Summer Gathering

 I'll be away for about five days on a great kiwi road trip up North...perhaps there will be some gardens along the way? I'm not sure but I've got to trust God will water my garden while I am away, for I doubt Mum will do it.

Here's a list of what's growing at Woodside, so a sneak peak of what we will have to harvest later on -

Courgette

Sweet Corn

Beans

Strawberries

Celery

Kumara

Choko

Asparagus

Tomatoes

Lettuce

Broccoli

Chillies

Capsicum

Silverbeet

Spring Onion

Globe Artichoke

Garlic chives

Goji Berry

Sunflowers

Peas

Rhubarb

Raspberries

Pears

Figs

At home I planted two hippeastrums in pots and some silver dichondra falls in pots. The petunias got eaten by slugs, as did the marigold and the verbena isn't looking that great. Strawflowers I put in spring also mysteriously disappeared, though statice is now showing its face. Otherwise all I need to do is chop and drop for now. Kings have their Boxing Day 30% off all plants sale but that just means they are normal prices because retailers generally mark everything up 50% anyway. And it's the wrong time of year to be establishing anything. 

So I haven't spent my $100 Christmas pay packet. Mum took offence that I called her gift 'my Christmas pay packet' as she'd said I'd done nothing to earn it. She told me I had to hide it away and not spend it. I considered buying a lucky bamboo to put in the Yum Cha Book Restaurant but then I remembered - I don't work there anymore. 

A librarian without a library is like a gardener without a garden. I am not sure what to do now but I will go away and have a think about it, with my box of summer reading National Library books that nobody borrowed from school. 

Seasonal Greetings

Our Christmas Tree

Twin's Gardenias

Rambling roses

We had Christmas day at Epsom (again) under the Pohutakawa tree. Its the main reason I chipped in to buy the place, though my brothers mostly bought it because it was close to the hospital and are now using it as a makeshift Tram Barn. Every year the Pohutakawa blooms around Christmas along with the Christmas lilies, agapanthus and day lilies, and those straggly red astromerias that we can never remove. They did not put up a Christmas tree indoors, why bother when there's a glorious one already decorated outside? 

Vincent's Titanic Gladioli I bought him last year was also in bloom, and there's going to be passionfruit, which had replaced the monster wisteria. This year everyone got hippeastrums (or amarylis) bulbs to plant in the garden, though I was non-plused to learn that Vincent already beat me to it. He also offered the aunties Jasmine climbing plants 'Grand Duke Tuscan' in pots. He'd ordered four of them from Kings Plant Barn and they turned up one morning on our doorstep. Mum missed out on receiving one however because there are five sisters in the family and everyone else got one before she did. Vincent says they don't grow outside, only indoors but where inside has anyone got room?? He's already stuffed the interior of the house with all his antiques and costumes, and kauri tree furniture. I can't count how many dead tree wardrobes he's got full of fur coats (that you can't wear in Auckland). 

Brothers! Leyton's only contribution to the garden is to get a boarder in to mow the lawns while he's away working up north. But at least I can say mum and my efforts to spring tidy the place has been rewarded and the garden is looking sharp. 

Back home I'm still watering Woodside on Mondays. I took home JoAnnes' asparagus fern plant and it's now hanging in the garage on the only hook that's available. I have this nagging feeling that on the last day of school when I took all the plants down off the ceiling for mum to water she did not actually water them all and I have visions of them collapsing and drying up if there is nobody in school to look after them. 

I am still sore about that. But there is nothing I can do. Tinka one of the previous librarians apparently lived right next door to the school and would pop over in the holidays to water and tend her ferns.  I'm not even allowed back in. I had to hand in my keys and drive away, not even looking back. 

Maybe in ten years time, I may return to find the library has become like Where the Wild Things are, and they actually took up my suggestion for a real tree inside instead of a fake one, where the children can indulge their fantasies of swinging from the branches singing 'In the Jungle, the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonite' or 'Hakuna matata' or that Matariki Macarena song that drives everyone nuts.

Dave Gunson replied to my email notifying him that his cat Mr Muggs is now looking after the library so he organised a parcel of Fancy Feast to be delivered to tide him over otherwise Mr Muggs may resort to eating Pablo the mouse, who lives up in the rafters. 

I was not certain what to do with the flax flowers and cuttings bouquet that the deputy Principal had made for me. I decided to put them in the garden because it felt like a part of me had died. Maybe they will grow, who knows. Two 'Alfalfa' purple Gladioli came up the day of the Poroporoaki (farewell hui) for the Principal so I cut them for her and gave away two African violets, but otherwise, like the garden nanny job, it never pays to get too attached to your charges. 

The last thing I really wanted to do was - go play on the playground, but mum was there and I had to take her home. In the four years I had been at the school I had never set foot on the playground, I was like some straggly wallflower who never got asked to dance, nobody ever thought the librarian was allowed outside of the library, go on the roundabout thingy and spin until she was dizzy. 

I also thought about singing a farewell song,  Alanis Morrisette's You Learn immediately came to mind. But then I remembered she sang 'I recommend...walking around naked in your living room' so I thought...hmm better not. 

 

Lady Ga-den

 School is nearly out, and I'm out too. That is..I may be imagining things, but apparently I am not welcome back at primary school next year as I have graduated and am too smart for it. The children were sad to see me go, but the ones going on to Intermediate want me as their librarian next year. 

This will take some wrangling to do. I have never walked into a school before, and announced that I will be taking over their disused and neglected library. However, I have done the same thing with gardens, and usually it has been appreciated. What can they do, throw books at me?

Anyhow I can't think about that right now. Now the sweet peas have gone to seed, other gaps are appearing in the garden plus it's Monday, watering day for the community garden and I better get cracking before the sun bakes the ground. 

The lychnis I rescued from school have put on quite a show and also are now going to seed so have cut a few down to seed by the back fence. The accounts lady will be looking after the library indoor plants by hanging them outside her office. I have been asked to return the feathery asparagus fern back to JoAnne  and the puppets back to Joyce. I'll be providing refuge for the Holy Family and the Wonky Donkey. 

Mr Muggs will be looking after the library for me. He is the library cat. Mum found him in the op shop and I secretly rescued him for her for $2. He was very happy to be the new kaitiaki of the library and is even has his own picture book, illustrated by Dave Gunson. He is going to be working with the Lucky Pig, who was found on Lincoln Road. The Man Who Ate Lincoln Road would be happy to know there is now a Yum Cha Book Restaurant in Ranui. When that book was published, there were no Yum Cha restaurants except a Chinese one next to Hell's Pizza and Burger Fuel called Nood Les restaurant. Steve Braunias would be happy to know that Valentines is now gone Gagnam Style. The last time he went there, he dined at Valentines ALONE. 

