who expect everything to be done for them. And them there will be others that think by controlling everything that people do even if its not their calling just because they want to be in charge and take credit for it. Maybe they just want to boast I'm rich and paid for this so I deserve it.

I have thought about how young people get depression its not because there arent any jobs actually there is heaps of work to do but people really just dont want you to do any work and not even try, and they aren't willing to train you either, unless you pay them, but when you ask for training all you get is abuse for not being perfect the first time. People forget that, when they first started out they did not get things instantly even after a few months on the job. This isn't just gardening this is any kind of job that requires some skill and even endurance. For example, cooking. Mum will complain I dont cook, but when I do cook she will complain on what I cook especially if its not perfect. If its good enough she wont say anything and if I didnt leave the kitchen spotless she will complain so what is more important I cook or I just dont make a mess, cos any kind of work will require you to make a mess and nobody has a right to say well its a mess if its still a work in progress.

Some ladies go in for something called 'finishing school' which doesnt mean they finish school actually or die..it means they just get all dolled up and look pretty. But there is really no kind of finishing school for gardening because the rain is going to fall regardless and plants are going to grow and fruit and die and its never going to be the same. Maybe you will have one day in seven when there will be no work to be done where you can just enjoy but to expect that all the time is not realistic. So to all those workers out there getting on with the job good on you for you know that your labour is not in vain and practise makes perfect.

Maybe you have a dream or vision that you know may take years to come to fruition. Well that is better than having no vision at all. When people try and stop you from achieving your dreams or perhaps you may even die before it becomes reality but at least you made a start and others can carry on.

Gaura and "that smelly plant"

Packed up the Flower show on Sunday and as a bonus bought ten plants for $10, they were $1 each from a display garden that were auctioning off their oasis water feature, which was surrounded by maples and meadow flowers, so I bought purple Verbena bonariensis, Salvia and a tall thin flower I am pretty sure is Gaura. Which is my boss' favourite plant.

I got home after work to plant them (except the gaura, not sure what to do with yet, perhaps plant them at church?), and have now created a little bird bath garden around the rose and olive with the salvias, added a lavender and mulched it with spent sweet peas.

All the plants from our Woodside display save Ben's fruit trees are going to go in our garden, so we have lots more herbs and flowers to add. Or...could plant the gaura at Woodside. Decisions decisions. Gaura is also known as wandflower or butterfly plant, because the flowers are on thin wands and look like whirling butterflies. I will need to plant them soon because they will dry out in their plastic bags.

Have moved my Chatham Island Forget-me-not to under the gardenia, hope it survives because I nearly killed it by over watering. I thought giving it some crayfish and mussel shells as mulch might help it, but then it started to turn black and yellow. I had read somewhere that seawater was good for it? Well apparently not. It was doing alright in it's pot, not flowering yet, but if that one dies it would be the second one I have killed. The other forget-me-nots are doing fine. Huh. Don't confuse forget-me-nots with Wet and Forget - a highly toxic cleaner that kills all plants it touches. We know because someone sprayed it on the paths round the village and all the edging plants turned crispy. When your plants leaves turn all crunchy it's a sign they may need some attention..especially if it's not autumn yet.

One thing I have found after graduation is I have free time on Saturdays and now I have run out of books to read, except for gardening ones. My bookcase is all gardening books now and just added another one called 'Classic Camellias for New Zealand Gardens' by James Young. I figured I might learn to appreciate camellias after my rant the other day.

Today a resident complained about "that smelly plant" she showed me growing near the apartments and it was star jasmine. "I can smell it down the street" she complained "people have lung problems and asthma you know". I said well it doesn't have any irritating pollen, and it does smell lovely. But she wouldn't have a bar of it. She kept up her whinge and moan saying it was too strong so I said if we remove it, something will have to go in it's place, what do you suggest? She says 'a plant that doesn't smell!' Sooo...gorse and moth plant it is then...?

Mum has shown some interest in plants, and has me taking cuttings of a succulent she saw on her Waitakere Garden visit, and keeps urging me to find Chinese Jasmine, which I think actually may be a weed according to Weedbusters Auckland. This is why it's being sold at the Avondale Black Markets and not the garden centres, who only sell Star Jasmine. Perhaps I shall tell the lady who doesn't like 'that smelly plant' that maybe we could replace it with Chinese Jasmine, that has a milder scent, but will climb all over the apartments that are four storeys high. She will have to complain to the Quest Apartments down the street as well because they've got Star Jasmine growing at their entrance. And then she should complain to Kings Plant Barn who are selling Star Jasmine 4 for $20 and also the Bakery across the road have got it planted in their garden too. And everywhere she goes that has it growing all over Auckland all summer long!

Show off!

Just come back from the NZ Flower and Garden show - mum and I walked up (after offering to pay for her ticket, she wasn't keen when she learned how much it cost) but have to say it's worth seeing and everyone is putting on a good show. Sorry no photos..actually I don't have a camera smartphone (um...work are you going to pay for one?) so will have to paint a picture with a thousand words.

Buffie took two Golds and a Bronze,  with her Community garden display and also runner up in the upcycle garden contest, where she exhibited 'Funk my Junk' which included plants growing in shoes, sewing machines and out dresser drawers. Our Woodside Garden display was a delight and just how we envisioned it with Ben's fruit trees behind and strawberries with herbs and flowers in front, the breast cancer pink tables and chairs, and our children's gardening tools scattered about. Actually we don't have breast cancer pink tables and chairs at the real community garden, but, now we can put them there - since at the moment we just sit on planks of wood. Triangle Community Garden were right next door with a display of tools and worm farm, and the other side of us Ranui Community Garden with tomatoes in buckets and mulched veges galore.

West Lynn Gardens had a stand, as did Brent Mags from MBGP (My Backyard Garden Project) which is now going national, Heritage Roses had a traditional English style rose garden complete with climbing rose over arch and purple salvias. And then local garden clubs teamed together for a rustic courtyard display.  So all in all the Yates Community Garden Marquee was buzzing.

Of the big displays the showcase garden was the Hobbit's garden. I didn't see any hobbits however but it was very cute. This hobbit's garden had lots of flowers and nasturtiums growing over their roof. I had to explain to mum what hobbits were, like little people with big hairy feet who live in hobbit holes in the ground.
Others that stood out - In upcycle section, a retro kitchen garden that looked out of the 50s with formica tables and chairs, in the school section a weed garden - which teaches how weeds can be beneficial. The floral tent had floral arrangements that were striking, and many florists plying their trade.
 There was a pink bedding display for breast cancer awareness, and I reckon if the flower show comes back here next year Bark could do a spectacular flower bed display. We could put in a roundabout bed right in the middle and direct garden show traffic. Waitakere Gardens where were you? I saw mobility scooters for hire right at the entrance.

Apart from garden displays there were many exhibits from retailers, I trialled an e-bike which you plug in and charge, then turn on so you can go up the hills. Only $1500.  Had to restrain mum from buying $180 kitchen knives but compromised on $50 rubber brooms. Will have to keep reminding mum to pay me back since she got the show deal  of buy one and get one free plus  a two extra brushes for $10. We walked back home with our brooms and mum was very happy because she's a clean freak and started on the carpets and kitchen lino right away. Because I have a broom too, I can now brush and squeegee my car, and even sweep the terrace and garden paths.

Some ideas for next year...if they do have it again, I would go for more flowers..like big masses of carpet bedding, more colour parterres, patterns and designs, because that's what I would go to see. I'm not that keen on the $27,000 watershed that just looks like an ol' shed on the back of a farm, or the latest designer outdoor showcase furniture nobody can really afford.  I would go for sprinklers fountains and water gardens, shepherds huts and gypsy caravans, colourful flowerpots, a library garden, church gardens, how to plant up your grave plot, woven baskets, leis and ti vae vae patterns and other gardeny stuff. I would have a prize for the most floral frock and everyone would dress up for this garden party and there will be special garden band rotunda. I wouldn't charge people to come see, donations to charity would be voluntary and all the ladies would go out with a flower in their hair and the men carnations in their buttonholes.

