A watercolor painting of peonies

Doesn't this look just like a watercolor painting of flowers? But its a photo, of some lovely peonies my daughter got for her birthday. They all faded out to a lovely pale cream color before losing their petals.

Manuka seedlings

Now these plants are rocketing away! Just not that long ago they were a couple of inches tall, and now some of them are a couple of feet tall (that would be say 60cm for all you modern metric people). Bushy as anything too. They'll be ready to plant out in autumn, just got to decide where....

Arm Knitting a Blanket

Doesn't this look just like something you would buy from a trendy shop for a vast amount of money? And rightly so. But my gorgeous daughter made it for me. On her arms!

It started life as a 1Kg ball of roving - which is the fat carded wool that you use to spin with. She felted it lightly in the bath, here it is drying outside. Then she split it into 2 to make the yarn a bit thinner. And used her arms as knitting needles. Casting on was tricky, but the knitting was easy. This is natural cream coloured Polworth sheep's wool. Isn't it just the cat's whiskers?

Cats and Gardening

Cats and gardening are a special combination that sometimes works, and sometimes not.  So here I have radish seeds. Now I am pretty sure I didn't just empty the packet of seeds into 1 pile but sprinkled them around.

And here it is again, just a bit up from the radishes, a cluster of beetroot seedlings.

I'm thinking that what has happened is some furry four legged friend (or is that fiend?) has decided that this was the perfect place for a call of nature, and then industriously and scrupulously scooped all the dirt into a couple of piles in the process.

Wouldn't want to blame human error now would I?

Growing Spring Vegetables

It must be spring! Things are growing. Starting to look productive and edible even. This is soooo amazingly satisfying. And once my garden beds were set up, didn't require much effort - bung the small plant in, turn on the sprinkler occasionally. Honestly - the best feeling ever!

Peas

Courgettes

Broad beans 

My Heart's Desire - a Spring Posy

I have wanted to create this for so long! Probably goes back to some seminal childhood experience - my gardening grandmother maybe? A posy of flowers, all picked from my garden.

 Even though my current gardening efforts are not focused on flowers, but on productive plants - vegetables, and fruit trees, and herbs, these still came from all the gaps between. Could have added some fragrant herbs to the posy too, I guess.

A Small Gardening Shed

My gardening friend Barbara and I went on a garden design tour last weekend. There were lots of different garden styles, all done by various professional designers. Some I liked, some were not my thing. As you would expect from a variety of clients and designers. But many of the ideas seemed so...well, large, and proper. I'd look at it and go "that's amazing, but how can I do that at home?".

But, check out this little garden shed! Its made entirely out of 2nd hand glass doors, old french doors, and single doors. Some clear corrugate on the top on rafters. A bit of deck for the floor at the bottom. A plank inside for a bench. Now THAT I want! Wouldn't that look just so groovy down the end of my section?

Heartease seedlings

This is a success story. These seedlings here are from a tray of seeds I put out late winter. Timing was fine, they all germinated. But the cat saw the box, sitting on the garden, and thought "oooo, litter box". I just laughed, moved it out of the way, and expected nothing to grow. But they did germinate, all scrapped to one side in the tray, but growing. So I have potted them up into individual pots now. These are heartsease, a relation of pansies and violets.

Spring Roses

Here in New Zealand it is November. Well, duh, I guess it is November everywhere. Anyway, in November, here, all the roses bloom. November is the big rose month. My roses that have escaped the bulldozer are all flowering madly too. These are old roses, with a beautiful scent. Open the door and it wafts in to my office on the warm balmy air. Paradise.

Paaaaaarty Time

Here it is...we made it! The paving, the steps and deck, even the clean verandah.

Nothing like a deadline to focus the efforts.

Flowers from weeds

This is a shy little number. Its a weed of some sort, but looks like a plant, grows in the shade against my house, and has these hidden flowers. An arum of some sort, seems to like it in my garden, and I've decided to go with the flow rather than fight most of these weeds. If they want to grow then that's OK, right?

How to prepare for a party

We've finished the paving. We've made a part-temporary part-permanent hand rail and balustrade. We've even cleaned the downstairs veranda. Must be party time then!

Still got lighting to resolve, and it better not rain. But I think we are mostly good to go.

NZ Ground Covers

You know you are making progress with the planting when you start filling in the gaps, with ground cover-y type plants. So here I have put a few low fuscia procumbens, which is a good native, and the bees might like it too. Check out the tiniest little exquisite flowers. Maybe small bees then?

And some violets. This one will spread a bit, a good thing I think.

And this violet will has darker leaves and a less spready habit, but has beautiful deep blue/purple flowers.

I've put these along the bottom of the retaining wall, which gets a bit of morning sun, but is then in shade, so the perfect conditions for the shade lovers I'm hoping.

Manuka Seedlings

Having said a couple of posts ago, that manuka from seeds was not that successful, however, here are the seed trays with the manuka experiments. And some of them are growing pretty vigorously.

So, time to scoop them out (with a cheap supermarket fork) and put them into pots. They were definitely ready for it too, as their roots were starting to get all tangled up. I did as many as I felt like, but I think there is more work to be done, even the small ones had long roots.

All in all, a busy and satisfying, afternoon's work.

The magic of water

Water is our most precious resource. And one of our most beautiful. A sprinkler in the rain, a thing of gorgeousness. And so life giving for the plants too.

"Love is the water of life, jump into this water. Every drop from this ocean brings a new life". 

Rumi

Abundant spring growth

Wow! Check this out! So much growth, these are the manuka seedlings that I potted up not so long ago. And now they look like bona fide trees, that would not look out of place in a garden centre. They have been lovingly watered and fertilised by the resident waterer, so maybe that is the secret? Or maybe it is just time, spring time and the right time for growing. A bit of both probably.

We did a bit of an experiment, and have decided that the trees that were from cuttings have done so much better than the ones that were from seeds. Seeds seem easier, but by the time you have pricked them out (fiddly picking all the tiny plants and putting them into small pots) you have spent the same amount of effort anyway. And cuttings may have saved us a whole year, in the plant's growth cycle.

Laying Paving

The last of the big tiles have been laid! Probably calls for a roof shout. Paving shout? So now we are sweeping sand into the cracks to stop them from moving too much. Still got a few to do round the edges, and some brick edging to stop the garden falling in.

Then,... well then maybe a trip to the outdoor furniture shop?

Transporting Bee Hives

The bee field of the last post had bees in it too. These were the ones that we were collecting. Normally you need to get bees in the dark, so they have all returned home before you close up the entrances and take them away. But these ones were in a very windy place (which you can't really tell by the bee dudes' hair styles) so the bees all came home early. Meant we got to load a lot early. We, means I sat in the ute.

And then a whole load of strapping is required to stop them all flying off down the motorway. Um...that would be the beehive boxes, not the bees - the bees are all locked in with special doors across their entrances and won't be released till they get to their new homes.