New Year

 The calendar has been changed..it's now what, the 7th year of Rambling Garden Diary? How time has flown!  Planet FM radio host Hector and his wife visited New Gardenland and we bonded at the Plant Barn over hibiscus and milkshakes. It looks like I may have a spot on his show as he may have on mine...when we can get to the studio that is. Garden Planet is on hiatus until we move premises so Karyn and I can catch our breaths and not Covid. Or Omicron, as it is now called.

The summer has turned out to be a long warm one, and I have many flowers flourishing. Each time one flowers I point it out to dad. He's given up taking photos of ME and now takes them of my flowers instead. That is good because I never was exactly photogenic, but flowers are and don't mind being photographed. 

Though I am more inclined to pick them because a photo cannot give you the smell.. so our vases are full. I have also taken to drying them and pressing them. I am also experimenting with making 'Monoi' oil out of the gardenias. Except I do need coconut oil instead what I have which is olive oil, but needs must. We don't have any vodka which can also be used to preserve gardenia scent. 

Kings Plant Barn have their annual 25% off sale ...I have been very restrained, and only bought red gazanias as they won't need a lot of water, to plant by the driveway. Of seasonal plants we had our Christmas lilies, and also ornamental peppers that I gave to the twins, which are of all different colours - orange, yellow, red, green, purple and white, all on the one plant.  They make very good Christmas decorations I must say. 

I must look back on my list and perhaps snag a kalanchoe or two. The prices for variegated house plants have gone a bit nuts - ranging from $99.99 for a small trailing plant and up to $159.99 for hoya. Though good old spider plant which I have plenty of at home doesn't fetch so much...I wonder if plant breeders decide they want to add red striped spider plants whether that will put prices up though I have never seen any. 

Some of the stars in my garden show...

Hibiscus

Yellow Lily

Pink Lily

Canna lily 

Apples growing from Crimson Spire

School's out!

 Hooray I can get back to gardening again now school is out. And maybe Karyn and I can do more Garden Planet episodes. We are meant to be moving to a new studio next year in Mt Albert, as the old villa is earmarked for destruction since the Unitec campus is getting a housing development. It used to be the old matrons house when Carrington Mental Hospital was operating. Of course I am no stranger to insanity....

Thankfully my brain wasn't taxed too much this year thanks to over 4 months of Auckland lockdown. It meant I could read all the books I liked and no forced studying. I don't really know how all the children got along without any school and watching everything on tv!  My plants in the library have been given a water and they should survive for another six weeks. I've only got super tough plants - spider plants, aloe vera, Mother in Law's tongue and hoya. 

The first gardenia of the season poked through and smells divine. I wonder if I can make gardenia water or perfume? Would it work? Seems such a shame that the flowers do not last all that long. A pink lily has flowered by the driveway - plus another Christmas Lily that looks like a gramophone trumpet. 

Mum had some complaints of 'plants in the way' so I have moved a couple of plants to new spots in the garden. Big silver fern is now by the loquat and hen and chickens fern is underneath. Libertia is now near the lavender. Some of my pumpkin seeds have come up.  I had to sacrifice more spider plants to make room but they multiply so much I don't think I'll ever be without any. One I have given to Rita as a house/flat warming gift. 

This is a bit secret squirrel but I don't think my brothers ever read this blog so I can say here..I found gladioli bulbs called 'Titanic' so that will be one Christmas present and the other will be the book '1001 gardens you should see before you die'. I'm hoping that if ever we can travel again my brothers will shout me on a round the world trip (especially to China or Japan) to see the gardens there, and then maybe see Kew Gardens and my sister on the way, as well as Monet's Garden in France, and the Butchard Gardens in Canada.  Never know, could happen. Could take the Packard along. When we all win lotto, as my Bonus Bonds only amounted to $70.70.

The other Christmas miracle am hoping for is  a new letterbox since the snails are now eating all my mail. 

Dad took some photos. A couple of Monarch butterflies, my trumpet lily, pohutakawas, Mummy Cat on the grass...and of course, the tram with pohutakawas at MOTAT. 

Auckland in the red

 I took mum out to the Parnell Rose Gardens on Sunday as we wanted to at least go somewhere now the 'traffic light system' is operating. I figured it would be nice to see all the roses in bloom. We did see them but more impressive at the moment is the pohutakawa trees which are vividly blooming red all around Auckland. Ironically Auckland is still in 'Red' at the traffic lights. 

Mum thinks we could make rose wine, as Por Por used to make it. But we need roses that haven't been sprayed, and I'm not too sure about those Parnell Rose Garden roses. Unfotunately they all seem to have lost their scent too, as we tried smelling them and none bowled us away. I don't know who is looking after them now (maybe a council department that has contracted out to the lowest bidder?) but the roses looked like they needed a good fertiliser and mulch. 

The Nancy Steen Garden though was looking as lovely as ever, with the borders filled with annuals and perennials. I'm not too keen on the all white garden, but the rest of the garden featured some gorgeous flowers like purple catmints, lobster claws, echinops, ladies mantles and pansies that I want to repeat in my own driveway border. 

I came home one day to find that dad had ripped out all the plants to the left of the back door, leaving only the jade money tree in its pot.  Of course I was distraught but mollified somewhat that mum had saved the daphne and the aeonium from total destruction and was planning to transplant them somewhere else. 

It's because she needs access to the tap so now there is nothing but sharp stones and I can see the black plastic peeking through the holes. Sigh. You win some you lose some. The daphne is now in a pot (hopefully it will live through this trauma) and the aeonium is now turning purple in its new spot in the front yard where the mugwort used to grow. 

Apart from that I was able to get to the first Te Puna Saturday market where there were only five stalls, though one was selling plants so I got a zucchini for $3, and that's growing near some goji berry cuttings. My lazy housewife beans have come up as has my snake beans I only hope it's not too late in the season for them as my uncle already has flowers on his beans. He says its not worth growing snake beans but I've never tried so..we will see. He also had them tied to strings and placed a plank of wood underneath the eave of his garage with nails all along to tie the strings to. But I don't think my dad would do anything like that to his garage. This time the beans are going to grow up maple branch prunings against the back fence. 

I also have the cucumber Jacqui gave me and several pumpkins have sprouted so it will be a race to the finish of who can scramble over the garden the longest. The only thing is we don't have room for blocks of sweetcorn or tomatoes which is a real shame as they are my favourite veges. Well I better go water my cosmos and beans. It looks like we'll get more Christmas lilies this year at the right time since the Pohutakawas have come early, they'll probably be all over by the 25th.  Fingers crossed that we can still have Christmas lunch and it's not all canceled this year! 

