First Week Of February...Mid Summer

Another fine sunset happening...We don't get a lot of twighlight here but we do get some great sunsets.........I'm enjoying the cool of the evening sat here on the decking....









We picked another 2kg of Blackberries today - anyone got a good Blackberry Nip recipe? Especially a Whiskey one ??







Just watered the tomatoes and the rest of tubs on the front yard....And then dealt to the mildew thats started to show on the cucumber plants. ..We ate the first of the sweetcorn tonight..despite the fact they could have gone another week to ripen more they were pretty damned edible....First time we've ever grown them so - success!







The Pumpkin plants are bolting across neighbours lawn!...Neighbour hasn't hacked it back but I will. All that work I'm doing and they reward me with doing that!! ..







The Toms are flowering wildly and much tickling going on to ensure as many set as possible ...Some healthy looking trusses already there.......Summers still with us...The thought of lunch on the balcony with a glass of wine very tempting .......

My Gardening Year #2 - Birds and a Plan of Action

So apart from the daily tidy-up and de-clutter I’ve been getting outside in between the showers and working on a number of parts of the garden, depending on how wet it is and my interest level …

The Front Yard is still a mess …In fact it’s more of a mess as I’ve finally gotten around to pulling out an Ausie Grevillia bush that succumbed to too much good feed from the run-off from the tomato borders I had through the summer a little uphill from it… They love clay soils that drain reasonably well, but feed them and they might as well have had roundup poured straight over them ……. I've also done a hard prune on the roses .. All yeat to be cleared up ....

The Grevillia plant was in a fence corner beside the gate … So I'm now thinking It would be nice to plant a fruit tree there. As it drains well (us being on the side of as hill helps) I’m keen to plant an apple tree. Probably the amazingly healthy Monty’s Surprise which was found growing along a roadside in the Waikato district of the north Island in New Zealand. Said to be a world winner being the healthiest of apples you can eat ….

Other options are a fruiting Cherry or a Plum or a Pear… just a siting thing really as I intend to cram trees of them all into spaces around the garden or in ½ wine barrels ….

I actually went out this morning with the intention of buying a couple of trees with the gift vouchers I have from work … I then thought about having a decent coffee at a neaby café and reading the paper… Having got there the temptation of a full cooked breakfast was too much. And so I had that as well …I know - shame on me ...). Then I thought about it being Friday and what we should have for dinner tonight and so off to the supermarket to get some supplies in.. Dog got treated to some mutton bones which apparently made her day :O)

BUT !! I was Almost home before realizing I’d forgotten about the trip to the garden centre !!!!! Like I’m that keen to get home …Not. Another day apparently ..Gives me some time to dig the hole and get some decent soil for it

Meanwhile I tackled some of the vegetable garden yesterday. It’s become an overwhelming chore at present as we’ve not done much up there for some time … The existing borders are looked after and are ok (apart from the damned cats whos’ nine lives will vanish very quickly if I catch the defecating little feline monsters on them at any time ) Ahem …. Even the broad beans look like broad beans should, despite the transplanting shock ….. But the paths and the rest of the garden area are now overgrown with grass and weed and the paths are as slippery as…Well a slippey thing :O) … The grass that’s self sown itself is that awful thick matting stuff that’s so hard to cut. However, having sat on the home made seat up there with a mug of tea I realized that most of it would be spaded up anyway to make the next set of raised borders …. So I then worked out a mental plan of action as to the borders and pathing and where I can place a proper rhubarb square for McD (I thought the tyre idea was a good one but probably the tyres are too small ..)

And before the tea was drunk I had a good idea of where to start and what order to start and ripped into it for a couple of hours ….. Must do the yard as well - It’s all much easier when you have a plan …..Not a cunning plan necessarily but a plan none the less and a good plan :O) I like plans :O)

I want to dig over Border 1 and get some of that rich compost into it..There are still a few vegetables in there that can be harvested. Perhaps we can make more vegetable stoch out of them. It was so successful last time ... Anyway there are still 3 or 4 red cabbages that have been there a while ... I did think the centres would be rotten by now .. But having removed a couple of outer layers and made a native slug and a couple of spiders homeless the rest of the cabbage was crisp and fine as ..... As a crisp and fine thing should be :O)

So thats on the menu tonight :O) Amongst some other things for a meat and 3 veggie type of meal :O)

This morning when I came back home the Bell bird was in fine singing fettle as he/she worked the bush that’s in flower beside the neighbours gate … I walked right up to the tree whistling back to him … no problems … Damned camera is never with me when I want it to be ….. So took the groceries inside, grabbed the sony and tried to get a picture … limited success as he’d made his was further into the tree … Will try again …..







