Summer Daze

I have just changed all the calendars to December. How time flies!

NZ Gardener magazine has offered me three free issues subscription. They gave me the November issue but now it's December so perhaps that will turn up in the post soon.
I am thinking next year I would like to do the Auckland Permaculture Workshops course or design certificate. The only thing is I have no money to do it, so am hoping to have a scholarship or a job soon that would pay for it. I was offered the caregiving role but when found out the pay, well you don't want to know. For the hours and the getting to and from work, that kind of pay would hardly cover the cost of petrol to even do the job. And from what I heard can be quite demanding, although at the interview I wasn't really given much information about the role. Seriously what they offered was a joke and I was like no thanks.

So it's back to the drawing board. The SIT landscape design course by distance I am no longer interested in. Funnily enough I did go down to Invercargill were SIT is situated and where they (unhelpfully) suggested I get a job down at Diacks nursery, but we were only there for a day passing through and spent most of the time in glorious Queens Park. They even have tuataras.

This morning since I'm barred from planting new plants (or is it only trees?) there isn't much to do, but I was thinking about the snow in summer if it would grow near the groundcover plants or would it look out of place. I have seen pictures of it where it spreads for what seems like metres carpeting the ground with silvery leaves and snowy blossoms, but I already have a native pratia (which is also called snow in summer) that seems to have done well.

My attempt at sowing scarlet runner beans like Jack and the beanstalk seems to have failed. I heard they don't taste very nice anyway and are more of an ornamental bean. Nevermind the Coral Pea seems vigorous enough and when the sweet peas die down I may take it out of its pot and plant it permanently near the arch.

I'm thinking of having sweet peas in clear bowls and little posies for the church and pots of cyclamen. Or maybe even gerberas.  Just for something different.

Flower Power

Yesterday it rained, I had sown phacelia, and scattered pumpkin and citrus seed around. There was a working bee at Woodside on Saturday, got a lot done weeding and mulching the asparagus patch, putting pumpkins in tyres, moving the eggplants and capsicums to a new sunnier bed and deciding what to grow over the arch (passionfruit, maybe??)

This week I really need to get started with my flower arrangements for church on Sunday. The church I currently go to does not have a flower ministry, it seems they get artificial ones in, but as you know artificial flowers are no substitute for the real, fragrant thing. So the other local church which has always had real flowers have kind of lured me away. Besides I have already put real flowers in their hanging baskets outside and in garden beds the artificial flower church so I hope I have done enough. They had eschewed a garden bench so there is literally nowhere to sit, so I figured maybe my efforts were being wasted.

I am thinking of joining the Te Atatu Floral Circle, which has always urged me to come but it's been on Tuesdays and I always had class on Tuesdays. However now I am free perhaps I will go. Last week was out shopping and came across a wall hanging that said 'God cares for the flowers, how much more will he care for you?'. I had not thought how flowers were an important ministry before but without flowers, how does anyone get fruit?

Flowers blooming now

Peace lily, geranium, love-in-the-mist, lobelia, rose, feijoa, chinese lantern, sweet pea, dietes, thyme, daisy, calendula, lavender, dutch iris, buttercup, canna lily, cyclamen, swan plant, manuka, jasmine, grevillea, cabbage tree, rock rose, nasturtium, alyssum..

Just to name a few. Photos may come.
I was sitting on my picnic table bench the other day and removed my glasses as I was upset about something mum said and was crying. As you might know I am short sighted so without them everything was a blur. Then I really saw my border and it was beautiful. The fragrance, the bees buzzing, the colours, the birds and the butterflies. The colours all fused together to become like one of those fuzzy impressionist paintings by Monet.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Had I created that? Well no, I just arranged them so. God created these plants, I just planted them.

I put my glasses back on and saw what mum saw. Too many different plants and certainly some of them must be weeds in a jumble. But I don't care, its beautiful.

Looking up

Since I posted last I've been called for interview and may have a bit of paid work in the future. No its not gardening but caregiving, which I suppose is similar to gardening in a way. Helping people in the autism spectrum to grow.

I don't know if any of the clients would be into gardening, but will find out when I get there I suppose. Since my plans are all up in the air at the moment and have just finished in school, maybe its time to just take stock and sit back and enjoy the garden.

We are in for some hot weather as yesterday I was really feeling the heat, and desperately needing the cool shade of a tree. I appreciate nothing more on a hot summers day withe the blazing sun overhead. Mum and Dad had a big tussle over the fig tree I tried to plant by the garage and its now been decided to plant it just outside the back fence so we can still have figs but not inside our property.

I hope the fig survives because it was doing quite well in its pot in my alcove but I can't keep it in its pot forever, I saw it looking a bit droopy plus anything in pots over summer require lots and watering.  Mum said figs can grow really big and she didn't want it by the garage. I suppose I do have plenty of trees on the boundary although none of them are big enough to provide decent shade yet. The tangelo tree does provide some respite except for the whitefly. I'm hoping the neem powder will do its work. With our ozone hole and UV rays especially strong over summer I do value any shade/canopy but mum is the  opposite, she seems to be of the minimalist concrete block/rectangular lawn/ordered rows/clipped hedges style of gardening. Anything that looks curved or wavy or just sort of out of control gives her nightmares. That I was able to get away with the mix of shrubs and trees I now have in the borders is a miracle. If she had her way it would be just nothing above knee height.