Who dines at Valentine's alone?? It seems crazy journalists do. Perhaps he didn't have much to do that year, though I suggest a new project for Mr Braunias, he go visit all the school libraries in West Auckland, and report on what he finds. 

One of the teachers who hosted our staff Christmas party has goldfish and a fountain in her garden. It's also full of hydrangeas, Japanese maple, hippeastrums and other gorgeous plants from the previous occupant, who was a gardening widow. The property is on a ridge which I now call Teacher's Row since two other staff members also have their homes there. As I am in the valley I don't get a view of the Sky Tower, Warehouse or Fresh choice supermarket, but you can go up to their place and see for miles. 

Anyhow must get to watering those thirsty plants. Jacqui gave me a courgette, which promptly got eaten by snails. However, choko is thriving. 

There's no place like home

 Garden is looking 'da bomb' i.e everything is in bloom...and dad cut the lawn so it's looking perfectly tidy and clipped. I had an attack of hay-fever on windy days when the grass is in flower elsewhere, but my garden is allergy friendly.

I'm compiling a wishlist of plants so Secret Santa has some idea of what to drop by our NEW letterbox we installed this year. 

The shortlist - 

hippeastrums 

dichondra silver falls

dymondia margaretae groundcover

pink orchid cymbidium

cattleya (in bloom)

more catmint edging

purple osteospermum 

blue lobelia

You'd think I'd have enough plants for Australia (or Africa)  but there's always a unique treasure that catches my eye. I could make a long list of all the plants I tried to but couldn't grow in my garden...it doesn't bear thinking about all the ones that didn't survive. 

Good news though, with the studio move and perhaps changes to my job situation next year, I may be able to resume Garden Planet! Fingers crossed my co-host may become available. Karyn's had quite a year too what with her garden being renovated and all. 

The pohutakawas are now in bloom - they'll probably be over by Christmas day but I have some Christmas lilies poking through now. There's still one house in our street that does Christmas lights every year but I don't know if I can sleep and wait for the second coming of Santa Claus with all those lights on. 

Otherwise everything seems ticking along fine. At school the sunflowers have bloomed although they looked a bit pitiful in the thin soil of Ranui. I think a lot of work needs to be done working that clay and cleaning up that area that was full of woolly nightshade and probably a dumping ground for lawn chemicals and roundup spray. I miss Rosemary the gardener and hope she's keeping well. The irises she gave me are now by the driveway and will be coming into bloom next year. 

I'd be making a case for plants in every classroom...something has got to absorb all the carbon dioxide the children are breathing out constantly! However it is near the end of the year so everyone is winding up/wrapping up. It's always a mad rush at the end and yet we always do it every year. Maybe those covid times where we had to stay home were  a blessing after all. After all there's no place like home for the holidays...! 

Garden Club Ramble

 My garden club ladies all came over to my garden last Saturday as the first garden in our member's garden ramble so was really pleased to have them over to visit - I had a busy tidy up before they came of course!

Paula one of the newer members took home some cuttings and it was fun just talking about plants. I didn't know Paula was going to enthuse about the ones that grow like weeds at my place - mugwort, applemint, watsonia... The ladies were also puzzled over dad's weather station. No it wasn't a beehive! I showed them what it had inside - thermometers and that the land was earmarked for recording the weather which was why I can only have a little garden in the backyard and no tall trees. 

Then we went to Bev's place and her garden was just so beautiful a flower and plant lovers paradise. She had a little octagonal gazebo/potting shed full of plants on the shelves and a cosy place to sit, so many hanging baskets, flowers all around many levels from pots to planters to raised beds, some trained up the wall, some trailing to the ground, and no weeds whatsever, they didn't stand a chance! The only thing she complained about was a big melia tree in the backyard that was shading out some of her vege garden but I gave it a hug as I thought it was beautiful and shouldn't be cut down - the vege garden should just be moved to the sunnier spot where the sheds were. 

Garden club members next to the melia.

Bev gifted us some potted colour so I chose a marigold and a verbena that she'd placed under her potted Christmas tree already decorated outside. Yes it is now that time of year. I hadn't even thought of decorating any trees yet. 

Just up the next street was Barbara's place in Wairata Road which had a stunning view of the creek and out to the harbour. Barbara had commandered the land that belonged to the council and had started gardening it so it was all seamless right up to the walking track that leads up to Roberts Road. So many beautiful flowers, carpets of arctosis and healthy stands of lush red cannas, sweet peas, succulents and shrub borders completed the picture. Barbara's house was quite a big home - her late husband was a builder, and so it was all built to take advantage of the site and nestled into the land. His ashes were buried near the vege patch so it's not likely she will ever leave his final resting place. 

One of Barbara's gorgeous hydrangeas - I loved the blue/purple shade on this one.

We had a morning tea and scones and a good chat. Barbara wished us a Merry Christmas on her ukelele which she had been practising and Jeanette won a prize in the raffle - gardening soap!

The final garden in our mini ramble was newcomer Paula's - she'd told hubby to take the dog out for a walk while we humans roamed her patch. Paula's place in Tirimoana is down a long driveway and backs on to a gully where the creek is. She's got many trees and bromeliads, succulents and the prized tall astromerias (I took a tuber) She also has quirky hobbit holes - she's a real plant lover too and we all found something to ooh and ah over. Am so glad Paula decided to join our Garden Club as membership is falling - its the same everywhere I suspect. People don't have time for gardens anymore and its harder and harder to find places with room enough for one. 

Unfortunately it was then that my hayfever decided to make itself known and I had to drop into the pharmacy on the way back for a remedy!

In other news Pat and Sheryl had entered the AHC Flower show. Pat won as per usual!  Karen and I went to gawk at the entries and I adopted some more mini irises. 

Two of the entries I liked were these: 

Sand art mandala

Piano with roses - see entries all lined up in the background

The champion bloom was a bearded iris, and Karen mused that it wouldn't take much for us to enter next year, since we already had experience making mandalas in our floral foraging frenzy, so we shall see! 

Te Henga Garden Ramble

 Last Saturday Louise and I went on the Te Henga Garden Ramble, which was raising money for West Auckland Hospice. We saw five of the eight beautiful gardens who all had the fortune of being sited in the wonderful ridges overlooking the West Coast out to Bethell's Beach. 