Return to Sender

 My letterbox scouting trip did not go very well. I thought I would be able to just buy a new letterbox from Mitre 10 and install it  and all would be well. Now the shops are open we are able to go and view the products instead of blindly ordering them online and hoping for the best.

I took mum along because she has strong opinions on what a good letterbox looks like. I just wanted one that would not rust, corrode, or rot. Seeing as Auckland is known for rainy weather, I thought a weatherproof one would surely be the best. Because we don't have a wall to mount a box on, or room to inset some bricks, the only option seemed to me the plastic ones. 

Mum thought the plastic ones, of which there are two types, were super ugly. There is a rural type one that has a little flag you can open up, very long and open only at the front, and the more urban type one that you can lift the lid on a hinge, basically, looks a bit like a mini rubbish(or worm) bin with a slot. 

They were $115. I was in despair because we surely needed a new letterbox but with nothing much to choose from how was Santa going to leave us any Christmas presents? Let alone Christmas cards. We also looked in Bunnings. They had fancier letterboxes, but same story. 

Unless...I write to NZ Post, tell them about my dilemma, and ask them if they would mind sparing a not used letter box for us. Or...hitch a sack to a post. Or empty my worm bin, and use THAT for our letterbox. You'll just need to lift the lid to put the letters in. 

Anyhow I can't think too much as my brain will hurt and I'll start sneezing again at the prospect of going all over town shopping for a new letterbox. Perhaps there will be one at the dump, that some  owners have ditched because it looks too old fashioned for their brand new property renovation/development  that I could rescue? 

While pondering this Dad would like to share the photo he took of our bottlebrush, now in bloom. It's a Little John one so won't grow to shade his thermometer. I actually heard him surmising, after I had cut back the fennel a bit more, that maybe he COULD move the thermometer a few centimetres further into the lawn.

 

On my feet again

 Well after nearly two weeks of self-imposed quarantine thanks to...the wasp jab! I am now immune from walking in the garden barefoot and will make sure I always wear shoes when weeding. I celebrated by walking to Kings Plant Barn where I bought some seeds - snake beans, 'Lazy Housewife' beans and cosmos. As well as seaweed fertiliser.  

The garden centre seemed fairly busy though I figured it was safe to go there seeing as half of it is outside and with all the plants around it would have been well oxygenated. It was nice to look at the spring plants and to see everyone's front yards in flower. 

On my way back I came across some bottle gourds for sale at the Indian shop (as well as tomatoes, chilis and bitter melon) so bought one to climb the back fence. Then Jacqui drove by to drop me a lebanese cucumber she had extra and so I will plant those together.

Gardenia got a good soak of epsom salts as did my foot in the bath, and I am fairly certain after that soak the swelling went right down. 

Everything is blooming, the feijoas, the bottle brush, the abutilons which never stop - did you know you can eat abutilon flowers? Just as you can magnolias and lillies. I am sure that no cafe has really picked this up and put out a menu of flower dishes, but it could be a winner? Or maybe for school lunches? 

Mum got some coriander seed from my uncle and now it seems I need to do another round of planting, problem is..where? I am rapidly running out of room. Dad hadn't relented and let me have the next bit of New Gardenland I want to reclaim..beside the garage. Instead he accused my plants of forming a 'brick wall' and shading out his temperature gauge spot, and when I suggested instead of cutting down the trees maybe he could just move the thermometer? Oh no can't do that! It's been there for 40 years. Right.

So to avoid World War three I just thinned out some branches and he seemed happy. Phew, kowhai and manuka saved (for now). Dad seemed a bit obsessed with recording the lunar eclipse, but again, it was a non-event as it usually is because the cloud was covering it. I learn never to pay much attention, whenever one wants to see a brilliant sunrise,  sunset or full moon or even Matariki, you can guarantee that the sky will be overcast! 

My neighbour gave me a geranium cutting I think it's called 'Martha Washington' geranium. I exchanged some zygocactus with her. I am glad that my neighbours are getting into gardening despite the harsh conditions in West Auckland clay. Though I have heard some rumours that down the back the owners want to build another townhouse in their backyard. I hope it won't be another container shed house like what they built round the corner of Riverpark. Whatever they build I hope they at least put a decent roof on it, not like some houses I have seen that don't even have eaves, so in the next downpour the water goes straight down the walls and ends up rotting the house. I reckon there ought to be a 'Worst Homes and Gardens' magazine, where everyone votes on the worst looking and most badly designed home, and takes pictures of weeds (for ID purposes) and it will be as educational as the aspirational, out of one's league  'Better Homes and Gardens' magazine on what NOT to do. 

Anyway, it is back to school on Monday (finally! Auckland has been as lockdown as Wuhan this time round) but don't worry as yours truly has been double vaccinated and multiple stung by wasps. And lived to tell the tale. 

Ouch

 I'm off work for the week - was stung by a nasty wasp on my foot when I was weeding out the applemint! Note to self - don't garden in bare feet! 

I am not going to post a photo of the hideousness it has left, suffice to say, my left foot now looks like an elephants bubble wrapped balloon toy! 

Christmas has come a bit early, thanks to Saint Jacqui, who left some sweetcorn seeds in my decaying/rotting letterbox, in exchange for lettuce seeds in the new Woodside letterbox (that I rescued from the dump). Mike has also been leaving a constant supply of avocados and lemons, for which me and mum are very grateful for, as it relieves the monotony of having baked beans for lunch in lockdown. Oh well, it's better than carrots everyday for school lunch! 

Yates should have known by my last name that I was not going to be a fan of lettuce and sent me Chinese cabbage, chives or bok choy instead. I had sent away for free seeds for National Gardening Week (meant to be in October) for which we are meant to plant an extra row, and give the produce to charity. However, I don't think many people really like lettuce, it doesn't fill you up that much. To me it's just something people put on hamburgers to say they've eaten something green...

I think I'd rather eat taro or kumara leaves than crunchy watery raw lettuce sorry. Speaking of taro, I have divided some clumps at Woodside and now half of them are in my little pond garden I've made out out of a pot near the tangelo tree. The extras are gracing the ditch that leads to the creek. 

