way springy

it has been a busy few days at the whare, spring has really gotten underway and there are heaps and heaps of salads, peas, some new potatoes growing, and ltos of cool things happening. Thanks heaps to Patreena for the lovely gardenia cuttings and cape goosberry cuttings, which are taking off and looking really exciting. Thanks also to Janet and Thomas across the road for the lovely grape cutting, which has been planted along the front drive, to make a lovely and fruitful fence in the summer. Runner beans are running up the privacy fence of the deck, and all is looking fab.

Wat no photos? i hear you cry - well, here is the really exciting part so brace yourselves: I have photos!!! and will be uploading them as soon as. In the meantime, I am using them to put together a music video, featuring the planters, and back vege beds, and dancing scarecrows and plant sprites, and fairies and all sorts! so if anyone out there fancies getting involved, and doing some work whilst horsing around and generally having a hoot, with the possibility of becoming featured in all sorts of famous places, get in touch! finished video will be uploaded onto this site, and will also be sent off to various places to try and raise funds to finish building and get new structures in place.

and watch this space.....

spring has sprung, well and truly, we had spring equinox winds in september, blowing away all of the old clutter to make way for new growth and buds. It was all very blustery for a while there, but has settled down a bit now and things are popping their little heads up. The garden is blossoming, borage (which I initially thought was pumpkin....) is just going crazy, attracting lots of bees, and going well in salads. There are plenty of salad greens, and yellows and reds and blues from the nasturtiums and borage. The nasturtiums are really spicy! they seem to be spicier than other ones I have tried in other locations, so maybe they like my soil, who knows. They certainly get a reaction though, people know when they have eaten them! there are a few other 'eater beware' plants too, such as a hot and tasty endive, and a powerful mint, and some good old garlic chives.

currently being planted, and awaited with eager eyes, are:

swan plant (to attract monarch butterflies)
eggplant
rockmelon
chilli peppers - doing well
gourmet basil - also doing well, some of the plants come up purple!
lots of lettuce, different varieties
poppies and sunflowers
more peas and beans

the planters at the front of the house have their own little plastic house, which is used to protect plants from the niggly wind, and also provide a bit more warmth in the cooler start of spring. They are now full of climbing peas, spinach, mizuna lettuce, some corn popping up, some endive again (beware!), tomatoes, and some green leafy coral lettuce too. Slugs are realising that, although my hair might look great, it's not so slug-friendly when it is brushed off my head, collected, and placed around little vulnerable plants, so that the slugs get all tangled up in it and can't move. hehehehe ;P

many thanks to the neighbours for another collection of horse poo and chook poo, that has all gone on the back garden, which now has a tyre wall, and keeps getting built up. Unfortunately the last wwoofers, who promised faithfully to get it all up and running by spring, broke their promise, and also gave quite a bit of unacceptable trouble, so were asked to leave. Firmly. They are not welcome back. So, the garden is not yet finished, but is looking good, the base has been well fed, and nourished (by Good Wwoofers!), and is looking ready for the next stage.

on on, I am being very cautious about future wwoofers, and will see how we go and who shows interest and willingness to put it into action. Thank God for plants!
ka kite ano
lou

this garden's really growin' on me but i'm not too sure about the roosters

i do like this garden
it's really growin' on me
but i'm not too sure about the roosters
who start at half past three
(that's dawn time, folks)

i don't want to put anyone off
but there's no winter hours when you're a rooster
there's no rest for the wicked
and, apparently, no memory of having only just crowed one's head off seven seconds ago.......

god bless them and love them
we all have our place in the world
and then please oh please give them ritalin
and give me a vitamin
and the world will be a better brighter place
i'm sure

i love roosters, don't get me wrong. i've lived next to roosters for the last seven years. and i've moved house six times in those seven years, and they're still next door to me! must be something in my karma that i have to work out i guess, hi hoooo..

however, holy moly they do go on!

