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.

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 :)

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.

Tags: Skies

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Tags: Veges, Tomatoes, Sweet Peas, Edibles, Herbs, Autumn

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.

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

Tags: Camellia