Back to my cleared garden, which has now had a lot of pumpkin seeds thrown at it (will they grow? who knows?), I've been thinking if I ever get to Rogers after lockdown ends ... I need some ground cover plants that are good weed suppressors. I have two in mind that might work or at least crowd out the creeping buttercups - alchemia mollis aka Lady's Mantle, and helichrysum aka licorice plant. I've grown furry licorice plant before and know it spreads into a huge bush but I think it could work against the back fence. 

Anyway I am itching to get to the Garden Centre..literally. But I can't until this swelling comes down My foot  looks like it's going to burst at any moment. It could be worse, I suppose. But people may think I've got covid anyway with all the sneezing thanks to hayfever. I've had to make sure that no grass grows tall enough to flower because that sets me right off.  Arrrgh. 

Christmas wish list

 I thought I might put in an early letter to Santa and see if he brings me any garden goodies. So here's the deal big guy, I'll be good and prepare everything, weed and tidy, and maybe a miracle will happen and these plants will appear in my garden? Or supplies will magically turn up by my letterbox? By the way, we need a new one since ants started eating the wooden one and it's starting to rot!

So Santa,  here is the list - gardening items

1. New letterbox - one that won't rust or rot. Or will give it a double coat of paint if it's an old one.

2. Epsom salts for the gardenia

3. Indoor decorative ceramic cover pots all matching to put our houseplants in

4. Outdoor decorative cover pots all matching

5. Seaweed fertiliser

6. Container mix

Plants

1. English iris bulbs

2. Babiana bulbs

3. Dahlis tubers

4. Bluebell bulbs

5. Freesia bulbs

6. Ixia bulbs

7. Eerlicheer bulbs

8. Lillies - tiger lily and asiatic lilies (they are edible!)

9. Lobelia for potted colour

10. Alyssum for hanging basket

11. Kalanchoe - all different colours

12. Alstromeria peruvian lily

13. Burrow's tail succulent for hanging basket

14. Statice seedling punnet

15. Bean seeds

16. Gourd seeds

17. Sweetcorn seeds

Well Santa that gives you plenty of options in case you are out of stock I would be happy with any one of these items.  I heard you won't be in the big parade this year. But I'm not worried if I don't see you.  You know where I live.  Just leave anything under my Christmas tree (this year I've chosen Tangelo as the honorary Christmas tree) 

Lots of love from one of your helpers

Selina Elf

Mowvember - Spring Fever

 Garden is going great thanks to all attention being paid to her in Locktober.  I have been very busy and got spring fever (not covid) and thankfully next door removed their privet tree so I haven't been sneezing so much. I have noticed they have moved their lavenders to be nearer their fruit trees and the taros are now planted by their fence.

I have moved my taros too to the north bed by the wisterias where it is always damp (buttercups grow profusely) and some are also now living in a pot that is a shallow pond - them being swampy/aquatic plants. I managed to harvest five big fat ones, though they have been growing for several years half forgotten behind the garage. 

My lavenders have been trimmed and the flowers are now being dried in the garage. Got to keep them in shape or they flop all over the place! Echium also got some surgery and now there's a stick library which I am going to put out for the dogs of the neighbourhood to borrow and return. 

Mum and I pruned the tangelo a bit, well the old leaves which had whitefly on it. If the tree is opened up a but more, air and birds can circulate who can eat the bugs and it won't be so infested. It's kind of like getting rid of nits in your hair. Radical solution is to remove all the leaves! 

I have also been pruning the camellia and feijoa to open it up a bit and bromeliads are now happily ensconced in the lower branch crooks. The 'fat lady sings bed' had several spider plants removed (now gone to good homes in Riverpark...I left them outside the fence for anyone to take) and the agapanthus is now near the back gate. I managed to find a daphne shrublet and another tiny gardenia buried amongst all the growth. 

As lockdown continues into November it's certain this year won't be any garden trip to Rotorua, or Rogers Garden Centre in Mangere for that matter so am just making do with what I already have (and removing what I don't need). Out came an ugly spiky aloe, and in went a fuzzy succulent I bought from the garden club trading table that had been sitting in a pot for most of the year. 

Beth called and said I was welcome to adopt her geraniums (hooray!) as she STILL hasn't moved to a new house though she managed to finally actually sell her old one. Otherwise the pots are getting a refresher even without new potting mix as I swap and change them around. 

I miss recording Garden Planet with Karyn, it's just not the same in lockdown so its on hiatus for now but hopefully next year we'll be back in the swing of things. 

Locktober continued..

 Well I have head that schools in Auckland aren't getting back until November 15 at least, so I have.....even more time to enjoy the garden! The pelargoniums in the previous post have dried up so I gave the bush a big cut back to the wall and allowed for the yarrow that was growing underneath to come up. It had shaded out the ground and left bare soil where once was grass/lawn so now lambs ears have migrated to form a new colony. New Gardenland is being reclaimed! 

The spring weather has seen lots of fresh growth, the buxus have now put out fresh shoots so everything is that limey-green new growth colour. The grapes are leafing up, and the sweet peas have given me their first vase. 

I've decided to thin out some of the mondo grass edging and make a mondo grass path on the south side of the house as well. I figure it will be ok to walk on (or drive over) seeing it's pretty tough. 

Then one of the hanging basket wall mangers was looking tired so I've removed the potting mix to pots and the hessian sack was rotting through so I've got to find a replacement or find plants that are ok to live hanging of railings. Spanish moss?  The other two seemed ok and healthy. 

I placed more thyme in pots around the terrace. The planter that is full of mint and chives needs refilling and fresh mix put in because ants are living in it. 

I have a few more jobs to do. Am waiting for the camellia to finish flowering so I can prune it back..I want to prune out the under growth so its more of a tree as the plants underneath are being stifled by the bushy growth. So am being a bit Edward Scissorhands with my garden at the moment. Forget-me-nots got a chop and were tossed under the feijoa in hopes they will colonise and crowd/shade out the oxalis.

Mum killed another plant, this time a spinach she said was too old, urging me to pull it out, but she didn't see the younger shoot wanting to grow and now she's killed both. I would have cut the old shoot so the younger shoot had a chance but now both are dead as doornails and we will have no spinach. Why do I even listen to her.  

Carpet roses are returning, maybe I will just cut them right back every time because I was never able to dig them all out.  Tenacious plants those. In some ways, like people. Once you've dug your roots in, you are there for life. 

Living in an overcrowded, diverse garden isn't for everyone. A bit like Auckland City. Some people don't appreciate diversity (in plants) and just want one kind of plant for miles. But the problem with that is...its very boring..and, if some pest (like insects)  likes to eat that particular plant you've just provided a grand feast for them. 

