A year in my vegetable garden - part 3 (Plus the rest)

Thanks for the notes .. One question was on the fate of my PoroPoro.. Ths small tree is a native to new zealand is a member of the potato/tomato/nightshade family Solanum ...It can grow to around 12 feet high and has a beautiful purple to very light pastel purple flower. It has drupe type fruit which is poisonous when green but edible when the fruit turns orange ...

The flowers of our tree were almost white ...It grew by itself no doubt deposited by the local birdlife at the side of a set of steps from one level of the garden to the next ...As we left it to its own devices it sought out more light towards the far side of the steps forming a low archaway across them ... I liked it there ...It reminded me of the pictures I'd seen of Zen gardens where a low archway to the garden forced those who enter it to bow in reverence to natures gift inside ....

It had a mass of flowers this past summer followed by large fruit that I had my eye on to make jam (as the old settlers had done 2 hundred year ago) but as they ripened they caught the eye of one of our worst illegal aliens - the german wasps, who devoured them or spoiled them long before I could harvest some for myself .

The workmen saw the tree as a weed and a nuisance and despite it not being part of their brief for the day nor even near their work it was cut down and sadly that was that ....

However, there is a seedling thought to be from the same plant growing in our circular dahlia bed... I will transplant it soon ...But not to the steps of its parent ...............

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Well we finally did it .. Our 1st raised bed has been planted.. It took another two days of hard labour moving soil in buckets up the hill to fill it. Barrow load after barrow load carted up from ground level to 1st level... So much work ....

But how much fitter we are now. The step machine in the gym now being but a toy..."Try doing that with a 20-30 kilo bucket of wet soil!!" I shall mockingly deride the pale faced gym bunnies when next there ........

We've made a lot of mistakes though in building the frame ..Mainly because of having to build it in situ ..But also because of us not wanting to buy any extra tools. The old bow saw wasn't good for cutting thick macrocarpa wood to the right angles we needed... I've vowed to redo the side nearest the entrance as it "offends my eye" .... But the Broccoli cares not ........

As we finally laid the last bucket full into the bed and forked it all over flat we took time to sit at the top of our garden with a mug of tea and look over our veggie patch and past the house to the valley below ... It was very relaxing, very pleasant..

Another vowe to get a proper seat up there soon was made. I think we will be up there quite often from now on :O)

I asked McD to do the inaugural planting of the first plant. Broccoli. She has worked like a pack horse these past few weeks...We tried to get some brussel sprouts but the garden centre had "run out" with no new stock arriving soon.......From spring - well Mid-August onwards we start sowing seed instead of going to the garden centre. I have a heap of "heirloom" seed that I am looking forward to trying ..Blood red carrots, striped beetroot, black (or nearly black) tomatoes..... But for now the centre provided us with broccoli, cabbage, celery,spinach and leeks.

Our First Broccoli

A vegetable garden also with the first sighting of a snail "EEEEEEEK" What the SAM is that !!!!!!! An aerial flight for you voracious vegetable eater...Over into the neighbours garden and never return again.......... "Thats the downside of buying from garden centres" I rasped as I planned death and destruction of all things slimy nearby.

It's there look !!!

It was with a great sense of achievement that we had finally planted our 1st bed and we could now say with not a little pride that "Yes we have a vegetable garden". I was also more than a little amused that Mcd now calls them "her plants" What a difference a little ownership will make in getting them to harvest time. :O)

Tadaar !!!

How quickly we gardeners become the "too" people .... Too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, too shaded, too sunny, too windy, too calm ....etc etc

Of course the work doesn't stop there.. With another 3 beds in the pipeline. But these will require little digging into the hillside and will be much easier to build.

Stupid Humans .......

And as we planted our last plant the clouds thickened and the first few raindrops cooled the air around us and God in his infinate wisdom had it rain heavily for the next 10 hours straight much to McDs concern.."is it out of order to set up the umbrellas for them ?" .....