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...