One year on

 Last weekend I went for a walk around the neighbourhood. My bike seems to have a constant flat tyre these days, there must be a tiny piece of something sharp embedded in the tyre or something. So rather than combining exercise with errands, I'm having to actually make an effort and Go For A Walk. The most scenic place to walk is still along the river, even though it's a pretty sad place now. The roads are rutted, cracked and full of holes. Even when the holes are patched it doesn't take long for the asphalt to wear away, since the land is still unstable and settling itself.

The saddest thing of all is the houses: lopsided, windows broken, waist high grass on the front lawns. Gardens which were once lovingly tended have gone wild and all but disappeared.

 For the anniversary of quake day, someone came up with the idea of putting flowers in all the road cones. There are A LOT of road cones around Christchurch, and that morning as I drove to work, every cone I saw was sporting a bouquet. Some were simple - agapanthus and dahlias were popular - and some were mixed posies. It was beautiful and uplifting.

The rest of the day was strange. Memories and emotions kept surfacing, especially at 12.51 when I was sitting in the exact same place I had been when the quake struck. 

I find myself thinking back to how things were a year ago - the first few days without power or water, the weeks that followed where we were unable to use water from the tap without boiling it first, the inconvenience of sewage pipes not working properly. The traffic congestion and bumpy roads (neither of which has improved much in the following 12 months!) The time spent with family who looked after me when I needed it, and friends whose support and kind wishes kept me going.

This is a bridge over the Avon River in Dallington. There was a commemoration ceremony here where people gathered to throw flowers in the river.

A couple of days before Christmas last year our neighbours came to the door. They were holding this beautiful quilt, which was made by some lovely ladies in Australia. The quilt was sent along with some others to my neighbours' church, to be distributed among people affected by the quake. They are the pastors of the church and they very kindly brought the quilt around to us as a gift. I was very touched - both to be thought of, and also that people in another country had worked together to make this loving gift to send to Christchurch and show their support.

I put the quilt of love on our bed straight away. I've spent a lot of time looking at the individual squares and feeling the good wishes of those who made them.

My thanks to the Coolum Quilters of Queensland, Australia.

♥ ♥ ♥

Salad greens for summer

 I recently came across the 52 Week Salad Challenge, and since my aim when I started the potager was to keep it stocked with edibles all through the year, I decided to join in. I'm not a huge salad eater but I do love having fresh crunchy lettuce in my sandwich each day. Also, if the veges are just sitting there in the garden waiting to be eaten, I'm more likely to try and find something to do with them - particularly if there is feta cheese in the fridge!

 My potager has four quarter-circle beds in the middle, and these tend to be my salad beds. Each one has an upright rosemary in the middle and is edged with chives and carrots, with any other gaps filled with spring onions and lettuces (Freckles and Red Flame). The lettuces are growing well, it's been a cool summer which they seem to have enjoyed, although it did take them a while to get up to size. I've got a few spring onions left but the seeds I sowed a couple of months ago have been very slow to grow.

While I was waiting for the lettuces to fill out I sowed a row of rocket which has been true to its name. I'm not in the school of people who find rocket peppery, it's more... nutty? Earthy? Either way, I love the depth of flavour it brings to a humble pile of green leaves!

My favourite summer salad:

Mixed greens torn into bite size pieces, including Freckles lettuce, Red Flame lettuce, rocket, and basil

Sliced spring onions

Quartered cherry tomatoes

Finely chopped red chilli (flesh only, no mouth-blistering seeds for me thanks)

Crumbled feta cheese

Dressing:

Juice of a lemon

Slosh of oil

Salt, pepper and about half a teaspoon of honey

1-2 tablespoons plain yoghurt

Whisk together till combined.

If you want to join the 52 Week Salad Challenge, see this post for more info.

