Child of the Planet

This week, I’m looking ahead to the garden projects for 2018. There’s prepping to grow asparagus and saffron. Also want to get the rear water tank hooked up to the gutter collection. Concentrate energies into getting a better yield from the apple trees, and to build another garden bed out the front. The big hope for the summer, is that it rains occasionally. The local landscape gardeners are ‘doing it tough’. No one needs lawns mowed. If you don’t water something, it dies so the weeds aren't much of a problem. All the roadside berms are yellow stubble. The 'big dry' is highlighting the need to start thinking about irrigation schemes for next summer. Now that the compost heap is almost re-distributed, I have a gap in the front lawn where I’ll stick a third raised garden. There are a few areas in the backyard which slope towards neighbours fences and I’ve been looking for something to plant there. A mate suggested asparagus and saffron. I like that these plants are...

I heard that Florida is banning front yard vege gardens. Boy would I be screwed if I lived there ;-)

I hate constant driving wind as much as I hate a day of constant sun blasting down on a cloudless day. On Wednesday we had both. If I stuck my head outside, I could feel the water being roasted out of my skin and whisked away by the gusts. I put some sun block on and felt like a sun dried tomato in oil. The neighbour behind me reckons driving wind gives him migraines. I don't doubt it. Weather should be moderate and variable. Constant anything gets boring quickly. The Zucs where thrashing about so badly that I decided to pop out and lop off a few leaves, intending to save the roots being rocked out of the soil.     One of the plants didn’t survive intact. this one had the central spine snapped off at the top. The staked zucs did do better in the wind and I'm thinking a ring cage would help restrain movement like the arrangement around the Cape gooseberry. I've been experimenting with growing zucs vertically. I’m thinking that a single stake isn'...

I did a bit more planting in the veg bed, and added to the wind protection out back. I don’t know how apparent it is from this photo, but the eight zucs back there are ‘out of control' jostling for sunlight. I cut off the first members this week and there are lots of female flowers tracking the sun. Not so many male so I'm not hopeful of the plants restocking in a hurry. Planted some Flour peas from Koanga. They reckon this type are good for grinding into flour. I'm looking for a chickpea type of vegetable that likes to grow in Otaki. The plastic rings aren't there to stop the plant from opening its stitches. The plastic seems to deter the slugs. I also put one on this Capsicum when I did the peas. In the past I’ve pulled slugs off the side of the plastic so I don’t understand how it slows them down. Could be the sharp lip at the top? I deliberately cut inside the curve on the bottom of the milk bottle when I did the blueberry and the bay tree in...

Haven't blogged in a while so decided to ferret through the options here on the blogging site. Decided to switch to one of the new themes. Hope you like it.

Was walking down the beach this evening swinging a bucket, heading to a mates place who likes to fish. They had some fish bits for my garden. I thought the seaweed season was over, but the tidal mark was peppered with fronds. I filled my bucket with seaweed, and collected a second filled with glassy eyed fish carcuses. On the way home I was followed for a while by an Alsatian who stared at the bucket the whole time. Some people think luck is winning lotto. My sort of luck is scoring a couple o buckets of stink.

These are two of my favorite fruit and veg. How I plant, maintain, and fertilise my toms and zuc’s     Planting stuff Dig a deep hole Tip in a scoop Dave's Tomatoes Food Rip up some comfrey leaves and scatter about the bottom of the whole Drop a plant in on top I also threw some ripped up comfrey in the hole before I planted the cucumbers and zuc's. This year I let the plants mature in their pots for a bit before planting. I I stripped off any limbs running up the stalk, leaving enough at the top to continue growing. The idea is to bury them as deep as possible to maximise root development. These plants have been in the ground for a while and need a pruning.  I like to clip off all the lower leaves. Especially anything yellow or touching the ground. Want to have lots of air moving about and room to plant basil. In the photo on the right, there are the younger plants with what I call ‘hard mulch’ to slow down the birds. Some ...

...and had given up finding a cape gooseberry. So went to Mitre 10 to get a suggested papito. Went a bit burko at the great range of edibles. Got the cape b. The pipito, and a pomegranate!

Big couple o days in the garden. Large quantities of stuff appeared, and then disappeared. I also buried lots of stuff in the earth. I thought I was getting 'soft garden' waste, but a mate appeared with a trailer full of bamboo. Terrible timing as I had just cut this years requirement from a garden down the south end of Otaki. I mulched the leafy bits off the top and offered the canes to the Facebook community. Managed to move the majority of it, and now I’m  trying to think of ways of using up the last of the pile. On the left is my very rickety bean pyramid. I couldn't find any string but I thought I could use thin strips of flax! So apart from my personal effort, it was free. Might need to throw some more bamboo at it? One of the people who took away a load of bamboo also grabbed a comfrey cutting. She left me with some red onion shoots which got planted and covered with lots of nice bamboo mulch. What I like about this bamboo mulch is that it's r...

I've been a big consumer of lemons since I discovered that they can be used as a seasoning. I use a lot less salt these days I planted the Yen Ben variety. They are more acid so I've been told, and better for cooking. Unfortunately they don’t like the frost so when the cold kicks in, I wrap the bushes with wire to hold a shape, and frost cloth to curb winters breath. This cloth also protects the young plants from the winds that swoop in each spring. I'm hoping that the wind has exhausted itself for the year. We have been getting some freak Southerlies that blow for weeks rather than days. I’ve cleaned out all the weeds that have taken advantage of the protection and found that the earth around the lemons was bone dry and cracking. So I watered hard, laid down some  old catalogues as a weed mat, and shovelled on the mulch. This is what it looks like now. I’m calling it ‘Helens hedge’ after the person who gave me the idea. On the right is what the p...

[Updated] The ‘bucket on wheels’ was taking longer than usual to fill so I popped the top of the tanks and had a squiz. I can see the bottom of the tank, which can't be good! Not going to plant anything until it rains. Easier to manage them in pots. The forecast reckons the 'plateau' is going to get some rain this week (and some thunderstorms). Usually I look back and up at the mountains behind Otaki and smile, cause they are getting dumped on, while the beach is dry and basking in the rays.  Looks like the preverbal is on the other foot :-) I've decided to water the non edibles with town water. Save what water I can fit the veg. Really don’t want chlorine in my soil. Local gardeners have started to complain about dry spell. Town water is metered, and some of the smaller tanks are running dry. last month everyone was bitch'n about soggy soil and mould. The weather flip has been crazy. Bright emerald lawns that demanded to be mown every couple of d...