Nigel Gnome grows a vegetable

Have eaten corn!

2012-01-21T19:30:00.000+13:00

Went mad and picked the largest cob, and ate it!
It was still a bit small but beautifully formed and tasted tender and sweet!
Yay for more.

Spread granular fertilizer around all the vegetables and then watered it alll in so there should be a good growth boost.
Nipped the growing tops of both tomato plants today, any more extensions and I would not have been able to reach the fruit when ripe.

Plums are falling to the ground at 4-5 a day and they are tasting nice.

Very excited about the eggplants, magnificent specimens! Afternoon photo
(click to enlarge)

A pair of monarchs locked in epic embrace/combat on the lawn

Middle summer I guess

2012-01-15T20:09:00.000+13:00

The weather is quite unpredictable, seems to happily swap from sun to rain at a moment's notice. It hasn't been the sort of summer that forces you outside for cool air, I hope it still comes, those nice long evenings outside with candles (and mossies) do feel like a real summer.

Have been using the barbie almost daily though! :)

The beans I planted the other day are up and looking good, the old lot are almost done now.

The corn is getting pretty close to harvest, the plants are huge and the cobs are fattening

Made some teepees for the ever growing aubergine plants, pulled apart an old trellis and used some of the long slats, the plants are looking very strong and are all showing flower buds now

in the foreground we have just planted the bottom cut off bits of spring onions, apparently they start sprouting and producing more in a third of the time if you start with seedlings! We shall see!

Zuchini flower, it's starting to get into serious production now

2012 and all's well

2012-01-07T17:11:00.000+13:00

so far anyway...
:)
The corn is now as tall as an elephant's eye, taller I recon. There seem to be two cobs forming on each stalk, apparently one to two is as good as it gets for sweet corn. They are starting to fatten up now so hopefully it won't be too long till eating time.
Here is a photo of me and the cat taken by Miss Gnome

The plaited garlic had to be hurriedly unplaited and most of the husks removed. I don't think they dried out enough before I tied them up, the stems were beginning to rot! Now we have a large airy basket in a dark corner of the pantry that will keep them hopefully.

They look good though

Tomatoes are doing very well, no disease or anything much so far, fingers crossed. I had to get the ladder out to be able to tie the tops to the support. (which all need extending again).

There are now a few red ones ready for sampling.
Miss Gnome is dying to sink her fangs into the plums which are looking tantalizingly good

Popped in another two rows of radish seeds before the rains began again, the last lot are lovely and crunchie when sliced onto a cheese and ham sandwich!

Last days of 2011

2011-12-30T12:39:00.000+13:00

Everything is growing well, picked the first zucchini yesterday. Eggplants are beginning to show growth from the leaf joints and I have put paving stones between them for extra warmth and moisture retention.

The corn is having sex all over the patch!
These tendrils have appeared out of the very tip of the stalk. When you tap the stem a fine mist of pollen drifts down.

Whilst below them where the leaves are attached bulges have formed and opened their tops to reveal the fronds of the cobs, each one has to be pollinated to form a single kernel.

Plums are now starting to look nice, we may need to harvest them before they fall off by themselves, it seems as soon as one hits the ground it gets pecked open by the waxeyes.

Both the yellow and green beans need picking every two days and look to keep producing for a while yet. The yellow ones do seem to make far more faster maturing pods and are also easier to find amongst the leaves. The first tomatoes are just starting to have an orange tint, and I have had put the extentions onto the tomato frames as the main stalk is now taller than me and I need a stepladder to tie it up.

About Garlic and tomatoes and stuff

2011-12-18T18:58:00.000+13:00

Lots of stuff, with some rainy days everything is happy and growing madly, I swear you can almost see the corn doing it. I've had to pop in a fence to keep them in their place.

There are fluffy things starting to poke out the top!

The aubergine plants look very happy and there was a good lot of beans, the yellow ones grow much faster than the green ones.

Dug up the rest of the spuds

but the tomatoes have a blight, removed these as the rest look OK so far, fingers crossed and a good copper spray when it's a dry day.

Plaited the rest of the garlic crop, most satisfying!

The plums are starting to colour up

Eggplant planting

2011-12-11T20:42:00.000+13:00

Lovely sunny Sunday, lazy breakfast and some good planting.
Had a practice plait with the smallest bulbs and after watching the video it was easy.

I'll dry the big ones out for another day or two before attacking them.

Had them drying on the driveway

Went mad and purchased 4 aubergine seedlings, planted them at 60cm apart, twice what the label suggested. I am expecting great things.
Half a dozen frisby lettuce (curly edged crispy green pickable) seedlings went in as well.

Sort of empty after the mad garlic, I'm sure it will fill up!
:)

Out with the garlic

2011-12-09T21:04:00.001+13:00

Wonderfully pungent business harvesting the garlic, down on your knees lifting each bulb and admiring it's goodness. knocking the soil from the roots and piling them up to dry. Most of the crop have grown very well, due mostly to the size of the clove planted and the compost added now and then.

Nice sized bulbs, will plant some fat cloves now to grow some during winter, apparently this works!
:)

Put them all in a big box as it was threatening rain, I'll have to master the plaiting this year, would be good to make one big long one.

Box in the garage, about 75!

Just found a good video on how to tell when your garlic is ready. Hard stem garlic (better for colder climates) grows a curly scope like a flower bulb, soft stem garlic like I have grown this year falls over when it's ready. I did not realize there was a difference and have been waiting for the scopes to form before picking. They have been leaning over for a week or two and should have been pulled then, apparently the cloves begin separating from the bulb and won't keep as well. Here's a youtube vid about harvest and storage

And here's a easy to follow video on plaiting the soft stem variety

The Cecile Brunner rose is flowering very well this year, it's flowers smell stronger as the flowers dry, great for some potpourri.

gentle early summer/late spring weekend

2011-11-27T21:04:00.000+13:00

Did many good deeds, the planting of red sails lettuce, a nice small french tarragon (so good with chicken) a blackjack courgette, 22 globe beetroot and 26 red onions.
Took out the lilly pilly tree by the table, the garden seems twice as big.
Put up a sail over the bathroom window.

Pulled the last of the leeks so there will be some nice rissottos soon.

A pick of early garlic some very early chillies and some oregano, a Baldric sort of Christmas photo

sweet corn up to stick height

Anti blackbird hats over the beetroot and onion seedlings

Beans looking good, about to flower. Have given toms and beans etc flowering and fruiting thrive.
Lilly pilly tree gone...

Anti sun hat on the zucchini plant in the left foreground.

Had a pleasant afternoon with a mum, a dad, a sister, an aunt and an uncle, a few beers and some cheese. Nice!

Bed extention

2011-11-20T18:12:00.000+13:00

Pulled out the tangelo tree today, it went mad with new growth and had not a flower in sight. Sill thing grew about 6 fruit and they were barely edible., despite giving it all it needed as far as fertilizer etc etc.
So have been able to extend the garden bed currently full of sweet corn, there is now a nice large clear area for one zucchini plant. They are always good on the bbq.

Dug up the rest of the beetroot, they were nice and large!

and had a look at one of the potato plants, only got 5 decent sized ones, obviously far too early as there were many tiny ones still on the roots. These black ones are very nice for roasting and baking, they have a marbled purple interior.

Sowed some new rocket seeds. Have placed paving stones around the bases of the tomato plants to warm up during the day and hold the heat as well as trapping moisture under them. Sound like a good scheme! :)

Garlic testing

2011-11-17T19:04:00.000+13:00

Couln't resist it any longer and just had to pull a garlic out to see what was happening at the important end. Most pleased to see a good forming of cloves so it will all be good in a month or two.

The first truss of tomatoes are starting to get to look like tomatoes! There are some good laterals coming now that will form the rest of the plant.

Pulled up some small fat carrots tonight to pop in a lamb stew, with spuds baking in the bbq.

November niceness

2011-11-06T16:51:00.000+13:00

Pulled a lot of the beetroot plants and ended up with a nice bucket full of beets.

The parsnips also were uprooted, they ones that were left were not the best so we will make better use of their space. The garden looks a bit empty now but I must resist the temptation to plant things in the gaps as the tomatoes (hopefully) will soon take up almost all the spare area.

Went mad and added a new tool to the garden, so far it has functioned brilliantly

Late october/ mid spring/ early summer

2011-10-30T21:39:00.000+13:00

It's a good time in the garden, it's all promise and bluster, even the aphids are only just making an entrance. Planted 12 sweetcorn seedlings in a bed of their own,'florida stay sweet' deep yellow colour with a sweet flavour, at 3-4 cobs a plant, that's a lot of corn! Yum!

I gave them a tent to stop cats birds and whoopsy daisy from disrupting the babies

The tomatoes are happy, they have shown growth and extra flowers

Put out 16 white onion seedlings we have been have raising.
Killed the pea frame and it's increasingly diseased hangers on.

Planted a great looking tree, 'eddie's white wonder' saw it in Rotorua flowering wondrously all around the old post office building. Pulled into to Palmer's on the way home and the person we asked knew it instantly and was very enthusiastic. Nek minute $45 tree in car...

at the moment its pretending to be a stick, this may take a year or two.