If I was doing a flower display I would have an aisle of A-Z flowers so everyone can get their flower ID correct from alyssum to zinnia. And then I would have a rainbow flower bed as mentioned in a previous post so everyone can know that roses are red and violets are violet.

St Giles Church Garden round 2

I found dianthus 'Passion' at Mitre 10 yesterday, for $2 each so bought 21 of them for St Giles. They have a scented red flower like a small carnation.  I wanted to plant them yesterday but had something else on, so did it after work today, am hoping it rains because when I got there the island bed was covered in weedmat and the council had planted it with hebes, and on the other side whipcord hebes. This despite Graham saying he would like anything but bushy plants that people can throw cigarette butts in, maybe some grasses. Well hebe is your classic bushy cigarette butt hider plant. Plus you have to cut it back, and it develops little bald patches if you don't trim it.

I was also horrified with the weedmat. How am I supposed to plant flowers in weedmat? Cut 21 holes? So I tore it off. Sorry PD/council workers - you mean well, but..I claim that patch in Jesus' name.  Then Kara from Second Nature dropped by as she was picking up her daughter from Kimberley Daycare, I hadn't seen her since I temped for her, she said she had been frantically busy with six designer gardens for Auckland Design Fest (held on the same weekend as APW presentations). She said yes get rid of the weedmat.

I did leave the hebes in there though. Not sure what colour they will be, but generally if they are little and compact they can stay in good shape its only when they grow and get straggly that they become monsters like the mexican orange blossom did, and hide all manner of drug user paraphenalia, coke cans and plastic bags.

Another horror was I got there to find Bob the lawnmower man had ridden straight over the hydrangeas I planted in the lawn so there was nothing there. Oh good one Bob. (I don't know if his real name is Bob,  Pat just said 'it's a little man that does the lawns' - a church member would not have been so cruel, so I just call him Bob. Or it might be Jim). Speaking of hydrangeas, I have come across some residents complaining they don't like big beautiful hydrangeas next to there apartment and they had been there 17 years. Well, if they'd been there 17 years and never lifted a finger to prune them then tough..they are staying! Hydrangeas aren't that hard to prune either. Just cut the flowers for your vase, they are the plant that keeps on giving.

I'm on the side of hydrangeas and have become a fan. But they do need shade and water, which is hard to come by in our food desert church. I forgot the afternoon sun would fry them. I'm not so big a fan of camellias. If only I could remove the camellia someone had planted next to the church, note to self, don't plant big bushy plants next to buildings, especially camellias. Because people either really like them or hate them. I'm still trying to get rid of mine that my brother thoughtfully planted in the wrong place by the front/back door.  Why hydrangeas and not camellias? Well hydrangeas are deciduous and let the light in come winter, and there flowers are big, gorgeous and last forever, whereas camellia is the darker cousin, has evergreen tough leaves and small flowers that don't last, and turn brown and  mushy when they die and fall off, leaving what looks like dirty tissues all over the ground. I'm letting the camellia live though because I'm trying to espalier, aside from the fact she's as tough as old boots.

So anyway now those grassy dianthus are in, I cut them back and now let them flush again, prayed for rain, so that come Sunday we might have some flowers to pick for church. Its not full yet I will be adding more plants as they are sent to me and mulching with compost but at least I have made a start. Next plan of attack is church shady corner weed. If you'd like to be a secret Good Samaritan gardener you are welcome to do this one so the Sunday following I will find it weeded and passers by will marvel what a miracle it was. It wasn't me...all glory to God!

In other secular news our West Auckland Community gardens won a bronze medal in the Garden Olympics I mean NZ Flower and Garden show so congrats team -- can't wait to see it! It's held at the Trust Arena just up the road from me. Was given a free pass unfortunately if you have not got one of these you might have to pay $42 to get in the door.
Well, it's less than paying to see a live rock concert lets put it that way. I'm hoping they might have free giveaway plants or flowers for each visitor, cos that would make it worthwhile. I will wear my new floral dress and put the flowers in my hair.

Hallelujah! Inspired permie graduates

Wow, had my permaculture graduation yesterday in which a dozen of us presented our design projects. All unique and inspiring..would like to share here (and sorry I'm not so good at remembering names, so if I got yours wrong please let me know) but a little of what we're learning and applying includes...

Fermenting cabbages and foraging wild plants to make Wild Kraut and selling it at local Farmer's markets. -Kelli-Jo

Designing and using a composing toilet (which I have dubbed 'the Compooster'). -Elaine

Living with others in a tiny home community and making the best use of suburban space including a driveway to park caravan on and sleepouts, having everyone in this family involved in the design process. -Zoe

Living a sustainable life in work and play including talking to cafe businesses about recycling and composting. - Natalie

Practising the art of frugal hedonism by NOT going to the mall and mindlessly spending and consuming. And then showing others in your household the way to reduce and minimise waste. - Louisa

Creating a vlog and documenting a permaculture journey because you can't afford to live in Auckland. Going back to your roots and having a lot of fun learning from others about DIY Kai. -Kim

Installing a permaculture garden on a rental property...then encouraging the landlord to rent this out to other permaculture novices needing a place to stay in Auckland. - Gloria and Nikolaj

What to do with the family dairy farm? Or nan's angora goat farm? If its outside of Auckland, and if its 25 hectares? Host a whole lot of permies from Auckland on tiny homes and shepherd huts? Turn it into orchards?  It's open to suggestion and exploring various options.  - Bernie and Bridget

Creating a sustainable street and planting up front yards and berms. Holding ladies nights where the permaculture message will spread (and blokes as well). - Monique

Moving on to a organic garden property (again outside of Auckland) that's already been established, and looking for ways to improve on what's already started.  -Gemma

Holding organic garden workshops by koha in community gardens - teaching and passing on skills that we've acquired. -Barbara

Congrats to all permies who presented - we are a busy bunch.

Will keep everyone posted about the church permablitz. I am planning to hold a mini working bee again at some stage to do the shady corner bed of the church and front island and then carry on in stages. I just need to apply for some funding and had lots of volunteers wanting to obtain a yield flowers and joy. I am actually off to church today and will share the (refined) vision with more church members. I am hoping Annette might like some bananas by the church but I don't know where to find them. I was kind of worried that some were saying they were going to use the money to expand the building to incorporate a ten storey carpark. Ok exaggeration but what would you rather have more cars or bananas.

Poor Graeme one of the elders has been unwell lately he was in and out of hospital, I did warn him about the dangers of Roundup. When he said a few months ago he was going to spray the weeds, I was concerned but he was determined. 'Oh will just spray it with Roundup, that will get rid of the weeds, she'll be right. ' I do hope that it was not this toxic activity that landed him there. Nobody should be touching that stuff but people still insist on gardening this way. So permies I may need your help because I don't want anyone to die from thinking they have to poison weeds to make a garden.

I haves designs

This is taking much longer than I anticipated, because nap times are not included. Who knew designing was so exhausting. This may be why there are no beds in design studios.

Also, designers can't go out and garden in their design studios either so they don't have that distraction of plants that need to be planted straight away or they will die. Yesterday at the floral circle got two plants from the trading table - one Mexican Bush sage and another Japanese anemone. So my garden is going international with plants from all over the world.  These plants needed to go in and some other plants needed to come out and these needed to be put somewhere as well so by the time I got back inside ready with the felt tips and butter paper its was 9pm.

And still no photos I don't know how people can garden and photograph at the same time but I am not one of these that takes garden selfies to show off to others. Do you really want to know all my gardening secrets? The thing with design is it's really about layout and putting paths in, and then the plants can be arranged later, but this whole infrastructure and systems thinking I am still getting the hang of, because I'm not in the business of construction. I can make a raised bed out of rosemary cuttings but I need all the materials  to grow beforehand, with designers they seem to have the world of concrete and edging at their disposal and can carve out land with a rotovator. I don't have that luxury. Designers can also have resource consents and map things to building regulations, and the more analytically minded can put a fence here and there but I'm more well this plant wants to go here, and if it doesn't like it it will go here.

