Around the garden with Mr Lui

 On autumn afternoons Lui likes nothing better than to scamper through the leaves. He ducks under branches and sharpens his claws on trees. Sometimes he takes a running leap at the tree, gets about halfway up, then realises he's not getting any further. (And so this is a good tree to feed the birds in.)

 Often I pull a piece of flax off the bottom of the flax bush and drag it round the paths of the potager. He hides in the vegetable shrubbery and pounces when it goes past him.

Do you like my new arches? They were a Warehouse bargain, which I couldn't resist and so got two. One at each end of the main axis path. The one at the far end will have beans growing on it, and I'll extend the bean fence to go on either side of it. I'm not sure about the front one yet - I'm not sure if I want something as permanent as a rose. Maybe sweet peas? Or possibly a scented climber?

 I'm very happy with these arches. They help the potager feel more enclosed. When the lavender hedge has grown and gotten bushy it will be even better.

 The fuchsia has gorgeous glossy black berries on it. I've read somewhere that these are edible but I'm not game enough to try. They are just so black and shiny and... poisonous looking.

 These berries are from the rowan tree (sorbus). One of the streets I walk along has them growing along the roadside. The street is red zoned so they'll probably be bulldozed eventually, along with many other beautiful established trees and shrubs. The funny thing is, I'd just read an article in a library magazine about how easy it is to grow sorbus from seed. So I grabbed some berries, pulped and sieved them, and sowed the seed in a punnet outside. It needs the cold from winter first, so all going well the seed will pop up next spring. Yeah right... I can't help thinking, but there is nothing lost by giving it a go.

Weather watch

 More snow today. The newsreaders are trying to add excitement by calling it a "Perfect Storm" and a "Once in a Lifetime Event", but they've been unable to romanticize it for me. It just means cold fingers and wet feet and black ice on the road when I need to drive to work. I'm hoping it thaws and melts away as quickly as it did last time - three weeks ago - and then we really will have had enough snow to last at least 50 years.

On to more positive thoughts! I took a break from watching sleet blowing horizontally past the window to check on my seedlings, and was impressed at their progress. The orange cauliflower in particular are bursting forth, followed closely by the freckles lettuce. (Even the tiny seedlings have miniscule burgundy specks on the leaves - so cute!) The purple broccoli is also unfolding a bit more slowly, and I have noted movement in the sweet rocket and lavender areas too. The only slowpokes are the tomatoes, and I can't really say I blame them.

 Lui got a bit stir crazy this afternoon and went outside for a play. There was a lot of leaping, scuffing the snow, pouncing in holes, and mad dashes for shelter. I played with him for a bit, then came back inside for a coffee and a muffin and a book beside the fire.

Head start

My order from Kings Seeds arrived last week, just in time for the best sowing period this month (according to the moon). So I decided to sow a few things, even though it's early, just to see how they compare to the things I will sow later in the month. Usually I start sowing around the third week in August, which is still early, but fine if you have a glasshouse or sunny windowsill.

I was very restrained... I only sowed two kinds of tomato (Juliet and Brown Berry), lettuce (Freckles), cauliflower (purple and orange, and this will be my last sowing of brassicas until late summer), lavender (I got the dwarf variety, and I want to use it to edge borders and pathways asap), and sweet rocket (I don't know much about this one, but it is not edible and has sweetly scented flowers that bloom in spring and summer, so I thought I better get the seeds in asap).

I used my seedling potter to make some newspaper pots for the tomato seeds. The others went into plastic containers - one came from Bunnings on special with some tomato seeds, and the other came from the supermarket with yams in it - normally I never buy vegetables encased in plastic, but this time I knew the container would be as useful as the vege!

Then onto a sunny windowsill, which has become my little nursery. Two of the indoor cyclamens had little babies, to my intense delight as I've never had any luck trying to sow the seeds myself.

Over the next couple of months I'll be nurturing my little seeds - giving them water, moving them into the sunniest spot, and checking, checking every day for tiny changes.

Seeds to share

I saved a few seeds from some of my tomatoes. Just cut a ripe tomato in half, scoop out the seeds, and spread them on a paper towel to dry. Don't forget to write the variety on the paper towel! I even made little paper envelopes for some of mine, but a paper bag would work just as well.

So I have some tomato seeds to share if anyone wants to try them. I'm happy to post them anywhere within NZ.

Abraham Lincoln

Large, firm red fruit.

Amazon Chocolate

Large brown beefsteak fruit, very tasty.

Brown Berry

Small brown cherry tomato, tangy savoury taste.

Sunset's Red Horizon

Red medium-large fruit, said to be frost resistant and resistant to cracking.

Yellow Pear

Small yellow, pear shaped fruit. Sweet and mild flavour. Plants tend to be very bushy.

Red Fig

Small red, pear shaped fruit. Vigorous and prolific, however the fruit were very quick to crack and split.

