Without Blame

Spring Veg

user@domain.com — 2008-06-07T20:33:23+12:00

The main vege beds are full and spring veges are assured! As well as leaving in the last of the current carrots and silverbeet they have:

spinach
red onions
broad beans (two varieties)
peas (tall ones this year)
potatoes
lettuces
silverbeet (more bright lights :)
garlic (elephant garlic this year)
shallots
pak choi
red cabbages
cilantro

Winter planting

user@domain.com — 2008-05-15T20:15:50+12:00

It's that time of year again; I'm planning for winter and spring.

The broad bean and pea seeds arrived yesterday, the bulb orders went in over the weekend, and there are punnets of lettuce, rocket and onions waiting for a chance to get planted. Another silverbeet glut is only a few weeks away :)

This year the picture is added to by the chooks who are moulting and looking decidedly autumnal. They seem completely cheerful as the hoon around looking raggedy (particularly the girl who lost all her tail feathers in one go) and retain their passion for sunflower seeds and puha.

The real challenge is working out the planting plan for the mound by the pond with the nectarine. The plants need to handle clay, but won't drown as it's a mound, need to be beautiful year round as they're next to the pond, but I still want seasonal variation.

I'm thinking about a spinossima rose as I think the hips are gorgeous, but pink flowers will need some thought :)

In other rose news the Souvenir de la Malmaison growing around the compost is still growing madly; it should be gorgeous next spring, and the Graham Thomas is also holding out against winter.

Snakes in the garden

user@domain.com — 2008-04-13T19:33:36+12:00

Life has been busy, and the garden's been thriving. My discovery for this season has been the 'Rampicante' zucchini I got from King's. They haven't grown like zucchini, but they're very grown! Huge vines all over the boardwalk by the pond, and the strangest fruit!

This one ended up at 95cm long, which is more than I could contemplate cooking in a single go.

The raspberries also grew more than we could eat, as did the paste tomatoes and the basil. So I've been giving away eggs, silverbeet, basil, and raspberries. Oh and plenty of baby fish :)

It really is the end of the season now, only a few raspberries left, the tomatoes are slowing down and the basil is getting mildewy. On the up side the grapes have just started to ripen, and the chinese gooseberries are looking like they're going to be great in a few months. The kohlrabi are just coming through too, having grown caterpillars for the chooks they're going to be dinner for me very shortly :)

I'm hoping to spend some of next weekend planting the winter crops. Two varieties of broad beans I think, plus peas, lettuces, more silverbeet, spinach and maybe potatoes. Then I'll see how much room I've got to sneak in some treats like some beautiful beetroot and radishes.

It's been a while

user@domain.com — 2008-03-01T21:20:23+13:00

Well it's been madness here! We have genuine honest to God frogs in the pond, egg-producing chooks and raspberries.

I'm so looking forward to Easter, by then I'll be down to only one job, studying will be under control, I'll have holidayed and it will suddenly seem doable again. At the moment I'm struggling with two jobs and two courses, plus a couple of out of work projects.

Last week I got the health stuff out of the way; the tests themselves were unpleasant, but the results were pretty good. We have a theory about the iron deficiency, and we're treating it with iron supplements, so I'm back to where I was beforehand but with a diagnosis.

The harvest so far (spring to midsummer 2007-2008)

user@domain.com — 2008-02-02T15:23:37+13:00

Silverbeet (two crops)
Peas (two crops)
Broad beans
Lettuces (successive plantings)
Spinach
Mesclun
Basil (sweet, black and cinnamon)
Perennial and biennial herbs (a wide variety including various thymes, parsleys, lemon balm, chives, garlic chives, marjoram, oregano, winter savoury, lovage, bay)
Zucchini
Coriander
Rhubarb
Beans (yellow bush)
Cress
Corn salad
Sorrel
Carrots
Radishes
Dill
Garlic
Shallots
Plum (yep, one plum from a new tree)
Black currants
Blueberries (just starting, and again new plants so a very restricted crop)
Raspberries (the summer flush on autumn varieties)
Gooseberries

The tomatoes are nearly on the list, but a couple more days I think.

Acid mulch and compost

user@domain.com — 2008-01-27T20:12:25+13:00

The acid bed (blueberries, Japanese iris and rhubarb) is causing a lot of thought at the moment. The plants not only want acid soil, but also want lots of moisture; so I need acid mulch. Coffee grounds would be perfect, but my easy supply is no longer easy, so I'm searching for other options.

A week or two ago someone posted on the local freecycle with coffee husks looking for a good home, which sounded perfect except... (Why is there always an "except"? :) ... coffee husks are way to light to mulch with. I tried to work out how to make it work, but I've given up and they're going straight through the compost and I need a new acid mulch plan.

The comic relief of the coffee husk compost has been totally worth it. They're incredibly bulky and light, so I carried a huge black rubbish bag over my shoulder on the bus and through town. They overflowed the compost bin until thoroughly soaked, and looked like fibreglass once wet. They will hopefully fill the gap in my composting once I leave my current job and the leftover fruit bits that come along with it.

In other news two of my chooks have big butts, another sign that they'll be laying soon. All very exciting.

Lots of little things

user@domain.com — 2008-01-20T20:26:02+13:00

There are baby fish in the pond and legs on the tadpoles! It feels strangely springlike for midsummer.

The big task for the weekend was reorganising the compost; using the last of one pile and turning the other. The compost got used on the main group of tomatoes, which have baby tomatoes showing; on the gooseberries, which did well this year and deserve encouragement; and on the lemon tree which produced a nice crop of lemons and needed a feed.