This is where the cabbage trees come into their own!

Of all the gardens, my special favourite was the Butterfly Garden on Bethells Road, surrounding an old farm cottage/villa where the flowers were left to bloom and make food for the honey bees on a north facing, sheltered slope. It looked like a magical fairy land in the midst of an enchanted native forest. The gardener kindly let me have a tuber of yellow astromeria - they had plants and books for sale as well. 

Another garden named Kokako Grove had a chook house called 'Cluckingham Palace' and had set their own house on the ridge overlooking the wetland and hills. I was impressed with their groundcover which I have been trying to source - anyone got Silver Carpet dymondia margaretae? And their native  clematis, which had lovely furry seedheads. They had a fenced off vege garden, many of the vege gardens out at Bethell had to be walled/enclosed to keep out the chickens and pukekos, or dogs and possums, and netted. Because Bethells is out near the West Coast near the bush, it is not on town water supply and cellphone coverage can be patchy because of the hills. And since there is only one road, out if it's blocked or the weather is bad it can be quite remote. It's not like the shops are within walking distance! Many of the properties were up steep, windy long driveways too, and the prevailing wind and rain can be ferocious. Try mowing the grass on a steep slope with a ride on! 

However for those who can afford it, they wouldn't live anywhere else. It is their little patch of paradise. One retired  expat American built his dream earth brick home nestled on top of the ridge, it really felt like he was King of the Castle. For a valley dweller like me, with no views of anything but the neighbours and whatever I grow in my own garden, its another world, and a taste of the high life! 

He had built two summer cabins overlooking the valley for his friends and family to come stay. He even had a rocking chair bench to take in the views and seemed very chuff to show off his bounty to everyone. His dogs were very happy to run around his garden - he was an ex-Texan rancher, so I can imagine that living in a green land like Aotearoa was quite a sea change. 

All in all we had a wonderful day out and I now have my coveted tall yellow astromerias. Perhaps next year we can go visit the other gardens we missed. 

Garden re-visits

 The previous Saturday our garden club visited Chris Ballantyne's garden. It was a revisit for me (see blog entry for May 2019  We're just dropping in your garden Chris... !)  Things have changed a little - there are now two greenhouses for tropical plants in the backyard and the entire vege patch is now caged because of the pukekos. Chris showed us his bubbler - his comfrey tea/compost brew that hooks up to his roof stormwater AND his neighbours. He also mows his next door neighbours lawn in return for some land to grow his native plants. Luckily his neighbour doesn't mind and is also his brother-in-law! Everyone was very impressed and interested in all the plants and they were happy they did not have to trek too far to see a garden as he lives on Te Atatu Peninsula. 

This Saturday we had another garden visit to Puriri Lane.  It's a bit further out  in Drury and is a beautiful English woodland style perennial garden - now in full bloom. All the trees are underplanted with an amazing variety of perennials that the owners initially had to source from England as they couldn't buy them here. Now they have so many they operate a mail order/online nursery for keen gardeners and you are able to visit on certain days but you need to book as it's a private garden. There's ponds, a cure little shepherds hut shed, a gardenware boutique, plants for sale, borders full of flowers of every kind in drifts. It's been here for 40 years but only in the last 7 has it been planted up to what it is today, initially nothing but trees with grass underneath. I suspect that's how most country gardens start out as bare paddocks. We paid $10 entrance free but recouped this buy buying some plants - I bought a lady's mantle and a hair's tail ornamental grass. Karen went a bit all out and bought herself a designer bee and butterfly bath and several plants she had her eye on. I was going to buy a moon calendar - one of those round turn the wheel ones but it was $12 and I figured I could just easily make one myself...

Then on the way back we dropped into Roger's Garden Centre. Where I saw the famed Roger, still at the till, giving garden advice to all customers, while his cat was guarding the money. I didn't buy anything but Jeanette queued up for some plants while Bev whizzed us around giving a guided tour among the narrow paths absolutely crammed with plants at a bargain price. Perhaps next time when we have more time Bev will take me AND I'll come with a list to fill a pink wheelbarrow with plants. On one side is an amazing gully where Roger dumps all his unwanted plants and it has now grown wild with orange morning glory all over and it looks pretty spectacular (or a nightmare depending on which way you look at it) like the plants have taken over the zombies and won. Everyone looked pretty happy with their bargains on their way out, except Jeannette accidentally bumped her nose on the carboot as she was putting the plants in the back so was a bit sore on the way home. 

Karen was very happy to drive us as she'd discovered the garden in the first place online when she went to buy tulips. I must say Karen is a bit of a connoisseur gardener and likes to source her plants from far away places and thinks nothing of driving to get there. She's also been to the Taranaki Garden Festival twice and is booked to go to the Cambridge Garden Festival as well. I'm just happy if I get to tag along! 

One of my must-dos this spring is a visit to Barbara's garden which is just down the road from Bev's garden. Barbara says its best in spring to visit so hopefully next Monday she's home and I can pop in, like when mum and I visited Pat's garden. 

One of Chris' feijoa trees - perfectly pruned.

Puriri Lane had many flowers I'd never seen before - this pale blue one behind the euphorbia intrigued me. Does anyone know it's name??

Petal Power

 Results are in--!

            Jan's Floral Fireworks

Linda's Floral Circle

Carmen Miranda? Or Miss Blush?

The Little Mermaid...

My Mandala Magic

Lavender Butterflies

Floral teapot

Geisha Girl

Koru Klub

Singing budgie

Karen's Hairy Caterpillar

Winged Wonders

Cenny's Purple Reign

Flower Foraging Fiesta

 Or Frenzy?

Tomorrow we are having a Flower Foraging Fiesta at the Garden Club. We will make pictures and mandalas out of the flowers and leaves. What art will our flower gardeners come up with??

Karen and I made  some already. I'd like to show you when I get my pics though - seemed like my old ipad doesn't want to play ball. However, I have pics of flowers currently blooming. I just say dad look at my flowers and he hurries outside to take a photo of it. 

tiger lillies

Silene

pelargonium

    
Wouldn't you know it mum came down with covid and so dad and I have been testing everyday. So far so negative. Today I spent much of my time in the garden doing a tidy up and weeding the applemint. I need to do a big pick tomorrow - hopefully weather stays fine. 

Garden springing to life

 It's just past the equinox and every day more and more flowers are starting to appear...first the jonquils, daffodils, magnolias, freesias, hellebores, kowhai, gladioli, then the dutch iris, lavenders, echium, babiana, pelargonium, pansies, camellia, more polyanthus, azalea, geranium, peach and apricot blossom, rosemary, forget-me-nots, gazania, grape muscari, bluebells, nasturtium, oxalis (?!), marguerite daisy...

