New Year, Old Projects

The time off over Christmas has given me the odd opportunity to catch up on some things that I'd left undone. 

Staking this kowhai was a top priority. It had quite a lean and has started to yellow. It's a special tree as I planted it over one of my two placentas. I also love kowhai and the tui that they attract so I was keen to save it. Fingers crossed it works. 

Fixing the flapping and fraying wind barrier on the raised beds became more pressing once I planted my first crown of rhubarb and a cape gooseberry. 

I used my father's idea of threading through a bamboo cane and hooking on a bungee cord. Some of the original hooks had rusted through so I hammered in a baling hook saved from a cube of sawdust. The bungee won't last in the sun though so I'll need a more sustainable option for the long term. 

Inside the house, I conquered my fear of meringue and made a pavlova base. Sadly our hens have stopped laying (in the coop at any rate) so I had to buy eggs. I was able to buy them from a local producer who once took some of our chicks so they're almost our own eggs. 

I also squeezed in an hour of sewing to put together a shopkeeper's apron and a tool belt for the children. They need the straps adding in but they're much closer than before. Progress at last. 

Christmas dinner

Our raised beds are not quite as productive now as they have been. I'm not sure exactly why but maybe because I didn't water the latest plantings like I did the first ones last January. 

Corn and tomato seedlings didn't grow (thought they're still alive) and the rocket bolted before I cropped it. The irrigation system should be on stream again soon though. 

In the meantime, we have enjoyed some Tom thumb lettuce, a motley selection of carrots, purple beans, broad beans and sugar snap peas. The leeks looked edible if skinny but remained woody even when cooked. Shame. 

If anyone knows why the garlic didn't grow at all, beyond putting up shoots, please let me know. I wonder if it's the same reason behind the poor performance of the garlic and the leek. 

The fruits of our labour

I'm just about managing to maintain progress with our raised beds and the demise of Jemima was a good push to plant some fruit trees this winter. We planted feijoa, fig, a dual-grafted apple (Monty's Surprise and my favourite, Granny Smiths), cherry, orange and mandarin. I strapped them to give them a bit of support in the high winds that howl around our place and even managed to feed them all too. 

The raised beds aren't terribly productive at the moment. Most of the salad has come to an end though the silverbeet is going strong. I ripped out all but two of the kale plants because they were covered in white fly and their grubs. The radishes were a great success but we've eaten them all now and the broccoli and cauliflower, in contrast, were a dead loss, too spindly and fast to bolt. Only a few of my carrots sprouted and the leeks will have to go another year before they're fat enough to eat. 

The herbs are fit and healthy but the garlic looks pretty thin. The fruit bushes (loganberry, blueberry, guava and blackcurrant) are coming back nicely after winter and the strawberries are taking hold - I was amazed to discover that they were carnivores when I opened up the strawberry food and discovered that it was blood and bone! 

In the last month, I've put in tomatoes, dwarf purple beans, corn and sugar snap peas which I bought at the local Ag Day plant stall but they've been slow to take off and I think they're a bit thirsty. We're in the middle of re-configuring our irrigation with a header tank to limit the burden on the pump and so the seedlings are suffering. The broad bean plants that I grew from seed rustle when they get a breeze through them. There are a few pods developing though so all is not lost. 

The potato plants look promising - though they're in need of earthing up - and we should have a decent crop in the New Year. And next in the queue are some capsicum seedlings that I picked up at our local garage sale - fingers crossed the irrigation system does the trick...

Pukeko and Parrot Proof

The pukekos infiltrated my raised beds and uprooted my leeks. 

And the parrots have been pecking my cabbages. 

So I've now put bird netting over the top as well as the wind cloth around the sides. 

The only problem is that my globe artichoke is a little tall but I've used canes to prop up the net on each side of it. 

That should do it! 

Impulse purchases

I bought some seedlings at the supermarket. Leek, beetroot, cauliflower, broccoli, parsley, pak choy and two types of salad.  

There were rather more plants per bundle than I expected so it's all quite tightly packed now. But I can always thin out some of the baby vegetables to eat when they're young and tender.

Hot stuff

I transplanted this chilli plant into the raised beds before going overseas. It's done so well that we can be sure that the irrigation system is working.

There are new flowers and lots of new fruit. I was worried by the fruit turning black but they're green underneath and apparently it's a stage in them turning red. Fingers crossed! 

Doing the rounds

I had some unexpected time in the garden over the Easter weekend. Just enough time to check on the vegetables, build up a bit more of the log retaining wall at the back of my natives border and to weed the kikuyu from the border in front of the house. 

Here's pictures of the raised beds for my mother-out-law so she can see what her hard work helped to produce. 

And here's the pups around the base of one of the succulents that my father planted. They're really thriving. 

Well-watered

We came home from our holidays to a bountiful harvest so we're fairly sure the newly installed irrigation system worked effectively in our absence. 

The celery and spring onions were so large that I needed a bucket to bring them upstairs. 

And I've got so much curly kale and silver beet that I'm going to swap with a neighbour for eggs (our chickens are laying elsewhere again). 

There's a basket of limes too, ready for juicing and to add flavour to a fish curry - our new Good Friday tradition? 

Garden Envy

I visited a subtropical terraced garden with our local garden group last week and was amazed at what would grow under a canopy of pines and ponga. 

  

There was lots of garden art scattered amongst the plants and pots of succulents placed around the house, which gave me lots of ideas for adding interest in our garden. 

I was very taken with this water feature made from glass insulators from a decommissioned pylon. 

I solved yet another plant mystery too. This deep purple flower is on a tibouchina shrub. We have one at the back near our camellia and above our pink carpet rose (another new identification). 