I took advantage of the compost around the tomatoes to express optimism by planting some vines at the feet of the tomatoes:

Melon 'Tigger Moon'
Buttercup squash
Apple cucumber

I'm not convinced they'll get enough weeks of hot, but I might as well take advantage of new plantable space.

The same need to squeeze things in lead to me fitting some more lettuces in around the sweetcorn (which is still not thriving) and some more basil in amongst the rest.

Sadly I'll need to replant the fennel seeds from last week as the chooks took advantage of the compost rearrangement to get into the vege garden briefly and scratched up the baby plants. Otherwise not too much damage I think, surprising as they had access to silverbeet.

The vege garden is chocka again

user@domain.com — 2008-01-13T13:55:10+13:00

Once again my weekend vege gardening effort has been finishing a harvest and squeezing something else in.

I don't know how people manage proper crop rotation, I'm forever squeezing something into the gap left when I harvest something else, so big planning just doesn't seem to happen. I do try to rotate in a general way, so the dwarf beans went where there had been brassicas, the potatoes went where the broad beans were, the next crop of broad beans will go where there are currently alliums.

I have given up on the original place I put the sweetcorn, so I've moved it into the main vege garden, half replaces the end of the last crop of silver beet, half is in the next section squeezed in between lettuces than only have a fortnight or so to live. The new crop of silverbeet is now harvestable, although the ones the chooks got at are probably a week away, so the very end of the previous crop is in the kitchen waiting to be made into quiche.

I also harvested the garlic, washed it (using the washing water on the pear tree) and started it drying. It's been replaced with four more lots of florence fennel seeds (the previous planting is doing well).

The plantings of bush beans are now flowering, so beans shouldn't be far away either.

I'm still not sure how heavily I should be fertilising the vege garden. As the soil is new and good I didn't fertilise the first crops, and now I'm just adding a couple of centimetres of compost each time I replant. I use a seaweed foliar feed once a fortnight or so, but nothing else. I don't know if I should be adding something like blood-and-bone, but at the moment everything's doing ok.

Photos from a windy summer day

user@domain.com — 2008-01-12T12:17:02+13:00

The last of the irises have just started blooming. This is the Japanese iris 'Electric Glow'

A cornflower from the same bed.

'Bright lights' silverbeet

A completely unnatural looking marigold

Baby chinese gooseberries.

This time with pictures

user@domain.com — 2008-01-09T19:33:55+13:00

Baby potato leaves

Kohlrabi seedlings

Bush beans, wildling tomatoes, silverbeet and beetroot.

One of my girls :)

Sprouting seeds in rainwater

user@domain.com — 2008-01-08T21:37:59+13:00

If it wasn't raining so hard I would take photos of all the beautiful seedlings pushing their heads above the soil. Although if it wasn't raining so hard perhaps they wouldn't be growing so well.

After a few days away I came home to bush beans unfurling, little groups of kohlrabi (so obviously brassicas) and cilantro and dill (already feathery). The beetroot need thinning once I can get outside again, and the last few peas that haven't caught hold of the netting will need propping up against the wind.

Oh, and I have one meal of black currants and one meal of gooseberries left to be picked.

The garden is a constant joy at this time of year, every day there is change and growth. Each meal can have something fresh in it – particularly if it's silverbeet! :)

Replanting the vege gardens in midsummer

user@domain.com — 2007-12-29T14:47:40+13:00

The replanting is done, well for now anyway :)

I'd already taken out the peas and broad beans, and reduced the silverbeet, mesclun, carrots and lettuces by eating them. A couple of days ago a new row of peas went in and I bought a couple of punnets of plants, so I was ready to go!

Today I took out almost all of the rest of the gone-to-seed silverbeet, the last of the carrots, and the last two lettuces in one row. So with all the space I planted:

Beans – Roquefort (the last fornight of the progressive planting I started a little over a month ago).
Red onions – California red
Potatoes – unlabelled well sprouted ones from the cupboard :)
Kohlrabi – Early Purple Vienna
Carrots – Mini sweet, the same as the ones I'll eat the last of this weekend
Coriander – Indian Summer
Parsley – Flat leaved, this time in the blueberry garden as the ones in the herb garden were replaced by the summer basil crop last week
Dill – Bouquet
Lettuce – a mixture

This leaves me with a couple of quandries; what will replace the last of the silverbeet when it comes out in a week or two (the new ones are coming on well), and what will replace the leeks and shallots for three months before the broad beans go on.

In general I'm pretty pleased with how it's go so far. The rotation is mostly working – once the broad beans go in each section will have had a legume season. What I'm not managing so well is constant production, I'll have a couple of weeks of total glut of one kind or another, weeks like this one where there are relatively limited options (leafy green things and the last of the carrots), and then the occasional well balanced fortnight.

And before I forget, the tomatoes are fascinating me. Clearly the ones in the lemon garden are much happier than the ones in the front garden. The lemon garden ones are huge happy plants and I expect to start seeing tomatoes soon. The front garden ones get solid morning sun but not so much in the afternoon, and it shows.

Using up carrots

user@domain.com — 2007-12-26T19:38:38+13:00

The usual combination, two days of strong winds form the north (and some heavy rain) so today it turned round and a southerly front came through with thunderstorms and heavy rain.

In the gap I managed to pull up all the past-their-best plants from the southern vege bed and get a row of peas in. I also pulled almost the last of the carrots and made chilled carrot and orange soup. Which, with fresh rye bread, was a damned fine lunch.

The bread is a current favourite; I've finally found a good rye recipe. The trick is burnt sugar and caraway seeds, plus it's only 25% rye flour :) Today's loaves were baked baguette style, so sprayed with water every two minutes at the beginning and cooked really hot.