I also have some seeds of the pink Sunset Runner beans, these were just like normal runner beans but with pretty salmon pink flowers. (Note: these were grown next to white flowering cannelini beans, though according to Google they shouldn't have cross-pollinated.)

Just email me your address if you want some (it's on the left hand side of my profile page). It's hard to believe that the seed catalogues will be out next month... bring it on I say! Apparently King's Seeds will have a rainbow carrot mix, so that's definitely on my list! Along with some more mizuna for planting the potager edges. What's on your list this season?

Tomatoes

I just did a count up of all my tomato plants and I've got 23. Eight in the garden, seven in the glasshouse and the rest waiting to be transplanted somewhere there is room.

In the glasshouse are Black Krim, Juliet, Amazon Chocolate, Brown Berry (x2), Arctic and Sunset's Red Horizon.

Arctic is a cool-weather variety supposedly bred for the US military, to bear fruit in extremely cold climates. I've grown it before and it does ok, but not as well as I'd expect given that description! Sunset's Red Horizon is new to me this year, an heirloom variety from Bristol Seeds with "proven resistance to frost, blossom end rot and cracking". I like to plant at least one cool weather variety in case we have a cold spring. This year it's been warm and sunny, but even so Sunset is growing taller and producing flowers earlier than any of the others. Sunset and Arctic are the only 2 to have tiny green fruit so far.

Black Krim is a yummy beefsteak type that I've grown before and I love the flavour. The skin is a dark reddish black colour. Amazon Chocolate (also from Bristol Seeds) is also a beefsteak with a "winey, smokey, delicious taste".

Juliet is an F1 variety that I've grown before. It's a steady and reliable fruiter. The fruits are small to medium, oval shaped and very tasty. Brown Berry is also from Bristol Seeds (I like to try at least one new variety every year, so everything from Bristol Seeds is new to me this season), it's a cherry tomato, supposedly vigorous and yielding large crops. Semi-sweet, rich flavours and very juicy. I'm not sure how tall the plants will grow so I've staked them just in case, but I have noticed they look a bit more compact and bushy than the others.

In the garden I have Black Krim x2, Amazon Chocolate, Brown Berry x2, Juliet, Sunset, and Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln (Bristol Seeds) was limited stock and strictly limited to one packet per order, so I had to try it. Anything that limited must be good right? The description says, "High lycopene. Faithfully produces huge crops of meaty fruit." Another beefsteak I suppose. The reason I only have one in the garden and none in the glasshouse is that only one seed (out of 4) germinated, and it grew so slowly that it wasn't ready for potting on when I did all the glasshouse plants. It's catching up now though, so it will be interesting to see what it does.

Also in the glasshouse and just about ready to be transplanted out are another Amazon Chocolate, and some "bite size" varieties which I bought as seeds on sale at Bunnings: Green Grape, Yellow Pear and Red Fig (x5... must be a vigorous one). This afternoon when it cools down a bit I'll find somewhere to poke them in. I've got some pumpkin seedlings that need to go out too.

What tomato varieties are you growing this year?

Summer dreaming

Winter is here. Today the weather was beautiful, but freezing cold. We hardly ever get snow here in Christchurch but we get some hard frosts - this morning's was -3 degrees. That was followed by a sunny day, but it was a winter's sunny day - the kind where if you step from sun into shadow, the difference is about 15 degrees. There's not much else to do but curl up (in the sun, of course) with a cuppa and a seed catalogue.

Luckily the new Kings Seeds catalogue arrived yesterday. I quickly whipped through it and circled all my wants. Last year I was so excited to finally have a dedicated vege patch that almost all I ordered was vege seeds, and I still have plenty left for this year. However, I miss my flowers! I want a colourful beautiful cottage garden, as well as a lovely decorative and productive potager. That's not too much to ask is it?

My flowery wants include:
Calendula sunset tones
Dianthus clove pinks
Gilia birds eye
Godetia azalea beauties
Lavatera parade

Of course, there are some more veges and herbs to try:
Bush basil
Coriander indian summer
Bean yard long dwarf
Bean sunset runner (with beautiful pink flowers, this one counts as decorative too!)
Carrot mini sweet
Pumpkin baby bear
Squash delicata

As always I'll be trying one or two different tomatoes. This year I'm going to order from Bristol Seeds. I'm eyeing up Amazon Chocolate, Brown Berry and Sunset's Red Horizon.

In the meantime, I'm looking at my photos from seasons past, and reading blog after blog. Northern hemisphere gardens are looking lovely right now, and I'm getting plenty of ideas for when the days warm up again.

Here's a mini cross stitch I've started. I was given the kit by a clever thrifter who spied this in the Sallies and thought of me. It's a great way to while away a winter evening. Hopefully by the time I've finished it, it will be time to sow seeds again.