Labour Weekend - Getting the House Summer Ready

Our first summer in our new home and I am enjoying our private garden and outdoor area so much.

We haven't had a ready-made garden since we lived in the old house in Alexandra and it is wonderful to add our own stamp on things. The former owners who were retiring and going to a much smaller place left us some lovely potted outdoor plants in some big, beautiful pots, along with some outdoor seating and a shade cloth. We put the cloth up last night and already we are benefitting from it as the sun is HOT today.

Traditionally in New Zealand, Labour weekend is for putting in your summer plants, and this tradition still holds firm judging by the number of people at the garden centre this morning.

We have a lovely lot of edibles in the garden - a plum tree absolutely laden with a type of plum that we're not sure about - until it ripens. With the number of fruit on this, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on those cheeky birds and netting it when I need to. I have a Mandarin ready to go in, a Tamarillo thriving, celery ready to harvest and at the bidding of my second son today I got two raspberry vines to put in.

We are getting ready for Theo to go to NASA in December and doing some fundraising to help. I've been testing out an old fashioned lemonade recipe given to me by my hockey mum friend, Sue. It's seriously the best lemonade but I think the recipe is a bit of a secret. I've been putting the syrup into bottles and will sell them soon, but of course we had to test it first!

I hope that you will be able to come and enjoy a drink with me sometime over the summer. 

Warmth and shade from the hot sun and good company in the outdoors with lemonade (and maybe a cocktail or two) sounds very enjoyable indeed!

And of course Ginger will be here to give you a very joyous welcome.

Aunty Marjorie's Garden Cutting

This weekend we visited Rob's elderly Aunt in Auckland. She has always been an inspiration to me from the very first time he took me to meet her before we got married.

This is a woman who has known tragedy in her lifetime, and never allowed it to dim her faith or her inner joy. When we lost our first baby she was there for me, comforting me with her wise words, her faith in God and her cups of tea. No matter what life has thrown at her, she still holds fast to God, and that inspires me. She is a rare woman in a world of doubters and unbelievers. People admire her because she's in her 90's, and independant and still as 'sharp as a tack', but you cannot separate her from her faith, and that is what I admire her for most of all.

While we were having a late lunch out on her deck in the afternoon sunshine, she snapped off a piece of a large bush that grows by her front door and gave it to me for my new garden. She said that one of her dearest friends gave it to her. I don't even know what the plant is called, and it's not even a particularly pretty bush, but I was thinking how nice it will be to have some of Aunty Marjorie's garden in my new garden. And that got me thinking....

Wouldn't it be nice to take snippings of plants from the garden of friends and family for the new garden.

When we got married 16 years ago, one of my bridesmaids did that for me. She filled a large tub of cuttings from her garden. I lovingly planted them all out in my new little house ...

...but we only stayed there for 2 years before we moved to the South Island. I took some of the plants with me, and they probably are still growing in our homes in Central Otago and Canterbury, but we've had so many moves over the years that not one of the cuttings I took when we left survive now. I even took a cutting of a hydrangea from the Marlborough Sounds property we used to haunt when we were kids, but that didn't last the trip north. So I have to start all over again, and Aunty Marge's plant is the first one for my new garden. We plan on being here for awhile now, with the kids in school and settled here. Plus, we love it so much in the Bay of Plenty, I can't see us moving in a hurry.

Don't you think it's a nice idea, to fill my garden with cuttings from people and places we love. I know it's sentimental, but in a world that has become impersonal and indifferent, I think it will give meaning and soul to my garden.

Tomato Growing in a Fertile Paradise

Ok, so maybe Tauranga isn't Paradise - afterall, I haven't forgotten about the cockroaches who are about to return with the onset of warmer weather. But everything here seems to grow fast. And I mean fast!

I suppose it's the semi-tropical climate - lots of rain, lots of sun. But three weeks ago I bought three tiny tomato plants from the gardening store with the intention of growing them in pots. We are renting a house and I don't know how long it will be for, so I hate to plant anything permanent at the moment.

And I go out to my little tomato plants this morning to water them after 3 days of neglect because of storms, and what do I find. That one is needing staking and that there are little yellow flowers on all the plants! Excitement! After battling the winds of Canterbury and my poor vegetable garden suffering and being stunted because of it, and giving up on tomato plants after the first year, I am so thrilled to see flowers, and the plants are not battered to bits!

And inside, I have heritage tomato seeds growing fast too in a little planter, hastening towards the day when I plant them out into their own, grown-up pot.
I'm looking forward to eating them and popping them into our salads this summer.

And my outside plants...

Flowers!

                         Patio Prize                                  Sunshine 100                     Sweet 100

          

Any hints or tips you have on growing tomatoes, or what I need to feed them with, or do to them, I would welcome any advice.

My City Garden

It has been quite a change for us, moving from rural Canterbury to urban Tauranga.
The biggest plus-side of leaving my 10 acres and my fledgling orchard and truffle trees and very large vegetable garden is that I have flowers that don't get blown to bits by the 'nor-west winds.

