On Border Patrol

My garden is basically a rectangle. The house is the centre rectangle and my garden is all around the edges. In Permaculture this would be principle number 11: use edges and value the marginal, but in gardening terms this is called the Border. The Border is meant to be a continous seasonal array of plants from one end to another, to be walked through via path or lawn. There are meant to be no gaps in this border, and no weeds. As one plant flowers, the other plants around it must complement or contrast in form and colour, with the taller plants at the back, perhaps in front of a wall, fence, screen or hedge, and graduating down eye level, nose level, and ankle level plants near the path.
At the end of this border there must be a seat or a focal point, and at every angle there must be something to catch the eye.

Making a border is not easy. Apart from having tall plants at the back and shorter ones at the front, growth habit sideways must be taken into account. Seasonal variation as well, some plants are evergreen, others deciduous. Perennials die down in winter, annuals die every year, and bulbs only appear and flower in spring. Besides all this, plants must be sited correctly according to their likes for shade or sun, dry or damp. And then you must choose your theme. Is it going to be a 'hot' border or a 'cool' border. Will it be silvery foliage or subtropical. Is it geometrical or naturalistic. Floral or herbal? Fussy clipped topiaries or low maintenance? Dry or bog?

With this in mind, yesterday I went to the Warehouse and found some friends for my lone Crimson Spire columnar apple tree. They were selling two fruit trees for $40 and so I bought two 'Scarlet Spire' apple trees.I figured mum will not notice these are trees as they look like sticks and won't block the light from the precious UV exposed lawn. I have just planted them in my border and had to move some plants along in the process further down the rectangle, where I had dug out overgrown dietes.and applemint.

 So there's salvia, and a Dragon's Gold kowhai now next to the abutilon. But now there is a great big gap which I need to fill with more plants to complete the border. I had put in a few more fruit salad plants near the fence and was planning on somehow transplanting the grapevine, which is not easy to prune where it is at the moment. Or perhaps I can attempt to grow either a choko or another passionfruit on this fence, to go with the subtropical theme. I contemplated putting in a few pongas which would look fantastic if I could get the very expensive mature ones or wait ten years for  the cheaper baby ones to grow. So theres a few possiblities, bearing in mind its west facing and also gets a little frost, and damp, yet sunny. And behind the fence is the neighbour's cabbage tree, which drops it's sharp dried leaves onto my border.

Watch this space...

Feijoa Festival

Feijoa season is upon us. Have collected many baskets from our two trees that are laden with fruit.
I have often wondered why we don't have a Feijoa Festival in Auckland. Why don't we start one, because it's everyone's favourite fruit, it brings neighbours together, and sustains us in ways bananas can't. Feijoas are dead easy to grow. It's best to have two trees as they can then pollinate. Feijoa trees can be pruned or thinned as they are wind pollinated and this helps with fruiting. They can make a good hedge, as they are evergreen and you'll always be friends with your neighbours if you share feijoas.


To make Feijoa Pie

You need -
A pie tin/dish
Two sheets of flaky puff pastry.
Lots of feijoas to fill it.
A tablespoon or so of butter
About half a cup of brown sugar, or organic coconut sugar
Sprinkle cinnamon
quarter/half a cup of ground almonds
Tablespoon of milk

Preheat your oven to 200C or 400F. Line a pie dish with the flaky pastry. For the filling, scoop out your feijoas and mix them with the soft/melted butter, the sugar, ground almonds and sprinkle of cinnamon. Cover the pie with the other sheet of pastry, sealing the ends with a fork. Prick a few holes in the middle and brush the pie with milk for a glaze.
Bake in oven till golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.

Serve hot with icecream or can be eaten cold in the garden for a picnic. Enjoy!

Keeping NZ beautiful

As I was riding past Newmarket today I saw a big billboard that said 'Mama Nature says Keep New Zealand Beautiful' but this Mama Nature looked like a hairy man in drag.
I don't know who makes these billboards but I thought Keeping New Zealand Beautiful meant picking up litter and tidying up your garden, not cross dressing. Are they trying to mock greenies? Or is it another one of those gay billboards telling us to wear condoms while advertising insurance?
I noticed there was a festival on the other weekend called 'The Kauri Karnival' but as far as I knew there were no kauri trees involved, it just seemed like an excuse to bring out big bouncy castles and sell food truck food.

