Urban Floral Farmlet

 The Garden Club members embarked on a local visit to the Urban Floral Farmlet in Te Atatu Peninsula where grower Marisa had turned her backyard into a floral enterprise. It was part of our 'garden trip' for club members now we were no longer travelling vast distances en masse to exotic locations (outside of Aucks) and haunting  RSAs. 

Marisa had spoken at one of our club nights on the joys of working from home, meaning quitting your corporate job to invest in your own backyard, and all the things she learned along the way. Being a complete novice, she learned plenty and was passionate about each and every seedling. 

We encountered beds of cottage flowers grown to make stunning bouquets, of particular note were statice and billy buttons. Then we were treated to a tulip goody bag, and dahlia tubers on sale. It was sort of like exit through the gift shop. 

Afterwards everyone mosied on down to Woodside. I was not going to give any long talk explaining all the trials and tribulations and consequences of NOT working at the community garden since I'd hardly any time at all down there and the ladies could see for themselves but Jacqui took the reigns and spoke about slug control and other such things to the rapt audience while I caught up with Karyn and her new dog that I'd never met. Cute. I wonder if Dusty could come along to the garden too. 

I was asked one question though 'Can you plant anything you like or do you have to check in with others first'? I wanted to give an honest answer because this was never my private garden but even at home its seems like I have to ask permission to even breathe so I wasn't sure what to say. Don't get caught? Within reason? You have to fill out a form...

The ladies were hungry after that and we repaired to Mitre 10 cafe for much needed sustenance and possibly shop at the Garden Centre. 

I reflected that I couldn't possibly turn my own backyard into an urban floral farmlet and make a profit selling flowers when its enough just to even attempt to have a garden on hard clay. But good on Marisa for making a go of it. 

My dahlia is called 'Rocco' and its pompom purple, so I will be putting that in along with two kinds of potatoes (Agria and Jersey Benne) in a few days. The rain has come, I'd emptied the barrel with seaweed fertiliser and now it's full up again. 

I've a list of things to buy now the growing season is here and things to do. Please don't ask me to do any extra things round November/December. It's gardening time. My job is cut out for me in my own garden that its likely that I can't do anyone else's jobs outside of home for a while yet. Post Covid, people always talk about working from home, but they never talk about working from the garden which is where the real labour of love is. 

Labour

 I missed my calling to be a botanist. They don't really have that specialty in New Zealand, where horticulture is relegated to the Primary Industries and gardeners are seen as The Help, paid to mow your lawns and keep the rugby fields looking green. Was thinking on this yesterday as on Labour Weekend, which is the traditional time of year to plant tomatoes, Bev, Cenny and I snuck off to have a look at the Auckland Botanic Gardens.

It was a lovely mid spring stroll, with many flowers out. Falun Dafa had taken over and set up booths everywhere extolling the virtues of traditional Chinese arts and crafts, which had been supressed in Communist/Athiest China. There were colourful displays of lotus lanterns and spring festivities, lion dances, and flowy garments. I forgot that I wasn't Chinese enough and seemingly blended in. I learned about Chinese traditional herbal medicine, that surely was another calling I missed too. I can't really explain how I ended up born in Auckland, it just happened. I like to blame my parents for that. 

Unlike Hamilton Gardens, Auckland Botanic Gardens doesn't have themed gardens, so there is actually no Chinese garden as such. I saw the makings of a Japanese garden near the magnolias, where some Japanese people were doing impromptu Karaoke, but so far, no bamboo, rice paddies and interesting rocks that make up a Chinese Garden. Despite having the largest Chinese population in NZ. Instead Auckland has a Children's garden, a South African garden, a Rose Garden and an English cottage garden. There's an Endangered Native species Garden (Maori garden? Mara?) and a herb garden and a perennial garden. 

In bloom and stood out were clivias under the shade of camellias and redwoods, and banksia yellow roses on the trellises. There was also a geranium looking pink flower pom pom looking plant that I quizzed Bev on - she reckons its a verbena bonasoreriss or something, but I reckon it's a geranium (the leaves) or lynchis (the flowers) . It had no tag or label though everything else had which was annoying. The one plant you want! 

There were eels in the pond, and we didn't really get round everything, as its park like grounds are extensive and you really need a sun hat and maybe a buggy if you want to see everything. There is a library and a cafe, but its enough to look at all the plants and not be tempted to take cuttings. 

I got back home to put my tomatoes in (Grosse Lise and Oxheart) and in general get ready for the growing season. Next Saturday the garden club are descending on the community garden at Woodside and I haven't even been to do any gardening! Arrgh. They will soon see there's a lot to do. Wonder if this a sneaky way to get recruits in. Probably not as it takes a lot of effort and labour to have a productive vege-kitchen garden especially if you don't live on site. 

Yes it would be my dream job to work in the Botanic gardens (I claim the herb garden) but since I live out West, there is not a chance I can get there in time thanks to Auckland traffic which takes at least 40 minutes to 2 hours on a good day. And you have to do gardening EVERY day. Not just five minutes on the weekend or on Labour Day! 

Orange you glad to see me?