They are not my flowers. I didn't plant them, but I'm allowed to enjoy them and pick them and use them while we are here in this lovely rental house. And the garden is really small, and shady and is also a terraced garden, which I didn't think I would like, but it's actually growing on me and I do enjoy standing at my kitchen sink, and looking out through the wide kitchen windows at the two beautiful pink camellias. They are stunning. I think the nicest camellia I have ever seen. My sister-in-law wants cuttings, and I think I'll be taking cuttings off it also, when we leave.

These steps go up to a plateau which has been used as a vegetable garden.

Here is the pretty camellia.

Alice dancing in the garden.

 I love these flowers. I don't know what they are called, but they look similar to daisies, which are my favourites, and so they make me smile. The garden is just brimming with them.

 Aren't they beautiful!

 Another picture of the terraced garden.

In our front garden, the one by the driveway, there are loads of spring flowers which are so pretty and make such a lovely welcome as you come up the steps to the house. Meredith and I made a little sylvanian family scene out there the other day (it's for a competition), and Theodore took a big bunch to school for his teacher.

I am so enjoying having flowers again. Things grow so quickly here in the Bay of Plenty. It really lives up to its name of plenty! Everyone seems to have pretty flower gardens, and I can't wait to get my own - one day!

The view from the kitchen window.

Alice singing at the top of her voice for all the neighbours to hear. :o)

In The Orchard of Blossom

I am really enjoying my young orchard this year.

The trees are that little bit taller, and we haven't had the devastating 'nor-west winds so badly this Spring, and the night beetle is not yet out, so the young leaves on the cherry and plum trees are safe for now.

We are getting some beautiful twilight evenings - the lighting is wonderful, so over the weekend I went around the orchard and took some pictures of the blossom.

Here is my favourite fruit tree (and fruit) - the Quince. This tree is really a survivor! It has been broken by one of my sons (who shall remain nameless), when he tried to swing on its baby branch two days after we'd planted it.
It has also been moved the year after that, when we set up the chicken run, and it was 'in the way' according to the contractors. I came outside to find them replanting it secretly. Hmmmm. So this tree is hardy! And I'm so proud to see two little blossoms on it for the first time!

Apple Blossom is pretty too.
This is the Granny Smith! Look at all those blossoms. A bit of thinning is probably going to be needed. I always feel like a murderer when it comes to thinning.

 

This is my Plum tree - which is past its blossom-time. I love its lushness. It had lots of blossom this year, so I hope that the night beetle stays away this time!

And this is the heritage Monty's Surprise which is very popular at the moment. A very hardy tree and has produced two delcicious apples every year.

Here is the cherry tree - the blossom is just about gone. I haven't had any fruit off these trees, because the night beetle always ravages them - this year I plan to cover it in netting and hope the beetle won't be so bad.

On the edge of the orchard I have my berry bushes. Look at these blackcurrants! Looks like a bumper crop this year.

 

I really love my orchard and in about five years time it will be a beautiful place to wander in.

An Ode to the Violet

Roses are red...
Violets are blue ...

Wait a minute! They're not blue, they're violet. Violets are violet!

 

It was such a beautiful day here in Canterbury yesterday. My husband and son were off skiing with the school for the day. My middle children were safely tucked away in their classrooms, so Miss Alice and I decided to enjoy the sunshine and ramble round the local farmers market. We parked quite far away just so we could enjoy a lazy walk down the pretty country road.

In between Miss Alice getting sidetracked with every single little 'woof woof' that we saw out on a walk, we purchased some doggy treats, a bottle of lemon and chilli cordial, and then I commited a major blunder by paying $8 for four (albeit large and tasty) organic parsnip. So while still reeling a little senseless from the shock of my stupidity (it was my math that let me down again), I stumbled upon a little table with a basket full of violet plants. 

I bought two healthy looking specimens - just the scent alone is enough to charm you into buying them.  Don't you love burying your face into the middle of a violet plant. That is a rhetorical question because I don't know of anyone that doesn't like violets. 

So today I will find a nice shady, sheltered little spot for them in my garden.

I am one of those people that don't believe a garden is a garden - not a proper garden, without the presence of sweet velvety violets.

The doggy treats are all gone. The cordial is delicious. The parsnip were lovely roasted, but each mouthful was like eating gold, but the violets are violet and my garden is now richer for being graced by their very violetness.

Weird Things Happening

Volcanic Ash cloud from Chile stretching right across the horizon today. You can tell because of the slightly ochre colour in the cloud.

And Spring Jonquils in the garden. I only planted them 6 weeks ago. And it's not even the middle of winter yet. Weirdness.

A Hardy Little Soul

Does an apple have a soul? I don't think so. But this little three year old apple tree has withstood some fearsome winds this last summer. In fact, most of the beautiful little blossoms that I photographed last Spring grew into many tiny little apples, only to be blown off their branches by our terrible 'nor-west Canterbury winds.

But our little Monty's Surprise (heritage) Apple Tree withstood the weather and two little hardy apples managed to hang-on and grew and grew and ripened and reddened and here is the last one, ready to pick.

Now what to do with these two strong little apples. Apple tart?

I've been putting off picking this last one, because it looks so pretty, and adds a little dot of colour in my fast-fading autumn garden. But it must be done.