Then just now, looked out of the window beside my computer desk to see a chaffinch and a yellow hammer perched in the tree beside the house !!.. another limited success .. but you get the idea .. .

When I was working the in the vegetable garden yesterday the bellbird landed on a tree beside me …Checked the tree out for insects (at a guess) and then flew off… Again no Effin Beflippin camera… However as he rose into the sky another Bell Bird joined him !!! A pair !! … Offspring hopefully this spring …. I’m thinking about setting up a bird feeder for them and the tuis and the silver eyes .. Just need to see how what I can use to put out sugar water for them ….

Another project ….. :O)

The Pumpkin Wars Pt2.....

Oh it started off well enough ...But I should have realised from the start this was not the ‘all out to help the Dinzie” type of day .. .

“Come on – Lets go” she said. “ It’s going to rain tomorrow, lets get that Pumpkin down off the bank..”

Cool, thinks me. I finally get to weigh the biggest pumpkin grown this year in the garden. We grabbed a large green garden rubbish bag and with a sort of an idea in mind we edged ourselves along the barely a foots width of a ledge in the bank to where the hapless, trusting pumpkin had sat on our makeshift platform throughout the summer .......

I cut the lower vine with secateurs and pulled it up .. at the end was another pumpkin but only around a Kilo (2 pounds) in weight. Probably the ugliest pumpkin in the land too ..... .

I then cut the upper vine about a foot from the pumpkin. It immediately fell forward slightly and I had to cradle it in my arms while at the same time getting the large bag under it so I could roll the thing into it.......I then grabbed the bag and slowly let the pumpkin roll...

It was heavier than I had thought ...Rolling straight into the bag it then tried to proceed down the bank. But I had a good hold on it and stopped it, but at full arms length I was now stuck and with my dodgy back unable to pull it back up ... .

“It’s fine” says McDinzie. “It’ll slide just fine from there .”

“Are you sure?” Says me .;

“Yes really...Its fine”

So I let go !!!!!...............

The Pumpkin rolled at a vicious escalation!! The garden bag now wrapped around it completely. It landed on the next ledge in the bank below us, then fell the 3 or so feet onto the Fuchsia garden being re-directed somewhat by part landing onto one of the large stones we have on the border. It then, at full speed, hit the trunk of a fuchsia bush flattening it completely, rolling along the entire length of the 4 foot + high plant, then crossing the pathway hit the wall of the house with a sickening cracking noise ....

“Slide you said!” Says I as I turn to McDinzie who was already turning to backtrack along the ledge we were on..... (I'm sure I saw I grin as she turned)....

Miraculously, when we reached the pumpkin it was all intact with barely a scratch to it .... How, is nothing but one of those gardening mysteries .... But I should have known then that it was only a matter of time ........

Then it was the pictures session outside first and then after a cleanup we brought it inside, weighed it – A reasonable 34Kg – 74.8Lbs !!! and then took more pictures

But what happened next was to shock the dinzie household . I caught McDinzie with a butcher axe and in mid swing at the pumpkin !!!...

I Shouted "No !! Mcdinzie NO, NO !!!"

But she carried on anyway !! burying the axe deep into the pumpkins flesh ......

Surprisingly the pumpkin flesh was as crisp as could be! Not the woody, fibrous flesh we had been warned it would be with these larger pumpkins...This variety isn’t the Atlantic Giant, but a variety called First Prize.....

So we are now looking at pumpkin soup recipes and McD is trying to pass pumpkin quarters onto whoever will take them !!!

Meanwhile I’ve confiscated the butchers axe !! Which the M-in-L gave her by the way !!! In the Dinzie household you sleep with One eye Open ! Especially if you are a pumpkin .......

Fun With Pumpkins

 

Humphhhh..........:O(

 

 

McD won’t let me build a large pumpkin bed in the front yard.............:O|

 

I’m in a sulk :O( A Kid – Yes a 16 year old kid has grown a monster pumpkin in Christchurch....Close if not breaking the New Zealand Record ....