I have some more gardening books to look at.
Here are some of the titles -

The ornamental Edible Garden by Diana Anthony
1001 Plants to Dream of Growing (the title changed from 1001 plants to grow before you die)
Plot by Meredith Kirton
Sepp Holzer's Permaculture
Flower Arranging by Judith Blacklock

waste of time

I am not allowed to plant any more trees.
I have to get a paid job soon otherwise, I will just keep gardening. But where to find these jobs that pay? I keep having the dentist call me wondering why I haven't seen them in 18 months, and the doctor shall I just tell them I can't afford to see them right now?
My car is due in for a service, and I need to pay off some debts for a holiday that cost more than I thought it would due to some expensive dining out. Could have bought a whole crayfish dinner for that amount of money...but at this fancy restaurant we were dining off rocks, I kid you not. They weren't even rock plates just rocks!

Today am going to beeswax my picnic table to stop it from rotting, as I got it from the dump as can't afford a  brand new one, or a proper raised garden bed which is why I tried to make a huglekultur one. That didn't go down well with mum.  Thankfully my deck chair arrived and its even better than the ones I saw that were more expensive at the Warehouse.


When the working day is done, girls just wanna have fun. I think maybe I will apply to pick strawberries, I'll risk getting cancer later for the prestige of saying I have found paid work. Hey its a job. I have even had some wiseguys once suggested to me I try prostitution. It's legal, and there are more ads for that in the paper than there are genuine jobs.

hmm. What should I write in my ad. Hot petite asian with green fingers. 18+ $60/hour. Call me.

Hugelkultur

I have decided to make a hugelkultur mound down the corner so I can grow chillies and maybe kumara.
I have a whole lot of logs and twigs to make the mound with, just need to dig a bit to bury it all, have a whole compost heap to turn in, and then some soil and straw mulch on top. I won't need to buy any raised bed edging, I hope. I have kinda made  the beginnings of one on Mt Asher but hadn't really completed it. That one is edged with volcanic rocks a friend gave me.

Now we only have one chicken there will be less chance of damage. I hope to make it today as got most all the materials.

I have vetoed the idea of the bbq for now as last night Mum just said something that made me think, if I have it she'll just be nagging me all the time, plus there is no wheelchair access except outside. I cannot even serve dinner without her telling me what I didn't do, even if I was going to do it immediately after. I wonder if its just a mum gene that makes mothers want to henpeck all the time. Plus because she doesn't know how to bbq she will be put out if I have one, last time we had one and invited my friends she just sulked because she wasn't the star of the show. Then she complained about all the food, even when she was devouring it. I can only explain this to friends who have similar mothers. Others will try and reassure me, oh but I'm sure your mum really loves you, but they don't have to live with their mothers!  Let's just face the truth, and not have this silly idea that all mothers automatically love all their children and know how to show it or that children have a choice in where they live, because, if I actually had a place to go I wouldn't be here. Besides, this is MY home too I'm native NZer and I cant be kicked out like some tenant, overstaying immigrant or bastard child.

Thankfully someone else is offering to have a summer bbq so I will not miss out,  but I would really like to use my kettle one soon as have got the rosemary, charcoal and nut husks for it. This is real bbq not gas, and you can taste the difference and I have three bbq recipe books I want to try.

Pot Luck

My task for today was to find Hardenbergia Violocea or Coral Pea climber for my arch. So far I have grown both annual vines morning glory and sweet pea and in Woodside it was ornamental gourd, but I would like something permanent and a friend suggested 'Happy Wanderer' which is a cultivar name of  type of vine/climber. She didn't know what it really was so I looked it up and now you know.

I didn't want more annual vines as the arch looks bare over winter, and already have jasmine growing over my alcove am really pleased to find two vigorous climbing coral peas at Kings. The plant is an Australian native and flowers over winter, bringing bees and butterflies. Bonus! This cultivar is called 'free and easy'. They are still in their pots for now until I decide to dig a hole for them but it seems they like rocky soil.

Mitre 10 also had two spanish lavenders, quite sizable for $3.  Originally they sell for $12 each! I picked them up and now they are in my sunny backyard border filling gaps, along with ivy geranium and festuca glauca liberated from their pot. The dying sweet peas filled another tyre.

I think am happy with my garden now and just waiting on my deck chair  to be delivered so can sit back and relax with my copy of  NZ Gardener Fresh from the Garden. I could also lie on my sun lounger and had a lovely nap yesterday and it's as good as a hammock.

BBQ time, still deciding on whether to have it this month or later in January. I suppose it doesn't matter usually its just you decide on the day because of the weather and whoever turns up will turn up. I have given up trying to coordinate parties and making sure people attend because people are just notorious for saying 'oh I'll come' and then don't show. Or 'I'll listen to your show' and then don't.

You can listen to some Book Chooks opine about gardening books here.