Ear, ear

Apologies for a lack of posts during the month of March. A combination of bad weather, busy work schedules and winter sport starting means that I have been away from the garden, the sewing machine and the house.

Summer has been and gone without warning. The weather changes from hot to mild to freezing cold. Rain, wind, sun - the garden is not sure what is happening to it.

However I managed to pick some of our home sown corn despite the wind making a mockery of the perfect rows. It looked more like a sculpture on the Wellington waterfront than the upright rows in a corn maze.

The corn itself was DELICIOUS! And really this photo does not do it justice. It was sweet and juicy and just so much more satisfying knowing that you had grown it yourself. As my partner said "it's hard to imagine this was grown from one of those tiny bits".

We will be growing corn again in summer, if summer ever arrives again.

Ear, ear

The garden in February

Tomatoes and Violets

Blackberries

The beds are full

Fragrant Basil

Red Kale Jungle

"Gold Rush" Zucchini's bathed in golden light

Skyscraper Corn

Ear that?

 Just some of the treasures from my vegetable garden.

The garden in February

Potatoes

Decided to finally dig up the last of the potatoes tonight. Wasn't expecting this many!!!

The varieties are Cliff's Kidney, Jersey Benne, Purple Passion, Desiree and some special Maori varieties: Tutaikuri and Karuparera. My favourite are the Karuparera.

Me and my 2-pronged fork did a really good job!

Most interesting potato dug up was this one:

Use your imagination!

Potatoes

Giving back to my community

For the past 6 months I have been involved at getting our local community garden up and running.

When we moved to the area I saw an article in the local paper about it, got in touch with the organiser and began growing seedlings for it.

On December 10th 2011 the garden was made and the first lot of plants put in (including some of mine). I had best intentions of being there for this momentous occasion but a bout of food poisoning got the better of me. However I have since continued providing the garden with plants.

Last night we had a planning meeting to set up the infrastructure for the garden for the next 5 years. These included plans around drainage, on-site water, a nursery, windbreaks, a teaching space, bbq area etc. Actually there was a lot of the wish-list!

My ideas towards the garden stem from the reasons why I wanted to be part of it in the first place. I value community and communities looking after each other. There are many socio-cultural benefits from having a community garden. People can learn how to garden, people gain social connections to their neighbours, it brings people together and ultimately it brings us all together and talking!

One of my suggestions was around how to get people interested in being involved. We actually need to tell people what resources we need whether that be wood to build a garden or the skills of someone to draw up a plan.  I think sometimes people want to help but don't know what they can contribute.

For example there was these 2 old ladies at the meeting who basically said that they had turned up to the meeting to be a bit nosy because they couldn't garden to save themselves but they could make scones! Well terrific - welcome on board. There is always the need for someone to make the scones!

The best thing about this community garden project is that it is connected to several other initiatives in the community including a community orchard, a native planting scheme (which will have a nursery on the site) and the local Papa kāinga, who hope to teach courses in traditional Maori medicine, plants and raranga/weaving.

All very exciting. But in the meantime I will enjoy the immediate harvest!

Giving back to my community

Poppies

I absolutely love poppies. They are like contemporary dancers shifting and moving in such a beautiful way. 

This one has been growing in the garden now for many months and is finally opening. The colour splash, and the texture of the petals is quite amazing.

Poppies

Spring seedlings

The weather has definately taken an upward "spring" and things are beginning to grow in the garden. Last week I spent hours pouring over the Kings Seeds catalogue planning what vegetables and flowers I'd like to grow.

This week my wonderful partner has spent time making our own newspaper pots and putting those seeds to bed. I can't wait to see these tiny seeds turn into beautiful plants...