Monarch butterflies have been very happy in my garden. According to some books, they are meant to live in Canada and migrate to Mexico every northern winter. But mine just like to stay right where they are in my garden. 

 

Blooming lovely

 My flower garden is blooming! It's the best I've ever seen it this spring that I can't even blog about it because I won't do it justice writing about it! Or even taking photos of it. Hmm unless I open an instagram account and then there will be flowers being posted every second one opens. 

However I've harvested many different flowers to press in my flower book - in which I found that the weedy creeping buttercup keeps it's golden yellow colour best of all.

I'm super excited that my POPPY has finally flowered, the first time I've been able to grow one. It's a bright orange Iceland one popping (excuse the pun) among the blue forget-me-nots. 

Echium has done its dash so I've cut the flower spikes down and just left a few to go to seed while now it's lavender and dutch iris turn for purple glory. The sweet peas are coming and soon there will be posies to gather. 

Hector, one of our Planet FM radio hosts has asked Karyn and I for a chat (if we ever get out of lockdown) about plants on his show, broadcasting for the Konkani community. He's studying horticulture. I gave him a few weed IDs to help him complete his assignment. 

I do miss my Floral Club and Community Garden a bit, but time being spent going to meetings and working bees and what not is just now spent enjoying my own garden. I guess there's really no place like home. 

My next door neighbours did a surprising thing. Gardening! They replanted their lavender shrubs by the house to grace the plum and pear trees next to the fence..and the taro is now planted in a row in their front yard. Then their side of the house weed bed they covered over in weed mat. So maybe prayers are coming true, if they really get into gardening, maybe some of my plants can 'jump the fence' and we'll have gardens on BOTH sides of the driveway. Martha would help them out for sure with the fertilising and bug eating jobs.  She's been getting a bit restless and wanting to break the rules and visit cousin's chickens across the road.  Mum had to call her back with the big stick (the floor mop). 

Well, I am quietly optimistic that we will save the planet..one garden at a time. 

Locktober

 

Some pix for spring....Auckland is in Level 3 for a number of weeks but the garden doesn't mind...it's enjoying all the attention! 

My alcove crammed with plants..orchids, bromeliads, aloes, succulents, spider plants...

Am loving my driveway border at the moment, removing the spider plants made a difference!

Echium puts on a show this time every year, like candles on a birthday cake...if you were 162 years old! The bees are having a great party. 

Flowering now

 1. mini iris

2. dutch iris

3. clivia

4. abutilon

5. freesia

6. echium

7. bluebell

8. kowhai

9. gladioli

10. lavender

11. rosemary

12. babiana

13. geranium

14. pelargonium

15. onion

16. camellia

17. marguerite daisy

18. aloe

19. succulent

20. peach blossom

21. violet

22. oxalis

23. forget-me-not

24. balsam

25. nasturtium

26. poor man's orchid

27. cymbidium orchid

28. azalea

29. toadflax

30. calendula

31. dandelion

32. hellebore

33. daphne

Flower gauge

 The spring temperature now stands at 31 - 31 flowers out today. I have been counting all the different flowers out in the garden and every day it rises by one or 2 flowers. The latest is the yellow dutch iris, which will soon be followed by the purple.

Spring is finally here! 

We are still in lockdown level 4 till 13 September. It has been a time of rest for me mostly and an appreciation of spring and all that is to come. We had our heavy rain, one of the second heaviest since my dad began recording the rain but records are always being continually broken in one way or another so I am not surprised,  spring weather is MEANT to be unpredictable. It has still been a bit nippy some nights but I don't expect too much cold or frosts to return though to be absolutely safe I am holding off sowing vege seeds until later in the season, even till October. 

Meantime I have sown flower seeds to get the bees in and even more flowers - this time, a four packet of Annabel Langbein's pollinating plants. It has sage, purple tansy, Queen Anne's Lace and borage. The seed packet expired about 5 years ago, but they were in foil, so, I expect at least some to germinate. 

Mum and I have been down to the community garden to harvest some green veges for dinner, there's cauliflower, broccoli, kale, asparagus and cabbage. We are eating all the contents of our freezer, although Dad hasn't stopped buying his sausages and chips. He just needs to wear a mask when he goes out. I had decided its better that he does the shopping because then he can get what he likes (junk food) whereas I just baulk at buying food I won't really eat. He still drinks milk, though I kind of think milk is a baby food we all ought to be weaned off by now.  It's no longer delivered, but that hasn't really stopped the milk habit. 

Staying at home means no free school lunches for me but I was kind of tired of eating carrots everyday! Though it also means no pizza too. Oh well.

My sugar snap peas are still growing up and I have cleared a patch where the kumara were to plant perhaps pumpkins, buttercup or maybe sunflowers this season.

Today mum and I replanted the fig tree (the one dad nearly destroyed..remember?) in the front bed where Mary is buried. I didn't dig TOO deep in case we accidently dug her up. But it seemed like the soil was pretty good and even had plenty of earthworms, which is a good sign. Mum was feeling sorry for the fig tree which was becoming root bound in the pot. I was a bit iffy of planting it in the front bed because every tree/shrub I had tried to grow there had died...but now the neighbour's tree is no longer, it might have a chance as it will get more sun.  Plus who know what benefits Mary's body had bought to the soil?

Still had nowhere to plant the lemon tree that Cenny gave me (it still has scale) or the lime Ben offered me (it can stay in the pot). When I suggested the backyard Mum said if I planted it there Dad would kill me.  If he did that he'd have to bury my body in the backyard and plant the tree on top of it. 

Thrown into lockdown again

 Spring is nearly here...the echiums are budding, the lavender is coming out, the magnolia, freesia and other bulbs are all showing their colours. Gladioli is unfurling her pink flag...

We are in lockdown for at least 7 days whilst dealing with the return of covid-delta variant. The garden is coming back to life with calendula, alstromeria and nasturtium re-sprouting (and Martha making fresh diggings). Unfortunately lockdown came just as I was ready to go to our Floral Club meeting that evening but decided to stay home instead as I am sure most everyone else did who got the message. A shame because that was when a speaker from Mitre 10 was going to chat with us, and there would have been orchids for sale, plus I am sure Janette had some babianas for me. 

That also meant no new garden books to preview..and there are some good ones like these 

Petal Power by Julia Atkinson Dunn

The Forager's Treasury by Johanna Knox

The Abundant Garden by Niva Kay and Yotam Kay

I should have said I'll take them home anyway and read them...but I guess I will just have to stick with the library books I had already borrowed which include a book on vertical gardens called 'Growing up the Wall' and one on Botanical Beauty.