School has also started on their spring garden journey, with the juniors growing Little Gardens (courtesy of New World) and the teachers buying up those expensive Vegepods with their teacher's discount. I heard that they are going to clean up the school kitchen garden that had become overgrown with woolly nightshade. I've been giving away plenty of seeds to keen child gardeners, and they are quite interested in watering the library indoor plants. I had one boy ask if they were real - he thought they were plastic?!

I do miss Rose the gardener but she'll be pleased to know that the children are getting stuck in and it was all their idea - they are doing it for their inquiry topic, which has morphed into looking after 'Our place, Our people'

Perhaps we'll have a Garden to Table program yet? Maybe they can grow their own pizza toppings? They have been having carrots nearly every single day for school lunch. I expect their eyesight will be super and who ever said the carrot and stick approach does not work has not ever worked in my school.

On Monday there will be a public holiday as a memorial to our late Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty apparently was fond of gardens and wildlife and that is where her son Charles got his green fingers from, wandering around the palace parks and gardens as a little boy. Well now Charles is King we may expect a much greater focus on greening our planet before it's too late. So I can't say it's a terrible thing to have a garden lover ruling the nations - not the extravagant show gardens of Versailles but on a much more wildlife friendly scale. And the Royal Garden parties may actually become more about the gardens themselves than people dressed up in their finery and strolling about manicured lawns.

If King Charles III does visit New Zealand again he might want to spend some more time getting close to nature in our forests and organic gardens, and planting trees,  I'm sure it will be more his preference than promenading around towns and cities in his latest outfits in a motor cade opening yet another air conditioned building. 

However I can only speculate what the next few decades will bring. We don't really need his head on our money since everyone now uses EFTPOS and internet banking anyway. If we do become a republic, which who knows, could happen, we might miss someone who seems to truly care about the environment and the air we breathe. On Friday many people went on strike to protest the lack of action - and no it isn't all about 'climate change' as some politically correct term is now calling it. It's about calling the environmental offenders/polluters to account - and it is Big Business and their profits that is the main driving force behind it. 

I could say much more but with local elections coming up I'm concerned that our dear Eco City was only a mirage and it will instead become an unbreathable concrete jungle like every other congested  city on this planet. 

Get your $50 worth of plants

 Tulips from Amsterdam

As well as gladiolis from...? bluebells from England. Orchids from the jungle...Jane and I went to the Orchid Show last week. Spectacular. It was free. I did not buy any orchid plants though..I think will leave the growing to the obsessives. 

Also took mum along to see the Eden Garden tulip festival. I think we pay a bit much to go in to see one bed of tulips though on the only bit of flat sunny ground they have there. Rotorua had them in beds by the information centre free to view. Eden Garden is nice though if you love camellias, though I'm not their biggest fan. I'm more of a ferny bush type lover. Yes it was an old rubbish tip out of an old quarry, and sometimes I think the poor camellias are not really shown to their full advantage, but what do I know.  If they had orchids and spider plants amongst the camellias? Bluebells or even onion weeds, to brighten the shade up a bit? Chinese lanterns? Azaleas, rhodos and gardenia acid lovers? 

West Lynn Gardens is one of their offshoots and they have a butterfly house. But they don't charge nearly so much to go in. However the Mt Eden/Epsom garden loving crowd love Eden Garden so I don't think they mind paying the cover charge since they can just walk there and don't have to pay parking costs. 

So far this month I've planted some gladioli at Epsom, Vincents alpine strawberries, and mum sowed strawflowers. In my own garden I've put in statice and strawflowers. I scattered snow pea seeds that seemed like it was 20 years old, that the twins had left over. 

The lavender has started blooming, and things are looking up. At school I got the children to enter the Kings Plant Barn colouring contest, who knows they may win the $50 prize pack. Fingers crossed, though I think most saw $50 and thought they would win actual cash. I tried to tell them it might mean $50 worth of PLANTS lest they think they can just buy some toys with that money. 

Tulip Time

 Hoorah

Light bulb moments are when the tulips come out!

Although I thought I planted 10 and only 9 came up. Hmm. Snapped with my phone...they are growing through the yarrow. Also mum's eerlicheers have come up so picked them for the vase to scent the living room, and it's not far off for the freesias.

To report on our garden trip - this time we went on a trek to BeachHaven to an artist couple's beachside home with a view. As with a lot of homes on the North Shore, the view comes at a steep gradient, the south facing garden faces the harbour and has numerous paths down to the water.  We felt like Jolly Rogers and had a bout of ukelele sing along as well. They were very hospitable and had the best cream and jam scones. On their travels they had looked after grand home which had a formal garden complete with parterre, fountain, espalier and topiaries. Very posh! But back on Kiwi soil they were a lot more laid back growing everything that can survive on a steep south facing slope. 

At our garden club meeting we all became armchair travelers as President Brigit regaled us with tales and pictures from her Scandinavian summer journey, the grandiose sights of Versailles, and the somewhat smaller palace of William the Orange. She also stood on the ancient ruins of Pompeii, which could be our fate one day if those supposedly dormant volcanoes decide to erupt...

Over at Epsom mum is having a tidy up of the twin's garden that hasn't really been touched in how many years?! So she and I together have  pulled out tonnes of ladder fern, a few dead trees, overgrown daphne, crowded clivias and dietes. Enough room for alpine strawberries? I now have visions of hellebores, more bulbs under the trees, gladioli in the sun and maybe louisiana irises by the driveway, if Vincent doesn't' plant all his citrus first. Well he can't as he's swanned off to Australia again, this time to Melbourne.  Mum said she planted the yacon, but I think she planted them in the shade, when she should have planted them in the vege patch. Oh well at least my extra mondo grass now has a home. Vincents tulips are only just behind mine and I'm sure they'll be blooming by next week next to his new matching bay tree that has been clipped into a standard ball.

Cousin Winnie's tulips were the first to show though but now she's moved house, she's got a whole lot of taro and wood ear ---which the aunties were super excited about. Her bunnies have an entire flat to themselves though...and they certainly have a big backyard to jump around in. We'll see if Winnie starts growing a green thumb now she's a landlady/home owner.  

New growth

 Last Saturday Karyn called for help in planting her weeping cherry tree in her front yard. Poor hubby Pierre was off sick and needed rest, but the cherry tree needed to get in the ground, lest it blow over in the grow bag and break another branch. 