Time for the summer garden

2011-10-22T21:34:00.000+13:00

It is Labour Weekend, officially now it's warm enough to put in the summer plants. Best gnome daughter and I ventured to the garden center to choose a couple of tomato plants. We were both astounded with the selection of plants available now, easily over 40 different types of plant from strange purple and wrinkly orange types to beefsteaks and romas as usual. I choose a good sensible grafted truss tomato ( same as the wonderful one I had 2 years ago) and a supertom Kakanui Choice which apparently has a wonderful flavour.
Also scored a large wildfire chilli plant (already has chillis on it) and a couple of genovese basil seedlings.
Here they all are ready for planting, I thought a shot like this is good for remembering what was planted and how they looked.

Their labels

Now I need to clear space for them all, I am reluctant to pull up the leeks and peas as they look so nice and abundant at the moment.

The Potato plants are starting to show flowers so hopefully tubers are forming under ground like mad

The temperature has risen markedly in the last few days so growth will really start to get a hurry on, it's an exciting time of year!
:)

Painters have Painted!

2011-10-17T21:05:00.000+13:00

So normal peaceful life can resume around the garden, the last few days have been the painting of the windows and doors, so all of them was were wide open with heads and legs to be seen from any one at any time. like living in a fishbowl Mrs Gnome was heard to exclaim (not really).

I noticed today the first bean is just nudging out of the ground, planted them last Sunday just before a day or two of rain, not ideal as they should be planted into moist soil and not watered for a few days to avoid them rotting etc. But all seems good. At this time of the year everything is bounding out of the soil, almost time to plant a couple of tomatoes!

The plums have set well and there are many along all the branches

The garlic leaves look nice in black and white

Had to support the potatoes, the heavy rain hammered them down, also gave them a mulch of grass clippings and dried leaves from the driveway, keeps the blackbirds at bay a bit. There is serious nesting an egging going on, any bugs, slugs and snails better beware!

Lovely bluebells

And clivia

Busy weekend house fixing

2011-10-03T20:41:00.008+13:00

There are unwashed workmen about the house, they paint and paint and paint, it's wonderful and seems to go quite fast. During the weekend I realized that there was the odd hole in the house that needed patching before they came to those bits. Quite a buzz when I manage to find just the right bit of wood to patch perfectly. Then to use my fixit skills to fill the gaps and make it all look as one.
Some woodcurls

The garden has been growing wonderfully, there is day by day change, the snowball tree is hinting green and the forest pansy is popping tiny deep red leaves.

We had a risotto with one of the leeks, it was pronounced very white and large and leek like! :)

Left a couple of spring onions (now the size of leeks themselves) to got to flower, got this big fat bumble bee going about his business

A young pea showing it's promise

Chopped down the large broccoli and left these new sproutlings that are erupting from around the roots of the old plants. You can see the stumps of the big plant in the foreground. The new ones look very nice and fresh and should provide another harvest or two of tender florets

A first harvest of beetroot this season, they are lovey roasted with other vegetables!

Starting to make room for a couple of tomato plants in a week or two...

Potato plant photo!

2011-09-24T17:58:00.001+12:00

Indeed, the excitement never stops! :) The two largest ones have now come above the mounding up I've done.
So as well as the original planting a spade depth down I shall leave them to be surface dwellers. The lovely loose soil that has been heaped upon and around them will hopefully spark many a tuber for harvesting.

Potato Power!

2011-09-19T18:48:00.000+12:00

After placing a circle of ferilizer around each potato plant yesterday and then completely covering them over with compost and soil to a depth of at least 4 inches, the leaves were pushing out of the surface at lunchtime today, amazing. I'll have to contruct some sort of frame/cage to keep them under control. The biggest two (the ones that got the sun the earliest) are now growing out of a mound and not a deep hole anymore.
:)

Brick work

2011-09-18T17:02:00.004+12:00

Got stuck in and sorted the new brick area leading to the vegetable garden, just the sort of nice wee job that only takes one weekend and minimum money but makes a major change to the way the garden looks and functions.

Yesterday

Today

The reality and the mock up, pretty close I recon

Gave the potatoes a good side dressing of Thrive all purpose granular fertilizer then after mixing that into the soil I covered them over again with more compost and soil, these surely will be the most astounding pototoes in the world!
The garlic and leeks and beetroot are looking wonderfully healthy, I can't keep up with all the rocket, I eat it picked straight from the patch and onto cheese sammies and whatever, yum. Getting excited about planting tomatoes soon, how sad is that?
:)

There are definite signs of growth amongst the nubs on the chilli and capsicum stalks, things are surely warning up!

Mrs gnome did the front lawns whilst I was wrestling bricks...
:)

The forest pansy bush is starting to blossom, it's such a beautiful thing, from blossom to final leaf fall it keeps changing and surprising, always stunning.

The Korean akebia vine at the back door is in it's prime at the moment, tons of new fresh buds and some older ones giving the rich burnt red colour

Lovely after the shower of rain

Rugby World Cup gardening

2011-09-11T20:17:00.000+12:00

Go the All Blacks!

But yes life goes on I'm afraid, and Saturday was a stunning day, the whole garden feels like it's on tip toes just ready to go. There are buds and green bits on everything, from the over wintering chilli plants to the new lime tree. I went mad and lifted all the bricks in the old vegetable garden, everytime it rained the path was the deepest part of the flooded bit, not really what it's there for. My back has suffered but it does look much more better now! Plus it used up a bit more of my gravel pile.

all the potato plants have poked their leaves up from their deep holes and more soil and compost have been tipped in to cover them all up again. I can only imagine the wonderful harvest there will be in this lovely loose environment. (I hope!)

Trying to decide if we need more bricks to make things look more complete..
Rough mock ups say yes really, with a different path in the vege garden itself.

view 1

The effect of the fertilisers I have been putting around the plants has been very dramatic, the leaves of the corriander and the silverbeet are so thick and shiney, the parsley and beetroot are exploding from the ground.
Picked another large bag of broccoli sproutlets in the rain today, they just don't seem to stop, in fact there seem to be new sproutings erupting from the base of the 6 original plants, interesting to see what they turn into. the excitement of vegetable growing!
:)

A very pleasant spring Father's day

2011-09-04T18:29:00.001+12:00

Glorious weather and signs of growth everywhere, I detect tiny bits coming from the stem bumps on the chilli pepper stumps, the forest pansy bush is hinting pink on it's nubs, the plum blooms are looking crisp and hopeful

It's good to see the almost immediate response to the fertiliser, everything has definetaly shown a jump in growth. The sun is climbing higher into the sky at a faster rate now, (it does go faster at certain times during spring and autumn), and now the second row of potato holes are in sunlight.
Today one small dark potato sprout popped it's first leaves out so all is well. Always nice when it works out (so far).
Planted out the silver beet seedlings in several spots around he garden.
Had a nice picking of broccoli sprouts and a few of the early peas. I have been using a very sharp small knife to gently remove the largest sprouts, being careful to leave 2 small lower side sprouts to grow.

The spring onions that look more like leeks have now begun to form flower lumps, they look like they are going to exlode into something spectacular

The forget me nots were begging to be noticed...

A trip to Thornton on Sunday

2011-08-28T19:43:00.003+12:00

Another wonderful weekend very balmy reaching 18C. Took a drive to the Thornton river mouth this afternoon, still a bit chilly in the breeze off the sea, it looked nice and old post cardish...

Looking back up the river to Putauaki

Did good deeds with blood and bone for the nitrogen lovers, the garlic especially, and general purpose thrive for the flowering things. The problem with blood and bone is that the blackbird thinks there are huge smelly worms under the soil and flick it all over the place. Here is a thrush looking for snails and grubs, there will be a feeding frenzy around the garden soon when they all have nestlings.

I do like the pea tendrils, I made them a nice new frame today, it's very pleasant to pick a fresh pea as you pass. They remind me of kowhaiwhai patterns.

Beetroot and garlic getting a gentle watering, after mixing the fertilizer into the soil this will help get it to the plants and settle the soil down.

Good things start early

2011-08-24T12:36:00.003+12:00

Indeed, like all things worthwhile, the earlier you start the better it becomes, so it is with gnomes and gardeners.
This rare early photograph of a very young Nigel Gnome honing the skills required for great vegetable gardening, namely the finely co-ordinated work with spade and barrow.

Just shows that even a grumpy old Gnome was cute when he was small!

We are curently having a lovely extended period of fine settled weather and it really feels like spring now.
:)

A beautiful early spring weekend

2011-08-21T18:57:00.005+12:00

The sun was shining and there was blue from one end of the sky to the other, just lovely. The pink blossom tree was looking a treat and was visited constantly by monarch butterflies and wax eye birds

a waxeye in the prunus blossom

small waxeye in the prunus blossom


incoming monarch

I found my old gumboots in the shed, amazingly useful for damp jobs (like cleaning the new car), I had forgotten I owned such handy things. They are showing their age but still functioned well.