Anyway, I have very rough sketches of the ideas and vision for St Giles, as blogged previously, which is roughly some zones...hanging baskets at church entrance and containers, shady subtropical nikau bush monstera corner, espaliered fruit trees on side of church and bus stop waiting area with olives shading more seats and a little free library with Bibles, a rainwater diverter/harvester and solar gain roofing panels (with skylight for church services with natural lighting) and solar night lights for evening. A church picnic bbq area leading to flowered border and pergola archway for weddings, with subtropical plantings of banana, passionfruit, hibiscus, taro, gardenia and canna lily. By the day care centre a vege trail for children. And on the road side entrance an olive/feijoa orchard with pumpkin patch an herbal ley attracting beneficial insects.  Also a grapevine.

Now if the church members start complaining it's too much maintenance and would rather pay Bob the lawnmower each week to make some noise I am seriously thinking of quitting my job to do this church garden. You can either pay someone to make a lawn desert and forget about flowers altogether or you can have something wonderful for free.

How I will pay the bills I don't know, but if nobody makes a start all the cars going past on Te Atatu will pass by and just see another church building like all the other church buildings that have carparks and may decide to worship and get married and have funerals somewhere else that at least has some flowers.

Isn't that right Lord? Banished from Eden, because of plant misidentification. You can eat all the fruit of all the trees in THIS garden, that God has given except for THAT one. So what does man do, eat from  the forbidden one that kills him. It will be interesting to see this season how many forbidden trees are on display that you can't eat from, the shopping malls have already got them up and decorated, hustling for consumers.

Horticultural challenges

It's a busy week, but I need to record my progress as many things are happening.

Yates Vege challenge. Well I finally put some edibles in my own patch, was given runner beans on Sunday (thanks Louise) and I've cleared some space by the back fence for them, adding compost, potting mix and shredded paper mulch, plus a trellis for them to climb. Perhaps not the sunniest spot but hopefully they will grow there as it is warm. I have cleared some space for sunflowers in the raised bed, cutting back the lemon balm. Apparently according to Kiwi Gardener moon calendar, I am not meant to sow any seeds today...but when looking at moon calendar in NZ Gardener its was different so I don't know which one to follow?!
APW had a swap table and managed to snag some cherry tomatoes, so three went in near the silverbeet and I've mulched with lavender clippings. That was all I had. Not sure where I am going to plant sweetcorn as now have no room but will need to create a new bed at some point.

Went to water Woodside this evening as couldn't make it on Friday, watered the potatoes we planted on Thursday, as well as tomatoes, eggplant and capsicums. The fence is now up and it's much easier to water now the tank is moved closer.

I had flowers at church on Sunday, so put in gerberas in pots and bunches of sweet peas. My sweet peas are booming and most of them prefer the neighbours side of the fence. But I have spread them out a bit this year so some are in the vege bed and some are out the front.

Tomorrow have Floral Circle, did some more permaculture design after work today, but I can see why designers go off to office studios to work in because doing it at home is so distracting. You need to bring in washing, prepare dinner, answer emails, water your garden, get changed, check on chickens, lock up garage and a million and one other things that take time.

I also find myself wishing that asphalt and concrete had never been invented because of all this time wasted blowing paths and roads clear of leaf litter that makes perfectly good mulch. I feel like Mr Plow of the leaf clearing brigade armed with blower and making roads and paths sterile and devoid of life. All I'm doing is making it easier for a car to roll on in to a hospital. And I suppose easier to roll on out.  I never had to use a mower, blower or weedeater when I did real gardening. Now I just feel like am a tidier upper who goes to the dump all the time and I am going deaf from all the machinery noise. Whats a bit of leaf and twigs anyway. Don't you want to create healthy soil, not get rid of it?

I have been shouted a free pass to NZ Garden and Flower show hooray. I'm going to help with the pack down/set up of the community garden stall. If you are going, be prepared to be amazed because Flower shows are not the easiest thing to create an entire garden for. You need to install an entire garden have it up for five days and then pack it down again? And keep all the plants alive and happy,  looking perfect - no easy feat.

Karyn tells me she watches a show called 'Allotment Challenge' which from her description sounds like 'Garden Idol' or 'Survivor' or 'The Block' reality game show whereby only the best gardener wins. I don't know what they win, fortune and fame I guess. I'm not sure I would garden for fortune or fame but I suppose many people do these days, create a garden and sell it off. I'm not sure what the point of that would be because isn't labour and what you harvest it's own reward. You couldn't really buy homegrown veges with the money you win, cos that would defeat the whole purpose. Maybe it's just the fame then and the humiliation of being on TV. Is it fun watching other people trying to grow things and failing? You could always just read my blog.

Living locally in the Auckland Bioregion

Was the name of the final permaculture workshop we had yesterday.

I am exhausted and my brain is about to explode. I have all these ideas for my patch. I am reading about Transition Towns and eco-sourcing and permaculture design books and garden style books and wondering just what will happen when we run out of oil. Perhaps we will have electric cars powered by water and Auckland will still be a rat race with millions of rats running round it trying to find their cheese twisties up 20 storey skyscrapers.

My small and slow solution might be if you going to build these really tall buildings at least grow some vines over them. Mulenbeckia likes a blank wall of concrete.

So my vision for the future is this..

We will have bicycles and electric bikes as well as pedal cars just like the Flintstones did. The speed limit will be lowered to 30kph if you want to go any faster you need to take the train or move to Hamilton. Imports, of both people and stuff will be banned for a year. We need to see if we can be self sufficient for a year or so, I'm sure Auckland can survive without any more new second hand Japanese cars or gourmet cat food from Australia.

In that year everyone will start their own backyard, front yard or side yard balcony garden. Every household will have two raised beds planters, a compost heap, a lemon tree and worms. Every household  will also be given a chicken and a lamb, to graze their patch, because lawnmowers will be banned (it will be really hard to get petrol).

Our parks will become owned by the people that live within walking distance so every neighbour will have the opportunity to become stewards of their park and can make it their own garden. Instead of traffic lights we will install garden roundabouts with flowers.

Our Auckland sewerage system, now that its discovered that the overflow from rain water pushes sewage directly into our harbour causing our beaches to become polluted and the fish to die, will be fixed so that, rainwater from roof run off goes into the garden not the wastewater. So everyone will need to install diverter taps from their roof to a tank or watering can, or create a pond where they can stock with fish which will feed their hydroponic lettuce growing system.

All restaurants in the Auckland area will have designated kitchen gardens and suppliers will need to be local. Supplies of grain will not be a problem as we will convert all the disused muddy rugby fields to growing rice and wheat if they don't like to live on potatoes. (I don't mind..I would eat potatoes everyday if I could).  Unfortunately that means some people will have to give up playing rugby but surely thats a small sacrifice, rugby players will need to start training for 'Round the Spaghetti Junction' bicycle race instead.

Since berms are not going to be mown we can now make these into flower gardens to bring beneficial insects, bees and other pollinators into our neighbourhoods and to pollinate our fruit trees. Each neighbourhood will have a special harvesting road side stall with an honesty box so on the way home from work or school everyone can have a snack or food for dinner.

The Warehouse, Mitre 10, Bunnings, Countdown and all retailing shopping malls, since there will no longer be imports for a year will be empty and people that couldn't afford a house in Auckland can live in them, they can become refugee camps for the homeless until the other towns in NZ decide they would like some JAFAs after all and invite them to set up in their town.

Every church will have its own garden with flowers too so that I don't need to go to the Warehouse and buy flowers. Actually I won't need money at all because rates will not be charged for a whole year. With food I grow in the garden and a roof over my head I and everyone in Auckland will be content, and on weekends we can all go fishing and catch fish and dig for pippis and cockles in our unpolluted harbour.

How this all will come about I don't know but anything is possible!

Design flaws and other garden bloopers

It's design project day today, have taken the day off work to get it done. What have I learned so far...well people say you learn from your mistakes but I'm aiming for perfection so I'm just going to learn from other people's mistakes. My garden design is just going to have to be perfectomondo since nobody is paying me to do it, actually, I'm the one paying the Auckland Permaculture Workshop to do it. I expect the bill to come in  any day now.