Otherwise, I have a few jobs to do including neeming my lemon tree that still has scale, it did fruit but I neglected to harvest the three lemons that it had and they succumbed. And also pruning and neeming the tangelo tree.

I also may finish tidying up the buxus hedge though I haven't yet decided whether or not to clip a cat into it. 

The hedge fund

 I have tried to find time to clip the hedge between rains. So far I have not done anything adventurous but given the buxus hedges a bit of a trim. Like my hair they have grown long and rather wispy and unruly. I know my hair personally suits a bowl cut, but I find I need to rebel every so often and wear it loose and long. Perhaps it's my inner hippy that's trying to break free.

The trimmings I have kind of brushed to one side as mulch. As the wind and rains continue the empty bed by the wisteria is seeing signs of life  - the dock is growing back, as are the nasturtiums and calendula.  I have pruned the wisteria back to two limbs to give the grapevine room to spread. Mum was threatening to cut the entire wisteria out but I said it would only grow back. So I compromised and now we have a little 3 metre wide  wisteria bush instead of one six metres wide. The rest of the bed I have spread out more chamomile. 

My hyacinth experiment at school didn't work out as great as I hoped. I had only two bulbs that flowered and one has grown big leaves but no flower and the rest are no shows. I reckon they need that special vase where they just sit above the water and not on the pebbles.  

The school staffroom got a makeover with new furnishings and now even has...plants! In matching pots. I know indoor pots can be very expensive so I wonder where all the funding came from. I am considering getting some snazzy pots possibly from Kmart and putting my homegrown plants in them. I don't know who is looking after the plants in the staff room but I know my spider plants are still alive and thriving, I have even been asked for the babies. 

Sad news Jacqui's cat Timmy was run over last week. She and Mike were pretty devastated. They still have his sister, Tui, but it's so hard to lose a pet.

 I haven't been down to the Woodside garden much the last time I went got an earful from the others  I decided I really had enough of being nagged and didn't go back. If everytime you try and do something it gets thrown in your face and they get all nasty about it then I'm not even going to bother. I'm sorry but that's the way it is with me. Gardening is my outdoor solace and place of peace but if people are going to take that away from me and make it all about how hard they work and make it a punishment then sorry. I didn't sign up for that. 

I see a lot of cats round the garden, though Mummy Cat hasn't let any of them come inside or get close they kind of see me and then run into the hedges. I have planted some ajuga underneath the apple trees and removed some of the applemint so it can flourish. Also I have finally removed two flower carpet roses that were still left where my brothers had planted them by the maple. I couldn't dig out the entire roots but I dug as much as I could and where the remaining root was I figured if I coated it with superglue, it wouldn't grow back. Will it work? I don't know but two succulents are now where they were, and I had to remove an old lavender although I could take plenty of cuttings from it. 

My next plan is to check out Janette's garden and get some more spring plants from her for the flower garden, babianas, alstromerias etc. And then head over to Rogers Garden Centre in the next school holidays in Mangere. I also have a bird bath I want to fill with water plants. So all that and pots requires some $$ so I am saving all my Paperplus money for that. 

Loretta has said she'd like to join the floral club so I next meeting I am going to take her along. I am trying to get her back into gardening. I noticed that my snow peas have sprouted so hopefully I will have a crop this spring. That's all for now.

Gardening on the (North) shore

 I paid a visit to Adrienne's garden on Monday where she is living in Northcote near the primary school,  she has the basement bottom of a unit and the landlord has let her have the sloping backyard, to which she has made a wildflower garden at the base of the driveway, a vege and herb patch in pots on the sunny northern side, and a grapevine and choko vine framing the boundaries. 

Since she is 80 years old and living on her own I find this impressive that she is still gardening and so enthusiastic about plants. She has plans for the corner of the yard that slopes down toward the fence to have a banana grove, and while wild buttercups has clothed every other part at least she does not have to bother with a noisy lawnmower at the back (it would probably roll down the hill). 

Then we visited Northcote Library which I had never been to before, which has a little community led garden in a sunny alcove facing north, with a few rasied beds, citrus, a compost bin and worm farm, to which she sometimes gives workshops and talks. She also wanted to show me Smith's bush, which is a little reserve right in the middle of Northcote, of kahikatea and a stream beside a boardwalk through native 'virgin' forest.

She then gifted me a whole lot of Organic NZ magazines. I think she is a bit of an evangelist for gardening as she had suffered a lot of mental illness in the past and had found it grounding or therapeutic to garden organically. I don't think it is too dissimilar to how many people get into gardening although some has said 'gardening is the gateway drug' - don't think that means to growing pot though!

There is actually a book called 'Grow your own drugs' though I thought many people had cottoned on to that but never took it seriously. Of course I myself dabbled in herbs, and I really do believe plants have super healing powers if not magic, so maybe I'm just as nutty. 

I am now reading Seven Flowers That Changed the World.

I better get on to it because Karyn and I are recording two episodes on the topic of world changing plants. I will have a long list. 

Happy Matariki!

 Well the eyes of God are shining on my garden over Matariki as now we are into a new gardening year, I have cleared away the old and am going to start with the new in my little vege patch, that has been harvested of it's cabbages, kumara, and yacon. I manured it with sheep pellets and forked in the two batches of compost I had made, which mostly ended up being dried up clumps of applemint and grass clippings, to further break down till the beginning of spring.

I have just moved about six strawberry plants to this bed, hoping that maybe they will do better with more sun and soil and mulch, and am thinking of what else to plant further back from the path near the leafless wisteria. I had been up to Kings yesterday, they were having a 20% off sale so I bought some snowpea seeds and a pink babiana. I am not sure where to plant the babiana yet. I really liked the babianas in flower at the Auckland Botanic Gardens last time I was there, and thought they were great groundcover, so I hope they multiply and decorate my garden. Janette has promised me some more from her garden. Dorothy offered some mini irises on the trading table so I've got those as well. 

Mum and I visited the Wintergardens on Friday, they are earthquake strengthening the glasshouses so one was closed but the tropical house was still open. It was nice and warm and lovely to see the orchids in bloom there and the cattails. Outside near the ponds and fountains they had ornamental kale and cyclamen in pots. 

Adrienne from Soil and Health wants me to come visit her garden up in Northcote, and there's also a library community garden she wants me to see as well. Was going to go today but we decided to postpone it and wait for better weather as its rather cloudy and cold. 