Karyn technically doesn't actually have a front yard at all just a driveway (and two garages) with a tiny triangle of planting ground near the stairs that lead up to her front door. She had already pulled out the immense spiky yucca that was there before, but some of its roots had been left behind, which were as tough as cable wire. 

We dug and cut everything out, chucked in scoria, a whole sack of gypsum, compost, sand, planted the tree and then scattered bark mulch on top. It was already 2 metres high and weeping though bare, and although it looked like a skeleton of a tree I could see it had 'good bones'. Pierre's special tree. Karyn said he chose it himself and he will do the underplanting. 

My good deed done, I returned back to my garden this week to divide my houseplants ...now I have several peace lilies, calatheas, and african violets more than I had before. 

My other Karen friend from garden club decided on an impromptu day trip down to Wairere Nursery in Gordonton to buy some replacement roses  - 'Hayley Westenra'. Jane, Sid's widow tagged along with us. She said Sid grew up in Taranaki and that is where he wants to be buried with his family in one of the beautiful garden cemeteries there. I thought of the  Taranaki garden festival I still have not seen in October.  Will I get to go this year? It's a five hour drive...

Wairere Nursery seems to have everything for a large scale country garden - and also boasts a show garden you can walk around in, featuring cloud topiary, a meandering stream, slopes of hellebores, and clipped citrus. I think it will be gorgeous in spring when everything is in full bloom. Woodland Estate nearby is also worth having a wander round in. It boasts 100 year old oaks, plane trees, wisteria, a cricket oval, a cafe, another stream with arched bridges, and thousands upon thousands of spring bulbs and hellebores, peeking underneath magnolia, dogwoods and camellias.  Very 'English' looking woodland. It was the former homestead of the founder of Anchor Butter. One can imagine what it was like back in the day when the trees were just saplings and the land stretched as far as the eye could see all to be turned into dairy farm. 

Garden Club trips planned  include one in Beachaven, the Kelston Orchid Show, and maybe the Cambridge Garden Festival. Unfortunately, going to Waiheke for the Jassy Dean Garden Safari seems out of the question, considering the cost of hiring transport, the ferry, motel stay and tickets to enter all the gardens. You'd think it would be actually cheaper since its on our doorstep but no. 

Today I emptied one compost bin to mulch my tiger lilies, and harvested some more yacon. I also cleared a weedy patch in the corner near the old chicken coop. The eerlicheer are coming out, and the freesias are budding. It's going to be a glorious spring, only a few more weeks! 

 

Planting Day

 Well it was a good planting day after all, the sun managed to shine for the time us Riverparkers got stuck in, along with some local board members angling for votes, and the dedicated NZ Biosecurity and Auckland Park Rangers team. 

I noticed the politicians were more into chatting than actual planting though, but I ignored them and got on with the job. Mum came a bit later and helped with the mulching, where the team cleared two huge piles on the verges with four wheel barrows. 

David had around 700 native plants ranging from manuka, harakeke, kowhai, kumarahou, titoki, kahikatea, kawakawa, maitai, mahoe, carex and several others I can't recall off the top of my head. Unfortunately no kauri is being planted since the rangers are still dealing with kauri dieback disease. Those of us who stuck around and braved the light showers to clear the mulch all then had a feed of sausages on the bbq. 

On Thursday, finally at looong last my tiger lily bulbs have arrived, three tiger lilies and three tiger babies. I planted one tiger baby in a pot, two in the front yard, and the three tiger lilies in the back yard near the loquat and under the cabbage tree. They were already sprouting by the time I got them and they said they needed to be planted IMMEDIATELY, so I wasted no time. 

Thankfully we no longer have any marauding chickens around to dig them all up. 

Garden club member Karen and I are planning a flora foraging expedition in spring to use up all our petals to create pretty pictures and mandalas on club night. However, sometimes I think beauty is in the eye of the beholder for floral art. I've come across a lot of philistines who don't appreciate creativity. Oh it looks like a mess. But isn't the point of art to make a mess so you can create something beautiful? 

I just wondered if people have this idea that every single thing has to look perfect ALL the time and disregard the fun of just creating it. JUST FOR FUN. I think people are too judgemental about beauty cos they obviously think they can just buy it with no effort on their part to create it and I'm totally sick of that attitude. Gardens are never made by singing "oh how beautiful" and  sitting around in the shade. 

Right on Rudyard Kipling!

Midwinter Break

 It's now school holidays and I'm indoors while the rain and cold lashes my plants. Mum often rushes around putting the indoor plants outside so they can have rain, but this time I've just kept them inside to stay dry. 

Te Whakatipu Kakano (Raising from Seed) the Bilingual Whanau at school have helped plant hundreds of native plants at Taikato - Riverpark Reserve, on the margins not far from the playground. They did it last Tuesday morning when it was wet and muddy - kudos to them! 

A couple of hundred more plants have been planted by the boat landing ramp further around the reserve. And then we're gearing up for even more planting this Saturday. So please come along if you are in the area and want to get your hands/gloves dirty and make our creek beautiful again.

I did some more planting at school, now the primulas are accompanied by lambs ears, and I plan to sow sweet peas near the climbing rose under the birch tree near the library. Two children snapped up some sprouting chokos, which I also found planted there. Kings Plant Barn gave broad beans, bee pollinating mix and sunflower seeds for me to give away as prizes. The broad beans have been snapped up already. Ranui Community Garden has also given me different packets of seeds they've saved. 

I'm still waiting on the tiger lilies - when will they get here?? 

Last time I checked Vincent still hadn't planted his tulips (chilling in the fridge) or his mondo grass. Mum had been trying to farm me out as garden slave for him claiming he needs help. No he just needs to get his A into G and do it himself. Ha! The thought that I would do someone else's private garden? Next thing she'll be shipping me off to work in some dire permaculture plantation run by rich white men.

Ok I was just kidding about the permaculture plantation bit, but the permies owners don't really FEED their workers do they, or give them any housing? They are just expected to live in their cars or yurts the whole time. Because to have a homestead well, only you are meant to own it all right and employ underlings to help you with the labour....when they could just ask school children to do it. 

Of course, I expect the children to have at least had a free school lunch out of all this exertion. (Note, if you help out at the planting day, I heard there was free sausages). 

This reminds me of the time Kings College employed us gardeners at Bark to plant up their stream because they couldn't get their students to do it. And no they did not give us lunch in their school cafeteria. They only did that when we had a roadshow about the new lawnmowers they had splashed out on to mow all their sports fields. 