Dismayed that my job description had been reduced to a man wearing lipstick, heels and a floral frock, I carried on gardening, which today involved running a lawnmower over apartment lawns, removing falling yellow leaves from green jasmine leaves, and pulling weeds from artificial turf. The apartment's body corporate had been dragging their feet over financing a garden makeover, resulting in us maintaining an eyesore while waiting for the green light to plant some plants. If they continue on in this vein, it might be summer when we get the funds to do the work, sure we can plant them then but then they will only last a few months before the thirsty plants keel over and die.

I then went home where I could do some real gardening instead of the mock/fake gardening the world had paid me to do. Since we were not trusted to rip out ever expanding dietes from the apartment gardens, I could have the satisfaction of ripping them out of my own.

Whoever sold me dietes at Kings Plant Barn surely must atone for their sin in recommending it to me, because it is the bane of gardens all over Auckland. However I noticed, with my trained eye,  that there was not one dietes present in the Auckland Botanic Gardens, nor an agapanthus to be seen. Instead the main attraction of the Botanic Gardens seemed to be grass, acres of it, and flower carpet roses. Other highlights included begonias in boats and nikau sculptures. I had called a posse of gardeners together yesterday to do a recce, plying them with feijoa pie. Most of them begged off, but Jacqui and Gilles were troopers and we braved the tunnel and highway 20 to marvel at the former farm. The Botanic Library was closed (they said they couldn't find a volunteer today!) so I wasn't able to indulge in expanding my collection of gardening books. Gilles was rather surprised that we could enter without paying. I had to explain to him that we paid our rates for this.

I was inspired by the perennial garden. From one side to the other the plants  go from one spectrum of the rainbow to the other. I noted some plants I could perhaps use in my own garden, geraniums here, catmint there, swathes of salvias there. Mum was sniff-testing all the roses. Not many passed the test sadly. We walked on through the camellia woodland, which was underplanted with a blanket of hellebores. So I had my solution of what to plant with camellias.

Two plants Jacqui was in awe of - Gordonia, and the 'Monkey-no-climb' tree. We resolved to try growing globe artichoke in our orchard, if not for the vegetable, but for the giant silvery leaves. Gilles took photos of purply okinawa spinach. While I enjoy strolling through the Auckland Botanic Gardens, sometimes I think its like a golf course trying to be a garden.  I could have packed my picnic into a caddy instead. And they do have those little golf carts giving garden tours that you can ride on but we chose to stroll around on our own two feet, because we were too grown up to fit into a pushchair. We could have kept going along the motorway ending up at Hamilton Gardens, but I had washing to take in drying on the line, so we headed back.

I might have a word with the 'Keep New Zealand Beautiful' advertising agent. I've noted that it's now sponsored by Wrigley's, McDonalds and Polypak Plastics.

Lest we forget the poppies

Well my poppy garden was a complete failure I have never been able to grow poppies, the many times I have tried to chickens scratched them out or they just get stolen from church.
Apparently poppies need to be sown in battlefields that have seen plenty of blood and guts.

Or blood and bone.

But I have red pineapple sage and red dahlias and a red canna lily, plus amaranth that is poetically named love-lies-bleeding. I also have, although not the season for it now, a red chinese lantern that droops it's blossoms in a sorrowful manner.

I had been thinking of war memorials lately and how great a cost it was for those soldiers to lay down their lives for us. They went knowing they were going to die, they didn't stand a chance. Will we forget that? Maybe if you weren't related to anyone in Gallipoli perhaps it doesn't mean a lot to you. But there's a loved one everyone can remember every Sunday of a great battle between good and evil when our Saviour laid down his life for us. He went to the cross, knowing his death meant life for us. He could have saved his own life but he willingly sacrificed his own life, for all mankind. He was young, only 33. He didn't have any children. He was fit and healthy. He could have lived a long life on earth and done so much more.
But  such was his trust in the One who could raise him from the dead, that his death was not in vain. And because he did that, those that believe and love God are not dead in vain either. So death where is thy sting?

So as we walk through the gardens and cemeteries with poppies at our feet (or other flowers, because poppies only bloom in November) and munch our Anzac biscuits meditate on Romans 8:35-39

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God , which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Church garden day!

Ok must get up to St Giles and get this garden sorted. It is the shady side of the church full of overgrown camellias, griselinias, cast iron plants, pseudopananax, cordylines, day lillies, and now clivia that need to be planted.