My old Redband gumboots

I had to take another shot

long shadows from short gumboots

The french early peas are starting to produce, though only enough for a snack now and then

tender pea flowers and lovely tendrils

french peas

The broccolli just keeps delivering, these young shoots are delicous steamed with a grate of nutmeg

fresh young broccoli sprouts

a tall one from the side garden

tall head of brocolli

these seedlings are starting to look good, the lengthening days are starting to make a difference

silverbeet and beetroot seedlings almost ready for planting

I finally got the spuds planted this weekend, all six of them! I had three really nice black potato sprouts and made three out of these nice white ones.

happy potato sprouts ready for planting

I dug six spade deep holes spaced well apart (that's why there are only six) and heaped the soil next to the holes. I put a cople of inches of compost in the holes and out the potato pieces sprout side up on top, then coverd them with a couple of inches of the soil.

potaotoes in their holes

the potato holes coverd on wire to stop dogs/cats/blackbirds from doing damage

once the sprouts start to emerge from the bottom I will keep adding more soil to keep them covered to get nice deep tubers forming.

Long time no post!

2011-08-07T19:03:00.004+12:00

It's been a while, not too much to say, we've had a long damp period and all that's been done is basic upkeep. There have been visits and coming and goings as well so it was great to have this fine patch leading up to the weekend to get some essentials done. Spraying the outside paved areas with 30 seconds moss and mould remover was the prime task as it needs the area to be quite dry to encourage the grunge to absorb the bleachy stuff greedily. They seem to die almost instantly and I was able to water blast the worst bits quite quickly.
The garlic has grown really well and the broccoli side shoots can be harvested every few days. We planted three new rosemary babies around the patches.

The garlic

overview

Applied a dressing of citrus fertilizer around the drip line of the lemon bush. Pruned the standard ice berg rose and the last of the hydrangeas.

The garlic has risen

2011-07-01T17:18:00.005+12:00

Yes, despite sitting under water for a day or two the garlic has all come up very strongly so we should be in for a good crop in 6 months time!
Here's a shot out of the window

and here's a close up today, they do look pretty healthy and happy and a 100% strike rate. In the background you can see the stumps of the chilli plants under their super market frost protection units and then the broccoli behind them.

Now that the cold weather has arrived here's a great way to carry firewood into the house with a re-useable supermarket bag:
(click on it for a larger version)

And a photo of the creature that follows me around

Garlic got planted finally!

2011-06-12T17:20:00.006+12:00

Jeff's Birthday even!

Hooray for a patch of fine weather at last, I've had all my garlic cloves peeled and ready to plant for two weeks already but it has been so wet that it would have been foolhardy to put them into the soil before now. I think they would have rotted for sure.

I cut down both chili plants and the last capsicum and have left about 10 inches of stump to overwinter, t'will be interesting to see how that goes. This is the harvest, a good lot of green chillies for the nice fresh Thai curries.[ [edit one year later] the stumps of chilli and capsicum looked like dead sticks at the end of winter so that was not a go, I've also since been told it doesn't really do all that well anyway.]

I added an extra edge of wood to the garlic patch to be able to raise the soil so that stuff can be planted quite close to the edge. The soil had already recieved a good dressing of blood and bone a week or two ago so it was a matter of laying out a lattice of sticks to set out the distance between cloves. I have a bamboo stick with a bit of tape 13 cm from the end to measure the distance between the sticks. The same bamboo also has tape at 6 cm, the depth to plant the clove. I use the stick to poke a nice neat hole 6 cm deep in the center of the squares of lattice of sticks, pop the best and fattest cloves into the bottom of the holes and gently firm over, stand clear for a wonderful crop of garlic (in six months). I managed to squeeze in 82 fat cloves. :)

Heres a collage of the garlic bed (click for a big one)

The end of May

2011-05-29T21:27:00.005+12:00

Lovely weather for the whole weekend, nice to dry out after the rain we have been having. A large branch came down from the titoki tree in the gusty stormy night. I gave the jasmine hedge a serious trim so that you can get to the car with out being entangled in vines. Raised the stepping stones that were under water during the worst of the rains. Re-arranged the bougainvillaea along the pergola so that it will be most wondrous when it goes mad again.
26 detroit dark red beetroot seedlings were planted as well as half a dozen triple curled parsley plants. Removed the last basil plant, poor thing and I have been eying up the chilli plants, you can see they are at the end of their tether. Have to remember to just cut them back to survive winter so they will be away strong and fast in spring, I pulled them out last year not realizing they are perenials. Garlic seed stock is due any day, been bursting to plant some.
Some shots of the patch, the broccoli need their middles picked and eaten, there are small side shoots already.

Tidy time

2011-05-15T20:01:00.004+12:00

Winter is gently edging in, I was a good gnome today and cleaned all the dreaded build up of soot in the chimney. Great risk to life and limb with ladders and long poking equipment. Extra cosy fire ensued.

A weekend of tidying and sorting things out. Pulled out the bean plants, they had come to their end and now that bed can be prepared with some blood and bone and compost for garlic planting. I think there are few things that are worth growing as much as garlic and chillies, you use them the whole year with easy almost fail safe storage.
The broccoli has now formed nice small heads

Weeded the leek patch and they are looking twice the size they were. Planted seeds of beetroot, silver beet and white onions. The new pea seeds are up and looking strong and determined, as are the whispy seedlings of the carrot and parsnip planted last weekend.
Ran about with citrus tree fertilizer as rain clouds loomed overhead, just managed to get it forked in around the drip line as the drops came down.

Mother'sDay

2011-05-08T20:43:00.005+12:00

and a lovely day it was, a peach tart and lemon cupcakes and all!

The dreaded duck hunters even managed to constrain themselves thankfully, unlike Saturday morning (opening morning) when it sounded as though they were at the end of the bed (well almost).

The sun even shone, after days of rain it was nice to be able to get out and do stuff. Planted carrot and parsnip seeds in two neat rows and covered the rows with planks to keep them moist and cat free till they germinate. Spent a fair bit of time digging the area very deep, to at least a spades' depth making sure it was finely tilled so the roots would be able to get down deep.
Spread a fair bit of lime amongst things to stop the soil from clogging. It gets leached after all the rain. Removed the netting from the broccoli plants as I haven't seen a cabbage butterfly for about a week, the plants look wonderful. with almost no blemishes. The peas have just pushed clear of the soil, and I picked another handful of lovely butter beans.
Planted the mini silverbeet into the large tub

Mini daffodil (pressie for my Mum) and we haven't even had winter yet, what can it mean?

Mayday Mayday!

2011-05-02T12:37:00.007+12:00

Wow, 2nd of May already!
Pulled out all but two of the capsicum plants, they were not turning red anymore so out they went. Still got about a dozen green peppers off them so we'll have to find something nice to do with them, unfortunately it's the red ones that we much prefer. I did get a good bed ready for the garlic season, we intend to plant them as soon as some good bulbs become available, I don't think you need to plant them on the shortest day, in fact the sooner the better to get really nice fat bulbs by the longest day.
A photo of the harvest from the weekend, still picking heaps of lovely yellow beans as well as the last of the current carrot crop.

Planted out some nice rocket seedlings, as well as some petit provencal pea seeds,( a heritage variety that can handle the cold) and also some of these cute bonsai pak choi plants (look for all the world like small silverbeet). They should be nice for a winter green stir fry with lots of soy sauce and garlic!

The broccoli is looking very strong now that we've kept the dreaded cabbage white butterflies at bay with the bird netting.

I was a very good gnome indeed in distributing the compost that was ready around the garden as well as turning the current lot over into the vacant bin, an amazing amount of sweat was involved in the herculean task! Now we can start a new one again, which will probably be ready for spring now that the cooler temperatures slow the process.
:)

Easter/ANZAC

2011-04-25T21:12:00.004+12:00

A rainy 4 days holiday, very pleasant and a bit lazy. :)
Managed to do a few things around the garden during fine patches though.
Pulled out the green beans, they looked blotchy on the leaves and weren't flowering anymore. Still got quite a few beans from them when I stripped them down.
The leeks have very much survived their strange planting and are thriving, some of the holes have filled in already as the gutters were overflowing onto them. I was on the roof the next morning risking life and limb clearing the gutters with a small spade and bucket.
Now that the broccoli are under their cosy nets they are getting to be strong healthy, non holey specimens. The onions are looking pretty

Picked a couple more huge red peppers, not too sure whether the rest will get to turn red. We don't use green ones much.

The forest pansy is looking lovely in it's autumn coat, three leaves on the grass...

Leeking away for winter

2011-04-17T17:04:00.010+12:00

A very wet Saturday led to a surprisingly lovely sunny Sunday. We even had old and lovely friends visiting for the morning leaving much of the afternoon free for a good old fossic in the garden. As you do.

The leek seedlings that have been loved and tended on a daily basis finally had their moment of glory today. I prepared their bed with a couple of buckets of manure and raked it flat and tamped it down firmly with the flat face of the rake. I used a piece of an old broom handle as a dibbing stick, about 3-4cm thick with a ring of tape 15cm up the stick to indicate ideal depth. I left about 15cm between the holes, I also gave the stick a good round and round motion in the hole to firm up the sides (It also makes the stick easier to remove).

My dibbing stick on the right

Then the individual seedlings are dropped into the hole. Don't fill the hole in, simply water gently and bits of soil fall down to cover the roots and as the leeks grow the holes slowly fill up.