Something as simple as feeding your workers so they have energy/reward for hard days work seems a bit lost on most organisations in New Zealand I must say. Or maybe this happens the world over. What do I know? 

Anyway, apart from labour considerations, what other things have been happening. Well, I've managed to harvest a few yacons - so will try yacon smoothie at some stage. And I've moved the cannas now to by the garage. Plus our jonquils have come out, so I've been cutting them. Some daikon radishes that were sown in the community garden have sprouted, and at home, snow peas, though many have now got eaten by birds or was it snails, so I might have to sow more and set traps. Tangelos are ripening.

My new thing to do is to paint Monet's waterlilies and bridge scene by numbers. Garden Planet has been wrapped up for a while. I heard Jacqui was asking whether I was still writing this blog, because she had been a bit lax on writing the Woodside one.  Weren't you doing it everyday? She asked. 

I was like what? Everyday?? If I did write it everyday I would not have any time to do any actual gardening! 

However I must mention that she and Mike are now feeding me mandarins so, I am supposing she would like some labour in return and maybe I could write a few posts on the blog. Huh. I will think about it. 

Happy Matariki

 I spent Matariki sleeping in then painting my sunflowers  (thanks Vincent Van Gogh) to brighten my room. Other flowers are making an appearance. I pulled out a strip of mondo grass to be replaced by a line of 24 mixed polyanthus, on special from Mitre 10. The mondos are now gone to Epsom and brother Vincent is going to use them for his garden. I also managed to snag 24 mixed primulas, and found I had nowhere to plant those so...the school garden next to the library became the happy recipient of those. 

At Woodside I've now put in three rows of daikon radish. 

Still no word about the tiger lilies...

David from number 50 has now organised a planting day for us Riverparkers behind number 21. He's got about 750 native  plants for us to plant, plus mulch to go in on  July 16.  He's also been trapping possums and rats. 

Our crescent is going to be the best ever with rejuvenated forest and riparian planting, and having all the moth plants, woolly nightshade, privet and elephant grass removed! 

Karyn's been recovering from a bout of the flu. I hope she's ok to record what may be our last Garden Planet episode for a while. 

Starry Starry Night

 New Gardenland is having it's Juneteenth with a bit of a clear out and fresh plantings. Loretta gave me a lovely hot pink cyclamen which now has it's home beneath the cabbage tree, and JoAnne gave me half of her very long asparagus fern indoor plant which now is hanging in the school library. It's keeping company with a few more spider plants and orchid cactus. I hope mum won't miss them, they looked a bit forlorn on the ground but I'm hoping they'll be much happier hanging indoors. 

I also cleared out some of the rose geranium by the garage to give the mexican sage room to grow, and cut the lemon grass down. JoAnnes pink maguerite daisy cuttings now have a chance. I also moved the frangipani from the side of the house into a pot on the deck. It lost all its leaves but should be a bit warmer on higher ground.

Otherwise my garden is getting filled up and soon there just won't be any room for more plants...though cousin Winnie had now taken away the old rabbit hutch so there IS a spot behind the garage...that is, if the rabbit hutch proves big enough, I've heard that SPCA demands that rabbits be kept in a space twice the size of Winnie's own bedroom.  You'll need to ask cousin Winnie about the story with the rabbits. We've never had a rabbit resident in the garden so I have no idea why we had a rabbit hutch in the first place. 

And hooray I must report our new letterbox is now installed, painted gleaming white with a 'No circulars' sign,  sitting on its post and functioning. We got the Western Leader for the first time delivered right into its mouth and not chucked on the ground like the NZ Herald is every morning. 

At Woodside I planted the rest of the bulbs Olga had donated to the garden, of ranunculus and anemone so please watch those tyres closely. I confess I have now splurged on tiger lily bulbs and still waiting for them to be despatched, I know I can squeeze them in New Gardenland somewhere despite what I wrote before.

To tide me over the winter I am going to try my hand at a Vincent Van Gogh paint by numbers sunflower painting. I've already done Starry Starry Night, so I'm sure sunflowers can't be too hard. In two weeks time it will be our first every Matariki holiday, so very looking forward to it, as apparently its all about gardening anyway!

Keep ears tuned though as Karyn and I recorded a new Garden Planet episode - Karyn's garden is getting a makeover and I'm racking my brains coming up with a simple design/planting plan for her new garden. She just needs that one special tree that is going to give her shade and make everyone happy without anyone threatening to cut it down. 

S.T.A.M.P out Moth Plant

 There's been some garden activism going on lately, with picket lines and protests on Facebook. I never knew because I'm on a Facebook break, but people have got together to form groups against certain plants, like the group called S.T.A.M.P  which stands for Society Totally Against Moth Plant. 

This anti-moth plant group has been making the rounds of Garden Clubs lately, to spread the message, in an attempt to eradicate the threat of tiny moth plants springing up all over our gardens and smothering us to death, with their choko - like fruits which burst open like dandelion clocks or swan plant feathers, raining destruction on anywhere they can get a foothold - like the back of my neighbours' garage. Which is right next to our garden, and has been climbing up and on the side and over the roof, to become a huge green cloak of potential seed bombs. 

So I gave Graham, one of the volunteers and speakers, a call, and he came to the rescue to help rid New Gardenland of this evil threat. He dropped by on Saturday in his overall and long gloves PPE - the moth plant exudes a sticky white sap that doesn't come off and can give you a rash, a hessian sack, a poison gel and a long fruit pruner to remove the moth plant fruit bombs. 

He cut the vine off at its root, and then spread some sticky poison gel on it - I'm sorry I can't remember the name, but I trust that it's not just super glue (which by the way, does not work) and then pulled off a sackful of moth plant fruit bombs off the garage roof. He said they just will get smothered in landfill. Well I hope so, but then I wondered if all the fruits going to landfill will explode and the moth plants will sprout and then cover the landfill so it will become a moth plant dump island...

However I can't bear thinking about that one. Have we made the problem worse?  I thought they would be incinerated in a holocaust to destroy them but no it seems they are just getting a christian burial instead. If I recall the transfer station sends all its landfill north outside of Auckland to Dome Valley or south to some no mans land between South Auckland and Hamilton. I'm sorry Huntly. 

In addition to moth plant, they may be getting all our - ginger, agapanthus, wandering jew, phoenix palms, wild asparagus, morning glory, jasmine, wattle, loquats, privet, taiwanese cherry, woolly nightshade, arum lilies, crocosmia, pampas grass, mexican daisies, oxalis and bear breeches.

