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!