The other garden trip I am planning on going on is the Floral Club trip to Rotorua, which is in November. I don't know if I'll get to Taranaki this year yet, but that has always been on the (expensive) bucket list for who has the time and the $$? Another trip that's been offered is one to Marlborough that Penny and Ian of Hikoi tours are organising, though that too is kinda out of my price range. But if anyone would like to sponsor me?? Nobody? Ok. We can't always do what we want.

Now it's School Holidays so I have some reading to catch up on, no I hadn't got round to 'Ponds and Waterfalls' or 'Espaliering' as both seem unlikely in my garden, but my eye is on my birdbath that mum filled with sand for Martha, but she isn't using it so I think it would make a perfect miniature fairy garden. Now I have borrowed this book about it, and it looks really cute.  

I mean I'm not sure I really believe in fairies, but if they are miniature angels then sure why not. 

I decided I will leave another facebook gardening group as I got tired of people constantly posting 'How do I get rid of this plant' and posting pictures of it then everyone coming up with ways of killing it dead. But not before making a stand and saying for killing a plant you will have bad plant karma and could be sentenced to live in plant jail for the rest of your life in a barren apartment building.  You know, it was probably a  Baby Boomer as it sounds  exactly like something a Boomer would do.  Sorry Boomers, you not going to get away with your casual destruction of the environment just because you bought it with your money. 

700 new plants at Riverpark!

 Here's the list that we planted last Saturday. It was a good turnout, though I couldn't stay for bbq lunch as I had to get to the bookshop. But am so happy we made a start on the revitalising of Riverpark.

We planted all along the boundary of the reserve toward the creek area. The next stage of planting will be more on our side, which David has already been planting with kowhai, kakabeak, manuka and whau. The weather turned out fine for our planting day and we hope that in a few years time our birds will be making their new homes there.

100 Leptospermum scoparium - Manuka

50 Pittosporum crassifolium -Karo

7 Pittosporum eugenioides -Lemonwood or Tarata

5 Vitex lucens - Puriri

5 Alectryon excelsus - Titoki

5 Dysoxylum spectabile - Kohekohe

7 corynocarpus laevigatus -Karaka

5 P. totara -Totara

 

100 Phormium tenax -Flax

50 Rhopalostylis sapida -Nikau

100 Coprosma robusta -Karamu

20 coprosma repens - Taupata

50 Myrsine australis - Red Matipo

20 Kunzea ericoides -Kanuka

25 Pseudopanax crassifolius - Lancewood or Horoeka

50 Cordyline australis - Cabbage Tree

101 Macropiper excelsum - Kawakawa

700 Total!

700

 

 

Barren period

 According to my moon calendar, we are in the middle of the barren period, which is just as well for it's that time of the month when I don't have the energy to do anything plus I have caught the cold and have been off work for a week. I think maybe I just always have this virus, and it just gets triggered whenever we have a cold snap. So its not that I've been catching it from anyone else. It just never goes away, and comes to life whenever the temperature drops below a certain degree when we forget to turn the heating on.

Thankfully it is not fatal like the OTHER virus. It just makes life very foggy and listless, and now all the leaves have fallen and the ground is mush, so I can't do anything anyway. When I did go to the garden centre, it was to have lunch with friends. I asked 'are there any bulbs left to plant?' and the answer was no, they had all sold out.

Winter hibernation is my cue to get reading all those gardening books on the bookshelf that I've never had the time to read, like books on Espaliering, Making Ponds and Waterfalls, and other obscurities like 'Herbs for the Pregnant mother'. I gave the last book away because I thought that was just too unlikely to ever happen. 

I have read one that is quite inspiring though (thanks Adrienne for recommending it) called Wilding by Isabella Tree. Yes that's her actual name. The subtitle is 'The return to nature of a British Farm'. It was all about a country estate who's owners decided that they would quit farming it and let it go...back to nature. Then surprisingly all the wildlife came back, even the supposedly extinct ones (well, maybe exaggerating, but when they farmed it, the wildlife up and left) and so even..GORSE and ragwort have their place - as little nurseries for mighty oak trees. 

Now if only I had a huge country estate that I could turn into pastoral paradise and have wild pigs turning up truffles and chinese mushrooms that fetch the highest price in the gourmet number one bbq restaurant. 

Unfortunately, I do not, but the lack of land (or rather ownership of said land)  has not deterred me.  I live near a river right? Surely there must be some sort of clause that says 'if living near a river, there must be access to it and fish'. Or 'those living near a river need to keep it clean' or something like that. Can't just go dumping dead bodies and supermarket trolleys in it all the time.

What about school? Apparently there is a whole kitchen garden set up behind some classrooms that nobody has tended to in a few years. Maybe that could be...MY patch. And there won't be a Mrs  Busybody nagging me to chop up the compost into tiny pieces and pull clover out that the bees are happily snacking on. What if I bring a few chickens to school? 

hmm

Big dreams for a little gardener. 

Well, must get on with life and lie low until the 8th. 

May days

 How time flies!

It's the middle of May and big sis has flown back to Ye smellie olde London as  I call it. The thing with family visits is, it kinda takes a lot of your time, I am sure I gardened at some point but I can't recall now what I've done except over the past few days. Sis did take me out to lunch at the Garden Shed in Mt Eden. I must say it's a much nicer shed than the container we have at Woodside that smells of petrol from the mulcher. 

Today I repotted an aloe, put primulas in, planted a cyclamen near the house (thanks JoAnne!)...

I recall harvesting kumara from the back garden, and planting silverbeet, planting ivy geranium near the fence, and seeing my dutch iris sprout. Bulbs are now coming up..wonder if it might be too late to get them in the ground for spring.  I put in some catnip for Mummy Cat. 

One of my neighbours is holding a Riverpark planting day in June. The reserve is going to be planted up, with more natives I told him to get extra funding from EcoMatters and he got extra plants. 

Last night I went to Floral club meeting, and entered an arrangement this time, it managed to place 3rd equal, not bad for a first go as I'd never entered before. Cenny however won best bloom for King Protea with a whopping 19 votes. 

Janette is going to give me babiana bulbs. This years garden trip might be to Rotorua or Waiheke Island. And am hoping to get to Rogers at some point, one of the legendary garden centres in Mangere amongst gardeners. They practically give them away there. 