This allows the root system to start well below soil level and eventually you will end up with wonderful large long white leeks! We hope!
I planted 35 today. Made a netting cover to stop certain cats from prancing all over them. :)

Picked heaps of green and yellow beans and the chilli plants are still producing well, though leaving a red one on a day or two too long and they split and try to get their seeds out and about. I may leave some to do just that. As long as I can recognize the seedlings in spring for what they actually are. The broccoli seedlings are now rapidly growing and the netting has been great at keeping them caterpillar free.

The red capsicums are huge we have to make effort to use them, one made for two very red pepper pizzas Friday night!
Yum.

And of course we are up to our armpits in feijoas!

The end of the line for the tomatoes...

2011-04-10T18:15:00.001+12:00

Yes, the end is nigh, in fact it's been. The poor old plants were looking pretty terrible, scrawny sticks with green and orange things hanging from them.

So out they all came, still got a nice bucketful of fruit for another batch of chutney or passata.

Haven't done too badly with the tomatoes this year, they certainly weren't pretty but we got a reasonable amount.
Here are our wonderful sauces and chutneys so far

passata

Jamie Oliver's ketchup

And more of Pauline's most delicious hot chutney

Also pulled three of the basil plants just leaving one huge one, they grew so large and bountiful this year, it was lovely to brush through them to get the lovely smell in the air and over yourself. Very end of summery!

Was given a lovely grey pumpkin on Friday, just had to take a photo of it's tendril...

Planted out seedlings of beetroot and more rocket and half a dozen new lettuce. Gave them all nice little tents of white butterfly proof netting so they may survive the onslaught. Trimmed the ivy hedge and mowed the lawns, not bad for a weekend!
:)

Thwarting the cabbage white

2011-03-24T18:53:00.003+13:00

Yes indeed white cabbage butterflies are pestering our poor broccoli seedlings as though they are the last ones on the planet. The smallest leaf had 20+ eggs at least and derris dusting is quite difficult as well as unsightly.
I went to Mitre 10 today and bought 2 meters of bird netting. White in colour as the black would reduce the amount of light falling on the plants.
A few sticks to prop it up and and hopefully it will keep the beasts at bay.

Not exactly pretty but effective I hope.

Monday, after a nice weekend

2011-03-21T19:56:00.011+13:00

Still lovely and warm and late summery.
In spite of the earthquakes in Christchurch and the disaster movie being played out in Japan live is pleasant here. Almost feeling guilty.

We have had BBQ's and friends and family. Lovely indeed!
:)
The tomatoes are still firming and reddening on a daily basis, it's a job to keep thinking of things to do with them. One favourite is passata, a simple tomato and garlic sauce that can be kept in sterilized jars for quick sauce for pasta or pizza.
Passata recipe
Although we didn't bother putting it through a sieve or anything, lumps are good.
I pick a daily small handfull of red chillies, lay them in a single layer an a plastic lid in the freezer and pop them into a tupperware type container when frozen the next day. we have three containers full already this season. More than enough for the year. They are nice to use frozen, they chop up better than when dried as well.

We went mad and bought another citrus, a bearss lime, nice useful green/yellow fruit.
We hope.
Planted broccoli (tender stems) and leeks are about to be put out. Been reading about poking a hole in the ground and leaning the leek in and watering gently. The idea is that the hole fills itself gradually and naturally to keep the bottom of the leek nice and white as it grows.
Shot of the radishes in front of the beetroots in front of the yellow beans in front of the green beans in front of the chilli plants etc etc

a bucket of tomato pickings

a gnome risking life and limb on a ladder picking a peck of the above

these roma ones are wonderful sliced onto bread and cheese with a dribble of mayonaise and a good grind of black pepper

and last but not least a shot of the queen of the garden

:)

March, late summer?

2011-03-06T18:16:00.006+13:00

Early autumn?
They say it will be a warm and gentle autumn, sounds good to me. There are still many tomatoes to ripen on the big plant. Sauces and chutneys and passatas have been made and more will follow hopefully. The chillies have been producing like mad, I pick a small handful daily.

Disease and fungus is a problem as everything ages. It's all part of life and the universe it seems.

Spotteds a bright friend on the edge of a cucumber flower

And the chillies on the black plant look wonderful now

We have new beans doing well and all is good

As I am writing this we have just had a random hail storm, it finished as quickly as it started thank goodness, but it does explain why the temperatures dropped this afternoon.

A view of the new radishes, beetroot, yellow beans and green beans,

A very mid summer weekend.

2011-02-19T16:14:00.006+13:00

A lovely summer's day, hottish, about 24C and still and calm. So nice in fact we may be off to Otarawairere beach tomorrow!

The garden is producing nicely, almost daily picking of a dozen chillis, I have been placing them straight from the garden onto a plastic tray in the freezer and snap freezing them, then pop them into an airtight container.
These are some unusual coloured chillies that are fine to use and reasonably hot apparently

The tomatoes are doing very well,

we have made a huge lot of butter chicken sauce to freeze, also a simple sauce called passata, keeps for a month or three and can be used for pizza or pasta.

Have planted yellow dwarf beans and a new lot of beetroot seedlings, some coriander and a row of radishes.
Thinking about planting leeks for winter, scary...

In the meantime, some watering needs to be done regularly...
shot taken at 8000/sec

Tomato reaches the roof!

2011-02-03T19:35:00.003+13:00

News alert, "mad rampant tomato p[lant reaches roof of house" !
Silly thing, I'll have to nip it in the bud now though, I only have a medium ladder, let alone the construction skills to enble it to get to it's full potential.

Pruned the plum tree after the fruit had finished, and just planting more beans and coriander seeds.

Lazy summer

2011-01-26T21:22:00.007+13:00

Long time no post!
Been most busy, been overseas!
To Blenheim!
Most nice, several planes and hotels/motels, weddings and wineries, museums and pigeons, a party and then a happy home with best daughter in tow.

The garden had grown heaps, only five days but there was quite a noticeable growth spurt.

The main tomato is getting close to the roofline

I pulled up all the garlic and was a little disappointed with the size of the bulbs, some weren't bad but there were quite a lot of small ones. No idea why, perhaps I planted them a bit close together...

There are quite a few things to gather on a daily basis, cucumber, chilies, a few beans, some small tomatoes, basil, a zucchini or two etc. All of them are nice on the BBQ. We have been using it almost daily

pulled a few of the long beetroot, they look great!

We've just had a major rain event with the river very close to the top of the stop banks indeed, everything in the garden is having another spurt, it must be the nitrogen that locks into the rain as it falls ( or something) (or lack of chemicals). Actually I have been wondering about some sort of rain water gathering system. Something that could be very necessary in the future.

Strange bird behaviour

2010-12-28T17:20:00.004+13:00

I have noticed blackbirds doing this before on hot days, they sit out in the full sun with their wings out and a very strange look in their eyes. I guess that somehow they are trying to rid themselves of fleas and ticks and lice. Perhaps by heating the feathers so much all the extra wildlife leaps off the host and off to the cooler ground below. Here are a couple of shots from yesterday

They sit there for 10 minutes or so, the cat sits and watches them but doesn't bother to have a go at catching them at all.

Happy Boxing Day

2010-12-26T16:03:00.010+13:00

A somewhat calmer day than most leading up to it. We have a beautiful sunny day, the bit of wind misses us behind the fence.
Had a good day catching up with the patch. Dug up the last of the parsnips, the tops were really large and looping over the path and everything around them, so out the came. Most satisfying bunch they were, nice fatties of reasonable length, I think the soil really does need to be dug really deep to get them to get as long as the growers do. Not bad though.

Pulled the pea plants as they were starting to look terrible and there were no more flowers to see. Got a veritable sack of peas from it again yum yum

The main tomato is starting to show itself in it's true form, it's going to be another monster one I think. Added extra length to the center pole as well as a couple of support poles at the sides to keep the whole thing steady, the weight of all those tomatoes will be quite considerable. It would be sad to have it topple over in a high wind when it was fully laden with fruit.

Looking closely on the large version you can see wee dots of red! Yes the little ones are doing it, these are the first of what is going to be an avalanche of tomatoes. Yay.

The Lebanese cucumbers are forming nicely, I keep cutting off it's lateral branches, it would happily engulf half the garden otherwise. I'm forcing it to grow up a 'witches hat' metal frame.
The flowers are pretty

Plums are definitely getting plummy, I'll have to watch the waxeyes as they seem to like them as much as we do. In fact I may have to pick them soon and let them have a final ripening indoors in safety (at least from the birds).

Planted out about 20 silver beet seedlings that had been getting loopy in their small tray, and 2 more rows of carrots as well as 3 rows of beans. The first lot are now setting flowers so we will have quite a supply for a while. Might plant some climbing beans up the pergola post as the sweet peas seemed to like it a lot and looked very sweet while they were at it!
:)

Sunday 12 12 2010

2010-12-12T20:45:00.005+13:00

That date somehow has a ring to it, thankfully so far it has all been good.
A hot day, work in the shade was the trick. Went mad and trimmed the hedges and mowed lawns and weeded and sprayed and all sorts of gardening derring-do. Even took dwn the sweet pea plant that has been so wonderful growing up the pergola post. It's day had come.

Had a couple of nice meals from the small gas BBQ, mananged to make pizza as well as a lovely rack of lamb the next night.

