Fabulous gardening weather!

Saturday

We've been very spoilt over the weekend, including today with the weather in Christchurch. Temperatures have been in the 20's celcius with clear blue skies. So, what do you do if you're a gardener.......embrace the day!!

My latest project (one of, um about 40) is one of our small lawns which leads off a brick path and is edged in bricks. Since the tree felling it's had green rubbish dumped on it which has killed some of it (not the dandelions unfortunately). It's shaped in a circle and was lawn edged by perennials. I've been tossing up between raised beds, or taking advantage of the bricks already there and making a potager garden. I think I'm leaning towards the potager idea. I have some bricks and this will be a cheaper option as this is not our "forever house". Our older house is not one we want to retire in as it is higher maintenance being wood and nearly 100 years old. You need to be a grown up and remember you're getting older and need to make sensible decisions. The section and location are perfect, just not the house.......

Future Potager garden.

I spent the afternoon clearing the accumulation of branches- chopping for firewood and munching the smaller stuff in my handy dandy home garden muncher (best thing I ever bought). Dear Mr SFP dragged the huge stumps to the other lawn with the mountains of dirt and munchings......but that's another story. I'm trying to ignore that lawn at the moment as it's part of the "big picture".

Sunday

Another glorious day, even better than yesterday saw me back out in the garden after Church. Today I started weeding the lawn, which was limited by where I could put the weeds, as once again my bin was full. I must have dug at least 50 dandelions out and there are still so many more to go, as well as twitch and clover. Mr SFP chopped down a tree on the back fence line which will let more light in. Still a couple more to be removed. The only thing is once you've chopped it down it takes a lot of work to make it disappear! Oh for a magic wand or a twitch of the nose, like in the old tv programme Bewitched.

New potager from a different angle.

New potager looking back the other way.

Still many more hours of back breaking work methinks. I've definitely earned my bath tonight LOL.

Monday

This morning I spent a lovely couple of hours with Mrs HMM. Had a wander around her garden which is coming along and a coffee with her. It's so good to have a fellow gardener as a sister and a friend. We then popped out to a local landscaping yard and I got 3 bags of crusher dust. This will hopefully fix the wonky floor in my greenhouse. Just have to work out how to get it a wee bit more level.......help!

When I got back I decided I needed to get my strawberry plants planted. I had some from last year which I'd lifted and some I won in an auction online. I'd had to nurse them back to health as the lovely lady who sent them posted 20 strawberry plants in a bit of wet newspaper in a plastic bag. They were held up when we were snowed in a couple of months ago and arrived crushed and dejected. 

Strawberry plants being nursed back to health.

I decided to grow them in the same spot as last year which will be sunnier now with the removal of a tree. I've grown them in tyres, which I've found works well. Each tyre had to be weeded and I added horse poo and more compost from the bin. I "planted" a fizzy bottle in the middle of each to act as a supplementary watering source. After the damage to our water supply following the earthquakes in Christchurch we were on watering restrictions last Summer. Added 5 plants to each tyre, which if they all survive will give me 35 plants. Mulched with pea straw and watered in.

Strawberries After.

I had my first harvest from the garden- 3 stalks of rhubarb, which I had trimmed away from another plant and potatoes hiding at the bottom of the compost bin. Master and Mr SFP said the potatoes were delicious!

First harvest of the season.

Well it's off to bed, hopefully it will be another nice day tomorrow and we gardeners are early risers  Mrs SFP XXX

 

Weekend round up.

Saturday 

I was up bright and early and at the supermarket at 7.00am!! I wanted to get my shopping done as we had a small load of pavers to collect at 9.00am. These are for the floor of the greenhouse. Shifted them down the back in the wheelbarrow and layed them down- just to see how far they will cover. Not quite as many as I thought there would be, but probably enough to suit my purpose. I relocated a "table" from our wee shed which will be perfect for potting up on. I need to get a shelf system to house my trays of seeds once they are sown. However before I do all this I need to get some sand to put under the pavers as they are a little uneven and wobbly. I guess I'm a typical woman and want everything done yesterday- things just can't happen fast enough!! 