 Sometimes in the garden I have waves of colour, first its all purple flowers, then blues, then pinks, and now its orange turn (tangelos and clivia - thanks Els). Tangelo tree got beauty treatment and she now has had a haircut, trimmed her nails, and been fed lots of compost and vermicast, as well as sequestron tonic. 

The plants at her feet are now being moved to make room...although I still have a lot to do, with the chickens cages and rabbit huts to be cleared out and make room for our newest family member, who was adopted from the SPCA 26 September, who I am training to catch rodents. 

Her name is Dusty so her is her debut pic, I just need to plant some catmint/catnip in preparation for when she does get outside to enjoy the spring weather..as it is well and truly here. Hallelujah! 

Spring/Koanga

 Spring has arrived, and big G had her birthday. She was a spring chicken, I was an autumn chick born at the wrong time of year. She gets blooming flowers, I get dead leaves. Echium always puts on a candle display for my sisters birthday and miraculously she is still here, though for only two more days before she flies back. 

Dad also took this photo of a Mummy Cat look-alike without the socks, could she possibly be related? I have nicknamed her Daughter Cat. 

Without a resident cat, the birds are having a field day in the garden, and the tuis have been drinking the kowhai flowers. I am seriously thinking of adopting another cat, but so far have been unable to make the trip out of the house to do so, as other family members need attention...

Mitre 10 had their annual Garden Evening showcasing their wares and I managed to score quite a bit of swag except I was luckless in the raffle draw, where hose reels, giant rakes and vege pods were up for grabs.  Too bad I was rejected from their work crew, same story with Kings Plant Barn. I guess they just don't need another COG (check-out girl) in their wheel. I bought flower seeds and a herd of ceramic sheep, three white and one black of course. Am still waiting on my ceramic shell, that was left behind at the studio while everyone else had theirs, Thera took pity on me and offered me her snail as consolation. 

Our garden club hosted a speaker from the Orchid Club, but I confess, it was not my cup of tea and doing a working bee down Taupo way to enthuse over native orchids is not my idea of a good time. I just haven't fallen for the whole Orchid buzz and become an orchid lover. Though I entered the produce table for the first time with rhubarb stalks and got second place! 

Otherwise things are looking up in New Gardenland, though surely there will be a time when Garden Planet becomes a reality. Of course you don't need to listen to me to talk about it when you are busy doing it yourself. Spring brings...onions, rolls, lambs, chickens, fever and cleaning.  Daylight saving,  flowers perfume the air, and everyone who timed it right has their babies. 

Beating the Winter Blues

Light bulbs

Early Spring has arrived with the tulips lighting up the driveway- red for stop and look at me, amber for slow dow - though there are no green tulips for GO - more and more flowers are appearing every day. Waking up from the winter slumber with chilly mornings hasn't been easy, especially in the valley in an uncarpeted, non-heat pumped home, but we survived. Or nearly all, mum was a bit touch and go and had a bout in the Wainamu Ward where at least it was warm and Daisy the cat was there.

My car battery died, but it got replaced, though I still haven't been able to get down to Woodside since its a bit of a trek in mud and cold to pick winter veges. Of which we have barely any in my garden since dad said no to any more garden space taking up room on the lawn. At most a sprinkling of chives but even parsley has struggled. The tangelos were sour this year, so I chucked them into the ball pit which was the bottom of the garden. I am planning on turning the compost down there to empty the bins and then level it. 

Brother Leyton arrived with brand-spanking new Stihl hedge trimmer, and left buxus trimmings all over the lawn on the weekend, though now our hedges are back to their lego-brick shape.

Early spring has meant I've been able to pull together a posy with mostly hellebores, forget me nots, camellias, grape muscari and freesias. No daffodils yet - all the narcissi have been eaten by slimy caterpillars now we no longer have a chicken. I've also had to oat mulch other bulbs to protect them from slugs. GardenPost had a $1 lily bulb sale so I'm waiting on more to add to the garden, my previous parcel is now sprouting in their pots.

The kaffir lime tree leaves turned yellow, a decidley un-lime colour! Even after feeding it sequestron, so am thinking it's too cold to absorb much nutrients at the moment. 

Good news though, the return of the Big G to New GardenLand means I have an extra helper and it will be the only time I have her for at least ten days in the garden and get to be the boss instead of the other way round. She'll boss me around in all other areas except the garden haha. 

Loretta and I went to another weekend art workshop where we poured acrylics on canvas to make flower paintings. Though nothing compares to the real thing. Roll on spring! 

 

La Mas Ceramics Studio

 Garden Club had an outing, a Saturday morning workshop at La Mas Ceramics Studio in Kelston. Thera, our secretary, was a ceramics nut and booked us in for a bout of indoor creativity. We painted ceramics of our choosing to be fired in the big kiln to possibly be revealed at the next club night. 

Our garden grumbles were the same - can't do anything in this cold, wet, dark winter. This is why club nights are now put on recess during July and August. It only took about 60 years to make this decision...

Meanwhile at Woodside Community Garden, which I haven't set foot in for a the past two months, is desperate to get me back in on the same morning. Though they haven't called any meetings either, and Garden Club had already organised their Wintergarden and Ceramics outings. So I just go where I've already been booked in. 