When I thought about this in the back of my mind wondered if it was really a gyp and will they even recruit me into their design studios when they see how awful my drawing is but hey at least I know my plants.

So...here is a quick tour of the garden designer's walk of shame.

Using jasmine as ground cover. When it grows in spring, you will have to clip it every week, and if you don't it will grow into a tangled mess. Use jasmine up a wall or give it something to climb.

Eugenia or lily pilly. Every lilly pilly I've seen gets eaten by psyillid and you will have to spray and spray. Better to rip it out. If you want a lollipop topiary why not shape some chicken wire into balls and grow ivy over them. 

A gardenia hedge. As well as masses of plants being prone to thrips. Was asked to clip back a gardenia hedge just as it was beginning to flower cos it was getting too big. We refused. Do you want a bunch of twigs as a hedge or do you want to brush past beautiful smelling gardenias? Plant gardenias as they are meant to be planted (with other plants) and leave them be. 

Massed dietes, massed flax,  massed bird of paradise, massed anything. Just no. One plant looks splendid in a pot, two make a pair, three a trio, but an undivided clump that squashes every available space...no.

Cabbage trees in a lawn, yuccas near a path. Flower carpet roses underfoot. Unless you like your lawnmower in a tangle and your feet pricked and skin stung. 

Gardens with no seating areas. How are you supposed to sit and contemplate life if there's nowhere to sit?

A thin, winding uphill grass path that needs to be mown, but you can't get a lawnmower up. Or lawns on a steep slope when it would be perfect for a pumpkin patch.

No nearby drinking fountain. Gardeners get thirsty too you know. It's not really a good look to drink direct from the hose.

A totally shadeless garden. We have a hole in the ozone layer in New Zealand people. Do you want to fry? Plant some trees or create an arbour/pergola.  If I want to see the endless horizon I would go live near the beach.

Conversely, vege gardens in the shade. Veges need at least 6 hours sun for production. Don't plant veges under trees or near thirsty tree roots.

Trees near the house. Their roots will seek out your plumbing and block your drains trying to find water. Unless you build a tree house and live in the tree. Why fight it when it wants you to live in it!

Carpark beds with plants that can't stand foot traffic and car doors.

Bark mulch that is on a slope that will blow over on to the path. Overusing bark mulch as a way to get out of weeding, but ends up as a way to get out of gardening altogether. An empty bed with just bark in it, does not really look like a garden. Pak n' Save I'm referrring to you.

Planting dry loving plants in a wet area, and water loving plants in the dry, and then wondering why all your plants are dead.

A field. A field is not a garden. If you going to have a field put some sheep in it to graze it and manure the soil.

Astroturf. Weeds can still grow on astroturf and they can be harder to pull out.


Trying to do everything at once. Gardens are not all planted in one day. Put some workers to work, and don't forget your animal workers - bees, butterflies, birds, worms, hedgehogs, chickens cats. Well maybe not cats but if cats are not visiting your garden something's wrong. Look at it from their point of view..is it comfortable? Are there interesting areas to sunbathe in and play and hide? Is it safe? Could you walk round naked in it if one day you forgot to put on some clothes?

Ok maybe not the last one but the first garden on earth had all the animals in it as well and the humans were walking round naked and not ashamed, before clothes were invented.

Forbidden trees. We are banned from planting phoenix palms. It's a weed. Please don't plant them and think they look cute and tropical or 'architectural'.  They have lethal barbs and all the pigeons will come and roost in it and poop all over your garden and your neighbours will hate you.

Well that's it for now I must get cracking with my colouring pencils and felts.

Gardener's bootcamp

0700 Hours. Arrive at work, clean boots
0705 Sign in and get keys
0710 Unlock shed and get gear ready
0715 Water outdoor pots 30 minutes
0745 Water indoor pots 1 hour 15 minutes
0900 Organise Garden group, health and safety brief, weed
1000 Morning tea break/smoko
1030 Weed some more
1200 Clip and tidy areas
1300 Lunch
1330 Hoe rose beds
1400 Hoe roundabout and weed
1500 Odd jobs, lock away gear in shed
1530 Sign out, home time!

Then another day from 0900 hours its lawns, lawns lawns until 1400 and then weeding.

Sometimes I get growled at by commander Mr Perfect. "You call that sweeping?". "What are you doing on your hands and knees, use a hoe!" "Jesus woman, can't you start a lawnmower?!"

Reply "Yes boss". "I'm sorry boss" "Yes it looks terrible, I will do it again".

"Get it right the first time. If it's not perfect, you might as well have not done it at all"

"Yes boss".

I go off and quietly cry in the loo.

"What took you so long?"

"I was watering the indoor loos".

"Well I need to know.  Tell me before you do that so I know that's what you are doing. We need to get going. The plants aren't going to clip themselves"

"Yes boss".

"And where are your safety boots? You should be wearing them at all times"

"I didn't want to get their carpet dirty, besides, you haven't bought me any indoor ones".

"What, with all your ten suitcases in the ute? Ow!"

....

My boss gets pelted with roses.

The loony, crazy world of gardening

I need a moon calendar, not just monthly but all year round. Then I will know when to plant and sow and to cultivate and when to rest. According to the one in Kiwi Gardener magazine, the next week which is the last quarter of the moon 11-18 November is a week of rest. No digging or planting, only pruning, tidying, maintenance pest control and harvesting and deadheading flowers.  Makes sense to me, did you know my name means 'moon'. No wonder I'm a bit loony about gardening.

I also need to design this church garden.  So am taking a day off work to do so. I have to bring out the coloured pencils and felts and grid paper. So hard to do when all I want to do is just get stuck in and garden it. I've decided designing isn't really my cup of tea. It's not getting hands dirty and nobody ever really sees a garden from above unless you looking at it from a tower block 6 storeys high. In which case what would be the point of the garden. I think you have to be IN a garden to appreciate it, not just looking at it from above. Your feet should be in the soil and every plant must have a reason to be there, not just tufty plant here and tufty plant there - look how low maintenance it is...well low maintenance equals BORING CARPARK.

Anyway I maybe I am just cranky from mowing a dozen lawns today. On a brighter note we are having a sunflower competition. Not the tallest mind you but the biggest circumference flower. I would have thought the tallest would win but my boss has other ideas. He's giving out dwarf sunflower seeds to plant tomorrow at the oldies Arts and Craft market at the Waitakere Gardens.

There is also a sausage sizzle and garden trail, where you can see all the roses we have lovingly pruned. You can also see the battle field of onion weed. The garden club members are manning (or womaning) some stalls, mostly knitting. So pop along and buy those beanies/tea cosies you've been coveting all year. If someone is selling granny's bonnets, then they've found a loyal customer, and also if anyone is selling gardening by the moon calendars, I will definitely buy one.

I also think I need a manicurist because the dirt under fingernails look isn't that pretty. However I have now got three pairs of gardening shorts, hooray. Which probably means time to start shaving my legs. I also found a green pair of chinos and bought a new dress, with flowers on it, so now almost have a complete garden uniform. Safety shoes are still coming.

Now is the time to be in the garden. My climbing iceberg rose has bloomed and my tree dahlias are starting to leaf out. In a few weeks time they'll be as tall as a 6 storey building and can then look at my garden design from above. I did have this idea to do a rainbow garden.

red - salvias
orange - gerberas
yellow- calendula
green - oregano
blue- lobelia
purple - sage
violet - violets

I fear becoming a latter day hippie, instead of tripping on drugs I am tripping on psychedelic garden display beds. One resident said she wanted GAUDY plants. The gaudier the better. So pink fountain cabbage trees, yellow and pink striped impatiens and coleus? A bed of orange nasturtiums that trail all over her villa wall? No delicate tissue white Iceberg standard roses for this retiree. She had her grey hair dyed bright orange and pink and was living the high life, so she might as well go all the way in her garden. I'm going to suggest some gnomes or maybe a pink flamingo garden sculpture. It's a really a moa, just dyed pink. Another lady has decapitated buddha heads in her garden. It's mad. Money can buy a lot of things, but not always good taste.

