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