Curving edges and late summer veges

I finally finished curving the edge of the back garden beds. After much digging up turf, digging over soil, hefting bricks and hauling compost, the bed is now ready to plant. I have a matching pencil conifer to go in, then I'll just see how it takes me. I've already planted out some pansy seedlings that popped up somewhere else and a couple of baby dahlias. I'm thinking about winter colour now so will probably put in a hellebore or two and definitely some bulbs. Maybe a camellia? I don't want to overcrowd the bed but I do want it full.

I also have to bear in mind how big the apple tree will get (something I'm bad at doing, so no doubt at all that this garden will be redesigned many times over the coming years). The tree is Baujade and it's clinging on desperately to the only surviving apple fruit in my garden this year. Good Baujade, hold on.

Here's a view from further back so you can see the full curve. Hope you can ignore the state of the grass. To be honest, I'm not one of those people who cares much about their lawn, except when dandelions pop up all over the place. There was one morning a few days ago where it was only slightly windy instead of a full on gale, so I pounced on the Round-Up and got spraying. Once they die I'll put grass seed in the holes and wish it well.

This is the little "outdoor entertainment area" (ha ha) that I've created. As you can see we don't have a table, chairs, barbecue, deck, french doors or fairy lights yet. But I'm working on it, in my mind anyway. I'd just love to have a little deck with french doors leading into the kitchen. It's definitely not in the near future, but I'll try to swing the rest of the requirements. I already got an umbrella!

The potager's getting to its overblown late summer stage. Most things are cropping well except the tomatoes and peppers. I'm harvesting spuds, zucchini, carrots, lettuce, spring onions, red onions, runner beans, herbs and silver beet. The drying beans (cannelini and borlotti) are fattening up. In the glasshouse I'm picking cherry tomatoes and strawberries. The two capsicum plants in there have plenty of green fruit, so hopefully it will ripen.

I've got seedlings of broccoli, cauliflower and silver beet nearly ready to plant out. Some of it will go where the spuds were, and I'll also clear out the patch of flowering leeks and phacelia at the front. I'm thinking of spring bulbs to go in the blue pot - crocus or snowdrops.

February flowers

 I'm a bit later than usual with this month's flowers post. I missed out on Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day! Oh well. Here it is, and you can see the main colour theme is pink pink pink! With a bit of white to harmonise and a splash of red to spice things up.

This is the driveway garden. It's a hot, dry spot that was formerly planted with hebes and shrubs. Most of them were out of control and would attack you as you got out of the car. They were too big and constantly needed pruning. And, I hate hebes. So I began to dig them up and replace them with camellias. They are fairy blush, with delicate little leaves and flowers and I anticipate no bad behaviour from them. I've underplanted them with sprawling carnations and petunias.

It's really difficult to photograph this planting effectively - it looks much better in person! I absolutely love the softness created by the pastel colours and the cloudlike plant structure, and the pops of red stop it from being boring. The carnations are such giving souls too, flowering from spring to autumn - I pick them for vases all the time, and you can never see where I've been!

I'm planning to continue this planting all down the rest of the drive. I took some cuttings from the camellias in spring and I'm crossing fingers and toes that they took. The carnations are really easy to take cuttings from when it cools down more, just break bits off and stick them in the ground - it's how I got most of these!

Crochet in the summertime

Edit Feb 2014: I've finally finished the blanket! You can get all the details here.

 I've been working on my Summertime Patchwork Quilt Blanket. It still works up as fast as ever, but it seems that the bigger it gets the slower it grows! It's somewhere between a third and a half of what I want the finished size to be, and as I continue to sew the little hexies on it seems that it will never get there.

 I've nearly run out of the ginger coloured yarn, and since it was stash yarn I've been unable to find any more the same. So I'll try blending a couple of strands of thin cotton, it won't be the same but hopefully won't look too out of place.

Here it is so far, about a third or so done. I'm thinking a thin white border to finish, possibly with picots on the pointed corners. And maybe some half round hexies to fill in the obvious gaps down the side? We'll see.