Mangawhai Garden Rambling Diary

Just back from a trip to Mangawhai with the Te Atatu Floral Circle, saw 12 different gardens on the weekend. Sorry I do not have twelve different photos of each but the official website is here it's on next week so, if you out that way, go and see for yourself! In total there are 18 gardens so plenty to choose from.

Some highlights of the trip - Garden #6 an organic garden on top of a north facing slope called Hilltop Organics with many different productive fruit trees, vege garden, greenhouse owned by a young couple who moved their eighteen months ago. Their toddler son asked his mum 'How come all these OLD people are here?' but we forgave him. He must not have been meaning me as I was the youngest member there. When we arrived her husband was busy mulching with post strips and weedmat. At the back of their house hundreds of daffodils were grown for Daffodil Day and given away to raise money. Head gardener plans to open a PYO (pick your own) harvest - fill a bucket for $20. Sounds good to me. Permaculturalists, take note.

Gardens #1, 2, 3 and 4 on the same road that was a former kiwifruit orchard. The shelterbelts are still there so within each shelter is a section. You could fit maybe three homes on each section if it was in Auckland! Each section has a view of the surrounding countryside and estuary, again north facing slope. Wonderful thick lush kikuyu lawns - the men were gasping over them. Need ride on mowers for these. The gardens in this lot were gardened by retired or semi-retired housewives, mostly escapees from Auckland. A lot of subtropical plants in this frost free zone, plenty of cannas, bottlebrush, two gardens had an orange theme - orange flowers and plants. #3 was particularly creative, the head gardener there knows how to make garden features out of glass bottles, nails, golf balls, fan grills and beer cans!

#8 and #9 were also holiday home/retired lifestylers gardens full of colour, #8 was 4 years old with a stunning cottage floral border, and #9 had a rock border also with coloured succulents and ground covers. Pink Valerian grows like a weed here and ice plant runs riot.

#13 for anyone who loves pink pom pom thrift, the edges are bursting with it. There are fruit trees, veges and passionfruit grows over a water tank, then step off the deck into another world, a self-sown fern gully that steps down into a creek, with pet eel 'Slippy', flax and a rocketing Kauri tree.

#18 The Poplars seems to be a boy toy playground judging from the number of vehicles parked in the drive with a very modern trendy black no roof home (it looks like a giant shoebox to be honest) with new swimming pool but apart from that it had an olive grove, fruit orchard, an impressive stand of Totara leading to a peaceful wetland area.

 #7 called Break Free Gardens is perhaps the most established and the one that's been shown the most love by retired escapees from Te Atatu who love plants. 3 acres of parklike garden, not a weed to be seen, a wonderful specimen oak tree and others in all their glory and near the house, palms, and floral colour. Owners were saying they bought it for a song in 1992 when it was $44,000 bare land and now it is a wonderful all-season garden with a view to the estuary.

It was wonderful to meet the owners and chat with them and perhaps dream of escaping Auckland and making a garden - on forgiving soil no less - and not returning, because now Mangawhai is an up and coming town - it has a chocolate factory (with expensive to die for hand crafted chocolate).  The other industry comes from the P labs that operate round the empty holiday homes when everyone else is back at work, the locals say. Well it's true that's what they said!

 I came away with a baby Papyrus plant and a hunger to find an orange abutilon. Or maybe I ought to colour coordinate my plants with the house? Anyone like red plants?

Thank you Te Atatu Floral Circle especially Janette and Mary for organizing the  trip. We had lovely sunny weather for the most part (only got drenched in one garden) got to ride in a Mercedes Benz coach and stayed in a very German motel. They had goulash on offer for dinner but some of us chose to go to the local bar in neighbouring Kaiwaka. I had steamed mussels instead. Which were nice, I wasn't about to tackle the giant Nela burger which was $29 and had a cash prize of $250 if you could eat it in less than 5 minutes. We weren't in that much of a hurry!

Go go goji

Mum gave me some cuttings of goji berry she filched from my brothers place at Epsom. I dug out more creeping buttercup and put them in. I tried to find information on how to grow it but it seems to have been left out of all the gardening books...and what's on the internet is rather scant, google growing goji in nz and come up with people complaining they just up and die. My brother must be doing something right then. However don't know about his gardening practices, because the place at Epsom was bought not built for us, so it came with a garden already.

Over there, the house is framed by a pohutakawa, which presides over many bromeliads, there's a buxus hedge, hydrangea, magnolia, daphne, a prunus of some sort underplanted with japanese anemones and ferns, round the driveway there are more buxus clipped bay trees, clivia, agapanthus, astomerias. At the back there's a jasmine and climbing roses against a fence, a wisteria over a pergola, cannas, and I thought I saw a kauri tucked in the back too. There is a lemon tree, so it's not totally devoid of produce. My brothers have planted some incongruous plants though..what is spiky holly doing by the washing line...and buddha finger, which I am not allowed to touch. And goji berry.

Otherwise it's all very solid middle class villa, with a lawn. My brother said it's like old folks home, but since I now work at old folks homes...that's not quite true. What do old folk like? Camellias are a hot favourite, and colour colour colour.  No white flowers. No boring ferns. Plants that get too big they dislike saying they can't see out the window. Everything has to be manageable for them so no big trees as that only reminds them they can't climb them anymore. Natives are a no-no. Heaven forbid if you attempt to plant flax or a cabbage tree at an old folks home. Anything that is bushy is out. It will interfere with their walkers.

Old people like fluffy herbaceous flowering plants like poppies and pansies and roses by the tonne. Granny's bonnets and gazanias, lobelia and alyssum. Geraniums and lavender. Tulips and freesias. Petunias and carnations. Veges like beans, peas and onions. And herbs such as thyme, chives and parsley.

Anyway so goji...is a superfood apparently. According to Kings Plant Barn it is a trendy plant along with blueberries and kale. Mum says she uses the goji leaves and dried berries in soups. It's supposed to be very good for your eyes. Which may be what I need now along with failing a hearing test, without my glasses I would fail an eye test. So I need to be wearing spectacles and earmuffs, and I don't know what next will go in this gardening gig...my sense of smell? My tastebuds?

Found out today that my boss may have cheated on his hearing test, because I was talking to him and he couldn't hear a word I said, and kept saying speak up I can't hear you, whereas I can hear everything he says plus he plays loud rock music in the ute. I was very puzzled at this because the hearing assessor said look away at the wall while I'm doing these noises for you on the computer, and press the button when you hear it. Well it turns out he wasn't looking away so every time a noise was made he just saw the hearing assessor tap the computer and responded straight away.   My boss says he didn't know for 30 years that he needed glasses, and whenever he did an eye test he would cheat the eye test by memorizing the letters. What?! Thankfully he now wears glasses but... I'm beginning to think something's up.

Is there a plant that is good for your ears and makes you hear better? I'm hoping there is.

On gardenwear

Actually I did go to the working bee yesterday as had coriander to plant under the fruit trees (apparently they repel beetles and do better under shade) so I just put on my boots and rain gear. The guys had the power tool to dig the corner fence posts and pour fastcrete an instant concrete mix in and we just cleared the fence of the herbs to shift to the orchard. Hooray!
We harvested cabbages, rhubarb and wormwood, which I cut back hard. My hands also turned green- but that was from their kiddy gardening gloves that had green dye on them. It looked like I was turning into the Wicked Witch of the West.

Then came home, washed my hands and what did I do - more gardening. This time shifting an astelia pup to the corner by removing creeping buttercup and mulching with manuka clippings. Then planted wormwood cuttings by the olive tree. I kind of get that it's not the best drainage, but here's hoping my sand will do it's work in the holes I dug. Another move was a nandina that was dry and dying under a gardenia and eaves of the house, shifted that near the wisteria. Hope it revives. I gave it a big drink.