however however, on the bright side, the rains have come, and boy oh boy is it raining. today it was hailing and raining all at the same time, then hailing, then sideways rain, then sunshine and rainbows, and then some more sideways rain with a few clouds thrown in. it's been blowing a gale, the dog's been bashing down the door at night and running in to hide under the bed, poor boy, he really hates the wind, the whole house shakes and rattles, windows slam shut and doors open and bang closed again. it's not for the nervy or the hatless.

spring is on its way, there are daffodils in the paddocks (and a personal delivery of daffodils to my door :) thank you very much); blossoms on the manuka trees; little gambolling lambs everywhere; and definitely longer daylight hours.

the garden has improved greatly - first wwoofers will be happy to know that their compost has been used to layer the vege bed, and has broken down just lovely. all of the digging and layering horse poo and pine needles has had a great effect - the soil is browner, not that bright orange clay colour, there are heaps of big fat worms wriggling around, much of the mulch has broken down, and it is generally looking healthier. i have added coffee grounds (thanks fire and ice cafe, waimauku), kelp and black sand (thanks muriwai moana, arohanui), another layer of horse poo (thanks bud and chester and fudge and flannel and longface and snowy and horsey), some cardboard, random food scraps, and dug it over a bit more, dug out a keyhole channel to allow access to all parts of the garden (for us shorter in the arm department), and used that earth to pile on top of the bed, so it is a good half a metre higher, and just about ready for its layer of topsoil or potting mix. good work guys!

another trailer load of wood chip has been collected from a great big pile left on the side of the road from when a load of logging was done. this bark has now been used to make a path down the side of the vege bed, drying out a boggy slippy area and making the bed more easily accessible, as well as looking a whole lot better!

new plants include:

rose geranium cutting - thanks ecomatters eco centre, new lynn, auckland - the cutting is doing well, showing new growth and has made some new friends on the deck
3x lemon verbena and 3x sage cuttings - fingers crossed hope they take
mizuna lettuce seeds from rangihau - thanks mum woofer - have been planted in bio-degradable cardboard egg cartons (also makes it easier to plant them out into the bigger bed and provides fibre) and are popping their little heads up
i planted some hot cayenne chilli seeds, californian poppy seeds, sugarsnap peas, and sunflowers - thanks brother ben - and am seeing if they grow in a glass box on the deck. there are some little shoots popping up and about already, very cute

peas planted when the first woofers were here, are growing heaps. pumpkins are still growing leafy, probably won't come to anything much at this time of year, but good to have something as ground cover at least, and the bed will be ready for planting again in spring. the garden is giving salads, made up of nasturtiums, spinach, silverbeet, nz spinach, wild rocket, endive, some kind of mustardy thing which is spicy man, woo hoo!, parsley, mint, celery, garlic chives, and lettuces. they taste so great, fresh out of the ground, yum.

there has been enough mint for tea, and some lavender to put inside pillowcases. i made a rosemary rub for the dog from the rosemary in the garden, to help keep the fleas away.14 avocadoes have sprouted, i think maybe 3 were lost to frost - i finally figured out why they weren't doing so well when the man down the road told me, thank you! the gooseberry is frost sensitive also, and doing better now it's warmed up a bit.

i'm dreaming of workshops for spring, and making miniature plastic houses for indoors propagators. some more tyres are scheduled for collection either this weekend or early next week, and probably another trailer load of bark from down the road, to finish off some of the paths and edges. on on! crack that whip hehehe ;)

hi again to kat, one of the first wwoofers - thanks for your comment and text, sorry unfortunately i can't text outside of nz, but glad to hear all is going well and according to plan, good luck with all of that and hope you're enjoying summertime too

carry on gardening peoples, feel free to leave a comment and share your gardening stories and tips and handy tales. and gardening jokes.....

ka kite ano
louisa

ps wot no photos? watch this space.....

introducing.....

it's been a bit funny, living and working here, and getting to know the project so well that i give directions and plan new parts in my sleep, waking up at 2am issuing orders, to find, to my disgruntlement that no-body is leaping to get started! i don't know, it's hard to get good help these days....