It's been a cooking couple of days, yesterday I made the best ever date scones and I know I'll never manage to reproduce them. They were made with dodgy old dates (soaked in orange juice) and the dough was way too wet – so a lucky accident I think.

Then, to continue the theme, I spent the evening shelling the last of the broad beans. Once they're blanched for freezing they lose the colour, but at least until then they're beautiful!

Renovation

user@domain.com — 2007-12-23T20:41:34+13:00

After finishing up the pond today's game has been renovation, pulling out spent plants and putting new ones. The gone-to-seed parsley has been replaced by basil (fino verde, Genovese giant, red rubin and cinnamon), the peas are out and shared with the chooks, and so on.

The chooks have turned into lovely friendly birds, with an occasional streak of insane panic – strangely reminiscent of Seb actually. They enjoy pottering around their section of the garden; scratching, eat and snoozing. Their combs are starting to fill out and they're starting to make grown up chook noises, so eggs can't be far away.

I'm enjoying working out what to feed the chooks. Every morning they get homemade mash, a variety of leftovers and often (their absolute favourite) cooked whole grains mixed with yoghurt and kelp powder. Interestingly they like that mixture way more than its component bits (which are still pretty special) so I guess there's something about the texture of the combination which works for them. They also get greens, sometimes weeds, sometimes some of the gone-to-seed silverbeet. Then I throw down mixed whole grains last thing so they have something exciting to scratch up the next morning.

Finishing up the pond

user@domain.com — 2007-12-23T09:01:47+13:00

It's nearly finished! The liner has been replaced (was 0.25mm PVC, now EPDM) and the water loss has slowed right down, and I've just about finished the planting.

As well as the original pond plants (except the Papyrus which didn't make it) I added a Black Taro, so there is now:

Oioi – Leptocarpus similis, a native reed
Baumea articulata, native jointed twig rush
Sweet flag – Acorus calamus
Ludwigia repens
Myriophyllum propinquum, native milfoil
Waoriki – Ranunculus amphitricus, native buttercup
Black taro – Colocasia esculenta

Around the edges has been the big change, going from two elders to a good mix of the useful and the beautiful:

Carex dissita, native forest sedge
Phormium 'Emerald Gem', dwarf native flax
Leopard plant – Ligularia tussilagenea
Ligularia renformis (which arrived in the place of one of the L. tussilagenea)
Ornamental rhubarb – Rheum australis
Ajuga reptans 'Caitlins Giant'
Purple angelica – Angelica gigas
Canna 'King City Gold'
Elderberry 'Adam' – Sambucus nigra

The bog inhabitants haven't changed, although they got moved when the liner was replaced:

Arum lily – Zantedeschia 'White Mischief'
Heuchera 'Amethyst'
Louisiana irises
Red Root – Wachendorfia thyrsiflora

After all of that I put in a watering line, then newspaper mulch with mulchpost on top.

Then I slept :)

A real Wellington weekend

user@domain.com — 2007-12-17T07:44:06+13:00

It feels like the house will blow away, and I'm worried about the damson plum in the front garden. The roses are losing petals in small snowstorms (the photo is my first ever Graham Thomas flower) but there are more buds for later

The vege gardens are coming along well; the peas and beans are nearly done, the rocket is looking well, and the corn has germinated and is growing like crazy. I'm trying to wrap my head around how much change there is in the main vege gardens, they look so different week to week as I take out some big tall plants and replace them with seeds or seedlings. I kinda like this as the shape of the garden and the view on the pond will keep changing.

The pond is the big drama at the moment; today the liner is being replaced with a non leaking one, also this one will be EPDM so it should be much more robust. I ordered one group of the pond edge plants yesterday, and hopefully will order the rest in the next day or two – so the pond should be done very very shortly.

The other big changes around here are the chooks; they're loving free-ish ranging, and clearly look forward to me coming home from work and letting them out. The vege garden protection is getting more settled, the trick seems to be a visible low firm barrier (e.g. a half width of plastic mesh) coupled with a couple of wobbly looking string lines so the chooks don't feel they can land half way.

Highs and Lows

user@domain.com — 2007-12-02T18:21:18+13:00

The weekend started up a ladder, then on top of the pergola rearranging the female chinese gooseberry. I've disentangled her from the willow and now she's now draped across the supports, so if the willow branch goes she'll survive. Next week I'll feed her; which will mean pulling back the decaying branches around her roots, putting a bag of zoodoo, some blood and bone, and a couple of grow tabs down, before putting the branches back.

I've never really understood why the female was planted at the shady end, but with a little bit of spoiling she should start doing as well as the male.

In the photo as well as the pond and the chinese gooseberry there are the squash (planted by the base of the male), three Guinée roses, and the two Adam elderberries planted last year. The elderberries have survived remarkably well given the earth moving equipment that hung out there for a while.

The chooks kept me busy, having worked out how to get over the low fences on the raspberry and blueberry beds, so there was quite a lot of chasing followed by some fencing improvements. I'm trying to work out what is enough for them, I've added a couple of strings to the top of the 65cm fence around the raspberry bed taking the total height to more like 85cm.The chooks can definitely fly that high, but they don't seem to like the fact they can't land on the string so it's working so far.

I also took out the last of the spinach and corn salad, and shortened the row of carrots (carrot soup!) which left me enough room to put in a punnet of spinach and another of silverbeet. There'll also be room for a few more rows of beans, which I'm planning to plant fortnightly. The last bit of planting was a punnet of cornflowers in the blueberry bed to replace some pansies.