A two shot panorama from the table
(click for big)

A shot straight into the sun of one of the leek flowers, flare and all...

Long time no blog

2010-12-05T21:04:00.010+13:00

Today's harvest, a white onion or two, a few half ready roma tomatoes, some odd carrots and an early garlic...
I'm sure a good bbq'ing will make sense of it all

Click for big.

Things are basically going whoosh, everyday new tendrils are forcing their way into the world.
I had a great time today nipping out all the small laterals on the tomato plants, all laterals below the first flower bracht should be removed, a small sharp vegetable knife does this very well, it also saves your finger turning black from the tomato plant juice!
Went mad and chopped down the navel orange tree in the middle of the back lawn, after all this time and thousands of flowers it still didn't set any fruit. Today it went ta ta.
It will be replaced with a Santa Rosa plum, the perfect pollinator for the other Japanese plum, the fortune. It has only set 30 or so plums this spring, but with another tree we should be swimming in plums in a year or so.

Herb area getting some satisfaction

The tomatoes are starting to get serious again, I will have to extend the frames soon

Drops of water from the sprinkler are stuck in mid air, I used a very fast shutter speed.

Gardening and house cleaning

2010-11-15T19:56:00.005+13:00

I have a holy glow after cleaning the grubby side of the house, ready for stopping and filling and, gasp, painting, yes, with actual paint!
:)

Though it all may take a wee while before it's all done and dusted...

The leeks have been trying to flower, their scopes look great amongst a flower arrangement.

They make the leeks go woody so it's time to rip them out and make the most of them. Also pulled out all the rocket plants, they were producing more flowers than leaves now, need their space for more yummy beetroot, long ones this time.

The sweet peas Amy and I planted ages ago are now finally coming into their own, lovely with the backlight.

I've put in the tomato frames, at least the short versions so far, though I don't think these two are going to be quite as rampant as last year's lot.

We have beans sprouting, new rocket and 4 rows of radishes all bursting out of the soil. The blackbirds are loving the compost I so carefully put between the rows of garlic, damn their orange eyes.
:)

Managed to find a place that sells weber parts in NZ, so I've been busy polishing the old black smoker to a wonderful sheen, complete with oil on the wooden handles and a brand new 'one touch system' to control the airflow. Looking forward to the first official burning. It looks so cool and retro. Haven't used it since 2004...

Hazel enjoying the sunlight

Guy Fawkes weekend

2010-11-07T18:43:00.006+13:00

There was no public firework display here this year because it all went whoosh in one go last year, luckily no one was hurt too much.
:)

But it was a pleasant weekend, the weather behaved rather well and Sunday was a stunning spring/early summer day.
Sowed seeds of Hailstone and Cylindra radishes (nice for a snack whilst prowling the garden).
Also a couple of rows of good old phaseolus vullgaris (common bean). A small bed of rocket and a few more coriander seeds completed the picture.
Hazel posed for a shot (click on the photos for the larger versions)

An overview

The roma tomatoes are getting bigger, but there are no laterals, these may well be the sum total...

I pulled a few of the onions to male room for the new rocket bed, the ones that are left look very strong and nice

November! Eeeek flime is tying...

2010-11-03T17:44:00.009+13:00

Been busy planting seedlings including a green zucchini, a thai super hot chilli as well as a cayenne long slim chilli, six capsicums, six sweet basil, one Lebanese cucumber and a grafted Don's choice tomato!

a shot of a plot

Peas are producing

and just watch this zucchini go, it's already grown two new leaves since this was taken

]

home grown leeks ready for a rissotto!

And Hazel the Thundercat admiring her domain in the late afternoon light

Middle October

2010-10-19T18:07:00.006+13:00

Finally we have tobasco chilli seedlings just breaking through the soil, we have peas and a couple of rudimentary tomatoes! There are also robust seedlings of a new crop of beetroots, an abundance of rocket and we have been using some of the leeks and onions already. They make a lovely risotto.
It's all go!

I can't resist the stuggle of the peas up their strings

the snowball tree is starting to ball up nicely

and the forest pansy is all fresh and sparkly

Wonderful days

2010-10-03T21:29:00.003+13:00

The sun has shone and made it all seem as though summer has arrived. We have gone mad and bought a couple of tomato plants today.
A sweet cherry F1 hybrid (god only knows what that means) and a grafted Tomato Roma.

A new mint plant and a thyme, some nice new cat mint for Hazel the thundercat (I had to build a small teepee out of bamboo to keep certain cats from lying on the plant). A large new pot for the Christmas tree.

Daylight savings starts today!

2010-09-26T20:16:00.005+13:00

and what a wonderful day it has been, a real taste of the coming warm weather, the new area of bricks went in pretty smoothly yesterday and already it looks as though it's been there for years.

Sowed more carrots in the gaps, planted a 6 pack of lettuce, and a couple of parsley and coriander seedlings.
The leeks are growing well and the peas are reaching for the heights

and the alpine strawberries are looking promising

Peas agrowing

2010-09-12T16:41:00.002+12:00

Not much to report really, peas are now starting to grow and I managed a quick pic between the rains!

Heavy rain with hail!!!

2010-08-29T15:46:00.005+12:00

A lovely day it was, happy planting of peas and moving plants around, and all of a sudden it all went dark and then down came a strong shower of rain with small hailstones. it went away to be followed by another half an hour later. Fortunately the blossoms haven't all been stripped from the plum and the poor delicate pea seedlings are still upright.
I made a climbing fame from bamboo and string, hopefully they will love it and go for glory, and lots of peas.
:)

Here is a shot of the frames

A break in the weather

2010-08-28T16:52:00.005+12:00

I managed to get the back lawn mowed this afternoon, there were going to be more showers. Also turned over the compost heap into the second bin to air it and now we can start a new one. The plum tree is now in full blossom and busy bees are doing their thing, hopefully they are bringing pollen from neighbouring plum trees.

All systems go for planting things now the sun is fully on the vegetable patch, some pea seedlings ready to plant

Lovely spring Sunday

2010-08-22T18:45:00.002+12:00

It was most pleasant to spend time in the garden hacking and pruning to let more light in. Took out the highest bits of the feijoa tree and trimmed the hedge and pittosporums along the back fence! Whew!
Still getting a nice supply of broccoli sprouts and now the sun is fully on the vegetable garden everything is starting to show signs of life, the forest pansy is hinting pink, the plum has flowers like popcorn, more each day

bought more beetroot seedlings and a punnet of peas, we shall see

More spring!

2010-08-08T16:47:00.005+12:00

Had to grab a close up of the pink blossom today, it was nice and sunny for a short time, so I took the opportunity to fill in the rows of carrot seedlings with another sowing in the patches where none had come up. Same with the parsnips. The garlic had grown a few with mutliple shoots so I dug them out gently and have separated them and planted them out singly.

And here is a snap of the plum showing it's intentions...

Signs of Spring!

2010-08-07T15:58:00.005+12:00

Yes indeedy, there are hints of green on the nubs on the branches of the Fortune plum tree!
And the Prunus is blossoming madly. Even though it's all wet and gray today it makes for a pretty photo, quite Japanesy I reckon.

The garlic is all up and is a 100% success, every clove I planted has come up. Not bad.
After removing the large broccoli heads we left the plants in the ground and have now been able to harvest many nice small head-lets from the leaf joints.

Excavating for brick work

2010-07-25T17:43:00.004+12:00

Mapped out and dug out the dirt where the bricks will go. should be a most pleasant spot to catch a ray or two in winter. Bonus outcome was a nice wheelbarrow or three of good garden dirt to distruibute around the vege plot, even some to mound up the leeks some more!
:)

Here's the dug out area

and this is what I'm hoping it will look like next weekend

The cloning is a bit rough, but it gives the idea of how it will look. Hopefully not quite as bumpy.

Garlic shoots!

2010-07-24T16:10:00.007+12:00

They're allmost all up and growing well. That part of the garden does not get sun on it as yet, a few more weeks and the sun will have risen higher in the sky to just start bathing that area in goodness and light! The sweetpeas will also really start to grow well then too.

Here are all the little babies starting to show.

I came across a video on the harvesting of garlic that seemed very useful, even explaining the difference between hard and soft shoot varieties:

We moved our large and wonderful rosemary bush to the back of the garden and are now going to prepare the area it was in for a small brick paved area that will be most pleasant to sit in the lovely warm sun at this time of the year. Just figured out how many bricks we need (150)and about 4 bags of ready mixed concrete and it's all go.
:)

Photo of me and Hazel the thunder cat, though she doesn't thunder around the place quite so much in her old age. Nor do I mind you...

Just the very beginning of spring

2010-07-18T20:00:00.002+12:00

I say hopefully, there are signs of growth on the rose bushes, the carrot seeds have finally decided to pop their thin little heads out. I had almost given up on them. The parsnips haven't shown as yet. I had planks lying on the beds to keep them moist and nice. They are slow though.
The broccoli has been very nice, the plants that have been left after chopping out the big heads are all growing nice new buds at the leaf joints.
More and more garlic are peeping from the bed.
We still have a nice little supply of last years' harvest we're working through.
:)

The lemons are all nice and ripe but a lot of them have some sort of bottom half blight
The juice is fine though.