and i realise that, as i womble on about the project,and what's been happening, and where we are getting up to, that it might be nice to give some pictorial cues to you, our lovely readers and followers, so that you can get to know the project too.

so, in the spirit of matariki, and new beginnings, and new seasons on the way, i have learned, all by myself, to upload photos! how cool is that :) i am very pleased with myself.

many thanks to our first ever WWOOFers for taking the lovely images, and a great big round of applause to me for completing this technomological mountain without throwing the computer out of the window ;p

so, as you can see, the first photo above is the main house. i live here, with the cat & the dog.

i also manage the project from here. apparently according to the cat i don't take direction very well.....

the main house is where the kitchen and bathroom facilities are, which WWOOFers can use. there is a sun deck, for growing seedlings and container plants, and where the privacy nasturtium bush is taking off.

meals are sometimes taken on the deck, particularly if it is a beautiful day, and sometimes in the evening too, all rugged up under the moon watching shooting stars and satellites. beautiful food is cooked here, some of which comes from the garden, and more and more so as the planting gets going.

caravan accommodation is available for WWOOFers - it is a 15ft caravan, and has a double pull-out sofa bed, and two singles; a small sink with a water container; cupboards; pull-out table; and a certain amount of naieve charm :)
(NB: gifts, hat, guinness and deranged grin all models' own....)

all of this timber came from the park rangers, they were having a clear out and so i swapped them a chocolate cake or two (making the cakes was a WWOOF job), loaded up the car with willing workers and the trailer, and brought it all home. the pieces are all interlocking, which makes assembly a breeze, and means that they can be taken apart. (all of the structures created or built on the property have to be temporary, or portable/removable.) currently these pieces of timber are being built up to make small vege/herb beds. they are on the northern side of the house, and get heaps of sun all day.

it is peaceful here, plenty of wide open spaces and trees,

and a time out room for when it all gets a bit much.....

the naaaaay-bours are pretty friendly....

and all in all, life is pretty sunny :)

my aim is to grow as many different medicinal and edible herbs as possible, along with veges, fruit, ground cover, and flowers.

also growing are pohutakawa seedlings, rescued from the ranger station, when i helped out with their volunteer planting group. we have planted spinifex for dune protection along the beach, done other native plantings along the coastline, collected native seeds and planted them up, and collected seedlings to grow. The group meets every wednesday morning, and works from around 9-12. contact Auckland Regional Council, Muriwai Park Rangers if you wish to join them.

so that's us :) nice to meet you all, shout out to Kat one of our first WWOOFers, thanks for your comment and hope all your plans are going cool & groovy too. Kat took many of the photos, and started the blog, as well as doing plenty of grunt work loading trailers, wheelbarrows, carting stuff around, digging and building planters, in the autumn.

we have a WWOOF couple at the moment, building a-frame plastic house in the front vege bed, and building planters with bamboo supports in the back of that section. planters are being composted and cardboarded, and the worm farm is eating and poo-ing great style.

it has been raining hard!!! haha to the weather gods who were obviously listening and sent in the clouds just after my last blog (at this stage i can neither confirm nor deny whether it was me shouting "it's CLOWNS, the song says send in the CLOWNS, not CLOUDS!" immediately afterwards! roll on spring...). anyway, there is some sun shining through, next week is supposed to be a bit unsettled, but i suppose it is late winter after all.

so there we are, a little bit of history and some pretty pictures, as well as an update,

look forward to hearing other people's garden stories,

carry on gardening

lou

mid-winter....really?

the rain and storms seem to have passed for now, leaving positively balmy sunshiney days, chilly and frosty first thing, clearing to pure warmth and light, around 13-14 degrees out of the wind. It's so warm on my sun-trap dck, sheltered from icy south-easterlies, that I have had to come in and cool down, i have been doing vitamin d therapy and i'm tanned i tell you, positively tanned! plants are loving it, growing heaps; nasturtiums have shot up and out to make a privacy bush on the deck trellis. Avocados are lapping up the rays, peas are sprouting up, tomatoes are hanging on in there, growing new shoots, and may well even make it to spring, won't that be interesting. The dog is sacked out in a patch of sun, and the cat is basking like all good cats should.