I did more weeding in our back flower garden and filled my big green bin. Frustrating as this won't be collected until Tuesday morning. I'm trying to just have tunnel vision at the moment and focus on one area at a time. If I looked at everything that had to be done I'd get very disheartened. I've gone from spending one day a week in the garden to up to 4 days a week depending on the weather. That must make a difference at some stage........surely?

Sunday 

I was out weeding again and filling buckets with weeds. My bin will be half full before I start again on Tuesday. My aim was to get the plants I bought last weekend with Mrs HMM in the pouring rain planted. Goal achieved and ticked off.  

Dining room garden planted and mulched.

I've planted a daphne, white penstemon, lavender, scabiosa and butterfly plant. Plus 2 other penstemons which I had potted up as freebies from around here. I now really appreciate "free" plants. Final straw (sorry) was mulching with pea straw. This had been out in the rain and was literally smoking when I laid it down. Just need to finish the other end of the garden now. Unfortunately I broke my big fork inherited from my dear Dad. Ended up on my bottom in the garden calling out to Mr SFP much to his amusement.

Haven't had much time for cross stitch this month, but I managed to get July's project stitched and started on one for August. Mrs HMM will be pleased. I don't want to let her down.

July Christmas cross stitch project.

Monday 

Today was cold and wet so I did a few errands, including a stop at the local plant nursery and went on to visit Mum. She lives in a lovely sheltered valley which doesn't get many frosts and her garden is always so inspiring. We had a cuppa and then headed out to inspect the garden in the misty rain. Mum is so generous with her gifts from the garden- came home with a bag of lemons and tamarillos (you don't usually see a tamarillo tree growing in Christchurch because of the frosts), a gorgeous white hellebore, purple and violet violets, a rasperrby hydrangea and a little fuschia which was from my childhood home. Gardening has always been a part of her life, I'm sure my love of gardening has been inherited from both my green fingered parents. I want to add to that love and become more self sufficient. I remember our vegie garden growing up. Dad's pride and joy that would feed a family of five, sometimes from necessity. I also have fond memories of our back yard chooks and collecting fresh eggs. All done on a quarter acre patch. In those days everyone had a vegie garden and I want to get back to that philosophy with my garden.

Brought my plants home and admired them in the rain from behind the window.

Lovely gifts from Mum's garden- in the rain.

Tuesday 

Today has turned out to be a glorious sunny day- one out of the bag. I started the day in front of the computer screen, but felt the garden calling me........and I had to obey.

Our garden is quite big (for one gardener) and I have been concentrating on the back, getting ready for vegie production. Today I felt the front needed me to at least make a start on it, so I did. Brought the big bin in from the curb after just being emptied and managed to fill it up again. Hopefully the more I weed the less will have to go in the bin. I compost lots, but still have lots to go in the bin. I'll take some pictures tomorrow if it's not raining, which it is supposed to be doing again. I realised that as I blog tonight I really need to take pictures as I go.

I also got some of the plants I bought yesterday planted. I'm trying to be good and plant as I buy. I have a VERY bad track record of buying and not planting. New motto "just do it!!" is very good for combatting this.

Blackberry plant and pansies.

 Blackberry is now in down the back and pansies will be in the new dining room garden soon.

Tom the Supertom.

Tom the Supertom has now been potted up and will live inside with us for a while. I am determined to get a jump start on tomatoes this year, so Tom is part of my cunning plan. I added milk powder when I potted him up which is supposed to improve the flavour I think? 

Phew, busy couple of days in the garden, but very rewarding. I'm off to have a bath and rest my weary bones. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of our beautiful big boy Mr Spock, alias Spocky do da. He always seems to know how to relax! TTFN Mrs SFP XX

 

Edible City The Movie- very inspiring!

When I visited Gavin's blog (The Greening of Gavin) he had a very inspiring clip from You Tube on the Edible City. Being a computer novice I hope I've managed to upload the trailer for you from You Tube..... we shall see. If you want to be inspired go and visit Gavin's blog- see side bar and view the movie in its entirity. Well worth it.

Makes you wonder how to get more involved in your community, gardening and your own food production. The film makes lots of very valid points and is about taking care of everyone in the community. 

I think I will make enquiries about volunteering at our local community garden.