Today in two minds which church do I go to, St Giles or...Henderson. Well I have a book to return to Henderson but then St Giles is neglected and needs more hydrangeas. The church needs more hydrangeas!! Maybe I can go to one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. I don't know, the help I enlisted last week didn't want to get her nice church clothes all muddy. Whereas  Henderson doesn't care about nice church clothes as long as you wear clothes. I think I've even turned up in my tracksuit pants one time.  Well, they were clean. All my good clothes were in the wash.

Note to self, need new clothes and garden uniform otherwise will end up wearing fig leaves. I had to return my shorts I was given cos they were too big and were falling down. I am supposed to be getting new petite size shorts as soon as they get them in but it's been about 3 weeks now. Butt cracks are not a good look for gardeners! Thankfully I had tights on underneath but still. I then found my bosses earmuffs in my car. I need to put a label on one them 'Selina's earmuffs' and the other one 'not Selina's earmuffs'. We both had hearing tests last week and my boss got a perfect A and I failed, seems like I won't be able to hear dolphins or Mariah Carey singing anymore, bummer. So he probably doesn't need them despite being 20 years on the job and I being all of 5 months. The hearing assesor asked what I did previously and I mumbled oh..librarian for seven years. Yes a real noisy, ear damaging job. That's why I ought to wear earmuffs all the time now?!  We also wear goggles for eye protection (well I do, they go over my glasses) and gaiters to protect our shins. When think about it we wear a whole suit of armour, and we go armed with secateurs and wonder weeders.

I am thankful I do not garden at the Auckland Outdoor Naturist Club in Ranui. Yes it's nice to be outdoors and your skin does need Vitamin D but I think they go a bit too far. Also I wonder what they do about thistles and thorns and prickles do they wear gloves or shoes or anything or is it completely au naturel? There's a lot of stinging nettle around Ranui....

Wet wet wet

Today is a scheduled working bee for putting up the fence at Woodside but looking out the window I don't think it will happen this morning.
Labour Day was also a drizzle fest and I'm sad to say I didn't make it to the kumara workshop either, despite telling my friends "You should go!" The problem with rain is, unlike in Australia where it's probably very welcome and everyone goes out dancing and shouting Hallelujah when it does rain, in New Zealand, or rather, in Auckland, we can't dance as we will be slipping over in the mud. Gardeners are not welcome when they come inside with muddy boots and rain sloshing everywhere. I feel like a pariah, with my dirty fingernails, clothes smeared with mud, twigs and leaves in my hair, and grass clippings in the cuffs of my pants.
The trendy concept of tiny homes or shepherd huts is possibly an offshoot of gardening potting sheds or, as Lynda Hallinan terms them 'She Sheds', to distinguish the girly from the Bloke's Shed or mancave where, women are apparently not allowed to venture. I was looking at setting one up but of course mum doesn't allow it. And we don't have a big enough tree for a tree house, as mum cut them all down. It is for rainy days like these where, I inevitably go nuts from being in the same roof space as a contentious woman. Or maybe I am the contentious woman. I tried to figure out why I was single as my co-worker asked me on the first day of the job with him 'Why are you single?'. I just said I didn't know. Is that an answer?

Now I have had time to think about it it's because I am a messy person (or in kinder terms 'creative') and nobody wants to live or put up with me.
Also whenever anyone rings me nobody likes it when I'm out in the garden and have to come to the phone, because I don't take my phone with me into the garden, of course. What do you need a phone for? Only if you want people bugging you.
But maybe the real reason is, they just might have my mother for a mother-in-law and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. But...it could be worse...I could have a mother-in-law that might out mother my mother.
So there's some very legitimate reasons, although one of my married friends said I will probably die alone and have nothing, like her brothers that never married or left home but, the married people I know all their children left home and their spouse died so its pretty much of a muchness.  Maybe they will be left with a big ol empty nest of a house and can move into a retirement village with all the rest of everyone in the same boat so I don't really see the difference as children and grand children are not allowed to stay in the retirement village anyway, am still trying to figure out if the children sent their parents there cos they were naughty or whether they chose to live there and sold the family home and sent the children away cos the children were naughty. I'm pretty sure that's where our homeless population came from, all these broken homes from people who just can't bear to live with each other anymore.

In any case if worse comes to worse I do have an investment home up in Heaven anyway that I've been promised plus gardens galore where there are no weeds, so, that's where I will be when I'm put out to pasture. And there is no rain and no mud. Thank you Jesus.

Hmm still raining. Well with all this mud and clay I could go make some pots if I had a potting shed and a kiln. And then I can garden indoors with my pots. If that isn't going potty then I don't know what is. Might just go read November issue of NZ Gardener since there's only 4 more days of October and I will have a head start. Yesterday my boss told me off for doing the indoor pots instead of mowing the lawn while he swanned off to Ayrlies without me. But it was raining!

Mission accomplished...

Although there's always more as gardening are never ending. But got two things done - planted hydrangeas by the church (two), and removed the rest of the blackberry bush from Woodside so we can put the fence in. It filled a bin and two sacks. Nicole says she's got a thornless blackberry we can grow, it remains to be seen if this thornless blackberry is edible.. but we will train it so it doesn't grow into a huge tangled mess like the last one!

 I have another to - do list

1. save toilet rolls to grow seedlings
2. sow - silverbeet, feverfew and wildflowers seeds
3. source more hydrangeas, need three more to plant by the church
4. create a lavender hedge by St Giles church
5. weed St Giles church corner bed
6. learn how to grow kumara
7. feed worms - think they've chomped through most of my papers
8. mulch other church bed at Henderson
9. buy coriander to plant by plums at Woodside as they repel beetles
10. visit Oratia Native Plant nursery, to buy aspleniums/spleenwort, pink cabbage trees, kowhai, hebes and manuka
11. more swan plants for butterflies, and bog salvia for bees
12. finish my design for APW

I am looking forward to the trip to Mangawhai in a fortnight where will visit some gardens with Te Atatu  Floral Circle. I am sharing a room with a seasoned flower lady called Sheryl.

Tomorrow must restrain myself from visiting all the garden centres...and buying up all their plants. They just look so good at this time of year.

I have been reading 'Farmers of Forty Centuries' Organic Farming in China, Korea and Japan by F H King. It was first published in 1918 and is basically a narrative of a tour taken by an American agriculturalist who is rather astonished that farmers in the East have been farming their land for centuries and never lost fertility, due to organic practises and manual labour whereas in America they farm for two generations with artificial fertilisers and machinery and end up with a cancerous dustbowl. I have been inspired by the rice paddies and think with so much rain and wet in Auckland, and the fact that rice is just a grass, why can we not grow rice as a crop here? Then we could feed our growing Chinese population, and won't have to rely on imports. We could also grow bamboo, (a very renewable resource as it 'grows like Topsy'*) mulberry trees for silkworms, and tea. Why not? We could just turn this land into an extension of China. After all, that's where roses, magnolia, willow and most of our magnificent flowering ornamental shrubs we grow in our gardens originally came from.  Bring on the pandas!

* I asked one of the old folk at the retirement village who Topsy was cos all the old folk kept saying things grew like Topsy, meaning something that grows so fast that it's 2 metres tall before you know it. They didn't know who Topsy was either. It just growed.

Labour Weekend

3 days of work...It's Labour Weekend. And that means getting out into the garden. I'm sure Labour Day was deliberately put in October so that everyone has time to go work in their gardens.
Also, we have a new government..at last!

So things are looking up. Went for a walk round my garden and could definitely go for more swan plants to bring the butterflies, I've decided. I saw birds hopping around and one using my birdbath the other day. Yates have sent me silverbeet 'Bright Lights' to grow in my garden so need to get cracking on those. I bought potting mix the other week to pot up my aloes but seem to have run out of good size pots. I must have taken all the plastic ones to Kings, who have now taken up my suggestion to have a recycling depot at their Universal Drive barn.

On Wednesday we had a garden meeting to figure out what to grow for summer crops - my choices are kumara, eggplants, capsicums and sweet corn. Also as we've got funding for a fence we are going to put that in later this month, weather permitting.