Watering everything is turning into a bit of a mission, particularly as I haven't found the energy this weekend to put in as many watering lines as I'd hoped. The squash, tomatoes, and black-, boysen- and goose- berries are still being watered by hand. The rest are either on watering lines or can be reached by the sprinkler. So quite a lot of hose dragging. I did manage watering lines for the herb garden and blueberry bed though, both of which seem to be working well.

On the down side I'm anaemic and overworked and spent a lot of the weekend napping, so not as much progress as I'd've hoped. I have the next two days off work, so I should be able to make a little more progress, perhaps even get more of the front path weeded!

And the tomatoes are in

user@domain.com — 2007-11-25T18:37:09+13:00

More mad activity today!

The last of the tomatoes went in first thing this morning, and were visited by the chooks almost straight away due to a small fencing issue. The boysenberries (Mapua and McNichol's Choice) and blackberries (Black Satin) were next, followed by the final gooseberry (Pax) which is next to the two transplanted Invictas from last year.

Later, after an interlude with some hedge trimming, brownie baking (more cocoa than flour is the secret!) and visitors I planted the sweetcorn (Honeysweet) and put a higher roost in the chook house.

I'm looking forward to next weekend! :)

The chooks are out

user@domain.com — 2007-11-24T17:45:48+13:00

The chooks left the chookery for the first time today, very very cautiously. It's been a really hot day so they spent a lot of time hanging out under the trees, but now it's cooled down are exploring the bank under the plums.

Sometimes the way they move in a group reminds me of fish; it's not just that they stick near each other it's the way they move in sync.

As well as running plastic mesh around the garden to keep the plants safe, I got heaps of planting done:

Grapes – Golden Chasselas, Albany Surprise, Iona and Steuben
Squash – Rampicante
Beetroot – Bulls' Blood seeds
Bush Beans – Roquefort seeds
Florence Fennel – Orion F1
Melons – Tigger Moon and French Charentais (inside)
Watermelons – Moon and Stars (also).

I also got the places ready for the last group of tomatoes, which will go in this evening or tomorrow depending on the weather. Not to mention topping up the pond and watering just about everything.

The good compost

user@domain.com — 2007-06-17T21:14:50+12:00

There's not been much progress this week; between B being sick and some sequencing issues nothing much has actually got finished.

The compost bins did get their interior paint job, so they're finished and I moved the compost from the old bin to the new.

Now that the old compost bin has been removed the slope can be graded, the chicken mesh can go up and then the trellis. That will allow me to plant the raspberry and boysenberry beds as well as hopefully the chicken run.

Another small step was the finishing of the pergolas (and the repositioning of the Chinese gooseberries) and the framing for the bridge and board walk.

Now that the framing is done the liner can go in, then the bog garden, pump and waterfall, then the planks on the bridge and boardwalk.

So hopefully this week will see lots of completion!

I ache

user@domain.com — 2007-06-10T20:21:10+12:00

As well as the vege garden I also planted the blueberry and kitchen herb beds this week. More excitingly I put the chook house together!

I have to admit it was kitset, so lots of screwing things together and a certain amount of swearing, but nothing truly clever. The only problem has been that all of my screwdriver muscles hurt.

I'm pretty sure there's enough room in the back corner for a straw bale and there's definitely enough room for chooks!

The veges are in

user@domain.com — 2007-06-09T21:57:25+12:00

Today I planted the vege gardens; the soil is in, they're pretty safe from harm, so K's agreed I can plant them this weekend.

As you can see the stepping stones haven't arrived, so there's spare macrocarpa standing in. The seat and handrails are also still to come, but the seeds and seedlings are in! I enjoyed all the measuring and counting and lining things up – I'm sure they'll get messy over time but right now they're very precise.

I planted:

Silverbeet – Rainbow Chard
Peas – Petit Provençal
Mesclun – Italian
Broad Beans – Dwarf Early Green
Lettuces
Carrots – Mini Sweet
Onion – Stuttgart Longkeeper
Shallots – French Red
Leeks
Garlic
Radishes
Spinach
Corn Salad – Verte de Cambrai
Cress – Broadleaf

We have dirt

user@domain.com — 2007-06-07T21:50:44+12:00

The new dirt for the raised beds has started arriving, so this weekend is looking very hopeful for planting.

The only problem is that it's a bit mobile and that, combined with gales, has left a fine layer of silt in the bathroom and toilet.

Mud puddle

user@domain.com — 2007-06-03T17:32:05+12:00

Today has definitely been pond readiness day, sadly pond day looks a fortnight away, but it's been good fun.

For a start I trekked across town to buy planting baskets so I could pot all the bare-rooted pond plants today, and get everything else potted eventually. So starting with 17 pieces of sweet flag I separated them into five huge planting baskets

Potted them with garden mix and then put a layer of black gravel over the top. Then (and this is where I get to the cunning/odd bit) I put them in sets into the bath, then gradually filled the bath with water so they were completely submerged, left them for an hour, let them drain slowly and put them out on the deck.

My theory is that this has both proven that there's enough gravel to stop everything escaping once they go on the pond and given everything a proper soaking after potting.

Marginal plants

user@domain.com — 2007-06-02T18:13:43+12:00

On a more cheerful note, once I made it to the house I found several boxes of plants had arrived, so I've spent the day sorting and checking.

There were a smallish group of herbs from Dellawood destined for the kitchen herb and gold and purple beds. The bulk were from Nikau Hill and mean that the plants for the pond are all here.

The sorting took a little effort as some of the plants weren't labelled, but all but three plants were easily sorted. They, however, are a bit of puzzle; three identical plants, one labelled Baumea articulata, one labelled Restio tetraphyllus, and one unlabelled. I'm pretty sure they are B. articulata, which I ordered, but as they're a little yellower than I expected I've emailed off for confirmation.

