Border patrol

Now that the sun is shining and the rain is still falling, the weeds are bursting out everywhere. The one border that I've managed to tidy completely is the (very small) one in front of the house. It's a random selection of subtropical plants with one very old rose. The weedmat that Ian laid down is doing its job well so it was really just a question of pulling back the grass that was beginning to encroach from the lawn. 

The rose has been pruned back to ground level a few times and after I gave it a good dose of sheep pellets, it has started flowering. Shabby, tatty pink flowers but flowers nevertheless. One of the bromeliads is in bloom too. 

The flametree logs that make a boundary for the border have produced an amazing crop of fungus too - it looks like wood ear but I won't be taste-testing it. 

The copper skinks love to sunbathe on the logs and I found a frog a few weeks back enjoying the cool shade of the agave. 

Tui in the harakeke

Midwinter harvest

I managed to grab 20 minutes in the garden today to tend to my vegetables which seem to be thriving on neglect. 

The salad leaves are a little overgrown but they're the most wonderful colours. 

I filled my trug with ingredients for the next few nights - celery, spring onions, bok choy, oregano, marjoram, chillis, cos lettuce and beetroot. I've finally worked out that I can just break off what I need from the celery and spring onions rather than bringing a whole head or clump. The beetroots are a bit small and there's not many of them but they're growing moss so I picked half for a casserole. The leaves are still in good nick so I can use those as salad. Jasper got some of the cos leaves that were battered in the storms. 

The cawliflowers are still tiny but I should be able to use some broccoli next week - fried with butter, garlic and some of the chillis from the garden. The chilli plant seems to be re-growing from the main stem and coping with the frost but unfortunately my tarragon has all gone. 

My cultivated garlic cloves have sprouted and the broad beans look strong. I thinned the radishes and kept the thinnings to give away on our local trade and swap page or else eat as micro greens tonight. The carrots have been slow to germinate so need a few more weeks to establish themselves before I thin those too. 

Over in the compost heap, a new choko vine has taken off - the pukekos will be delighted! And I think there's a pumpkin vine next to it with tiny fruit already appearing. I need to work out how to protect them as they seem to be rotting in the damp and cold. Fingers crossed that some survive at least... 

Weather front

One of the things I love about our place is watching the weather move towards us across the valley. 

Last week was particularly dramatic. This was the view from the back of the house one lunchtime... 

...whilst this was how it looked from the front windows... 

...and five minutes later, it looked like this at the back. 

And after another five minutes, the bush in the paddock was steaming. 

A couple of hours later, it did it all over again. 

Native flowers

I walked over to this dwarf kowhai yesterday fearing that all the leaves had yellowed and we're going to drop off. When I got closer, I could hardly believe that it had actually produced such a splendid display of flowers only six months after planting. 

This manuka is a few years older but it's still trying hard - I hope that its seeds spread into the regenerating bush adjacent to this border. It'd be lovely to have deep pink amid the more common white flowers.  

This hebe was planted about four years ago now and seems well-established now. I think I'll plant a few more along the edge of the existing bush now I know that they do well in that spot. 

One step backwards...

We had one of the worst storms on record for forty years a fortnight ago. Amazingly the only damage was to my globe artichoke. It had already grown to giant proportions so it was a bit of a setback for my vegetable patch. 

Interestingly, the damaged leaves seemed to be even more under attack from aphids (or similar) than when the plant was thriving. I've stripped those leaves off now and hope the plant revives itself. 

The pumpkin growing in my old compost heap is looking very healthy in comparison. It's still quite small but there are flowers already. There's a new choko plant growing alongside it too. 

In the native bed, I was delighted to find that my two dwarf kowhai are in good health and both of them have their first flowers. None of the native grasses survived the summer but some of the other ground cover plants have new leaves. 

Inside, I've been busy pickling red cabbage. 

We've been enjoying bok choi and winter salad too. Our first cos lettuce is in the fridge ready for a salad tomorrow night. Winter growing is off to a good start. 

Time for a tidy up

There were still a few flowers on my dwarf bean plants but not so many leaves so I decided that their time was up. I harvested the last of the beans and dumped the plants with a lot of yellowed kale leaves on the compost heap. 

The red cabbage was up next. There were three cabbages remaining and my strategy of leaving them in the ground until we needed them hadn't really worked. They were rotting from the outside in and home to quite a few slugs and snails. I salvaged over 2 kg though and that's more than enough for making pickled red cabbage. 

I gathered some windfall grapefruit for curd and silver beet, herbs and chillis for a soup. There were a few leaves leftover for a treat for Jasper too. 

I now have one quarter of a bed cleared and ready for turning over. I'll plant garlic at the solstice and then think about what new crops to start.