Matariki is our traditional, Maori New Year... So happy new year to you all :O)









Kohai already in flower


Its close to our shortest day which I guess is as good a day as any for the Southern Hemisphere to have a new year.


Little Pied Shag






Wellington From Across the Harbour


Traditionally you plant Garlic on the shortest day and harvest on the longest, but this year we planted about 6 weeks earlier.. To get a head start... Its perfectly acceptable and with our gardens poor sunlight through the winter I'm hoping we can also harvest a little earlier too... Rather than harvesting  late December its been more late Jan/Feb before the Garlics ready ..Which then is bad timing for the next plantings ....Oh to have more space ......


Chinese trainer plane  







Winters Rose






Its also a good time to start planning the vegetable borders for Spring and Summer.. Its also a good time to reflect on the previous seasons harvest ...What grew well, what didn't ..The Crops and the Flops ..Perhaps an entry in itself to look back on

Red Teal







Female Sparrow







Tree Warbler







Silver Eye





This winter the weathers been far too mild ...But its given the opportunity to get into the flower garden and look at that too .. Plants to move, plants to let go, plants to get... I'm keen to start towards a more cottage garden look...But to be honest after the past 2-3 years of neglect any look will be great...

And then of course there's the back garden the chooks now have ....I want to turn that into a green area with low growing shrubs that will provide an area for them to wander around when McD lets them out but will also look good and break up the hard lines of the chicken runs ... . We've a few more trees to cut down too to allow more light on the area....


I've had a couple of maybes that then fell through on the Job hunt... Frustrating but there you go ... Meanwhile despite the threat of redundancy I'm just getting busier...Theres some talk of me taking on yet another role ... One I'm keen to get into ... But there's a lot of humming and aaahing and politics around it all ....

I'd rather be gardening ......


Henny 










Fry







Chip














        
The 3rd Maddest Chicken Woman North Island New Zealand :O)

For which I blame my sister ......:O)

End of one gardening Year - Start of the Next

For the Maori of New Zealand the Shortest day (same day as the longest day in the northern hemisphere) heralds the start of the new year ... For the gardener this is especially true . From that day on as the days start to legnthen, Camelas start to flower and buds of trees start to fatten and the sap starts rising. It's a short dormancy in New Zeland for plants.



It's been a strange winter in that despite the unusually cold weather it's been patchy and in between we've had some reasonably warm days ... Plants are confused with some Rhodos and camelias flowering earlier than usual .. We have at least one native Kowhai tree in flower in the area ..These normally flower in September. We have Daffodils on the roundabout that begins our township already starting to flower... Put this into perspective - It would be like daffodils in January in England ........







Being out of action with my back problems, I didn't get to plant any vegetables in the autumn for winter cropping .. .We do have a few cabbages and pak choi and celery and chard to pick at. It's all great for stir fries or even just adding to stews and casseroles ....







We've planted a heap of garlic this year after last years wonderful heritage crop. So different to the shop bought garlic ..Very pungent.. wonderful taste ... We also planted a small crop of Elephant garlic this time ...Just to try it ... The garlic did try and make a break for freedom pushing itself up and back out of the ground ...Soil a little light ?? Planted too shallow ?? One heck of a good root system produced already - We tucked them back into the soil a little deeper this time with a good pat of the soil on top...







Strawberries were not only a great success last season fruit wise they shot a load of runners out that snaked their way across the raised beds. We've made use of a few of them  to extend the population ...Now having 8 squares (2 rows) at the end of each of the 3 main beds ... Already trying to flower I must get some decent compost for them with potash to get them fruiting .....







I was caught out at the weekend ...We saw some Broad Bean Seelings in punnets at the local garden centre ... Bought a few punnets as we planted nothing in the autumn ... Only to find out in reading that they do not grow well this way ..Not liking transplanting .... What can I say - I'd always planted seeds previously. I just never thought it would be an issue with seedlings ... Never trust a garden Centre ........ However they are in and we shall see ....But will be planting seeds as well very soon for my Christmas lunch harvest...







Another semi failure  story ...I'm trying to build a polytunnel over one of the raised beds (maybe two) .. We bought the tubing at what turned out to be about 3 times the cost we could have gotten it for AND what we bought was too flimsy for want of a better word ... But we will see what we can do with it and some wood or cane supports .... 







In one border wit hthe polytunnel I want to plant some potatoes ... The jury is out on this, As to whether the winter is mild enough to allow the spuds to grow .. One NZ gardening magazine  editor tried to gow them a couple of months back only to have the frost turn them black ... Maybe in a poly tunnel we can do it ....