It's enough to establish a garden just full of those plants. It will be easy to establish, just plant and go. 

In return I'm proposing a swap for these plants - tiger lilies, oriental lilies, daffodils, tulips, blue bells, freesias, watsonia, babiana, gladioli, kumara, spanish shawl, dichondra, donkey's tails, woolly thyme, scented geranium, and pink manuka.

Anyone with these plants? Please send them to me. We may be descending on Rogers Garden Centre with a wheelbarrow very soon. 

Dark Days

 After a floriliferous birthday..we're back to rainy days where the garden has gone indoors.

Birthday Flowers...

Mother's Day flowers...

I paid a visit to Fab Garden Mama's boutique and bought an Elephants Ear philendron for the library.  Fab Garden Mama says she's getting married in December! 

Otherwise not much gardening being done, I'm trying to get the kids interested in making dried flower bookmarks but so far not much has been happening as I'd had to cancel a few days due to a bad head cold. But it seems Sis got the indoor gardening bug and has been updating me on the progress of her pilea like it's her first child...every time it grows a new leaf, I get pictures. When it got spots, she was a bit worried, but, I assured her that some plants do have spots on their leaves and it's not anything to worry about...it's just natural variegation. 

Karyn and I have been trying to put together a wrap up show for Garden Planet but actually getting together to record has been eluding us. Not helping is the moving of Planet FM premises (the old house has been demolished!) . It has been so long that I have not been able to talk about much gardening at all. And Karyn says her own garden had to be taken apart thanks to her home's deck renovations. While at the community garden, our raised beds need new wood as half of them have fallen apart. We are going to use the bulb money for fresh wood. So if it seems like our gardens has gone into hibernation, well maybe its a Sabbath year for all of us. 

 

Busy bees in the garden

 Since posted here last have been picking up feijoas everyday we have buckets and buckets. 

Bulbs have finally arrived, if you haven't got yours yet head down to Woodside they'll be in the shed in the basket. If you've got tulips, ranunculus, and anemone, best chill them in the fridge before planting out in May, since we don't get any of the white stuff in Aucks. 

Last Sunday Garden Club went for our  outing to Rose Lea in Riverhead.  Let me report lest you be mislead, it is not a rose garden. The garden is ten years old and Liz and her late husband were the head gardeners presiding over a sandy brick house that's seen many grandchildren. It is a subtropical garden as you can see the palms and bromeliads and succulents take pride of place, along with a lot of Aussie plants like bottlebrush, grevillias, lomandra. The flowers she does have are more shrubs like vireyas, carpet roses, impatiens, camellias. It is beautifully landscaped in what was once a paddock with only one tree. 

The house commands the top of the hill and is facing north, with a magnolia lined driveway leading towards the bromeliad and cycad decorated house from which a sunny lawn (it's dense couch grass)  leads down to a sea bank of grevillia, with mosaics steps, toward a lane of weeping pears to the pond below. There are sheep grazing some of the paddock that was left. To one side of the house is an orchard with many different fruit trees, and beehives at the back. The courtyard that used to be the raised vege garden now displays succulents even in the glasshouse. Some ideas of her I'd borrow would be growing a plumbago in an obelisk, the cute little glasshouse with tropical plants inside, large shallow bowls to display rosette shaped succulents, a gazebo/arbour retreat with paving and painted rocks, and a mosaic sundial in the ground. 

Liz says it's now very low maintenance, about the only thing she really needs to do is  mow the lawns with a ride on and trim the grevillia and rescue the odd hedgehog, and give the sheep treats every now and again. 

We enjoyed a muffin and cuppa in her sunny patio with a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside. She had hedges all around the property so was wonderfully peaceful and sheltered but it did not feel closed in at all because she had so much space (7 acres).  Could this be the good life? 

Afterward we convoyed on down to the Beekeeper's Wife bar and eatery which was buzzing with activity for a catch up lunch. I recommend the seafood chowder! 

Am hoping this year we'll get to go to Rotorua on our big garden trip, and still, fingers crossed, if the fates are kind (or the govt, whichever) maybe even get to Taranaki for the garden festival. Here's hoping. 

The Joy of Gardening

Brother Vincent's 'Titanic' gladioli

They don't look like they are sinking! I'd given him the bulbs for Christmas. 

 Dad took some more pics of my gazanias. They are so pretty and coveted that I caught my Uncle trying to dig them up on one visit. Mum had said he could have one but I was like noo! You can buy six at a time from Mitre 10 and they are cheap as chips. 

I'm gearing up for another Garden Club night, although there aren't much more flowers to be had at this time of year, though there are plenty of feijoas. Thankfully none have succumbed to dreaded myrtle rust. 

There is also going to be a visit to Roselea Gardens up in Riverhead which I am very much looking forward to. 

School has given me an Easter gift of Kings Plant Barn vouchers...and I am happy to report I made a tidy profit on the bulbs, even though they are not delivered yet! 

So I have got some money to spend although only enough for one sheep. Did I tell you how much I would like a lamb or two to graze our garden and provide us with sheep manure? Mum could also use the wool to knit a scarf or two..

I've been reading Lynda Hallinan's latest tome 'The Joy of Gardening'. What can I say it was very much a joy to read, and eye candy to look at as well. I suspect a lot of people aren't actually cut out for hard-copy journalism either and prefer to get the news on when to best put in your potatoes and what to do with the seasonal gluts rather than who is fighting who over who over which piece of land is theirs (Ukraine vs Russia - sort it out!) So lucky Lynda has found that she's very blessed to have any land at all. 

I know my eyes glaze over in boredom every time someone laments over property prices. How can you put a price on it really I never really got that.. The plants want to grow on it and we are going to be buried in it one day. Doesn't it belong to everyone? 

Farewell Sid

 My garden club is so old that it's now not uncommon for members to pass away every couple of months. Last Thursday  it was Jane's husband, Sid who has now gone to the place prepared for him. I shall miss his kindness and patience and faithfulness as he would come with Jane to pick me up for garden club meetings every month in his big car as I was along the way.  He'd go to the gym in the meanwhile and then return to drop me home afterward. 

He was a quiet guy who kept a big rambly garden with chickens and bees. I spent a day gardening (or more pruning and weeding!)  with him, though he was never rude enough to say he didn't want me back he gave me a job when I needed it, and also, was one of the few who came and actually bought a book from the bookshop when I worked there. I remember it was Heart of the West The History of Henderson. He said he'd already read all the beekeeping books. 