As well as the B. articulata, a native sedge, there as some other marginals waiting patiently for the pond:

Oioi – Leptocarpus similis – a native reed

Papyrus – Cyperus papyrus – which will screen between the bridge and the waterfall,
Sweet flag – Acorus calamus – a whole pile of root cuttings for me to pot up, intended to keep the nitrogen levels down.

Another Friday, another obstacle course

user@domain.com — 2007-06-02T17:23:00+12:00

For the third Friday in a row I arrived home in the dark carrying stuff and the access to the house was a problem. Worse this time was that it was unexpected – the steps by the letter box were blocked with lumber with no warning or explanation.

I think the explanation is probably to stop us walking on the framing for the steps that was installed on Tuesday for a concrete pour on Wednesday, to be washed back on Thursday. The limit to this explanation is that the steps weren't poured on Wednesday so, with a public holiday and all, the steps will be impassable until at least next Wednesday – nine days total. To add to my general sense of frustration no-one's actually thought to tell me what's going on, and I can't ring K to check until next Tuesday. Hmpf!

Not withstanding my (somewhat reasonable) grumpiness, there has been plenty of pleasing progress. The rest of the path has been laid, the deck is finally cut back (although the side is still missing), and the front lawn has been mostly cleared and levelling to path height has started.

Access problems

user@domain.com — 2007-05-26T20:32:34+12:00

For the second week in a row Friday has seen access to the house dismantled and only partly reconstructed. This week it was the front path – all the concrete slabs have been pulled up, broken down and filled behind the retaining wall. The last remaining piece of the original concrete is between the deck and the fence and can’t go until the gasfitter shows up to move the pipe.

Access has been the theme of the week really. We started the week sorting out the pergola and the boardwalk which, while solved in theory, has yet to be realised. Later in the week work started on the steps; something I’ve been looking forward to as they’ll provide access to the basement once again. Walking around the garden in the dark (with a torch) I noticed that the first landing had been built higher than top landing – a phone call at 7:30 the next morning and the overlooked “0” was back in place and the steps are heading down again.

Saturday morning was spent rearranging the piles on the deck so I could both water the plants that have been there for a few weeks, and make space to add some more.

Next week should see massive progress, all the concrete paths and gravel should be in by the end of the week. This should mean full access to the lower terrace so the gravel paths, pond and pergolas will be able to receive some real attention.

This is box week

user@domain.com — 2007-05-24T20:44:31+12:00

In the living room there are two boxes of herb plants, two boxes of jars and a box containing 10kg of quinces and another 10kg of pears.

One day the house will no longer be full of the garden :)

Shepherd's warning

user@domain.com — 2007-05-22T19:20:24+12:00

It feels like winter is finally in the offing – after weeks of beautiful clear days we’ve been having gale force winds, cold days and rain is forecast for the rest of the week.

This morning we walked around the garden and sorted out some heights and edges, have hopefully solved the problem with the chinese gooseberry pergola, and maybe even made some progress with the front lawn.

Better still we have some dates, hopefully the back garden will be done by the end of May. The front path might not quite make it as it’s weather dependant and people intensive – two-three days of complete chaos I believe.

Fruit salad

user@domain.com — 2007-05-20T13:18:18+12:00

After all the worry I really like the paths; exposed aggregate with a 10% mix of “Fruit salad” aggregate – which adds interest and ties in to the macrocarpa without making the paths any particular colour.

There’s been so much change while I’ve been away and the garden is really starting to appear from the shambles. All the retaining walls are finished, with a little clean fill needed but otherwise completed. Similarly the raised beds and all the paths from the deck through to the back of the top terrace.

The lower terrace shows some progress, mostly good but I’m having a bit of a panic about the chinese gooseberry pergola.

The posts seem to have been put in below the crib wall, so inside the board walk. While that mightn’t seem like a problem this is a pergola for a chinese gooseberry which will cascade over the pergola (rather than neatly climbing down it) and stretch out for the sun – completely blocking the boardwalk. The two solutions I can see are to move them back to where they were drawn (a hassle as they’re concreted in) or extend the pergola over the full width of the boardwalk so the chinese gooseberry hangs over and outside it. This is on the to-be-discussed list :)

The section of path in the front is also a bit of a worry, as it’s now higher than either the lawn or the flower bed – I am guessing they’re expecting to add dirt to fill/raise both, which will require me rescuing some plants.

The cut back deck looks fine for size, losing a metre hasn’t made much difference to the usability, the fact the gasfitter is ill (?) so can’t move the gas pipe has meant that the old posts can’t be removed and the railings can’t be put back. Which, in turn, means the section of the path next to the old posts is unusable and we have to troop across the neighbours’ lawn. The courier who brought my new passport looked very unimpressed.

So heaps of progress last week, this week may not be as productive as we have five days of wet forecast along with two days of gale force winds.

Making changes on the fly

user@domain.com — 2007-05-19T07:06:52+12:00

It’s not been a convenient week to be out of Wellington; I’ve been having arm-waving phone and email conversations about details and changes from all over the North Island. So arriving back on Friday night to new, incomplete, ugly paths was tough.

I started the week by emailing Kevin to say that having looked at the height of the retaining wall by the fig I thought there was no point having a path below it. So some of Monday was spent negotiating changes to the chookery, raspberry bed, paths and compost bins from Auckland.

Thursday morning (Hamilton) was the time to confirm the colour of the pebbles to be added to the concrete, not helped by Kevin and I never being available at the same time so relaying messages through voicemail, sticky notes and other people in his office.