I Quite like the idea of this 

Kitchen garden Design

Planting a raised border for a specific requirement...Not sure how practical that is ...Especially with the square foot gardening as you do tend to plant what you can and what wasn't there previously for rotation cropping...... 







More Bad news at the Dinzie household...Pepsi Dog (picture in last post) has ruptured both knees of her back legs ..Old age sucks eh .. She's on painkillers now but they want to operate ...$5,000 for the ops alone, never mind the pre/post op charges  ... She's almost 12 years old and life expectancy of up to 14 ......  



Well that is number 4 of the bad things that can happen to the dinzie household in 2009 .. And it's only July .....  

A year in my garden #5...- (plus the rest)...

General

 

No Gardening this weekend (see below) But I did get a chance to wander around the garden seeing what’s what…That the worst of winter, still to come, doesn’t seem to have registered with the plants as the pictures show – we still have flowers in the garden and those not flowering are getting ready to do so …..EVEN a camellia that had never flowered since we’ve been here, flowered this winter… Small pink flowers lasting barely more than a day ..>I didn’t even get the chance to take a photo ….:O0  

 

This azalia is at the front of the garden .. Now almost in shade the whole day ..

 

Grumpy Old Fart

McD and I work in 'services' professions so tend to be a lot more critical of service we receive in shops, cafe's etc ... But we seem to be spiraling downwards as far as getting reasonable service is concerned ...Shop Staff too busy chatting with friends than serving customers .... McD went into SubWays the other day to have some youngster practically pushing her out of the way as she used a cloth to clean the glass frontage.... To hinder someone trying to buy in a shop !! They have no idea do they .... And to do that to McD - real dumb .............  

 

The garden seat now collecting a covering of moss and lichen on it... I like it as it shows how clean the air is and looks good (to me) ...but will mean a shortened life for the seat itself.

 

Vegetable Garden

 

 

 

Well here is the plan ..The end goal of our vegetable garden.. Of course this doesn’t take into the fact the whole garden is on a slant both north to south and west to east … Plus the fact that the garden is far from rectangular….being narrower at the north end than the south ..Plus the fact that it’s sunken already into the earth with a concrete wall and fence to the north boundary and a clay bank and fence to the west ….

 

 

 

So why are we planting here of all places ???

 

We’ve nowhere else to put it really ……

 

 

 

I’ve already told McD we are to move in two years So I can start it all again – but properly this time :O)  “Oh that will be fun dear” she muttered gratingly through her clenched teeth ………

 

Even in our Winter a climber Rose wants to flower (Note the black spot as we don't spray beside the veggie patch) 

 

The weekend has not been good for gardening …We are now in the grips of winter. It’s cold … Damned cold …Plus we have a 120K gale blowing right off the Antarctic and driving  iced  rain directly at the house ….. And it’s been raining for 24hrs now – Chaos on the roads …And that will just get worse by tomorrow morning …….

 

The white Magnolia prepares to flower

 

It’s effin cold ……..

 

And now we’ve lost Cable connections – which means no internet, TV etc, phones  ……..

 

The Rhododendron prepares to flower

 

 

The only thing I do like it the cool cool clean air that now surrounds us …makes you want to keep on breathing in ………………. 

 

The small flowers of the native Coprosma Robusta will lead to red berries in late spring 

 

So apart from a brisk ½ hour wander about the garden Saturday morning to see what’s what and grab a few photo’s that’s all we’ve done ………Trouble is – we are running out of time to get these raised borders in place……. To complete them all there is a good 8-10 weekends work ahead  ..>depressing isn’t it ….

 

I thought this might be the earliest kowhai flowers this year but found a tree flowering beside the local supermarket....

 

And of course then there’s the rest of the garden to look after ….. Not a hope eh with us going to work in the dark and leaving work in the dark as well ……. So only one thing to do and that was to get a gardener in to keep the rest of the garden going ….. So we hired Jim to come round once a fortnight to weed the yard and front borders…However he is the wrong side of 70 and I'm concerned at his health. I  Just know we are going to come home and find him flat across a border one day having expired from the cold and effort …..

 

the fuscias seem to be happier in the winter shade than the summer sun ...

 

Worse still for all his talk he knows little about the plants we have …. Lilly bulbs we bought at $4-5 a pop left on top of the ground …the same for the Dahlia tubers …All left to the exposure of the recent frosts …… I’ve not looked at them closely but if they all rot now I’m hundreds of dollars out of pocket ……

 

 

 

But still we are too soft to fire him …of course where he has worked is clean and free of weeds … And,  HE might be ME in a few years time ….But at least I will know what to do with bulbs and tubers costing a small fortune …………………………………….

 

 

I hope this means lots of fruit this year ....