Top crops and flop crops

 This morning as I walked around the garden, I looked at my flowers and crops and realised it hasn't been the best season for a lot of things. It's been a cool and windy summer which, coupled with water restrictions, has been stressful for a lot of plants.

My biggest flops so far have been:

:: Tomatoes. Blossom end rot has struck in both the glasshouse and outside. I was expecting this to happen since I just haven't been able to water well and consistently, but it's still frustrating! The cool temperatures have meant they are also slow to ripen.

:: Rainbow carrots. I've had a low strike rate on all the ones I sowed. The few I've harvested were lovely though!

:: Outdoor chillis and peppers. Slow to grow and set fruit.

:: Leeks. I transplanted a punnet out a couple of weeks ago so they will have time to fatten up for winter. Some are ok but most of the smallest ones shrivelled in the hot sun. Guess I'll be buying a punnet after all to bulk up the stores!

:: Apple trees. Most of the trees (I have 4) decided to give themselves the year off by not setting fruit. The 2 that did then dropped most of it.

:: Blueberries. Again, not much fruit set, then the little that was set got eaten by birds.

:: Hollyhocks. I had 3 different kinds of seed to sow, and not one came up in spring! I'm trying again for autumn.

 So, boo to the weather and the birds and the capriciousness of nature. Fortunately some things have been doing really well, including:

:: Brown Berry and Green Grape cherry tomatoes. These are in the glasshouse where it's warm, and haven't sustained any blossom end rot. They are also ripening quickly. Yay cherry tomatoes! 

:: Spring onions. They are growing reliably well, what else can you ask for?

:: Strawberries. Also reliable. Also sweet and delicious.

:: Boysenberries. Doing good for their first year in production.

:: Dwarf lavender. The tray of seeds I sowed is loving life in the glasshouse. (I'm going to use these to edge the potager.)

:: The beans are all growing well and looking lush. I'm enjoying the green wall made by the runner beans.

One benefit of this cool season is that I haven't seen any caterpillars around, so that's definitely a plus!

 The flower gardens are filling out, and I'm making the most of it, spending a lot of time just walking round looking at things. It's nice to just be in the garden.

These are my water storage bins, tucked in beside my homemade rustic bench. (Please ignore the crack in the wall... it's only from where our house has sunk a bit! EQC should have it fixed within the next decade!)

 Due to damage sustained in the earthquakes to pipes and drains, and the water reservoirs, we have been on water restrictions since October. Sprinklers and unattended hoses are banned, and you are only allowed to hand water your garden from the tap on certain days. So for those days when I can't use the tap, I have these bins. We keep a bucket in the shower to fill up while the water warms, and I also use that cut down milk bottle you see there to hold under the pipes in the drain and scoop up washing machine rinse water. Yep, you bet that's a tedious job, and there really are a milllion other things I'd rather be doing. But one rinse cycle fills a bin about three quarters, so it's worth doing it. Then it's easy just to dunk my watering can in to fill it. Quicker than filling it from the tap actually! Still. I'm looking forward to the day that sprinkler comes back out.

January flowers

 Flowers and arrangements from January.

 A special shout out to two of my new roses - Sexy Rexy (left) and Queen Elizabeth (right). Finally they have put their hearts into blooming! I sniffed them both and sadly couldn't detect much of a scent. The flowers are gorgeous though.

What is your favourite rose for fragrance?

 In the back yard, I've been chipping away at the grass to make the curved bed. It's taking ages now because the ground is so hard. I also had to remove the sleepers which were edging the beds, and those things are h.e.a.v.y.  But I need to keep going because I have a growing collection of pot-bound plants which need a place to go! The bed is edged with salvaged bricks from my friend's chimney.

 This is the bed next to the patio. Petunias and godetia are going mad in this bed - pretty much stealing the show! (The blue daisy wind spinner in the background was a Christmas present, and it's been getting a good workout with our persistant winds this summer!)