Early July already, Yay!

2010-07-03T17:42:00.005+12:00

And best daughter gnome comes to stay for a week or two. The garden has been polished and the cat brushed, already for her majesty!
:)
The broccoli is definitely pickable, in fact one was sacrificed for our dinner tonight.

Also we actually have lemons, plural, on the tree. They look all proper and lemony as well!

Gin & tonics, mmmm.

Sunday in June, garlic planting

2010-06-27T20:16:00.002+12:00

The weather has been far too dodgy for any garden work recently, so it was great to have a day and a half this weekend to get stuck in.
Planted 22 of our own grown garlic cloves as well as about 80 proper bought ones. I have been preparing the soil for the last couple of weeks with some compost and a good deep dig. The garlic cloves can be planted 6cm from each other, so by laying out a pattern of sticks I was able to plant 100 bulbs in about 1sqm.
Also planted 2 rows of carrots and 2 rows of good old parsnip. They say to cover the parsnip seeds with planks to keep them moist till they sprout, then remove the planks. We will see!
:)
The broccoli have surpassed themselves, they have magnificent heads ready to eat!
Just need to manually remove the odd caterpillar, they are easy to track when you spot their black droppings.
The daphne bushes are about to flower, and daffodil shoots have started to show in the Rose Gardens...

Dull Sunday

2010-05-23T12:49:00.004+12:00

We've had some much needed rain finally and even the farmers are happy!
Just been tidying up the last few pepper plants that have yielded enough for a large bottle of preserved long capsicums and a freezer full of snap frozen chillis. The brassicas are doing well with some of the broccoli starting to form heads already.

A lovely small fly agaric popped up in the front lawn

And yesterday we were given this lovely yummy grey pumpkin from the garden of Mark & Greta!

Mid Autumn I guess you could call it

2010-04-11T13:11:00.005+12:00

The garden looks nice and tidy after the tomato met it's maker

It's getting much cooler in the evenings now, and with daylight savings ending over Easter the day ends so much quicker seemingly. The chillis and peppers are still growing and ripening and with a bit of luck we may still get a one more flush of beans. The one and only basil we grew this year is huge and still producing perfect large leaves (must make some oil). In the meantime we have planted lots more beetroot and a bunch of lettuce. The rocket I sowed last weekend is up and growing stronger by the day. Lets hope the white butterflies leave it alone. I admit to derris dusting the brassicas.
I have picked a veritable peck or three of peppers to be pickled. They look wonderful in a heap, a good harvest. The plant still has plenty left for drying too.

I had a play with them :)

Easter 2010!

2010-04-05T16:22:00.003+12:00

The most amazing tomato plant in the whole wide world has met it's end, I chopped it down on Good Friday, a fitting day for such a feat, it took a fair bit of dismantling too I must stress.

After sorting out the weeds and giving the soil a bit of a loosening we have planted our own raised silverbeet seeds (chard) and some cardif leeks and broccoletti (small broccolli) seedlings. Will start some long cylindra beetroot and hollow crown parsnip seeds next.

Daylight saving has ended now so dreaded winter is on it's way.
:(

Spring will be wonderful though of course!
:)

Photo of late harvest, there are heaps of chillies and peppers though, we'll have to preserve some of the wildfire chillies in oil I think.

Big changes time

2010-03-07T19:08:00.005+13:00

late summer, nice, the temperatures are high, some days up to 26C but the sun doesn't feel as fierce.
The second tomato plant has had it's run, got too sad looking with most of it's leaves gone. The late blight got a good hold on it. Luckily most of the tomatoes themselves are all red and I was able to cut whole trusses as I dismembered the plant. There are many jars of chutney/sauces to be made!
:)

Now there is a nice clear area to get stuck into.

We planted two good rows of parsnip seeds and I made chicken wire hats to protect from cats and birds.
They take up to four weeks to germinate.
:(
We will put in a good bunch of beetroot and onions (seem to do well with them) and also broccoli etc soon.

There are heaps of peppers ready now, almost every plant is slightly different. They seem to be able to mutate quite happily. The thinner and longer they are, the hotter...

Yum on the bbq on baking paper with tomatoes and basil/oil/salt/pepper...

The cherry truss tomato is still going strong, wonderful plant!
Framed by the bean plants and zucchini

Lovely long summer

2010-02-21T19:11:00.004+13:00

After a few days of drizzle this weekend has been wonderful, still and sunny. The peppers are going red at a great rate of knots, the tomato has been wonderful, chutney is being made and the odd lucky friend gets a bag full. The zucchini produces one a day and beans picked daily make a bag full in the fridge in no time. Pesto from the basil plant was wonderful with the barbecued chicken breasts last night...
Life is good.
:)
Sowed onion and silver beet seeds ready for the winter growing.
The oldest compost was deemed ready for use, so it's been doled out to the most needy, namely the coriander seedlings.

A cheeky young tomato:

Lovely neighbours!

2010-02-16T20:30:00.003+13:00

A small delegation from the garden next door arrived bearing gifts yesterday. A lovely pair of blue maumau. Freshly caught down the coast. We managed to off load a bag of tomatoes as they left!
:)

Barbequed them tonight stuffed with some lemon and rosemary sprigs. Oil, sea salt & black pepper they were yummy, and because they were done on baking paper, we lost none of the fish on the grill.

The tomatoes in the foreground are lovely, just oil etc with torn basil leaves, on baking paper and I don't turn them, that way all the moisture stays inside. They almost blacken at the bottom, then serve with more fresh torn basil. A few garlic cloves sprinkled amongst them at the start make nice treats.

Spraying with pyrethrum

2010-02-14T19:29:00.006+13:00

Best daughter and I picked all the newest flowering pyrethrum flowers about a month ago and stored them in a paper bag . Today I mashed a small handful of the dried flowers in the morter and pestle and adde a litre of boiling water to them. Let it cool whilst stirring now and then. Filtered it into the sprayer and added about a teaspoon of dish wash liquid so that it flows onto the insects. It has worked very well so far, well worth the effort. Although I do wonder whether spraying with dishwash only would give much the same results.
Pyrethrum flowers:

I have been collecting snail shells that the thrush has been leaving all over the paths as it was nesting. There were several everyday, great natural pest control!

We harvested all the beetroots today and will be making jars of pickled chunks, yum. The capsicums are also getting ready and we'll have to bottle those as well. We have jars of sundried tomatoes already, now there will have to be a major chutney making...

I gave up trying to plait the garlic and today I sat in the garage in the shade and dealt to it as best I could. Actually it felt quite sort of native, on my knees in a primitive hut ( my 'garage') preserving the crop.
Looks good!

Waitangi weekend

2010-02-07T17:54:00.004+13:00

Nice weekend, almost like a long one as it's a public holiday and I didn't open the shop for the usual Saturday morning trade. Lovely sleep in.
:)

The capsicums are starting to turn red and so are the wildfire chillies. We threw a whole long capsicum on the barbecue the other night as a tester and surprise surprise, it was hot, chili hot. We are sure the original one we had kept the seeds from was not hot at all. Maybe they have cross pollinated with the chili plant as they are all growing through each other. Anyway, hot is good!
These are the first red ones, quite small compared to the average, they sure look like giant chillis so I guess it's not surprising that they could revert.

And I can't resist another tomato photo, just picked another 30 or so and they are increasing daily. All from the one plant. All perfect and almost the exact same size. Best of all they are nice and tasty.

We are making some dried tomatoes now. Cut in half, scoop out the seeds and a light dash of salt upside down on trays in the oven 6-8 hours real low with the door just ajar.
I have plaited (or should I say attempted plaiting) half of the garlic crop. Looks pretty good if you don't look too close.
Here's a blog with photos showing correct plaiting, I think my poor brain can't cope with all the left right stuff...

Summer harvests!

2010-02-03T18:30:00.005+13:00

It's been hot and sunny mostly but a couple of days of good rain was most welcome. Everything had a good growth boost from it. Took all the plums off the tree a week or two ago. As they were getting really ripe and dropping to the ground they were being pecked by birds. They ripened nicely indoors for the last few days and were really yummy!

Picked some vegetables to bring to mum's on the lovely long weekend, they looked so good I had to take a photo of course

and today I did a good tomato harvest, these are all off the one plant and there are many more to come

2010-01-19T20:55:00.007+13:00

It's been a week or two. A busy wonderful week or two. Life is good in summer time, beaches to play at, wonderful meals to eat outside in the warm still air, even some boogie boarding in the rain.
The veges have been growing like mad, some surreptitious watering here and there has kept it all producing well.
Harvested quite a few of the red onions and about half of the garlic today.
The onions are huge!

Here's the state of my wonderful tomato plant, it is truly astounding, if most of the fruit reach maturity we will have over 450 tomatoes...
click the image to see a larger view

and a front on view, I've nipped out the growing tips as it's getting too tall.

There don't seem to be too many pests this year, we have palnted the geranums and the seem to work. Saying that the number two tomato has got a touch of late blight and I've been removing leaves and spraying with copper oxychloride to prevent it spreading. Aphids aren't too bad, neem oil is keeping them at bay. Best daughter and Ihave been harvesting the biggest most open pyrethrum flowers to dry them and crush them to make a spray with a touch of soap powder. Hope it works.

