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.