I guess I better start thinking of my wishlist now, so that I have some idea of what I will plant before the winter sets in, or what I'd like to see come spring. It is dwindling I must say to the point where I might be ready to start New Gardenland 2 but thing is, if I'm going to go anywhere new I don't want there to be any rules or restrictions on what I can or cannot plant. I just don't do rules - man made rules anyway.

I've figured if God wills, it will grow. After all He's in charge of the weather,  and He created the land, not me. 

Gardening tales

 Went down for a walk in the Woodside garden, I laid the bait for mum - kumara leaves. So we went and picked some, as well as some chillies and a load of lavender.  My secret plants are showing shoots and the radishes have swollen.

Karyn and I are still chatting on Garden Planet. She has started her own show Korero with Karyn and it's on once a month before Garden Planet. I think Karyn is a natural and very easy conversationalist, while I am not so much. We've picked out our topics for the coming month, mine is on paper and Karyn's is on photosynthesis. 

I didn't know how some people could get such a buzz out of chemistry and mathematics, but they do. For me, looking at patterns and straight lines and things sometimes just makes my head hurt. I'm always the one breaking out of the box. I don't understand how people think sometimes when they miss the obvious because they always want things square shaped or linear. 

For example, remember crop circles? These patterns appeared in fields of wheat in England, and people really thought they were caused by aliens! How could plants be flattened in circles when farmers had grown them in dead straight lines?!  

So silly. 

I'm sure the plants can grow anywhere they really bloody well please if they want and nobody would think they were wrong for doing so. It's only silly humans who want them to grow in grids and lines so they can control them. 

I finally had enough of Facebook NZ Backyard Gardeners constant moaning of 'how do I get rid of x' that I just up and left the group. The last straw was when someone wrote 'how do I get rid of chives and mint?' My last comment was 'eat them'. 

 Life is too short to think of complete annihilation all the time. 

We had our Garden Club meeting. I manned a new books table where club members can get 20% off gardening books at PaperPlus Henderson. I felt like a real sales rep at that point. 

Here is one of the winners of the Best Bloom table. Barbara's lovely Dahlia. It's a showstopper this one.

Ssh don't tell

 The Woodside gardeners may get a surprise come spring under the fruit trees. It's all very secret squirrel but surely they cannot object? Otherwise I've planted parsley in every corner of the raised beds because there was just no parsley at all in the garden. Shocking for a so-called kitchen garden not to have this essential garnish.

Mitre 10's cafe was offering free coffee grounds so I grabbed a bag to put inWoodside's compost. And sprinkled some in the radish bed - which has now come up, and may need to be thinned out soon. 

It does look like something other than oxalis is growing in Sock's bed - I can't tell if it's parsley, coriander, phacelia, yarrow, or something else I had scattered in there in hope of green coverage. For good measure, in case nothing else grows, I've put in sweet peas seeds, dutch iris bulbs, a globe artichoke seed head, swan plant seeds,  calendula seeds, borage seeds, geranium cuttings and ice plant cuttings. Please grow! Honestly anything is better than nothing, and even oxalis can look pretty when it flowers.

I found out there always seems to be a war on other Facebook garden groups. Garden Planet is very peaceful because I don't let just ANYONE join. They have to be gardeners and love gardening. But the others I am in always seem to be full of so-called gardeners asking 'how do I get rid of this plant??". And it will be a plant that is actually useful or pretty.  If you don't want it well you can pull it out, but it might grow back. What they are really after is complete  annihilation. 

I sometimes am tempted to comment back. YOU CAN JUST NUKE IT. 

I mean honestly, do parents post on Facebook groups 'how do I get rid of children'?' If you don't want any children...then don't do the thing that produced them in the first place...maybe?

Instead I just write. 'You can't get rid of plants. But you can get rid of yourself and go live in a concrete block if you want'. 

Uncle John is very taken with my dried statice flowers and seems inspired to grow some in his garden - which has a water feature, chickens AND rabbits. I am hoping my green fingered efforts would inspire my family to greater horticultural heights. Or even the next door neighbours.

It seems my prayers have been answered, because, even though sadly the boy next door passed away, their family decided to plant two fruit trees where the gardenia was so now we have a pear tree and a plum tree next to our driveway. One for Sparky and one for Nga. RIP. 

Sisters hanging out in the garden

 Miracle! I got mum and sis to come with me to the community garden. I got sis to plant some radish and chinese veges in one of the empty beds.

I had some radish on seed tape and sis was a bit sceptical that I had 

'cheated' because it was then dead easy then to sow everything in a straight line. I said well if you want to do it the hard way and sow every single radish seed by hand and space them 10 centimetres apart you can be there all night...

I got her to water the seedlings (although this was actually to keep her busy as Lord knows if I start her on anything else I run the risk of the ire of all the other gardeners for making a mess) and then prayed for rain, and it rained that night. 

As reward for our labour, I took home some livingstone daisy seedlings and two rose cigar plants that someone had kindly potted up. Mum cut some silverbeet and we harvested a few tomatoes. 

I wrote it all down in the new 2021 diary and up on the whiteboard map of the garden.

Sis had given me the garden hunter shoes you see in the  pic that she's wearing and also the red gardening gloves. 

At school I planted some hyacinth I managed to snag the very last purple bulbs in stock at Kings. I've put them in a vase over glass pebbles and water in the library, so that in 

spring we will have glorious blooms in the reference section.

I've snuck in some purple dutch iris in Sock's bed which is now dripping with feijoas. I feel like I go on a big Easter egg hunt each time I pick them up, if easter eggs can be green look like feijoas. Hey, who said eggs have to be made of chocolate? 

It's Good Friday today and I notice my garden is now putting on a red flower show. I have pinneaple sage and red pom pom dahlias, red nerines and a red canna. Christ's blood in the garden? I know I planted them but my garden continues to surprise me by blooming all at the same time. 

I try not to surprise the other Woodside gardeners with my plantings but surely they cannot object to radish and chinese veges (it was their expired seed after all) and they are not flowers so I hope that is ok. Otherwise if I hear anything else about how I can't plant this or that I'll just add it to the growing banned plants list that I need to commit to memory. 

Garden Ramble Time

 

Though working on Saturdays means I don't get to go. Though I have started going on Mondays, although sadly I get an earful from some of the grumpier gardeners when I do go, so am reconsidering whether they still want me around. Between you, me and the fencepost, I could do without the stress and just get on with it. I personally wouldn't stick around if anyone tries to nag me. 