I need to plant a hoya and get some hibiscus, hydrangeas and rose cuttings started. (Not sure about them roses, actually) . Each time I go to work and we need to remove or cut back plants and then put them into green waste I think oh no that could make a good cutting, if only I had the time and space to grow them. But we are so busy maintaining that it just gets thrown out. Ack.

Thankfully I don't need to mow lawns or trim hedges that's the last thing I want to do on a peaceful Saturday morning. After a headache inducing day yesterday of weed eating, mowing and blowing for three hours straight, I'd had enough and decided I wasn't going to do anymore power tools. My boss came and found me quietly deadheading hydrangeas. I'm sorry I have a headache, I explained. The earmuffs weren't helping. Well, he was going to have his way and said I needed to have earplugs instead. Safe gardening right? Actually I was going to suggest either abstainence or we get electric tools instead of noisy gas ones.

Possibly earplugs are a brilliant small and slow solution, but I seem to be going deaf and numb from it all. I don't want to be slave to a lawn but it seems like that is what I've become and I'm really tired of it. Sometimes we aren't even mowing grass but weeds and rubbish. Oh and picking up dead leaves...I am quite certain Adam and Eve never had to do that before the fall.

So anyway that is what I will be doing this Saturday so don't just drive past and yell that I'm doing a good job why not lend a hand and help me get this church garden sorted. You won't be doing it on your own after all you have wonderful yours truly to talk to and possibly even have a cup of tea afterward.

Remember your job description - Keep New Zealand Beautiful.

How does your garden grow?

I think mine is still recovering from the storm. Dad decided to minimise any hazards by lopping back the apricot tree close to our house, although the peach tree seemed to survive the wind. I put the arch back up but am loathe to prune the hardenbergia as it's just coming into flower.

Some bulbs shoots are now appearing and I'm hoping to complete some beds - the camellia bed needs to be totally weeded out where the driveway is and groundcovered with pratia or leptinella. I have rearranged it so several plants have come out and it is now with gardenia radicans, fuschia, and ferns.
I am trying to get the colour scheme right but nothing really matches with the camellia which I did not plant and am very annoyed as I can't just rip it out. Also the soil is only a few inches deep cos underneath is that horrible black plastic, rock hard clay and stones. I've pulled out as much plastic as I can but can only put shallow rooting plants there that like it somewhat damp.

Another bed that looks like a dogs breakfast at the moment is the one I look at from my window. I've decided the bog salvia does really well there and you'd think it would be easy to obtain more from the garden centre but no, they only sell the salvias that like it well drained. Every plant label for all the other perennials says ' likes well drained soil ' and I'm thinking well where are all the plants that like mud???
Apart from building a 3 feet high tower bed and bringing in a truckload of soil I'm just waiting around for the miracle plant that adores clay or maybe I could just plant Kauri trees there as that was what was originally here before. I was surprised that the pink cabbage tree,  that was meant to be for Mary up and died, as that was supposed to be native to the area. I thought you just couldn't kill cabbage trees.

It rained again on our planned St Giles church working bee so only managed to offload a few clivia on the side bed to be planted next Saturday. I did a quick weed in the rain but my body was telling me to stop already and have a nap. I have to ignore all pleas to do the Woodside community garden now because other gardens desperately need my attention. I went all the way to Papakura to pick up plants, so it has to be worth it. Thankfully I have accomplished that mission the only thing is now the rains have saturated the soil and it's hard to dig anything at the moment. I hear squelch squelch and it's mud.

Joanne and I tidied up the Baptist church garden last week but we could not dig anything at all in one bed as it was hard as rock. So the snapdragons are not going in and now are residing at my place. However they might have a chance next week, if there are no more storms. The perils of living in clay country.

The neighbours tidied up the tree that had fallen down on their roof but they should have just chipped it and given it to me because pine needles make really good mulch. I have my eye on some newspapers in the garage to build a no-dig garden if I can also get me some lucerne hay. Dad claimed they were special newspapers as he seemed to be hanging on to ten copies of the day Princess Diana died but I reckon you can just read that on the internet or look that up on the microfiche plus why would you want to remember that anyway wouldn't it be more fitting to bury her in the garden and grow...English roses? It could be the Princess Diana memorial garden except well, I think she wasn't into gardening all that much. She was a brave lady walking over all those hazardous landmines though which is what my place would be if I didn't garden it. Here we are just walking over fallen feijoas which reminds me I need to make a feijoa pie tonight.