Here is what I created with the salvaged sleepers - a bench seat. It's tucked around the side of the house - you can see it in the photo above. I just stacked the sleepers on some concrete blocks. Rustic right?

This is a nice little nook because it's sheltered from the easterly, and has a bit of shade till about 1pm. I'd like to get a table and some more chairs and an umbrella, and have a nice little eating area set up. Ideally I'd like a patio with french doors leading inside, but that will be far in the future if at all... we don't even know when the earthquake damage will be repaired yet. In the meantime I'm doing the best I can with what's on site, and I'm quite pleased with my recycling effort here.

(Linking up to Garden Bloggers Bloom Day hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens)

Harvest

 The potager is in full on production mode right now. Here is my harvest basket from January 1st... rhubarb, baby rainbow carrots, spring onions, cabbage and Heather potatoes. In the glasshouse I've got strawberries and cucumbers. A few days late (as in, too late for Christmas) the boysenberries began to mature, so I've been making lots of desserts... crumble, clafoutis, and the good old berries and ice cream.

Yesterday I picked the first ripe tomato from the glasshouse. According to my garden diary from last season, the first tomato was December 19. Nearly a month later this year - shows what a different season we have had. It was a Brown Berry cherry tomato - small but delicious! I carved it into wafer thin slices so I could enjoy it in a sandwich - and even though the serving was small the homegrown taste was amazing. 

Life is good when you can just walk outside and gather the ingredients for your meal.

 The garlic was ready for harvest last weekend. I pulled it up and spread it on the grass to dry in the sun. Later I'll plait it. I had planted 3 shallot bulbs as well. One died, but the other two multiplied into four bulbs each. So I'll save four of those for replanting, and probably about 6 garlic cloves.

I had a punnet of leeks ready and waiting to fill the empty space in the potager. Leeks are one of my favourite winter veges so I need lots of them growing. And I'm going to sow one more batch of seeds to plant just for their flowers - the tall stems with the elegant pointed globe at the top are a great focal point!

 Here is the potager in the midafternoon sun. I cut the chives back because they were getting a bit manky, and they've grown back all fresh and lush. They had a bit of an infestation of black bugs, but a quick spray with flyspray took care of that.

The rosemary in the four central beds is filling out. Each bed was meant to have a row of rainbow carrots around the curved edge, but the strike rate with those was extremely patchy. A shame, since they are such fun to harvest. At the back left, you can see the borlotti beans are doing well. They're covered in pretty pink flowers.

How is your vege garden doing?

Staycation

 I've been on holiday for the past week and a half and I've been LOVING IT. The weather hasn't been very summery and the aftershocks have been rolling through the night, but despite that I've managed to take it easy and relax as much as possible. A go-away holiday is great fun, but best of all I like to stay at home and enjoy my house and my garden.

I barely made a dint in my to-do list, but I've:

:: dug up ground for a new flower garden

:: dragged the wooden sleeper edging from the old garden, 

and used it to create a bench seat in the sun

:: planted out the new bit of garden

:: cleared and planted the front garden

:: worked in the potager

:: visited the garden centre

:: spent time with friends and family

:: helped a friend set up a new garden

:: read books and magazines

:: watched episodes of my favourite tv shows

:: worked on crochet and embroidery

:: tidied the house, in a leisurely way

:: arranged vignettes on windowsills

:: sat in the sun

:: sat in the shade

:: hugged my cat

I wish I could stay on holiday forever, but it's back to the grind tomorrow. How are you enjoying your summer/winter break?

Flowers throughout the year

Here's a selection of my Flowers Monthly post pictures. I only started doing this series in April, but it's interesting to see how things change as the seasons progress.

Happy new year everyone! xxx

 April 2011

May 2011

 June 2011

July 2011

 August 2011

September 2011

 October 2011

 November 2011

December 2011