I sometimes forget that I'm meant to be a faithful stalwart who sticks and commits to something every time the doors open. Though I find I'm actually fickle as the weather and not like a rock people supposedly can rely on. Being singleminded has its benefits, though it also means you can't just suddenly change your mind. Only crazy people say one thing and do another. If only Auckland weather was reliable. But people also forget it's not like Friendly Feilding, where the town is completely flat and everyone knows their neighbours. Or Windy Wellington, that revolves around a Beehive. Or even Cultured Christchurch, which has an underground crime scene and above ground cardboard Cathedral. In Awkward Auckland, you may have to cross a bridge over troubled waters to get places, or ford a stream, or go around a dormant volcano, cut through the bush, and navigate the tides and inlets of the harbour, or travel through a tunnel, an in and around a dozen or so bridges around Spaghetti Junction whilst changing five lanes to get to a turn off ramp, then fight for the last carpark. On a good day, the sun is shining and you can actually see where you are going. On a bad day, it's like the movie the Labyrinth. It's just easier to stay at home. That's why Aucklanders didn't mind the lockdowns so much compared to the rest of the country. 

I'm just sayin'.

So anyway, I had my ceramic craft fix and painted myself a little shell which I am going to either hold soap or tea light candles in, or maybe potpourri or pearls or glass beads. Thera painted a snail, Karen a conch, Grace had a dragonfly, Bev had a cat, and Cenny a lemon tree wall plaque. If you want to paint and glaze your own garden ornaments, here's the place. Resident ceramic artist Marilyn said she must have supplied everybody in West Auckland with a glazed ceramic wall gecko for the past 25 years. 

I got home and thought should I do some gardening? I pruned the tangelo, which was sour this season, of all the dead branches. Several tuis feed on the surrounding Dragon's Gold kowhai and now can land on its branches. The Orchid Show was also on this weekend, now at Te Atatu Peninsula, which was always a treat to go to. But I am NOT joining their club. That's takes a certain amount of obssession to be an orchid fancier (and glasshouse money, which I don't have) and the Prize winning Orchid people have a sort of crazed look about them. I know the kind, as depicted in the book/movie the Orchid Thief. It's a cult. Once you buy one orchid, you'll want them all and become a shameless exhibitor of the most coveted showgirls in the world of plants and then you've reached the point of no return. 

Foraging Life

 I've been reading a memoir called Foraging Life by Helen Lehndorf, from the 'Naki. She doesn't mention a word about the famous Rhododendron Garden Festival or even the con-current fringe garden festival although it seems people from around her parts are also permaculture nerds like me. 

Her book has several recipes made from weeds and fruits foraged in the wild places that are just the norm for those who live in the Wild West. 

My mum is a forager too. When inorganic collection day comes around, she'd be the first to pick things up from the side of the road, and we frequent Henderson's dozen op shops, looking for that elusive serendiptious item that cannot be bought for love or money online. This also applies to wild chestnuts, feijoas, dandelions, onion weed, kawakawa, pinecones and anything else nature gives us for free.

My neighbour goes one better, she dumpster dives, and sometimes I have to stop her from rescuing food from rubbish bins and on Fridays when it's rubbish day I make myself scarce because I know she'd be tempted to look in everyone's bins to see what they are throwing out, there might be something edible. 

Initially it was something to be ashamed of that we were gleaners and picked things off the ground and ate them that others have discarded and dropped, but now it has become a badge of honour, to say we are saving planet from potential imploding from all the things we keep putting into the landfill and down the drain.

This has given me a perverse idea, to dig a giant hole in the backyard and encourage people to drop their excess money they don't want in it. After all they can't eat it. It's a bit useless. When its full I will just put dirt on the top and level it again with some turf, and then in maybe 30 years time (I plan to still be around) when I do need some extra cash, I can just dig it up. 

Or I could just plant potatoes. 

Actually, I have been hoping for a break in the weather so I can sow sunflowers, and the snow peas (a bit late) and the packet of wildflower seeds from Gardenpost. Although, good news, I have found a new school library AND it will now receive some plant love too. So maybe I can just put my money plants by the doors. It looks like this school doesn't receive free school lunches either so I have my work cut out for me, unless we do a deal with the another school which DOES receive school lunches and eat their leftovers? 

I am counting on Countdown, or maybe Fresh Choice or even New World to provide us with some donations that we can somehow convert into books and materials for the library. Times are tough and I don't want to beg. I can sing for my supper though. Though looking at the field, it too looks like a potential rice paddy/shrimp farm though I must ignore such silly notions and buy my lunch from the nearest KFC/bakery like everyone else. 

My brothers recent drama ($4000 worth of garden tool equipment, gone, after his garden shed got broken into) has left him a bit reeling and I am also a bit sad because actually I was wanting to borrow the waterblaster and hedgetrimmer one weekend for New Gardenland. 'Borrow' not 'steal and never return it'. My brother did not operate a garden tool lending library though and failed to barcode and stamp his tools so, I guess nothing can be done about that...