Thursday afternoon (Paeroa, with dreadful cell coverage) was heights, levels and edges of the path at the front of the house, The decision has been to raise the path in the front (laying over the existing concrete) to make it more level and co-ordinated with the deck. This means all the steps will be at the end of the deck, which will definitely need lights!

Thursday night had the complicated instructions about how to get to the front door on Friday night – tricky enough without me arriving home after dark (but before J) with luggage.

So I arrived, got inside, grabbed a big torch, went back outside and was completely horrified; the unwashed concrete was uglier than I had imagined – so I went to bed hanging out for the morning when they guys arrive to wash off the retardant and expose the aggregate.

I can nearly see it

user@domain.com — 2007-05-13T17:13:50+12:00

On Tuesday the path by the front door reappeared and on Wednesday the grapes, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries and black currant arrived from Waimea. They’re all waiting on the front deck, along with a growing assortment of other plants, seeing them in the ground seems so close right now.

The rhubarb was also resurrected, a little blanched but I think it’ll recover in a new home in Spring. The bulk of the retaining walls are finished, with a couple more planks to go on some and a lot of fill needed behind all of them. The raised vege beds have appeared as has the blueberry bed.
The front path feels so much wider already, and the only difference is a nearly finished retaining wall and the plants for the border should arrive in the next week or two.

My only current angst is the awareness that large parts of the garden are still completely unplanned. Every time I look out the front door I realise I have no idea what will be there in six months, I had a ponder about natives a few days ago, but now I’m back to a mixed bed. The planting strip along the bottom of the retaining wall will be hardest of all I expect.

I thought concrete was supposed to help

user@domain.com — 2007-05-07T18:52:28+12:00

The first concrete was poured today — the retaining posts should be permanent by tomorrow. While this should feel like massive progress the immediate effect has been increased chaos, hardly believable I know :)

There are two contributing factors, firstly last week’s rain — when the concrete went into the holes the water came out, so there are huge grey foamy puddles everywhere. Secondly pumped concrete is apparently hard to control, so there is concrete far and wide. I’ve been assured that tomorrow’s work will scrape back the spare concrete and start putting the clay back behind the walls.

In other news we’ve talked through the quince and rhubarb tragedies and appropriate apologies, reassurances and possible solutions have all happened. I’ll mark the precious plants down the path, K will ask B not to stand on, cut down or pile clay on anything without checking first.

Late Autumn

user@domain.com — 2007-05-07T00:08:48+12:00

I think that we’ve reached the end of the tomatoes — the sungold cherry tomatoes were definitely the outstanding performers and are on next year’s must have list. The paste tomatoes aren’t too bad either, but the rest hated the slow start to summer and didn’t make it to red.

The sweet peas are also winding down, with seed pods galore and only wind battered flowers left. The mulberry has already lost its leaves, perhaps because it’s exposed to the northerly and we’ve had a few over the last few weeks. I’m hoping that planting Raubritter up wind from it next year might give it some protection, but it’s been pretty happy and has lots of glossy buds waiting for spring.

The grape and persimmon are also losing their leaves — I can’t wait until the persimmon gets a little bigger, the leaves are truly gorgeous as they change and it works well next to the grape.

The herb and flower bed along the front of the house is still going strong, the pineapple sage is stunning (possibly because it was also delayed by the summer), and the alliums, salvia and oregano are also in full bloom, I’m enjoying the salvia more than I thought I would, the strangely curled flower stalks make a strong display and the bumble bees love it.

Anyhow, lots of late autumn tasks to do, the roses need to be tied up once I disentangle them from the sweet peas, then I should weed and mulch that bed. Although I really need to get some seeds in pots today and the daylilies need temporary homes for the next few weeks.

It smells like progress

user@domain.com — 2007-05-05T18:05:35+12:00

The whole garden smells like cut macrocarpa and progress is visible each day. The guys worked today as it wasn’t raining and they’re hoping to concrete in all the posts on Tuesday. All the retaining posts are in, some of the other posts (for raised beds etc) and the horizontals are starting to go on and be bolted into place.
The replacement of the steps to the bottom level has started, which is a bit of a relief - at the moment the only way to get to the basement is to climb under the deck.

Concreting in the posts (which is a little weather dependent) is a big step as it means the spare clay and crushed concrete can be put behind the walls.

On the down side there’ve been more casualties this week — the rhubarb disappeared under piles of mud from the retaining wall at the front and the quince just vanished one day.

Collections

user@domain.com — 2007-05-03T07:31:09+12:00

As expected work is keeping me too busy to do much during the week, although the dreadful weather and getting home in the dark every night isn’t helping either. Opening the front door yesterday was a bit nerve-wracking; after half the normal monthly rainfall the post holes were full to the brim.

The collection of plants in the house is slowly building, there are camellias in the hall (six in that box), bulbs in the sewing room and seeds waiting patiently; hopefully some to be planted thisweekend.

One of the unexpected challenges is the free extra plants/seeds/bulbs that get slipped into orders. I’m still trying to work out where ten blue irises will go, not to mention the Camellia transnokoensis.

The retaining walls are slowly taking shape, tho the weather is slowing everything down and the guys are talking about working on Saturday if it’s dry. The amount of mud is just astounding, and it will be interesting talking progress through with K tomorrow

Busy

user@domain.com — 2007-04-29T17:29:00+12:00

Doesn’t the peony look completely alien? :)

Despite the peony needing to be planted I actually spent the day painting the chook house – my excuse is that the ground is still completely sodden. Believe it or not the post holes are still full of water 24 hours after the rain stuff.