Jane was always winning the prizes for the best produce on club night. But I think that was really under Sid's care though he never entered in our contests himself. 

As the garden club is mostly women, when he was there it made a difference, and he always came on the garden trips with us. What a faithful husband he was as he was always by Jane's side. He reminded me of Treebeard in Lord of the Rings. Quiet and venerable.  He was 84 years old.  Rest in Peace Sid.

Surviving Omicron!

 Yes Covid got me in the end. However thanks to triple vaccination, it was only mild. I had a cough and a sore throat and tiredness, but I didn't have to use heaps of toilet paper at all. I just went through one box of tissues. 

Bev very kindly dropped round a whole lot of bearded irises. So I have planted the rhizomes anywhere they can fit in the garden.  Some are by Mummy Cat's grave. They are of all different colours. Thanks Bev!

I pruned a non-fruiting branch off the old peach tree. Next thing I know, Dad totally destroyed my climbing rose, which was climbing up the other branch. For no reason. It wasn't hurting anyone - it was climbing up the branch, which it is meant to do. 

Otherwise, what can I say?! 😶

If you haven't ordered your spring bulbs yet...please do so soon as I am putting in the order this week.  

Cats leave paw prints on our Hearts

 RIP Mummy Cat

Woodside Community Garden Garden Bulbs Fundraiser

 Dear Rambling Gardeners

You can now buy spring bulbs from me! To grow in your own garden or to plant in the Woodside Community Garden orchard under the fruit trees. All profits go to our garden. 

Be in quick because this offer ends 15 March. Pick up the bulbs from our garden or I can arrange home delivery. All enquiries and orders to gardenplanetfm@gmail.com

Choose from...

7 Daffodils Mixed

 $9.70

7 Jonquils "Grand Monarch"

$11.00

10 Tulips mixed 

$10.00

10 Freesias Fragrant Single & Double Mixed

$9.80

 10 Ranunculus Mixed

$6.00

10 Dutch Iris

$9.90

10 Anemone- St Brigid Mixed (Doubles)

$7.50

Sweet Pea - Early Multiflora 20 seeds

$4.70

Feng Shui - Wind and Water

 This morning was one of the windiest we'd had in a while and the last few days a fair amount of rain has fallen, making for muggy, hot sticky weather. The plants are loving it, the humans, not so much. 

I venture outside during calm interludes to move iris rhizomes around, dividing up clumps to pop up in empty spots in the garden beds and amongst the thyme in pots. I take cuttings of lavender hoping they might take in the now moist soil. 

It's now the start of bulb season and they should be appearing soon in the shops. I want to get a head start on the mail order so I can buy in bulk and possibly sell some as fundraisers at garden club. I so far have stayed away from shops and much buying, though I am building up a list of purchases that might come at a later date, if I am brave enough to venture out in red traffic lights with over 500 community cases of covid now recorded in the country (it changes all the time...it's like counting the number of ants crawling in your house..most of the time there is none and the there's a trail and then suddenly you are infested) though the wind and water has put a damper on any initiative. Planet FM is still closed and Garden Planet is on endless repeat. 

I miss out on a couple of zoom meetings thanks to fatigue and technical issues, but the word is Garden Club may have a field trip in April and a proper meeting in March. Hooray. Or ...at long last. If all things go to plan. If we are all jabbed five times or what not.

The rain lilies have made an appearance and suddenly have all bloomed like little crocuses all at once. Beauties they are when they do, the rest of the time they look like chives. Naked lady lily also has bloomed. Perhaps in time for Valentines Day? I had emailed the local florist to see if they might need extra hands but heard nothing back from them. Looks like I'll be the one picking flowers  anyway. One can't depend on secret admirers to remember the one day when they are supposed to let you know they like you. Here, have a gazania. 

Otherwise I'm doing ok here...Mum and I managed to get down to the community garden, harvest some veges, and drop off some empty buckets and baskets to help protect the seedlings.

Feb wishlist - 

Bulbs (eerlicheer, dutch iris, freesia, ixia, babiana, bluebells, gladioli..any and all!)

Matching indoor pots

Cats tail trailing indoor plant

Zygocactus - hanging

Letterbox numbers - 41

Paint for letter box - decide that milk white might be safest but boring, when I want a bright red letterbox, so that NZ post cannot miss it

Flower book that has blotting paper (to press flowers in)

Fairy lights to decorate trees. Why not

Lanterns

A mirror

Year of the Tiger Mummy Cat

 The garden seems quiet without Martha. The gate is now open though I still feel it should be closed to protect Mummy Cat. Dad had mowed the lawn to an inch of its life and it now looks like a brown threadbare carpet. I'm waiting for the compost to build up otherwise it will be hard to build any depth of soil on our hardpan, bulldozed flat section of clay.

The grapes are ripening on the vine. I've made some hay (of what little I can) from the long grass that grew by the fence while the sun shines. I've been watering the pots, thanks to Louise's donations, several pot plants now have permanent planters hiding the plastic.  Basil and some parsley are now growing thanks to Jacqui's surplus. 

Hooray, Aunty Jenny found us a letterbox, one big enough to hold milk bottles should we ever need them delivered again. Just needs a bit of paint and numbers affixed to the front, and a new hinge. 

Now I've been let go of my bookshop job, and as my former boss had given me flowers upon my leaving. I was thinking of applying for the flower shop up the road.  Or selling bulbs or something. Though February is the 'armpit' of months, lots of things happen like Chinese New Year (it's tigers, Mummy Cat), Waitangi Day (shall we dig up the lawn for a hangi?) and Valentines' Day (most over rated gift day) that everyone seems to make a big fuss over but actually nothing much seems to happen. I think people put more energy into Christmas while they still have the cash.

In the garden it's day after day of sun, ripening the fruits and being too hot to do any work. Which is fine by me, napping being a lost art form, but it doesn't make for interesting blog posts. I returned to school to find my spider plants turning pale and gave them emergency drip feeding. Hoya had survived on a diet of practically nothing though. I'm thinking of repotting the hanging baskets with zygocactus, if I can get a good size one. 

I'd promised to visit Fab Garden Mama to get some pots, but since I was given some already (and found two sturdy indoor ones from Briscoes) that  I hadn't had the energy to go further afield shopping. Having to wear a mask out hasn't helped matters, as now the omicron variant virus has somehow got in threatening our best laid plans, including school, garden club meetings, radio shows, and holidays away. 

We'll see what this year brings..it's all now in the paws of the remaining Tiger Mummy Cat.