boy it's cold

howdy all gardeners, well it's still cold, and we're having the most bizarre weather, along with a whole year or more of bizarre natural disaster events, so the world is rumbling for sure. There has been snow up here, and up in Helensville (the closest town), and even as far as Dargaville, home of the Kumara, in the "Winterless' North - not any more apparently! It's the first time Auckland has had snow since 1939, long before my time, another weather record broken.

Here are some photos of the garden, when it was still warm and sunny. They cheered me up, and I remembered just how much hard work and love I have put into this little plot. Winter has been very slow, with little opportunity to work outside - if it's not pouring with rain, it's blowing a gale and throwing down hail, and lately all three! It's nice to look back on sunnier, more productive times, whilst eagerly awaiting the return of spring.



who said crocs are not cool...

baby swan plant, food for monarch butterflies. Bees like them too.





Californian poppy. Baby avocado. Only seven years to go....





Globe artichoke in growth...



and bloom.

Salads from the garden

My first ever rose, given to me on my birthday by my mum, with plotting help from the woofer

Nasturtiums, great flavoursome addition to salads. Apparently eating one nasturtium leaf a day can help prevent and ward off arthiritis, according to Dr Vogel.

Of course, the recent terrible weather affects the garden, and the work-ability, and the gardener too! Thankfully the rain has stopped for a little while, and the mud is giving up some of the gumboots and even people it sucked in last week. The chickens got all excited, and laid heaps of eggs with many a squawk and flap, especially Fluffy the big black chicken, who is in her first season of laying and can't really believe what is happening in her nether regions. They have gone into recovery mode now though, unless they are hiding eggs somewhere, so I am trialling a supplement of brown rice and chilli flakes - lots of vitamin B rich foods for nourishment, and apparently chilli gives everything a gee up, a bit like drinking strong coffee for constipation, and gets it all going again. We shall see.

Meantime, I watch avidly for the first light of morning, noting that it comes a little earlier each day. It is freezing cold, that's true, but the sunrises are just spectacular, especially now that the moon is waning. The other morning, I went out on the deck, where pink fluffy clouds hung low in the sky, and I stood myself at the very mid-point of the path of the rising sun on my right, and the setting moon to my left. What a view!

ka kite ano, happy gardening

lou