The painting was fun, I started feeling quite competent after a while, which is a good feeling. The trim was a pain because it’s enamel paint - the only way I could match the colour to the house trim. But it’s done – well except for one bit I can’t do until the trim and shutter dry so I can lift them out of the way – and it looks good!

The only down side to the whole thing was that I fell off the deck and into the pineapple sage, so I now have a grazed elbow and bruises on my arse and knee. Oh and the other down side was that I can’t get to the basement which is where the turps lives – well unless I climb under the deck past the bricks and the roof tiles.

So next should be a long bath to get the last of the paint off

Mud!

user@domain.com — 2007-04-28T18:18:49+12:00

There is mud everywhere, including a wide variety of clay footprints throughout the house. It turns out that this is a great way to track the cats and their habits, who’d’ve thought they still be muddy by the time they got to the couch in the living room! I blame Seb’s sponge-like feet; Seb blames me and the landscapers and washes a lot.

So it’s started raining, the digger made it out the day before the rain started, but yesterday they worked on the retaining in the rain. When I got home (in the pitch black at 11) there were boards on the front path to decrease the amount of mud tracked around, but other parts of the path were also blocked by the henhouse which has arrived.

Today J and I readjusted the boards and lifted the bits of henhouse up onto the deck as there’s just no way to get to the basement at the moment. I’ve made no progress on painting it because of the rain, but there might be a chance tomorrow afternoon. My current plan is to paint it while it’s still in sections, then assemble it in place.

Holes

user@domain.com — 2007-04-26T20:17:03+12:00

The digger has gone, and there are holes for retaining posts all over the place. There’s still spare dirt in a big pile, although the new plan of pushing it toward the crib wall seems to have promise.

After much puzzling about access there should be a pile of hen house bits sitting on the deck when I get home tomorrow. I’m kinda nervous about it because there’s nowhere to put it (which means the basement, which is not easy at the moment) and I’ve been told I have to paint it left handed (having done myself some damage scrubbing and painting the fence).

The only other wildly good news is that the kitchen herb garden list is pretty close to finished.

Not such good news: back to work tomorrow, I expect a serious reduction in progress.

Selecting Seeds

user@domain.com — 2007-04-25T21:15:48+12:00

I think the autumn seed orders are done. I just sent off orders to Kings Seeds and Select Seeds; so I should be able to spend the weekend planting inside.

This has all been based on my having (finally) sorted out a plan for the vege beds. The challenge has, as is so often the case, been one of restraint. While I want to fill them up straight away I’m going to plan one with a green manure crop for the winter (lupin), then hopefully do the same for the other next winter.

In other news it turns out that the guys took out one of the plums, so I’ve ordered a replacement. J and I have found a couple of possibly acceptable waterfall options. I’ve also made some decisions about where some of the berry bushes go and what I want to plant inside the chookery.

Even more importantly I can now get into the basement!!

Orange Chaos

user@domain.com — 2007-04-24T17:14:11+12:00

I want to use the word “perturbation” to describe today, only without “and despair” or the association with Paradise Lost.

There was much drama today, alongside much progress. The drama has largely been overcome; the (completely wrong) levels under the chookery are nearly fixed, the confused raised beds are back on track, there are plans about where to hide all the spare soil, and the pond looks real!

Actually the pond was probably only a drama in J and my heads, neither of us made it outside to look for it last night until it was properly dark, and it’s unsurprisingly hard to find a waterless pond amongst piles of clay on a cloudy night with only a torch. Lo and behold it was there and perfect once the sun came up. Well not quite perfect, it can only be 30cm deep which is totally inadequate for J.

In other positive pond news I have found a friendly nursery who are gonna work out a planting diagram for me (yay for experts!!). In not so good news it turns out J doesn’t like the shape of waterlily flowers so we have a fall back plan where we have water lilies which are never allowed to flower. We have also reached a positive decision on frogs and a negative one on eels (for so very many reasons).

The fencing drama is hopefully resolved; I counted today and I share boundaries with nine neighbours, so it’s never going to be simple. Not to mention that almost all the boundary structures are retaining walls. The final fence and relaying the entrance path are the last steps before the purple and yellow border can be planted. Oh, and I’ve tracked down the perfect daylilies for the border after a rather endearing conversation where we canvassed the exact nature of “yellow” at length. So there will be three clumps of yellow daylilies (actually one gold; one pale lemon and one bright lemon).

I also have more fence paint, less concrete path, and the henhouse is now at an unknown location in the North Island having made it across the strait

It's a three tonne digger

user@domain.com — 2007-04-23T14:11:10+12:00

Removing all confusion, a three tonne digger turned up bright and early this morning and made it up the thin driveway, down the bowed concrete retaining wall and across the neighbours’ lawn with no major mishaps. My highlights were:

It being driven off the back of the (nice big) truck with no ramps or boards or anything, Paul just used the snork, the bulldozer bit and hydraulics to spider it off very cleverly.
The moment he was coming over the bowed concrete retaining wall at a 45° angle and started calling out “she’s slipping” and we all contemplated the fact that a slip of just under 1m would take it through the wall into #5’s toilet.

But she made it :) The next digger challenge was the path by the front door; which has now been cut back pretty severely to make room for the digger and the retaining to hold the (damned) bank up.

So it’s only half past two of the first day and there’s 20cm of clay on the front path (no rain forecast, yet) a huge hole in the back garden, piles of dirt all over the place and one side of the deck has gone. Not to mention we’ve discovered a gas pipe exactly where it shouldn’t be.

I’m glad I’m home, there are lots of little bits and pieces being decided and discussed as we go. We’ve just made some changes to the shape of the path by the front door to stop the water pooling and running under the house, and sorted out a rather confusing gully trap.