The gardener's friend recommended a New Zealand book on subtropical plants which I've added to my shopping list so that I can identify a few more of our plants and learn about them. 

I'll miss the next trip to a community orchard as we'll be in Australia but I'm sure there'll be plenty of interesting plants there too... 

Harvest

After just three weeks, our first crops are ready to be harvested. 

I'd voted the silver beet seedlings 'least likely to succeed' but remarkably they're the first to be productive. 

We're now looking forward to fresh greens with mint and feta for dinner. 

House plants

I've been busy gardening inside as well as out. Lark and I have been busy propagating all these babies from our spider plant to provide more ground cover in some of the borders. 

And my chilli plant has been flowering well after being cut right back over winter - but no signs of chillis yet. Does it need food, perhaps?

Complications in the compost heap

I've been diligently contributing to my compost heap for the last 4.5 years but not taking any of the compost out. And now that I have a vegetable garden ready and waiting for compost, I've found that it's not really fit for purpose. The heap is being invaded by kikuyu grass and convolvulus and I've never turned it as it's been too tricky to take it to pieces and get stuck in. Worse still, the wood is rotting after being eaten - devoured - by wood lice. 

So I've dismantled one of  the heaps and salvaged a few of the planks to make a temporary three-sided heap which I'll be able to turn more easily. So far the chickens haven't scattered the waste too far. 

I've been looking around for ideas for a more permanent construction and think that something like this might work - five pallets upcycled to create two bays. The front panel is made from a board which can be easily removed for turning the compost and then using it. 

And I'll be borrowing the pest-proofing technique from this design... 

Elders and Berries

This was my haul from the garden last weekend. Hydrangea heads for an arrangement for a party, three eggs, a dozen apples from our young tree and a few teaspoons full of elderberries - just enough to flavour an apple crumble. 

I was interested to find that the berries in the shade were ripening faster than the berries high up in the sunshine. I can't begin to explain that.

The tree was covered in sap-sucking passion vine hoppers which I'm sure are the reason for the meagre harvest.

We should have more success in future now that this young elder tree has been planted by the chicken coop. I hope the chickens will eat the bugs and not the berries and we'll have sufficient blooms for elderflower champagne.

Love is...

...building enormous raised beds...

Completed over the course of several Christmas holidays, these are our enormous raised beds, now containing 10 cubic metres of weed-free garden mix and a range of vegetable seedlings, herbs and fruit bushes.

We've used windproofing cloth to provide a pest-proof fence. It should keep the rabbits, peacocks and hens away and we can add fruit netting over the top to keep the birds out as required. 

On the left, there is silverbeet then curly kale. The middle row contains spring onions and red cabbage. And on the right hand side, it's celery and then dwarf beans. 

All the vegetable seedlings seem to have doubled or tripled in size in the fortnight since they were planted. They wilted severely by the time evening came around for the first few days but now they stand up proud, eagerly awaiting their evening watering.

I'm particularly intrigued by the red cabbage and can hardly wait to see how they transform from spindly plants into great big dense purple globes. 

In the other bed, I've planted low maintenance Mediterranean herbs - purple sage, pizza thyme, garlic chive - so that I don't need to water so often. The irrigation system is a work in progress. There's a row of sprouting garlic cloves to the right of the herbs, only one month late, and then globe artichoke, guava, blueberry, loganberry and blackcurrants beyond.

I suspect that my raised beds won't ever look as good as they do now. But I still hope that one day they look as attractive and productive as the edible section at the Botanical Gardens...

Art in the Garden

I think that one of the ways to add more interest to our garden, without lots of digging, is to install some garden art. When I visited the Kaipara Sculpture Gardens recently, I found some lovely examples, all beyond our budget! So I'll be looking out for ways of re-creating some of the pieces using found, junk and natural objects. 

I'll be hunting down an old teapot and bowl to make a birdbath like the one above...

And some piles of stones or wood could look almost as good as the cairn above...

The wire and bead creations above look like they'd be fun to make. And the nest below was made from a hanging basket with twigs and concrete eggs in it - very easy...

This is what I've managed so far... A wreath ($1 from the hospice shop) with feathers from the moulting peacocks. I thought it was pretty good for a first attempt and I have great plans for future garlands - using rosemary for one and the heads of giant sedge for another. Watch this space! 

Roses amongst thorns

One area of our friends' garden is a mix of prize-winning roses, palms and succulents. They love the roses and seem to have mixed feelings about their spikier companions. 

In contrast, I don't mind roses but love the tropical succulents.

Our front border now features a mix of both. The old rose has been the subject of several vicious prunings and has bounced back each time. It was cut back to a few inches above the ground last winter but is now twice the size that it was in these pictures which were taken at the end of last year. It's leggy and totally without flowers. Maybe it needs more food... 

The succulents that my father planted when he dug out this bed are unquestionably thriving. The weedmat and mulch have done a good job of keeping out intruders and there is obvious growth amongst the new plants. And not a single one has been attacked by chickens! The bromeliads were damaged by a peacock but I hope that they'll survive. And the agaves which have been in this border through thick and thin (and renovations) have some lovely big pups beneath them now. 

I hope to create similar borders below the house and the shed. There are some natives below the shed (flax and nikau) and one lonely canna lily after my other bromeliads and iris fell victim to a pukeko or possum. I think that some more exotic plants would look good - maybe a strelitzia and some red hot pokers. 

Below the house, there's some good ground cover in the form of rosemary and native grasses but my father added some interest along the driveway with more succulents and miniature palms - some of which are even producing offspring. Driftwood and rocks have kept the chickens from scratching out the new plants and large logs in their old dustbaths have forced them to look elsewhere for their ablutions.