Storm und Drang

You know that trees can kill people right? I met a lady the other day who claimed she was almost killed by a coconut. Was not sure that I believed her as she'd lived most of her life in England where I'm pretty sure coconut palms do not grow, unless they are really vicious at those village fairs over there playing coconut shy. But then she was alive to tell me this so obviously survived. I wondered if she'd reported this health and safety hazard to the Head Gardener, of whatever garden she was in, because we must all now do this for work once a month with our Health and Safety meetings and go through all the hazards and risks, to isolate, minimise or eliminate them as much as possible.

We need to identify hazards and look over the Hazard Register, assess risks with a Risk Assessment Form, keep Special Data Sheets of all hazardous chemicals, report Accidents and Incidents, make sure we are wearing our Personal Protective Equipment, and ensure with each tool we are following Safe Operating Procedure, and before we even start work that we are fully inducted on Health and Safety at each site.

The storm last night made it hazardous to do any gardening at all for our oldies garden group, and the power went out, which meant they could not even have a cup of tea today until the cafe owners boiled water on their gas barbecue. My garden arch had fallen over the driveway this morning and the neighbours had their tree fallen onto their roof, my friend picked up 368 cabbage tree leaves, the Woodsiders also had no power because a tree had fallen over their power line, and those 190 km/hr winds decimated our bedding displays. We fixed up some dangerously leaning standard roses and restaked feijoa trees, picking up broken branches and palm fronds and compost wheely bins that had fallen over and spilled their contents. Maybe God was just stirring things up just a tad. Yesterday we were warned with thunder and lightening bolts that made my boss scream, and driving rain, but last night I just slept right through it. My workmate had to go home to notify his landlord about four broken windows, and there was a smashed clock at the Waitakere Gardens, but otherwise, it was rather tame. At least our garden wasn't totally killed by frost.

I don't think anything could faze me about Auckland weather now we've had four seasons in one day. and apart from the odd earthquake, volcano and tsunami risks our team ventured forth gardening as usual while everyone cheered and admired us for our bravery.

Fernglen

My favourite part of the Waitakere Gardens where I work is the fernery. I like breathing in the cool oxygenated air and the quietness of the green bush punctuated by the rustle of the wind and birdsong. When you live in a city that's growing everyday by leaps and bounds, the need to be still and quiet and just to breathe is something that I found is necessary for my spirit.

I had only recently discovered a place called Fernglen in Birkenhead, the North Shore, and resolved to take my sister Glennis there. Mum came a long too, so we hopped on the motorway and kept going past the Orchards retirement village where I also work, to Kauri Road. I was surprised to learn that the North Shore, like West Auckland was once all Kauri forest, and only recently was destroyed I mean 'developed' to make way for Nappy Valley (i.e. Glenfield) where the baby boomers could reproduce to their heart's content.

However one Bill Fisher had a heart for saving the ferns and the Kauri and friends and so his 12 acres of fern filled gully he left untouched. He also collected natives as back then with all the destruction going on to make lawns and roads, he thought perhaps they would disappear in his lifetime, and when he married Muriel, she was keen too and created an alpine house to grow alpine plants, as well as rare natives from the Poor Knights Islands. They labelled all their plants just like a botanical garden - there's a coprosma collection, a grass collection, and an offshore islands collection. As well as over sixty different native trees and shrubs.  They spread the natives plants salvation gospel far and wide to anyone who would listen. Plus they hugged a few trees as well to stop the developers from logging.

Today you can visit Fernglen  and even help out at the weekend working bee to keep the place tidy plus learn all about native plants. It's a green oasis amongst suburbia with walking tracks over streams and different native themed areas. Bill and Muriel have now passed away, and their property is gifted to the council to maintain as a public garden. There's a meeting house/education centre where you can have a cup of tea and talk about natives with others.  On the day we visited we heard the thrum of a leaf blower, it was their son Malcolm doing a tidy up. We had a chat with him and he told us he lived not far away and just came to check on the plants. He said it was a labour of love.

I have an affinity with native plants as they all scream 'I am born in New Zealand' and think they have the right to be here first. That's something I sometimes want to say out loud too but people all think I'm exotic and had to be born somewhere else. But I don't know, maybe we are being too precious with our natives and ought to be exporting them overseas where Irish people adore cabbage trees and English people plant flaxes in pots as accent plants. And the ferns make excellent oxygenators so move over HRV air conditioning,  install some ferns instead.