winter's cooooold

howdy all, winter's arrived, after the warmest May on record, and then the wettest muggiest June for a long time, and the cold has come as quite a shock, with chilly south-easterlies cutting through the skin, and rain forever. However, there have been some awesome rainbows, and some beautiful sunny days, so it helps while I wait for it to roll on spring! I'm hoping for a few more sunny days, to dry out the ground, as it is developing pronounced swamp-like tendencies. Gumboots have been sucked off in the mud, on more than one occasion!

Due to the ground being so wet, the garden is coming along very slowly, the main activity at the moment being stamping one's feet on the ground and going 'isn't it cooooold!' I am considering turning the back garden into a winter olympic stadium for rural sports, such as the Mud-Puddle Gumboot Hop (10 metres and 20 metres), the Stamp'N'Shiver Endurance Month, and the Sway-In-The-Easterly dance competition. Special spot prizes will be awarded for funky hats, scarves and gloves. I have been making use of the indoor warmth though, and planting lots of seeds in containers on sunny windowsills. So far, peas, beans, lettuce, nettles, viola, and even a couple of sunflowers are coming up. Unfortunately, slugs seem to be sprouting up too, and all over my kitchen floor and windows first thing in the morning! cheeky things, but they are good feed for the chookies, who like their little parcels of fresh protein being tossed over their fence.

The chickens are not laying at the moment, apart from Blondie the chicken who ran off to go and fornicate with next door's rooster. The rooster has been dispatched, for extreme antisocial behaviour, and Blondie is looking for secret places to lay her fertilised eggs, whilst singing 'that man he done me wrong, that man he now is gone' in a plaintive manner. I probably won't be telling her where he has gone, and how he got there.... Meantime, I think that there may be some little chickies chirping around come spring, so watch this space.

Here are some photos of the garden in autumn, with accidental pumpkins, and helper chickens, who came from next door to dig up the garden and poop all over it, saving me the job of having to dig it and spread poop on it myself. Sally the Cat supervised the whole project from around the corner....

here are the potatoes in their early stages, just making the most of the diminishing sunlight hours

and the lemon balm grew hard out, and has had a radical haircut since this photo was taken. Anyone got any ideas on what I can do with lemon balm?

aaah those views, aaah that sunset.

Guess this is what they mean by 'living the dream'.

Ka kite ano

lou

autumn

kiaora koutou, well summer has pretty much done it's thing, and we're heading into autumn, equinox has happened and the wind has really changed, very cold, easterlies and southerlies blasting away, and a bunch of rain which is always good for the tanks and the thirsty gardens. Nights are getting longer and my inclination to snuggle and hibernate is getting stronger..... However, the garden is still growing! I have been overcome by pumpkins, I thought I'd chuck a couple of seeds around the place and see what happened.

Sally the Cat supervised proceedings

- and they grew...

and grew...

and grew...

and grew

It seemed like I could turn my back for a minute and the vine would grow three feet, it's quite spectacular.

They are growing in the original compost pile, which has also sprouted avocado trees and several tomato plants, as well as some more borage. They are also growing in the back vege bed which our first woofers, Kat and my mum, were building and working on almost a year ago - so well done guys, all that horse poo and digging and building has paid off heaps!

What else? well, one of my chooks (Blondie) has eloped with next door's roosters,

and can be seen leading her entourage around a la Marilyn Monroe, and giving me filthy looks for being so stupid as to expect her to stay in the coop and be fed regularly and lay eggs.... what was I thinking. Another rooster (there are 6 in total!!) has been seen flying into the chicken coop and sexually harassing my other chooks, who are a bit more compliant and obedient, until he hopped in, at which point there was a lot of frustrated chicken sex on my lawn and much squawking and flapping. This has led to me standing out in the pouring rain for 2 hours fixing extra pieces of chicken wire onto the fence to make it too high for him to get in again. He is also now giving me filthy looks, but my girls are a lot happier! Heaven knows what their eggs will turn out now though, as it's not entirely impossible that they will have been impregnated, I'm sure the rooster was not responsible enough to use a condom.....

Zucchini has been a star deliverer, I have grown one which was the length of my forearm, from wrist to elbow, and another one is looking to be about the same size. Monsters! I have been feeding everything worm tea from my worm farm, which seems to have been successful, and made zucchini fritters, with eggs from my chooks, and basil and chilli seasoning from the garden also. Roll on pumpkin soup with home grown basil and chilli soon! Yesterday I dug up the first potatoes of the season, they were just sitting under the surface of the earth in the compost pile, like little golden and red eggs, just waiting to be picked up. Quite a few came out, enough for a meal for two. There are more potato plants in the horse poo pile, so I will see how they go. On on, I'm off home to taunt the roosters with the information that they will soon be going in the pot hehehehe. Ps earplugs are really a must-have when living in the "peace and quiet" of the countryside! ka kite ano lou

summer lovin'

it's well know among my groupies that I loooove summer, fresh fruity produce and long days in the sun. I'm as brown as a berry, loving the weather apart from a couple of cyclones which have swung our way, and boy oh boy has the garden grown!

here, as promised, are some photos.

Sally the cat enjoying the sunset

Borage going hard out

Maxie the dog looking for the main chance

Flax, NZ beauty

the new vege garden - lettuces, corn, peas, nasturtiums, strawberries, grape vine, swan plant, sunflowers, anything else I can stuff in there!

Potatoes - not 'tyre-d' yet hahaha

New vege garden and dog

Peas

New grape cutting

Borage and nasturtiums

as you can see, it's all chugging along nicely, I've had some lovely helpers from Hong Kong who did a brilliant job of clearing and weeding for a week, thanks guys, good luck in your travels around NZ. I've also just adopted 4 new chickens, so there will be fresh eggs to keep us all fed and strong.

Plenty of produce too, although it is only a small property and small, beginning garden I've been surprised at what has grown well - chillis, lettuces, zuccinis just coming through, cucumbers doing great work, and sunflowers too of course. Strawberries not doing so well - not much room to move! but I will know better for next season

ka kite ano

lou

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