it's not always this warm at this time of year, and the other morning when we went out in the paddock for a kickabout, my toes were quite quite froze. it is unseasonable, and makes me wonder what kind of summer we will have, or whether it will turn real cold real fast, and leave us all shaking. meanwhile, the garden is making the most of it, and going nutso.

new donations to the garden, for which we are all extremely grateful, have been:
a beautiful red english rose
gardinia cuttings
several gooseberry bushes (some variety, not sure which, sweetish berries which grow in a kind of delicate lantern covering.. any ideas anyone? )
rosemary
a worm farm! yay
grass clippings from lawn mowing
orange fencing and chicken wire, fantastic
thank you to all kind donors, your donations live on happily and well-loved, in the garden. thanks to the new-ish horses in the next door paddock for eating heaps and pooing!

when i look around this tiny patch, here in aotearoa, i'm amazed at how many plants are here. my son and i counted and came up with about 25 different veges, herbs, and plants and trees which are mixed in together and thriving heaps. it's a pretty garden, and i feel so lucky to be the caretaker and grower of this garden, for as long as it is supposed to be.

the big vege garden is looking good, i will start levelling it and shaping it from next week, plenty of spade work to get me in good shape for the summer, nothing like a good set of muscles to make a t-shirt look good ;) who needs painful diets and punishing gym programmes when you have spade therapy.... i think that the bottom half will probably be planted with flax, to shelter the house and provide some privacy, and then herbs which enjoy a bit of shade, like a big fennel bush, and some fragrant ones such as rosemary and lavender. The lavender cuttings are growing well, in several different settings - what a miracle to be able to take cuttings, and make a whole garden from just one original plant! cool.

then the top half, perhaps, will have lots of sun-loving plants and herbs, short term ones like lettuces, and some tall ones that need to grow up trellis and wires, like runner beans, peas and cucumbers, again to provide a bit of shelter and privacy, and heaps of veges for summer.

and, with all these miracles happening in the garden, it is possible that i might learn how to photograph them and upload them onto this site, which would be another miracle in itself, so watch this space....

any donations are always gratefully received, and specific current requests include:
a garden shed
shadehouse
plastic corrugated sheeting
polytunnel
irrigation system
garden fork, loppers, scythe
goat (a hungry one)
llamas

labour is always welcome too, if you're in the area or heading this way. Accommodation is available in exchange for work, or bed and breakfast can be provided, like a farm stay. People have been staying here since easter, this is the first week i've been completely alone, and have found myself still cooking for three... so anyone who wants to swap some work for a good slice of steak and guinness pie should probably get in touch eh. get in touch too if you want a good healthy holiday with lots of exercise and chocolate cake....

music to garden to has taken on a very sunshiney theme, with all these unexpected rays to cheer us up. salmonella dub is keeping me company as i write this, and other good gardening toons have included the ever inimitable bob, good ol' barry, and a bit of morcheeba the other day. Any other gardening faves out there? what do you guys all listen to as you're tying up the beans or getting into a spot of espalier-ation?

have planted a lemon seed from a first lemon from my first lemon tree. i wonder if it will grow.

keep the faith, get in touch if you want, and carry on gardening
lou

winter's here

Hi guys, WWOOFer host Lou here, thanks to Kat one of our first WWOOFers for all her hard work and input on the blog. I am not anywhere near as technomologically competent as her, so please bear with me and my blogs.....

winter's here, lots of rain and tropical winds blowing the house around and scaring the dog so much that he now thinks he has to sleep in my room too. Blessings have been upon the project, as during the most recent fine spell, my neighbour decided to mow his lawn, and very kindly donated the grass clippings to the dug-over soon-to-be-vege patch. This has all now been thoroughly rained on, and looks like it was always there! I am sure I can hear the ground soaking up all the lovely nutrition from recent applications of lots of horse poo, various mulch, this grass layer, and some cardboard for extra fibre. A small path is being laid along the side of the vege patch, using cardboard boxes for underlay, and a top layer of old plastic potting mix bags. The terribly sloping ground is slowly being levelled as more mulch goes on, it's really looking like it might be coming together.

well, so far so good for first posting, will quit while I'm ahead, and go and see what else might be interesting and technically translatable! and roll on spring...