Tuesday was Floral Circle meeting where we learned about orchids. To get orchids flowering again, they need a period of cooler and darker hibernation so the tip was to park them away so they can form flowers. And feed feed feed when they do - osmocote or orchid fertilizer. I learned that they kind of grow upside down or sideways in trees so when people put them actually they are putting them the wrong way, then the roots get too damp and rot. The best thing to grow them in is bark not soil. They all have unique pollinators and they are expensive because it takes a long time for them to grow from seed.

Church garden plans still on the back burner of my mind but I have enlisted some help to plant some hydrangeas along the side wall. How I will fit everything in I don't know but God knows.
Monday I plan to head along to Ranui Community Garden to learn how to grow kumara, last time we got an abundant crop of leaves but no actual kumaras. I only have one more Permaculture workshop to go and then need to present my design...who knows maybe one day I will be a genuine practicing permaculturalist if the new govt decides to have some regulations to keep greedy speculators from buying and selling off our land!

Empowerment and Resilience

Permie workshops are coming thick and fast. Yesterday's workshop was called 'Empowerment and Resilience' and going over my notes, seems to be telling us to - be encouraged and be flexible. The world may be going one way but Permies are meant to resist the world and set up their own commune. No hold on that's hippies. Finn just basically warned us about the coming apocalypse.

The old guard may not want to change but we can't change people who don't want to change and are not willing.  So let's just do our own gardens and encourage one another where we are at. Small and slow solutions right? So what if the church wants to expand their building. Just do the edges first, value the margins. Right?

One of the problems we have right now is with the mammoth supercity. Everything was a lot easier for us Aucklanders in terms of sharing and caring when Auckland was decentralised and we had some authority over our own patch. Another issue is renters and bad landlords. We have lots of people wanting to care for the land and keep it for future generations yet the Council don't see that as important - they just see it as a moneymaker. I think basically you can make a tidy earner by just buying and selling it and dividing it into smaller and smaller portions. Everyone seems worried over their own retirement but you know what...from what I've seen at retirement villages many of the old folk aren't actually truly enjoying their retirement. They seem to sit around in groups with nothing much to do and complain about their ailments and reminisce about the good old days. Swearing at us gardeners for not instantly tidying up their gardens they have left in a mess through neglect. But maybe I've caught them on a bad day. On other days they listen to ABBA and attempt to do Zumba. Money money money...

I don't know, its hard not to judge. If, God forbid, there is a fire or some other natural disaster or the volcanoes erupt those oldies are not going to be able to get out of their apartments in time. They'll be queuing at the lift and blocking the fire entrance with their walkers.  The gates, which only work electronically, will keep them locked in. I foresee all these hazards, the buildings are leaky, and yet, living as they do, they can't see their shoebox lifestyle cannot be sustained. I had this eerie feeling that they had banished the children from their fancy six storey apartments in a way they didn't really want them around. Trying to do something simple, like having a raised bed portable kitchen garden for their cafe is JUST TOO HARD. Health and safety regulations they say, and no we can't grow our own veges or herbs and serve them at the cafe. For some bureaucratic reason that I cannot fathom.

What does it mean for a Permie. Well maybe if they sold or better yet GAVE some of their apartments or land to younger people to live and work in (who can help them out!) maybe we would not have such a crisis. The meek shall inherit the earth, the rich can have their monopoly board mortgages and crumbling hotels. Nobody can really get out of jail free unless they stop playing the game. Permies refuse to play the world's game.

The Creek

Things are blooming and booming and the garden centres are at their busiest gearing up for Labour Weekend. I could not resist having a look see after work, planning to buy some bog salvias but instead came away with a scabiosa (it's a flower). Am still dreaming about my north border and whether to double dig, or lasagna garden it. According to Beth Chatto, author of 'The Damp Garden' the best thing for clay is to add grit to it. Or soil on top. It's just a waste of time to dig clay. There's also gypsum granules. At any rate, it does call for something if only I had the favourable weather to work in.

One thing that I find missing from garden books is any mention of creeks. There's coastal planting, and bog gardening, but curiously no mention of what would be best to plant round an estuary creek. Perhaps a mixture of both? I was looking in the library and the only book I could find was a biography of writer Maurice Gee. I found out, among other things, that he was a teacher and a librarian before he gave it up to write novels full time and his stories always seemed to end up with someone drowning in the Henderson Creek. We had an oil portrait of him at the Henderson Library since he won so many book awards but it turns out he left Henderson for greener pastures in Nelson. Not much help then?

Have been thinking of creeks lately as Riverpark is surrounded by Huruhuru Creek, which is further downstream from Henderson and Oratia stream. Woodside Road backs on to one arm, Riverpark Crescent straddles the other and then the creek empties out to the Waitemata Harbour. On Saturday we tested the water - it was fine and no shopping trolleys were dumped that we could see. What this means for our soil is that we get the run off from the rain and stormwater into our creeks but conversely we also get the salt from the tide. The one plant that does well to filter all this salt and fresh is the amazing mangrove which lives in this rich alluvial mixture of mud. It's not land and it's not sea. It's mud.

I have a booklet called 'Native to the West' A guide to planting and restoring the nature of Waitakere City. This was published 1997 and updated in 2005. Waitakere City is actually no more, having been subsumed into the Greater Auckland Monopoly Board, but I think there's still a lot of green space in the middle of that board that doesn't have hotels, casinos, parking lots and motorways running round it and that's where I'm putting the free park and playground. I have identified that we live in the Waitemata Lowland Forest region and there are plants that are recommended for this ecosystem. The main task is for native plants to claim back the land from the tyranny of dog turds, mud and mown lawn weeds. And phoenix palms. After we have eradicated these interlopers and sent them back to where they came from...the natives can then have their own party swing seat. Or something. I don't know. Maybe Winston Peters can help us out here?

The Promised Land

I have just been told I could win $500 if I enter the Yates Vege Growing challenge. I would rather win plants or a bit of land, but I suppose $500 could buy lots of plants and a trailerload of soil.
The deal is to grow some veges and monitor their progress, blogging at least three times a month. I could do that, I think. But we do that anyway at Woodside. So you can read about stuff that happens here. I have requested this season we grow more kumara. However Yates does not sell kumara as they are a tuber not a seed so am not sure if growing kumara would qualify.

I have been thinking lately, I would one day like to build my own house, with my own garden but need some land first. Where can I do this? I have decided I don't want to live in a cookie cutter home that someone else has made and abandoned, and possibly selling to make a profit or 'get rid of it'. Nor do I want to live in a factory farm for humans i.e an apartment block. Would you like to buy a broken home? We've subdivided it into 400 pieces. You just have to spend the rest of your lifetime putting it all back together again. Um no thanks.

It seems Auckland is full. Even the church's own land which was taken away for Auckland Transport roadworks has disappointingly said they are going to use the remaining land for expanding the church building, which I think personally is a horrendous idea. We don't need a bigger building, we need a garden. Otherwise why not just build tower of babel parking lot there and squash more people in? Then charge rent. What, no outdoor weddings? How can His face shine upon you when you stuck inside a windowless church building? I had just realised that many churches these days do not have windows so you go into a dark bunker thing that for all anybody knows could house a nightclub, complete with flashing lights and smoke machine. That's if the wolves get their way and turn our churches into lairs and dens of iniquity.

So I have revised my garden plan. We are just going to have olive trees, hibiscus, gardenias and bird of paradise, and there is going to be NO lawn I have also abandoned the sheep idea, and decided we are going to go with the flow and have Moses in the basket or Wandering Jew (tradescantia) to grow over everything, for that lush, garden of Eden effect. Nobody can stop tradescantia. It can cross the Red Sea if it has to get to the Promised Land.  It will be a teaching plant - if anyone asks what it is, I will just say this plant is to remind the Mayor of Auckland and the council officials to let my people go --- to church.

Fertile Gardening

Yesterday's Permie workshop was informative and practical. We all visited Ranui Community Garden and Buffie showed us what we can do with soil. Ron also showed us different tools we can use. We can double dig, broadfork, or try lasagna gardening. I'm choosing lasagna gardening because digging up clay is not fun. I also want to save my back.

