Cat Patrol

The grapes are starting to ripen and the birds are lining up to strip the vines. Luckily we have Sebastian the cat on the lookout. I noticed him the other day waiting and watching.

The birds have taken notice too and so far they have stayed away.

Such a treat to be able to grab a juicy black grape off the vine.

 Thanks Sebastian cat !

Small Pleasures

I have been out of a town for a few days at a conference, and out of action in the garden (celebrating my birthday instead).
 The garden challenge has crashed and burned.

I am not worried. In fact I had already begun to think that the notion of a "challenge" is entirely at odds with the reason I go into the garden.
At my most demotivated, the concept of a challenge still has the power to crack a bit of life into me, but what I notice as I get older is that the effects of this kind of artificial jolt into action are increasingly shortlived.
It doesn't take me long to become querulous and rebellious, and to start making excuses, and soon whatever the challenge was becomes something to be resisted. Totally counterproductive.

The garden still calls to me though, and it is because of the small pleasures.

I look up while lugging a heavy load of weeds and there's a cobweb sparkling,

and I clear away some fallen leaves and find two baby ferns, a maiden hair and another which I transplanted years ago from our old place and thought had died. There they are strong, green and flourishing untended.

So as January 2012 ends I say bye bye to the machismo of the garden challenge and hello to serendipity.

Hard hot work!

Sometimes gardening just feels like the worst kind of outdoor housework! Dirt, heat and mosquitoes.   Drudgerous in the extreme, but I kept at it and I have managed to let a bit of light into the back corner of the garden. I had to brutalise the banana palms which had gone feral in the back corners and cut back as many branches off the avocado as I could reach. Or rather avocadoes. We have 2 huge trees (and very little fruit), as well as lots of seedlings settling in for the summer.


After the hackerthon I rewarded myself for all the sweaty hardwork by taking a trip up to Eden Gardens. This is a wonderful place created in an old quarry. It is great for inspiration because it has so many interesting shady spots which somehow also magically have flowers and colour. I love it.

Although it was too late to see all their incredible azaleas and rhododendrons in flower,  the hydrangeas were gorgeous. These are definitely on my list to add to my garden en masse.

They are such a luxiourious, low maintenance plant and the colours ... fantastic.
Apparently Madonna hates them, but I can't see what's not to love. 

I associate them with old rambling gardens, nanas in sunhats and country roads.  Along with dahlias and roses, they are among my flower favourites.

Second reward for myself was a lovely little garden book A Gentle Plea for Chaos by Mirabel Osler. I like the idea of gardens with rough edges and especially the notion of "amiable disorder". A constant tension for me in the garden and out is the tension between structure and chaos. I am drawn to both.

Hydrangeas at Eden Gardens

Bad weather is coming in, but I managed to get my 2 hours in.

I noticed that the fig has started to fruit. An amazing tree that shoots up every year from the rock wall. When we pruned it back hard year before last it gave us (and the birds) some lovely fruit and it looks like this year will be the same. We also have heaps of passionfruit, but they seem to have some kind of disease.

Not quite sure what to do about this.

Today I reviewed the garden on the other side of the house. All winter this sits in shade, but as the sun gets higher in the sky, it is warm enough here to grow passionfruit, strawberries, boysenberries, roses and last year tomatoes. It's all gone a bit wild though.


The roses 'Mutabilis' and 'Compassion' which were looking beautiful (see pic)

are now looking very sad.

Over winter we will need to come up with a much better trellis solution for the fruit. In the meantime I have just cut back the boysenberry canes because it is all leaf and only a few berries. I need to learn how to grow these. Is it the same principle as tomatoes I wonder where you cut off the laterals?

A lovely morning though.
The bees enjoying the echinacea and George keeping me company.

The Tidyup Begins

I have decided to start my 'two hours a day" challenge in the garden by systematically going around the property clearing away weeds, and reviewing what's in place. It is a plus that it has been so rainy because I don't need to do all the summertime watering that would otherwise be required.
The challenge started yesterday

I started with the shady side of the house because that is the most neglected. Creeping william goes crazy here and I pulled it all out. I have tried lots of things under the magnolia and the rhododendron, but a combination of tree roots and little sunlight has not been very kind. The Japanese anenomes are flourishing, but they never flower and I think they are a bit weedlike. The Chatham Island forgetmenots are doing OK except for the dogs who like to sleep on top of them!!
Just before Xmas I planted a couple of white azaleas and I am going to watch and see what happens with them.
The driveway is just a wasteland and I need to think about a good groundcover, bark or pebbles or something for the central strip. The fig grows like crazy and last year we had lots of fruit as well as a lovely green cover from the next door neighbours.
This area gets a good blast of morning sun though - the wee miniature rose managed to survive here completely unloved since last summer. Might puts some pots out here.

Further down the driveway the hydrangea is growing really well this year, as are the clivias. I didn't plant either of these. I don't really like the bright orange flowers of the clivia, but they are so healthy and happy I can't bring myself to get up root them.
As I think about the plants I realise there are so many that I don't know the names of.
I am excited by this cahallenge though. Especially as I can see how I can propagate a lot of what I already have. Tomorrow the side garden.

Summer garden

Make your own slideshow

A New Year

Today after lots of procrastinating, I ventured out into the garden again. It has been wet and unwelcoming here in Auckland since New Years and
as expected, all the pre Christmas Spring wonderfulness is now looking very battered. Everywhere I look there is something to do.
New Years resolution 2012 is to spend 2 hours a day in the garden. This  will balance out all my sedentary study time as well as allowing me to really make some progress instead of my usual gardening fits and starts.
Why blog?

Well the decision to blog and publish today was inspired by two things: 

First, I saw a kingfisher out on my walk with the dogs.
Kingfisher days are special.
Second, when I was googling for help on how to propagate my lovely blue salvia which is hidden around the side of the house, I came across a very helpful blog.
It had never occurred to me to look for garden blogs, but what a marvellous way to learn and motivate myself at the same time. 

 So here goes ....

My garden has never really had consistent attention and I am a very messy and undisciplined gardener.
Today for example I was scrabbling about trying to find a spot for the spur of the moment annuals bought last week and about to shrivel and die.
Actually I think I might lack essential botanical empathy because the sight of a seedling about to cark it, is often the end of it for me.
New Years Resolution 2 - is no more spur of the moment garden centre spends. Try to propagate more, using what I have already.
So today I set up a potting station so I could easily repot and sow seeds, instead of creating the mess I usually do. And in the spirit of growing the nurturing gardener I rescued a lot of plants that were being smothered by others.