 

:O(

 

I just want a decent sized Pumpkin Patch .....  :O\

 

No where else to plonk the thing but the front yard as its the sunniest spot in our garden ....

 

  You can tell McD what a meanie she is here ...........Or of course you may agree with McD that the front yard is no place for giant pumpkin growing......

 

Sod it – We’ll have to move house .....

 

Meanwhile we harvested the smallest of the two pumpkins we grew .. The variety is not the world breaking variety called “Atlantic Giant” but a variety called “First Prize”...Supposed to be big enough though .... Bigger than our  “marbles” anyway .

 

But will it make pumpkin soup for us ?? Or will it be too fibrous .... Might just give it a go anyway ...It’s destined for the compost pile soon ..

 

After we’ve stopped playing with it of course :O)

 

  

The reason why McD isn't a fan of large pumpkins !!!

Gardening Horizontally !!

 

Being happily told by M-in-L that this sciatica may never go away – Oh great ........

 

No easing on the pain at all...Can sit for a time but can’t walk more that a dozen paces without extreme pain in the butt...The right butt to be precise .....

 

Funnily enough the most comfortable place for me is the front passenger seat of the car!! Which has been good as I’ve made poor McD take me out for drives around the place to alleviate the boredom ...But I want to do much more ....It’s driving me nuts.....Last night was bad ..I’d pushed it too far in trying to walk and do things ....The ache kept me awake for hours until I finally tried some old meditation techniques I used to practice in my youth ... for what ever reason I then fell asleep for a few hours anyway.........

 

This morning I hit the heavier drugs again.... Pain too much....

 

Really pleased I’m off next week ....But the thought of work looming is starting to worry me a lot ....But will go to the Chiro and the Physio next week and see what they can do...

 

I hobbled up the pathway this afternoon to the veggie garden. Its all so over grown. The grass etc is getting too much and we just have to get it sorted. McD harvested the last of the tomatoes, green and red (and yellow :O) And then we pulled out the vines emptying the border...The sun is about to disappear from this are soon as it dips behind the hill. It’s a shame but that’s  the land we have ...I may seed it with broad beans or peas as a manure crop in readiness for spring.

 

While McD worked on   the tomato border I sat and lay down on some loose weed matting and clipped the strawberry plants and dug up the runners saving the strongest to add another 8 squares of strawbs at the end of the raised border mcd was working on. Gardening on my side lying down being a whole new experience....but at least we did some.

 

The rewards are there as well though as we piked the last of the beetroot and pulled a few carrots that are quite large now considering they only have 8 inches to go down before they hit the hard clay ...(Where they either do a right turn producing an L shaped carrot or they start to twist and push themselves out of the soil.) With the tomatoes and already picked garlic and onion McD copped it all up and made a chicken casserole ...Delicious.   We had it with fresh baked bread rolls...

 

As part of our trying to eat more healthfully McD has been on a marathon run of cooking meals everynight.......Personally - I’m loving it ....   :O)

 

 

The ecentric Pom and his Pumpkins - And tickling Tomato Flowers

The garden seems happy enough .. .Getting “weedy” again as our 4hr a fortnight so called gardener has been put on hold indefinitely ....Though I think we may get him back if only to keep the weeds down where I’ve worked ...

Pumpkin Hiding...Shot from Kitchen Window

Not that I’m doing anything like manual work at the moment ... Two weeks now I’ve been in trouble with a very painful and stiff Lower back. As per previous entries I slipped while carting a large bag of compost to the top of the vegetable patch ... Anyway – thought it was getting better but last night I woke up in agony and even more pain when I tried to get out of bed to go the loo.... Spasms had me crying out and hobbling like a cripple to the toilet .. And that was the end of the nights sleep of about an hour and a half. I gave up and went to the living room and watched TV and dozed a little ... McD was up around 6am worried about me and then off she went to the chemist to get me some stronger pain killers ...which worked ok really .....