Boxing Day report

2009-12-26T13:41:00.004+13:00

T'was a lovely Christmas at our house, perfect summer weather for eating and drinking in the garden!
Today I pulled up the first few garlic bulbs as we've just had the longest day and they look wonderful. Will have to have another plaiting session soon.

The long capsicums are really starting to get big, all the plants have developing peppers

overview of the main patch

Amy has made me a minion for Christmas, Nibbles the snail, he is happy to do all the dirty work I believe, we will see...

early summer

2009-12-16T21:11:00.005+13:00

Everything is growing as you watch. The peas all went mildewy (as they do) so out with them and in with a bunch of climbing bean seedlings.
The peas we did get were really nice, the sugar snaps can be eaten raw pod and all.

Have enjoyed several zucchini already and the basil is trying to flower.

The tomato plants are astounding, growing so strong. I think keeping them to a flat space is a really good thing, makes it easy to pinch laterals and keep the plant healthy.

All the garlic is growing tall and looks nice and wild.

The plums are looking good

Made new tomato frames

2009-11-22T17:01:00.006+13:00

These sturdy beasts should do the job:

The sugar snap peas are at the top of their frame and making pretty white flowers

The red onions and all the garlic is looking really good, we should get a great harvest soon, the basil is already doing well too:

I planted some more radish seeds today. We had some amongst other roasted vegetables on the BBQ last night and they were wonderful!
I made some cages out of spare netting (from the pea frame. These are like brain hats for vegetables, to keep blackbirds and cats off them! I simply twisted each corner of a square of netting together to make a pointy bit to stick in the ground, pliers helped to twist it a bit tighter. Then manipulate it's shape to fit where it has to go:

in situ

Things go boingg

2009-11-21T18:14:00.006+13:00

After going to Auckland last weekend to see Ry Cooder in concert we came back to find everything has really grown and the garden is starting to look productive and full.
The capsicums have small flowers and the tomatoes are getting bigger every day:

We have 2 small green courgettes already:

And the radishes have been delicious, the white ones just hotter than the reds:

We roasted some whole amongst potatoes and asparagus on the bbq and they were yummy indeed!

Over One Year Old!!!

2009-11-09T20:18:00.004+13:00

Suddenly realized that from now on this will become quite interesting comparing year to year and season to season. Have hardly planted any potatoes this year nor a giant climbing bean. They all took over the space too much.

Here's a shot from above, showing all the long red capsicum plants and the peas going up the trellis. The small tomato plants are starting to look strong and there will be tomatoes ready in days !
:)

Here's a blackbird's view of a common garden inhabitant...

This is Nigel in house painting mode, this had to get painted before we could put the shade sails up. Just too sunny in the bathroom in the mornings at this time of year.

Hail after planting

2009-10-18T15:44:00.002+13:00

I could not believe it today, after planting out all the warm season crops yesterday it went mad and hailed this afternoon!
Luckily it was brief and the stones were quite small and nothing seems to have been damaged so far. Then half an hour later the sun was back out.
We harvested all of the silver beet that featured in yesterdays blog post, there's tons of it, and we have another bed in the old vege patch. We'll have to blanch some of it and make some bags of frozen ready for shepherds' pies at short notice.
:)
I planted some hailstone (yes) and salad crunch radish seeds and three rows of top crop bean seeds. Just about run out of room now.

Planting day

2009-10-17T17:34:00.006+13:00

Couldn't wait any longer, sposed to wait till Labour Weekend but have gone mad and planted out 2 tomatoes, all the capsicum seedlings as well as the Zorro courgette and a newly bought basil!
The courgette in theory is the normal green one this time we hope. Got a grafted truss tomato and a grafted cherry so we should have lots of tasty readily useable toms in no time. As I dug the last capsicum seedling into it's hole the rain started falling. Perfect!
:)
New tomato in the foreground, small capsicums in the bed on the left

Madly abundant silver beet in the foreground

And Hazel approves of Mr Perry's coffee sack

:)

Warm spring day

2009-10-11T21:29:00.008+13:00

Lovely day. Painted primer on the sanded bits of the house today.

Also replaced the trellising on the pea frame, they didn't seem to want to hang on to the wood. Got some chicken wire and gently transferred the tendrils on to it. Hopefully they'll go whoosh. Should be better for ventilation and light as well.

Cleared up where the tomatoes and capsicums will be planted next weekend. Gave the beds some fertilizer as well.

Plums are fattening, not many though...

The long red capsicum seedlings are looking happy and ready to go

A veritable forest of garlic

The front lawn needs mowing but it's far too pretty with all the buttercups...

A small video

2009-09-21T17:43:00.003+12:00

Got a bit carried away and bought a wildfire chili seedling from Palmers, it shouldn't be planted outside till the night temp gets to 13%. I have planted it outside already so it will be interesting to see how it goes. There is no danger of a frost anymore but it could be slow to thrive. The seeds we planted for more tabasco chilis haven't shown any signs of life so far. The thai basil ones planted at the same time have germinated though.
Just did a big lawn mowing and a bit of mulching with the clippings. Got the new lot of compost under way, just have to add some blood & bone to give it some oomph.

Made a quick movie around the garden, somebody remarked it was like being a white butterfly...

More house preparation

2009-09-13T17:50:00.004+12:00

But also got some good preparation done in the garden. Distributed all the compost around the vege patches, specially where the peppers and tomatoes are going to go.
Here are the long pepper seedlings today, we've been putting them out in the sun by day and bringing the little babies inside at night.
:) They need seperating into seperate pots soon though.

Snipped a lot of the small heads of the fractal broccoli, still growing well, long thin tender shoots with small fractals on the end.

Did a lot more stopping and sanding to the house and gave the whole side a wash. All ready for paint now!
Whew!

Sanding the house

2009-09-07T20:36:00.003+12:00

Been busy preparing the side of the house for painting before too much begins growing there again in the vege patch. Hope to get a coat of primer on the bare wood next weekend.
The fractal broccoli have grown some neat long ends...

Sprout out

2009-08-30T18:07:00.002+12:00

Ripped out the brussels sprout plants today, they were starting to flower and the sprouts were pretty small and not growing much. The net tells me to plant them in summer and harvest in autumn/winter, just the opposite to what I did. Poo!
Got a meager handful of sprouts, they look quite gourmet-ish as they are tiny and will make a one meal side dish.
Their space can be used for better things in a month or so. For tomatoes and capsicums etc they say to wait till after Labour Day (Monday 26 October this year). Seems a long way away.
Started to dole out some of the compost to deserving plants.

I made a small terrarium!

2009-08-29T14:24:00.002+12:00

Good fun, just found some moss and a few small plants around the garden. Put a little extra soil onto a lid of a largish jar, arrange the moss and plants on the lid with a little sprinkle of water and screw the jar carefully down onto the base. It shouldn't need any extra water for ages as it can't evaporate.
Here's one I made in minutes...

Trellis move

2009-08-23T15:49:00.004+12:00

Moved it away from the wall of the house (which needs painting) and erected it in the new bed so we can pick from both sides of it. Planted 22 sugar snap peas at the bottom so it's all go. 8-10 days till mature it says on the packet. We will see...
There is still plenty of full sun space for capsicum and chili plants in front of it once the sun climbs higher in the sky.

Have started to spread a bit of the compost around, will need to get some spots ready for tomato plants soon too.
The yellow hedge is flowering beautifully at the moment.
:)

Plum blossoms!

2009-08-22T17:48:00.006+12:00

Looking very good! They are popping out all over, if this is any indication of actual plums it will be most wonderful.
Our lovely neighbors gave us a wheelbarrow full of horse poo this afternoon, will be most beneficial to the compost heaps.
:)
Just noticed a stirring from the long red capsicum seeds sown on the eighth!

Dogwood blossoms, nice

First plum blossom!

2009-08-18T20:12:00.000+12:00

Yes indeed!
:)

Broccoli chop

2009-08-16T18:58:00.006+12:00

Yes sir, chopped the centers out of them, it will be interesting to see how the side shoots form so we can keep harvesting small heads.
These are just wonderful.
A few days of rain and they have doubled in size

Pleasant day

2009-08-09T18:35:00.004+12:00

Wonderful weather, blue dome sky, lovely and warm in the sun.
:)
Harvested the last of the beetroots today, not a bad crop. Some will be eaten tonight as a beetroot and mint salad!

Planted another 20 red detroit beetroot seedlings, they seem to grow well in our garden and are a nice treat.
Also very healthy!
:)
A new marjoram plant joined the herb garden and I shifted a few parsley plants around. Moved the black currant bush to the old vege patch, ripped out the old rosemary bush and now there will be space for tomato plants etc when it warms a bit more.

Planted some long capsicum seeds

2009-08-08T14:43:00.002+12:00

The seeds are from an amazing long red pepper we bought last year. I have read that they are much more inclined to grow and produce red fruit quickly. We don't use many green peppers at all so these sound great. They will need to be babied along for a good while before they can be safely planted outdoors. If they germinate at all that is.
:)
This was the parent

late winter!