Ingredients for lasagna gardening - suggested layering -

cardboard
food scraps
coffee fluff
coffee grounds
green clippings
chicken manure
coffee sacks
potting mix
rock dust
green manure
lime

Make sure you layer each with green (nitrogen) and brown (carbon) and it will break down if you have worm workers mixing the layers.

We also learned about intercropping, companion plants, guilds, planting by the moon, crop rotation, pollination insectaries, green manures, seed saving and other fascinating garden stuff. We then designed for the community garden according to a specific brief.

Some gardening tips to share for those new and not so new.

* If you making garden beds, make them only so wide so you can reach with your hands from both sides. You don't want to a garden that you need to step into compacting the soil to reach plants in the middle. If making raised beds, there's no maximum depth but 35 cm at least can be deep enough for a decent crop. I've seen beds waist high at other gardens but that's for elderly who can't bend down. If you can afford a truckload of soil fine but you can fill the bottom  with firewood or other organic material or have a false bottom.
* Plant fruit trees with wide enough spacing between, say 5 metres between each tree when fully grown, so  you can plant in between. They are small when you first plant them but you can plant a fast growing nitrogen fixer in between, then cull the nitrogen fixer once the fruit trees become established.
* Nitrogen fixers are those of the legume family - peas, beans, clover, kowhai, acacia, even gorse. Their roots have nitrogen fixing nodules that are beneficial to the soil and plants around them.
* Don't plant from the same family in beds year after year, practice crop rotation to prevent build up of pests and diseases.
* Mix flowers and herbs with your veges, the flowers and herbs will attract beneficial insects and repel pest ones.
* Orient your beds to north to get the most sun, grow taller plants, trees and shelterbelts to the south.
* Top soil will naturally accumulate down a slope or bank where you will find the deepest and richest soil. It will also retain the most water and be the most optimum at the keyline - which is the point where the soil is moist but not so damp it's a bog.
* You can make your own seed raising mix, using one part compost, one part top soil and one part river sand, mix it through a sieve to get a fine tilth. It's important to mix in a bit of your own garden soil so newly sown seedlings you may transplant  can adjust to the conditions of your garden, they may get a shock if they are coddled at a warm nursery and then transplanted to a totally foreign environment with cold clay soil!

My other tip is, try and stay awake after lunch when learning at an all-day workshop because I may have missed something.

On the Dream Garden front, I have now redesigned the deck area to extend the space out to the garden. I wonder if I present this idea to my dad, whether he will accept or reject it. All it needs is the railing to come down and a side ramp with two landings to be built on the side, so it can also be wheelchair/bicycle/wheelbarrow friendly and have planting beds and seating with space for my bbq or firepit. Never know, it might happen one day, as the house just got painted. Dad paid the neighbour to do it when my brother just said he would get a round tuit last December. He never got this round tuit. While he did clip the hedges he also left a bit of a mess in one of the garden beds full of buxus clippings. If he was working for my company he would be audited and failed! Nevermind, how can you fire someone who just did it for free?

Permie Workshop #10 and Dream Gardens

I'm off to another Permaculture Workshop today. This time it's Fertile Gardening down at Ranui with Ron and Buffie. I could just walk there, but then I need to bring a lot of tools, food and other gear  so it will just be a 5 minute drive in the FunCargo. Buffie was the one who got me onto FunCargo and if I were to recommend any car to a gardener who doesn't want to drive a ute that would be it. I've transported christmas trees, freezers, shelves, plants, sacks of compost and horse manure, straw bales, firewood, sacks of weeds, tools, you name it anything that can fit. Its compact enough to drive over grass without leaving huge tire ruts but large enough to fit almost anything that you want to transport. And if you need anything bigger if it doesn't fit then maybe you are just being greedy.

We are also going to check out the Korero Cafe which is part of the Ranui Community House, having expanded since the library moved across the road. It used to be Tea Tree Cafe but there are no tea trees there so perhaps Korero is a better name for it. Buffie works there as a cafe manager and uses a lot of fresh produce from the community garden in the menu.

I have been watching 'Dream Gardens' an Australian DVD about ten different garden makeovers. I've seen about five and it's very interesting to see what different people do with the land they are fortunate enough to own, and spend bucket loads of money on. The last one I saw was about a husband who lost his wife to cancer yet she had a dream for their slopey site and he and his teenage children decide to put in a garden as a memorial. It ends up costing half a million dollars. It looks pretty spectacular with stone steps, a water feature, a firepit and a wifi enabled garden room.

Another one is where a couple lose their home to a bushfire so they go and buy a neighbouring property, which already has a cottage style garden, to me looks fine just needs TLC, but instead they rip it out and put a lawn in. They also spend hundreds of thousands getting rid of a power pole because it destroys their view of the surrounding countryside.

Some of the dream gardens are not what I would call gardens just outdoor spaces with plants as decoration, where people aren't so interested in gardens but the view beyond to the sea or the space around a swimming pool. These end up costing twice as much as people budget for. It seems the MORE money spent on the garden the less people want to actually garden it.

My favourite so far is the kitchen garden installed  out in the bare outback for a mum recovering from an illness so her son and his dad volunteers to make her this garden which they designed themselves with raised beds and a water feature fountain where they can sit watering cans and a shadehouse. The end result is a fantastic garden in which the mum already starts growing plants even before it's finished so she can have fresh veges and herbs. This one is the least expensive garden of the lot!

In other news I now have a garden arch which was delivered yesterday, Mum saw it and then immediately complained I was not to put it up until I 'get my own house'. I just said it wasn't for her. I'm going to give it to the church  as I have now fixed up my hardenbergia arch with a few cast off broom handles and cable ties. How do you just 'get your own house' anyway. I am not going to 'get my own house'. Not this side of heaven. What's wrong with the one we are already living in?

A vision for St Giles' church garden

I have now sketched up a bit of ideas and planting plan for St Giles church - got there this morning to see the scraggly mexican orange blossom and waist high kikuyu had been removed...and seeded with fresh grass.

My planting plan is to have a south- facing woodland garden and avenue of magnolia by the bus stop, with seats and by the church wall hydrangeas and snowball trees, fuchsia and bulbs. There will be climbers perhaps be jasmine or clematis covering the church, and a little rill or river ditch to take the wet, lined with primulas, violets and fuchsia procumbens.

Another corner will have a chinese toon, virginia creeper for foliage, and hydrangea. I'm going for big flowers for floral displays.

The church entrance corner which is shady and cool might have cabbage tree, nikau, clivia and hen and chicken's ferns. Tecomanthe will climb by the entrance and there will be either daphne or gardenia for perfume.

The north facing corner is already planted up but will add canna with the ginger lilies, sweet william or armerias with carnations, lambs ears and aeoniums, with possibly sedum or echium that will attract butterflies.

The north facing area will have a herbal tea garden and raised beds filled with seasonal veges strawberries and sweet pea obelisks in a flower bed. Dianthus will line the path, which will lead to an arch/gazebo area for outdoor services/wedding photos. Hardenbergia will grow over the arch/gazebo. On the sheltered side I am thinking of having banana palms, hibiscus and more cannas or vireyas for a tropical/pasifika feel.

The tree that looks like on it's last legs may still be ok if we plant a climbing rata over it, which will eventually cover it, so as to match the pohutukawa near the entrance.

By the road and framing the sea views will be and olive grove with low pruned figs, and a grapevine over the new fence rail, with perhaps a climbing rose at each end. The area by the intersection with the existing Indian bean tree and retaining wall will have postrate rosemary, and lavender, on Flanshaw Road the entrance will be framed by pink manuka or breath of heaven. Will have some agapanthus edging by the drive and low growing lambs ears. We will have solar lights by the car parks.

That's all I can think of for now there is still space by the Kimberly day centre perhaps left as lawn but could have a maze or a children's garden with lots of swan plants and sunflowers, with  a compost heap and worm farm, and maybe a few sheep to eat the grass and give us manure. (Have to check with the pastor).

What do you think? Am open to any suggestions.