So didn’t do much today ... read my gardening book McD bought me (as noted in her blog) and the newspaper and so on ........But we did visit the vegie garden !! Of course !! and McD duly measured the Pumpkin 131cm circumference – about 52 inches ......But the weather has gone mad and we are jumping around temperature wise ..really cold some days really warm others ...and now rain and humidity .... And it goes without saying – the start of the mildew on the pumpkin leaves and the cucumber leaves ..... Autumn is coming early to New Zealand..Well Wellington anyway

I’ve never seen so many cabbage white flutterbyes in the garden !! Talk about homing in on the cabbages etc .... Damn them and their greedy offspring ...

Tomatoes – now ripening .... We’re loving it eating them in sandwiches straight off the vine....But am disappointed with a number of the heirloom plants not setting fruit ...Just not a good season for them perhaps ....

McD thinks I'm a nutcase...No It's true !! Writing in her blog about the Eccentric Pom and his perversion for tickling tomato flowers etc !!!(McDinzie)

However, I’ve been proven right in some of my antics at least due to a certain book McD bought me ...... Conversations have often turned to the vegie garden between McD and Me as we travel too and from work each day... Generally all is fine and MCD often quietly listens as I plod on about having to do this or do that , or reminisce about my early days working with my father (who was a gardener himself) ... McD takes it in and then after a while you get the comments about how i’m so eccentric and “I can’t believe you want to do that !!” My recent talk on pumpkins and now almost daily measuring and feeding of said plants has shown McD another side of me perhaps .... A recent intellectual debate we had on the need for me to build shade frames over the tomatoes went something like

“Must build Some shade frames this winter for the tomatoes next spring season “

“Never!”

“This winter”

“Never!”

“This winter”

“Never!”

“This winter”

“Never!”

“This winter”

And so on – Stimulating discussions of that sort just enliven us after a hard days work being responsible managers in Highly demanding jobs ....

Such a conversation would possibly last the 40 minutes drive home, however we were already half way there so some faster thinking was called for

“Never!”

“This winter”

“Never!”

“I’m bigger than you, you know, and I’ve fought world champion Martial Artists”

“Flower Tickler !!!!! “

Well...Really, there is no right response to such an accusation driven home at you with the sharpness of a javelin piercing the sternum .......

The next morning or so, the conversation turned to the fact I had spent hours reading my google searches on blogs and news articles of vegetable growing and allotments and noting that I had really picked up nothing new from them. Then also noting that the sets of books I’ve bought held little as well...Mostly too basic and too geared up for the newer vegie gardener or written by wanna-bee so called master gardeners whose knowledge didn’t extend past what was learned at the local night class ......

Anyway McD again duly noted this and went off in search for a suitable book for me. And found one. Written by an old bald Kiwi with a lifetime of experience, Wally Richards, “Wally’s down to earth Gardening Guide”. The man is in the know, up to date and while the book is not specifically a vegie gardening book as it is a general gardening book he covers a heap of topics in a truly down to earth way.. And a local radio gardening expert as well .... Suddenly “tickling” tomato flowers was proven as being acceptable to McD and the need for a wider range of elements in the soils such as calcium was suddenly not only accepted but essential for our own plants ....

McD retracted just a little of her thoughts on me in her next blog entry (Mcdinzie) ........Though I have to admit that living with a Pom ..Well this pom in particular, must be one of the strangest things MCD has to endure :O) But at least she gets to have a laugh with it as well :O)

And of course we are eating the fruits of our labours daily as more and more tomatoes and cucumbers and the rest become ready for harvesting.

A Very Ugly Heirloom Tomato

Of course I have to admit that the desire to grow giant pumpkins is an eccentric activity.... At 134cm circumference they are yet to satisfy me in that the record breakers are huge monsters 666KG !! They look like huge orange alien pods ...... And of course MCD still wonders how we are to weigh them ....But she now feeds them and measures them and helps me build a platform for the one hanging by a vine on the side of the bank.....

Perhaps such eccentricities are catching :o)

I’m fed up with work ... Too much on....Too much politics.... But not likely I’ll get another job in this economic climate ..... Won’t be stopping me trying though and I’ve sent my CV to one agency and will do the same to another next week ......

Meanwhile the drugs are wearing off and this sitting at the keyboard is hurting like hell .... Time for a mug of tea, painkillers and bed perchance to dream ..............

Its Not all about the Vegies

Wish I could say they are from my garden - However - Taken at the Lady Norwood Rose Gardens Wellington New Zealand ">