No progress on the bathroom ceiling tho :)

The digger arrives tomorrow

user@domain.com — 2007-04-23T14:01:30+12:00

Major angst this weekend. The digger’s arriving on Monday; K’s told the front neighbour that it’s a 3 tonne digger having previously told me plus all my neighbours it’s a 1.5 tonne digger. The size of the digger causes all kinds of concerns because the driveway (which doesn’t belong to me) is not very thick. I’m not quite sure what’s going on and I can’t find out til it turns up at 7:30 on Monday. Eep!

All that aside, the section is partly cleared; there are a couple of flaxes still to go, but mostly the shape of the land is reappearing (soon to be changed and retained of course :). The photo is of the path by the front door - it’s so much more light already!!

I spent some of yesterday painting the fence that was previously hidden behind a very awkwardly shaped taupata and pittosporum. I had not realised that the fence was orange and white stripes (I kid you not!) - so much green paint was applied yesterday. Sadly before painting much scrubbing, washing and sanding was also required. So J and I were both a bit stiff, but pleased by the progress.

To celebrate all the progress I’m now working out what’s going in the shady fragrant garden, where the taupata and pittosporum were and the old path still is. I think it’ll be a mostly white and green garden, with camellias, liliies, lily of the valley, and maybe dame’s rocket.

The Beginning of the Flood

user@domain.com — 2007-04-21T16:59:11+12:00

I came home yesterday to find a box on the doorstep; full of bulbs to go in as soon as possible. In practice that is likely to be early June, which is a bit late but... so they’re sitting on my sewing table.

As well as a the daffodils, freesias, irises, crocuses and hyacinths I’d ordered, they’ve thrown in some blue dutch irises I need to find a home for. I think they’ll fit in the front border by the salvia, but there’ll be wind problems I fear.

So the stack of plants, bulbs and seeds has begun, I’ve also sorted out a space on the deck to hold plants until they can go in. Hopefully out of the way of the people cutting back the deck but still accessible. It’s all go here!

I’m currently planning a week off in early June to plant as much as possible, although I’m unlikely to have the fruit trees or roses by then.

Deciding on Plants

user@domain.com — 2007-04-17T20:56:40+12:00

Waimea Nurseries emailed today to finalise the order, they want to send it sooner rather than later so that it doesn’t get tied up when they start despatching their winter orders to garden centres. They’ve made a couple of stock changes; including substituting a earlier season blueberry, and I just added two boysenberries now they’ve got the variety details.

There are a couple of fruit spots left in the garden; the windy spot at the front, the gap near the lemon, the other maybe lemon, and whether I can fit a second tree in the chookery.

The End of Before

user@domain.com — 2007-04-15T08:54:32+12:00

I took the before photos today - amazing to think that it is about to be so totally different. I’m kinda hating this bit; it feels out of control and final. Once the walls and paths go in they’re there forever, or close enough to.

The other part of me just can’t wait - I want to be planting now, I want the plants to be grown now, I want to be able to pick the lemons, walk through the grapes, pick the roses, get scratched by the boysenberries, talk to the chooks.

Books and Berries

user@domain.com — 2007-04-13T13:50:20+12:00

There are two problems with reading gardening books; firstly they inspire covetousness — they’re full of such exciting and beautiful plants. By 7am this morning I had decided that monkshood would be perfect along the bank outside the front door.

Secondly, and even less helpfully, they contradict each other. When I’m planning a 3m hedge of raspberries it would be useful to be sure whether they should be planted 60cm or 1-1.5m apart. I’m currently going with the majority (60cm) and think the other was probably inspired by blackberries or the width between the rows.

Which brings me to my realisation about berries; by spring my garden will contain:

Black currants
Gooseberries
Alpine strawberries
Elderberries
Grapes
Raspberries
Boysenberries
Blueberries
Orangeberries

And the first five are already out there growing away.

Planning the Chookery

user@domain.com — 2007-04-11T21:47:36+12:00

J says it has to be called a Chookery, and I agree :)

I’ve picked the chooks (Welsumers), ordered the henhouse and started deciding on the plants. So far I’ve decided on a Pomegranate inside, Hyacinth Beans, Raspberries and Boysenberries growing outside. Of course there’ll be some greens, yet to be sorted.

Thinking about the henhouse has been surprisingly fun — I’m looking forward to the painting and the hammering and the chaos :) Guttering is a bit beyond me at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll get there.

Moving Dirt

user@domain.com — 2007-04-11T21:44:16+12:00

Good old heavy Wellington clay; it holds water but drowns roots, keeps its shape but slips under pressure.

It’s hard to believe that in only a couple of weeks there’ll be a man with a digger cutting and moving and filling — it seems very final. The only things left to do are to draw the final lines on the hard landscaping diagram; redraw the chook enclosure and tidy up a couple of raised beds.

Then the dirt will be good to go!

Gold and Magenta

user@domain.com — 2007-04-10T20:33:23+12:00

I’m beginning to feel that the yellow and purple border along the path is nearly under control, the roses and bulbs have been ordered. Almost all the other plants have been ordered or tracked down.

The big struggle has been with how tightly I define purple and how many plants described as “purple” seem pink to me. Only two roses have made it in (Rose Marie Viaud and Cardinal de Richelieu) and lavender and irises will will carry the rest of the burden of purple.

Gold was easy, but a spread through the season will be a challenge, as well as a some roses there will be daffodils early, daylilies, dyer’s chamomile. Hopefully some variegated and lime foliage will also balance the colours and hold the intensity through the year.