Seasons and settings changing!

As we really get into winter, we're setting up and preparing the garden beds for spring. We've still been digging and setting up the planters too! The other night, we had a wonderful full moon party which kept us quite busy during the day! Mari, our domestic goddess got us started and then...Lou and I took over the kitchen...cooking & baking to the sounds of Bob Marley! We then all hung twinkly lights, lit candles and laughed over how much more could we squeeze in! It was an awesome day indeed!

Monday was a super busy day as quite a few tools were donated to us to complete projects. We're very grateful for the donations and we thank you for them!

Monday night had us busy again with Te Reo (Maori Language class) and another jubilant night of music and fun! Needless to say...Tuesday was a very sleepy day for us all!

Photos will come soon of all the coolness so stay tuned people! This week...we got a few things coming up so...keep watching!

Garden Beginnings!

Welcome to Project Grow!!! Keep reading to learn more!

We're a wwoof group (two wwoofers and a wwoof host) who are enriching the land and turning into a self sustaining garden. We're in Kumeu, New Zealand. Kumeu is a small community 40 minutes away from Auckland City.The property itself is a small house on top of a hill 5kms outside of town. It's a lovely walk! Very scenic and relaxing.

That is the house back on April 25!

A little about wwoofing...

 
WWOOF is short for Willing Workers on Organic Farms. It's an opportunity for those who are traveling and want to help others. In exchange, room and board is provided! Check out http://wwoof.co.nz/ for more information.

A little about us three...

Louisa is the wwoof host who truly is a woman of the land. Mari is Louisa's mum who is in from the U.K and wwoofing with us and well...then there is me, Kat. I'm a wwoofer from the states who is immigrating here to New Zealand.

  

We've been working together on the garden since late April. Louisa started the groundwork long before though by planting avocado stones into pots. She has quite a few small Avocado trees already! She also had a small garden growing with a mix of medicinal and edible plants/flowers.

Since April,we've started working on a half circle garden at the front door and placed planters in at various spots around the property for other plants to go in. We've also began to turn and work the soil (which is a mix of clay) in the soon to be put in big bed. Majority of what we are using is recycled! The tires and wood came from various sources that we still go to as we go. For the mulch and compost, we go for a mix of leaves, pine needles, horse manure and food scraps (lots of good wholesome food!!)

 

The lifestyle is pretty laid back and relaxed. We do go to bed early and it works well! We're a bit free spirited yet very disciplined when it comes to putting in the garden and filling all of its needs. It is a lot of hard work, yet has been rewarding as we see progress everyday.

Today, a bit more turning in the one bed will be done and some planting will also be done during the week.

  

Now this is the point where you can really get involved with Project Grow. We're in need of a few things...tools and advice. We have a few spades and access to a wheelbarrow, but we want to do more building and structuring.

So tools like....

• 
  
  Earth (Topsoil)
• Saws
• Rakes 
• 
  
  Garden Forks

are greatly appreciated

Advice wise...

• Things like what grows best in our environment.?
• What can we build or grow to protect the plants from the wind?
• What grows best in clay soil?
• What grows and helps nourish the land?

We could use a bit extra labor too! So if you're in Kumeu or travelling and want a good work yet laid back experience, drop us an e-mail! We would love to hear from you! Room and some board is provided!

We're proud of what we have done so far and we are going to keep going because the garden is a true labor of love for us! Thanks in advance and just drop us an e-mail if you want to get involved. Tools, Advice, Labour and donations for tools are all greatly appreciated! Hope to hear from you soon!!!

Bye bye from Kumeu!