2009-07-25T15:57:00.005+12:00

It's been wet and chilly so not a lot of change has occurred for a while. Things are bginning to warm a little though and the days are slowly getting a little longer thank goodness.
We planted 9 celery plants last weekend and they have started off well. Also some rocket seedlings we had been growing indoors have now been put in the ground in a sunny spot and are thriving.
The brussels sprouts are forming at the join of the leaves,

and the white broccoli are starting to form

Just noticed the plum tree is beginning to show signs of life

Last but not least our garlic is looking good, almost every clove has sprouted and growing for the sky!

Shortest day!

2009-06-21T15:56:00.003+12:00

Yes indeed, now we're at the shortest day of the year things can only look upward thank goodness, though the weather gurus say the coldest weather will come in the next 4-6 weeks.
:(
The few frost we've had so far have made for stunningly beautiful days though of course.

Anyway, did the time honoured thing and planted another 50 or so garlic bulbs today, we should have a good crop come late-ish summer. The ones I planted a couple of weeks ago have almost all come up already, really nice to see, gives a feeling of growth in spite of the winteryness.

Also transplanted quite a few rocket seedlings into the warmest and sunniest spot.
The sprouts and broccoli are doing well, the cold mornings are just what they need to flourish.

Pruned the top 2/3 off a large lilly pilly tree today to keep it down to size and to also let quite a bit more sun into the back courtyard area. Looks a bit naked and ugly but it will soon sprout with new growth and look much more better. I am a totally spoilt gnome as I have a brand new step ladder (tall and sturdy) all to my self, as you can imagine that is a really useful tool for a height challenged individual such as myself.
:)

Garlic planting

2009-06-07T14:54:00.005+12:00

Just planted 40 odd cloves of seed garlic in a well prepared bed of nice free draining soil with a good dose of granular thrive fertilizer. They need a good bunch of frosts to do well so the sooner the better I thought. I got clever and laid out a grid of unused stakes to make the planting nice and even and to deter cats from digging and pooing there.

Also picked a few of the beetroots to see how they were faring, not bad, a little small but just perfect for a small salad with feta cheese etc.

Took down the chilli plants today and harvested all the green and red ones off, hopefully the green ones will last a while, obviously the trick is to use them up first as the red ones will just dry up and can be used like that much later. One of the plants had been hit by frost and the peppers didn't seem to be maturing anymore.
Not a bad crop for small chillies, these tabasco ones are nice and hot and you only need a couple.
:)

a quiet weekend

2009-05-24T20:08:00.004+12:00

Saturday afternoon was sunny and it was most nice to pluck small weeds in the sunny areas. Added some more carrot and parsnip seeds to the rows where cats and rain had made gaps. Chillies are still getting redder but very slowly now. The beetroots are asking to be eaten, they will be interesting.

This was late in the day with really strange orange light, the brassicas are doing well.

The small chillies are nice and hot

Sunday has been wet all day, so it has been indoors play, nice with a cosey fire.
Some persimmons from the Nicholsons' garden

White foxgloves were planted! Stand clear.
:)

A tidy line

2009-05-03T18:48:00.005+12:00

Went mad and put in a line of bricks to make a mowing strip. Though we've already decided to change it, far too straight a line for us. A gentle curve will be inserted next weekend, stay tuned!
The autumn leaves of the snowball tree looked great and needed a photo, then I had a rush of blood to the head and remembered that best Canon G5 takes movies!
This little vid shows the line of bricks as well as the new plantings of broccoli and ripening Tabasco cillies etc.

Quiet ANZAC weekend

2009-04-26T17:45:00.002+12:00

The new seedlings are growing nicely, we had a day and a half of gentle rain so all is well. More red chillies almost everyday now. A new batch of chutney is being made as I type using the last of our tomatoes and 12 green chillies!
Planted about 17 more silver beet seedlings in the old patch, so we sure won't be running out of chard for a while. Must find more uses for it...
:)
Thinned out the carrot seedlings while they are just tiny to give then all a chance to grow, then thin them again for a good lot of baby carrots in a month or so.
Did a trim back of our huge ivy hedge so that it won't entangle unsuspecting passers by. It also allows a little more light to get to the garden.

Long time no blog!

2009-04-19T15:16:00.005+12:00

The hydrangeas are pretty in their decay, this one started as a white one.

Well there hasn't been all that much of note happening in the garden of late. The carrot and parsnip seeds I planted last weekend are just peeking up. All the beetroot are growing happily and look rather pretty with their red stem and dark green leaves.
Finally we are starting to get a few of the chillies starting to go red, though I have read that as long as they are at a mature size they are ready to be used. The flavour of the red ones is better apparently, but they say there is no difference in hotness.

We had a pretty major clear out this weekend though, went mad and took all the orange and green tomatoes off the plants and then pulled them out. Then set to and gave the soil a loosen-up and proceeded to plant about 5 rows of 'california early red' onions (a slightly squat shaped red one with white flesh. A punnet of golden broccoflower and one of brussels sprouts were also planted out, all spaced well apart to give them room to grow. Then moved the existing silverbeet down the garden and we will plant a new lot over in the old vege patch as well. We noticed they used to wilt quite a lot in the full sunlight they were in, so hopefully the new shadier spots should be kinder to them. So the whole thing is all looking a bit bare but should soon be full of new things to eat.

The demise of the mighty zucchini plant

2009-03-22T17:07:00.003+13:00

Yes it had slowly turned into a fungal breeding ground of epic proportions. Also the fruit themselves were developing slowly and we had had enough of them anyway. So out it came. I was able to work out how may zucchini it had produced during it's life. I figured well over 80, not bad for one plant.
Still getting lovely large sweet supertom tomatoes, as well as red peppers. They smell amazing when they are just picked and warm from the sun!
A photo of today's pickings including the last of the zucchinis

One of the simple joys at this time of year is to pluck a cocktail tomato off the plant and a small basil leaf and pop them both into your mouth for a lovely taste sensation. Like pizza without the base.
There was also a visitor to the garden, a weta!

Some weta facts:

The weta is only found in New Zealand and is sooooo old, it has outlived the dinosaurs!
Weta are large by insect standards but some of the giant weta are ENORMOUS and are amongst the heaviest insects in the world
The weta is sometimes known as the dinosaur of the insect world
The weta is more primitive than the tuatara
The weta has changed very little in the past 100 MILLION YEARS!

More weta stuff if you are interested http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weta

Combat gardening!

2009-03-15T17:11:00.007+13:00

Had a good hard gardening this weekend, though mostly in the rest of the garden rather than the vege patch. Mowed all the lawns, cleared out a large jungle in the far back corner of the section, enough to fill the big green bin twice over, as well as cutting our huge eau de cologne geranium down to ground level. Whew. Smelt really nice while dealing to it though.

Did plant another ten beetroot seedlings and did some good picking, heaps of large ripe supertom tomatoes and more beans and zucchinis and some radishes (for roasting, apparently they're really nice like that) and a good bunch of rhubarb for a nice afters. Just nipped out and lifted a couple of the parsnips, smallish but well formed. They smell nice just picked. Grabbed a few small carrots as well so we will have a nice roast vegetable combination. All home grown, even the garlic, good old summer!

The espaliered tomato has truly gained new heights, I had to get up there to show it's magnificence! :)

I ran around and gave all the beans and peppers some flowering and fruiting thrive, it seems to really make them produce well.

Clearing after rain

2009-03-07T13:57:00.005+13:00

A couple of days of rain and wind that all our plants survived well. The sun is trying to peep out today. Picked the largest supertom tomato, it weighs in at exactly 500 gm, a one pound tomato, not bad! It had to have it's portrait taken I'm afraid, found a good spot to take the photo too, on an eggcup to show it's size and the shot was taken at the end of the bath. Makes a great curving white background with nice lighting effects. My Canon G5 camera has a neat fold out screen that can rotate so I can place the camera on the bottom of the bath and still compose the photo. :)

Here's the biggest and the smallest

Also picked a ginormous capsicum, good hand full of new green beans, a bunch of nice small zucchinis (the plant is still pumping them out), some small carrots to thin out the rows and lots of cherry tomatoes.
The new pea plants are now flowering happily, it will be nice to wander out and eat a pod now then then.

March, madness is upon us (so what's new)

2009-03-01T18:12:00.006+13:00

After two days of continuous rain (most welcome), today was bright and clear and a bit humid as well of course. All the plants are happy.
Mowed lawns and spread mulch around the tomatoes etc. Most good after rain!
Planted seedlings of beetroot and lovely lettuce and three more coriander. Had to put up the brolly to keep them happy, the late afternoon was still quite hot for these babies.

The little beetroot seedlings look so pathetic, hopefully they will astound and amaze in about 7-9 weeks.
The chilli plants are starting to produce heaps. Used some last night, all still green but hotter than the fat red ones we have been using. They are supposed to be Tabasco ones, with extra smokey flavour. Bring on the red ones I say.

Had some yummy fat slices of tomato on fresh bread today, the beef steak ones are wonderful with a bit of cheese and a couple of rocket leaves picked fresh from the plant.

Smalls and bigs

Here's the next level almost ready for picking:

Gave all the fruity and flowery things some thrive, cut out all the worst dodgy old leaves out of the zucchini plant etc etc, and read the Sunday papers and had a most pleasant day!