I'll leave you with this "food for thought"- Mrs SFP XXX

Make hay while the sun shines.....

Monday and Tuesday have been a wash out- literally. The back yard is looking a bit like a small lake. However yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) the rain stopped and today we even saw the sun!!

I'm trying to get out in the garden each day, even on the days I'm at work. On these days I manage about an hour before it's time to come in, light the fire, make tea and school lunches- i.e. turn back into a pumpkin LOL.

Two weekends ago I managed to get my second raised bed filled with dirt from dirt mountain, topped with compost and pea straw ready for planting. In this bed I've planted a punnet of broccoli and broad bean seeds. I wan't happy with the beans I started inside- they got too leggy too quickly. I've just sowed these ones directly into the soil. I see in the tyre next to this bed one of my potaotes is peeking up. These were old ones I had from the supermarket which I've planted as an experiment. 

It was hard work filling the raised bed- you don't realise just how much soil they take. I consoled myself with the fact that once it's done I don't have to do it again......until the next raised bed.

Second raised bed up and running.

I also potted up my lettuce plants and made little cloches for them out of 2.25.litre fizz bottles. They are planted in our old recycling bins- Christchurch City Council have since updated to a 3 wheelie bin system. These bins are a perfect size with handles and a drainage hole already in the bottom.

Lettuces in old CCC recycling bins- perfect!

Mini glasshouse/cat deterrant.

Today (Thursday) I got out and planted the blueberry bush and more lettuces. Weeded down the drive- not vegetable related, but still necessary maintenance.

Our local plant nursery are advertising tomato plants- with the stipulation that they must be grown in heated glasshouses. I'm very tempted to go and buy one and grow it indoors......does this make me a true gardener, or just a wee bit strange?

I've also started following the long term weather forecasts- supposed to be fine for the weekend... great!

Talk soon Mrs SFP XXX

Garden Centre road trip

On Sunday it was absolutely pouring down- we're talking serious rain. Very frustrating as I just wanted to get out into the garden and play.

Arriving home from Church and there was a message on the answer phone to ring Mrs HMM. She convinced me, that even in torrential rain it would be a good idea to hit the garden centres. I guess if you can't be out in the garden you go plant shopping? 

We stuck to her side of town and visited 4 local plant places- Portstone, Oderings, The Warehouse and Mitre 10. Portstone and Oderings were disappointing and I didn't buy anything, although I was itching to. Got my best haul at Mitre 10- plants looked good and were the most reasonably priced. I was impressed and will definitely call back there again.

New plant haul just waiting for a sunny day!

So, my plant haul consisted of another punnet of lettuces, a blueberry bush, a daphne bush (to replace the one out the front that was squashed when the trees came down) and several small perennials. I'm developing the garden in front of our dining room and these will help fill up the space along with some already propagated plants. It felt funny buying plants that I won't be able to eat. But they should look pretty once they are established, so I can justify buying them.....

So now all I need is the sun to come out again and dry up all the ponds down the back.

Next area to be developed in front of dining room.

Hooray, the glasshouse is up!!

Saturday dawned fine- not too much wind. Perfect day for errecting the glasshouse. This has been a bit of a "work in progress". We have a lovely handyman friend who helps us put our dreams and ideas into practice. I had been frustrated as Mr SFP has been getting him to do lots of other projects over the last couple of months. Finally on Saturday it was my turn. 

I purchased my poly carbonate glass house a few months ago through one of the auction sites here in New Zealand. It measures 6 foot by 8 foot and looks lovely sitting in the garden. I have to keep pinching myself every time I look down the back!

A work in progress.

Mr SFP lending a helping hand- he did well.

Slowly but surely- can't wait to get started!!

It was a lovely day for being in the garden. Unfortunately it was my job to feed the workers date scones and lunch and I didn't get to do much outside.

A few more wee minor tweaky things to go and then it will be finished. I also won a paving stone auction which I'll use as the floor in my little house. I need to level the floor and lay the pavers down. This will give me dryer feet and help reduce any mud. I've already started making plans for using this new wonderful space. Although I'm sure our two spoilt pussy cats will claim it if I'm not careful LOL

Thanks guys, you don't know how much this means to me. One more step closer to growing more food to feed the family.