Mum had to go to hospital but I can't convince her to come to the garden with me and chop up weeds for someone else when she won't hardly do anything in our own garden, yet expects me to do everything perfect. Meanwhile, the trimming in the orchard with  the trees and perennials gets left for months and months until everything is overgrown. I don't understand why some people just don't bother to PRUNE anything, to keep the plants healthy, and use the prunings as mulch or cuttings  but would rather pull out and dig and to make even MORE work for themselves.  I am very happy to do pruning, and not nag anyone else to do it, yet get told by others its' 'busy work' or some such rot. 

But it falls on deaf ears. It would be kind of like pulling out your own hair when you're done with it and going bald instead of giving it a good trim so it will grow again healthy and strong. Of course if pulling out your own hair is what you really want to do, go for it, but don't expect me to do it for you!

Anyway. If you see flowers in the community garden, it's only because I've convinced people to plant them, because before there was really nothing and no bees wanted to visit as there were hardly any flowers to attract them. 

Rest from the wicked

 The 7 days lockdown has passed relatively uneventfully except for a rogue tsunami warning on Saturday. I just carried on as usual but with more naps. My sister doesn't quite believe me when I say librarians need naps to rest our eyes from all the reading we do. 

Tomorrow it's back to school and work, so will load up my funcargo with books again. Today, I managed to pick up a kaffir lime (thanks Ben!) and was  shown  his syntropic food forest, just two years old, in Glen Eden. He has a keyhole garden, a hugelkultur bed, a tree that has grafted ten different kinds of apples, azzolla water weeds in buckets, a banana circle, and what must be hundreds of various edible plants all waiting to be planted in his north facing slope of a garden.  He has been busy!

The kaffir lime has gorgeous limy tasty leaves and can keep growing happily in a pot so I will keep it there for now. It does has some thorns but doesn't seem too vicious.

I harvested the fennel which has gone to seed so I've made a little teepee/obelisk from the stems in Socks's bed, and seeded it with fennel, yarrow, parsley, agapanthus, swan plant, cardoon, borage, wormwood, lychnis, basically, ANYTHING that could grow there I would be happy with. I'm planning to chuck some sheep pellets and gypsum on there and also poppies, sweet pea and any seeds past their expiry date and see what comes up. Honestly nothing's really worked in the past, not even green manure,  I'll just keep on adding organic matter until something clicks. If I can get any mushroom compost maybe that might start things.  The feijoa tree seems to be doing alright and the manuka is still there, but the abutilons look a bit lonely and straggly, while the lambs ears seem to have reached their limit and the spider plants no longer like it as it's too sunny. 

Martha has been helping dig the driveway beds and it seems like she's actually doing quite a good job of it. For once! 

Dad's captured some more of our bounty - we had both kinds of grapes, and more naked ladies. Another week and it will be time to plant and sow again, so now everything's open I'll need to get growing again.

Hooray!

Bounty from the garden

 

We got grapes, one apple and the naked lady lilies are flowering. 

We had a respite from lockdown for 2 weeks back to work but then last night it was announced Auckland would have 7 more days of lockdown so I might be able to extend the garden at home after all. 

Certainly everyone seems to expect that I have more time for gardening (and to do theirs) down at Woodside on Monday evenings but I can't promise I will bring ten sacks of compost, weed the entire plot or even do any extreme makeovers - I just will be there, in case anyone needs any help wondering what this or that plant is. Maybe I will just pick the flowers. Certainly they do need picking! Though it doesn't seem likely now because it's level 3 right and we all need to stay home. 

I've got Peruvian lilies that need planting and a few dahlia tubers, but otherwise, the weather has been summery, so it's generally just long days of watching figs and feijoas ripen and watering the pot plants in the cool of the evening. 

Some might have assumed that I do floral displays and such but I have to disabuse them of that notion that I am any kind of floral artist. My floral arrangements are mostly bunches to put in a vase, or posies in a jar. I dry flowers but I don't make any pictures or wreaths or garlands. 

Nor am I any kind of writer, dancer, musician or illustrator. I have no ambition to be published or have my name in lights or any of the things that people commonly assume about me. 

Marcus Tuillius Cicero famously said -  If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. 

My own garden is admittedly small, and so is my library, but I have both and its true I have everything I need. So don't worry about me over lockdown. 

Homestay

 Ah, home sweet home. 

Thanks to Level 3 lockdowns, we get to stay at home in Auckland for at least 3 days. It's my third Monday in a row I've had off. 

But that's ok as the rain has started and the humidity is up. We ate all the peaches Golden Queen provided this year, before the worms got to them.

My courgette has fruited and is bursting, though I made a horrible mistake of caging it (to prevent being dug up by Martha) and now its kinda being strangled by the cage when I forgot to remove it. 

As you can tell Martha is a bit oblivious to any damage she does to plants and believes she is 'helping' Her plant ID is not that great! 

Aside from that, I've weeded the driveway garden and removed most of the spider plants. Swan plants are rapidly sprouting. At school, the spider plants did survive and perked up after a drink of water. 

I visited Kings Plant Barn on the weekend looking for a Kaffir Lime but they didn't have any in stock, neither did Mitre 10. I want to grow one in a pot and harvest the leaves for my new-found interest in Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. For that I need ingredients like chilis, lemon grass, galangal and thai basil. Mum is rather skeptical about me learning any cooking, but how can I reasonably make anything without having the proper ingredients? 

For some strange reason, just because I'm female, I'm meant to magically know how to cook a perfect meal from absolutely nothing, when I have never been trained as a chef or had any experience in the kitchen. Now, if I had been given say $100 and been directed to go buy a weeks worth of food with it and my own kitchen and tools to mess around in and use, maybe I might actually be interested in learning and creating. But Mum always jealously guards her kitchen like a hawk and resents any time I attempt to make anything. She won't eat anything I make either, without a whole barrage of complaints, so I've just learned to live on mousetraps and instant noodles when she's not around. 

It's Chinese New Year and my lucky red packet money IS burning a hole in my pocket. No crayfish and no kaffir limes on sale, so I'm saving for a rainy day I guess. Or the Woodside Road garage sale which is apparently this Saturday.

I don't know if we'll go back to work though with the Covid still making the rounds. I'm not too worried though, as the vaccine roll out is just around the corner. 

I saw one of my naked ladies flowers made an appearance down the back, maybe it was Mother Nature giving me a Valentines flower, though I also had two droopy roses and lots of catnip enough for a bouquet. My moon calendar indicates its the best time to plant, so, if we have a few more days in lockdown I might be able to create another garden.