We have planted from seed:
Kingfisher Daisy, Sunrise Lupin, Nemophila (penny black and snowstorm), Oriental Poppies, Cherry Baby Rudbeckia, Edible Violas and Gazania Daybreak.
This weekend we will plant:
Red bunching onions, Heirloom Rainbow Tomatoes, Lettuce (little gem), Zucchini (gold rush), Jalapeno Chillis, Gourmet Basil mix, Eggplant, Artichoke and Corn.

Spring seedlings

Oh Daphne!

Different smells evoke different memories for me. One of my favourite childhood smells is that of Daphne, hence why I wanted my own Daphne in my garden.

This particular Daphne is Daphne Odora Leucanthe "Alba" but I am going to call it Jessica for short.

I patiently wait for it's little white flowers to come out.

Oh Daphne!

My house, my garden

So we did it. We bought a house and now we must live off the land in order to live because paying a mortgage is going to be hard!!

We were unsuccessful in our tender for the pumpkin growing house in Northland. Somebody with far too much money and not enough sense paid an enormous amount for it. However we did find a cute house in Paparangi that has an expansive area of flat land and neatly manicured lawns ready to fully landscape.

Perhap's something like this?

We move in a months time and I have already planned what I would like to plant. First we will start with the fruit trees. My workmates gave me a feijoa tree and I would also like a lemon and a grapefruit and perhaps a peach or pear tree. Actually I can grow as many kinds of fruit trees as I want because I have the space!

I am thinking for the vegetable garden I would like to go potager style, keep it raised and perhaps do that rotating crops thing. Again I have plenty of space to do it!

As for Paparangi, I found out that the name is actually a colonised version of "Papaparangi" which means folding hills. It was once farmland and all the street's are named after the children who once lived in the area. Nearby is Seton Nossiter Park which is a large nature reserve so I will still get visiting native birds. I am also planning to plant a small native bush on our property with a kowhai and cabbage tree as the centrepieces.

My house, my garden

My dream house

We are in the process of buying a house and I can vouch that it definately is in the "top 3" stressful things that you can do with your life.

Not only do we have to find something that we actually want to live in but we also have to both like it! Then there is the process of tenders - the house buying lottery as I have renamed it. You put in an offer against other people's offers and hope you have the winning powerball!

So what does my dream house look like? Well currently my dream house is in Carterton in the Wairarapa and unfortunately I dont want to move to Carterton. It has a huge market garden and an orchard! The house has character, a wood burner and great insulation. So how do I find something in Wellington that has enough land for me to have my garden and my orchard without moving to the Hutt or worse of all Tawa???

Look at the sunlight on this place!

Well we found this cute house in Northland and I took a photo of the back of it from across the gully in 5pm sunlight. That huge sloping section you can see is actually terraced and has an amazing vege garden and fruit trees. They actually put up photos of their pumpkins on the real estate website to help market the place - it was certainly a drawcard for me haha (note they have removed that image now - possibly because gardening isn't attracting the professional couples that usually buy in this suburb?)

I almost want to put in the tender document: 17.1: We are keen gardeners and promise to maintain the wonderful garden that you have created over the past 20 years that you have lived here. Surely that would help win us the tender??

So now we wait with fingers crossed... I have veges to plant!!

My dream house

Homegrown

My garden is abundant with things to eat at the moment.

Every evening I go down to the garden to collect something for dinner.

I feel just like Annabel Langbein the organic cook (minus the fake ponsonby accent and designer gumboots).

The gherkins have grown incredibly well. I am up to my 4th batch of preserving and I have given some to the neighbours and to a work colleague so that they can pickle their own. The telegraph cucumber is trying to compete!

I am growing beans for the first time and they have climbed right to the top of my bamboo teepee.

The salad ingredients are prolific and my beetroot are growing magnificently.

I have 6 different types of potatoes growing. They all taste so good boiled with a little bit of butter and salt.

The tomatoes have grown better outside this year than in the conservatory yet the chili plants are lapping up the heat.

Gardening and growing from seed is so rewarding.
 
I have plenty to eat and plenty to give away and that's how it should be.

Homegrown