Earthquake update

Just a quick update to let you all know I'm safe and well. Our house suffered a bit of damage in the form of cracks and jammed doors, as well as some liquefaction in the back yard which flooded the garage and dumped a huge amount of sand right outside the back door. The house is liveable though - amazingly our chimney is still standing!

I'm staying with family in Timaru at the moment, but hoping to return soon to begin the cleanup. Jon is still in Chch as he had to go to work. Power is now back on, but no water.

Thanks for all the messages and emails. I'm as well as can be, although heartbroken at the loss and destruction all around. We've had so much help from family, neighbours and strangers that I will be forever grateful for. Thanks again everyone, it's heartening to know you are thinking of me.

Take care
xx

Smelling the roses

 My climbing rose Cecile Brunner has been flowering for a couple of months. You'll see her in the background next to my shed in the previous potager post. She gets a bit unwieldy this time of year, so I usually give her a haircut to tidy things up and hopefully encourage some more flowers. Then I take all the little rose buds that were snipped off, and put them in my bubble vase.

 

So pretty, and they smell divine too. I love the perfection of these tiny blooms - almost too perfect to be real. I like to put the vase beside my bed, from which spot it will perfume the whole room. Instant well-being.

 Today we went blueberry picking at Broadfield Berryfruit. It was the last day of the season, but we still managed to pick 1.2 kg of fruit. Then I spread them out on trays to freeze. Once frozen I scooped them into freezer bags. I'm looking forward to all kinds of blueberry baking... hotcakes, muffins, cakes, puddings... and after seeing this recipe on Bridget's blog, blueberry friands are also on the list!

 

I've always wanted a dollshouse with a miniature garden, and thanks to Tilt Shift Maker, this is what my potager would look like as a mini! Cute no? Lookit the teeny glasshouse! Bet there are no weeds to pull in a mini garden either...

Stages of a potager

 

Hi again! I hadn't intended to be away for so long, in fact I had plenty of posts thought out. But when it came to actually writing them, I found I would rather be sitting in the sun, or reading a book, or working some crochet. The garden has been overwhelming me a bit too as it's growing like mad and seems like an overgrown jungle. The potatoes are manky and the tomatoes are gigantic flopsy triffids. Anyway, I decided it's time to pull together all the photos of the potager over the past year as it's developed, so at least I can remind myself that I have accomplished something, even if there's a lot more work still ahead.

January 2010 - This is how it looked before I started. Scruffy shrubs, dead grass, oxalis and a weedy vege patch were what I had to work with.

January 2010 - First I laid out stakes and planks and scraps of wood to work out the pattern and how things would fit. I laid out some bricks to work out the width of the path. Then it was dig, dig, dig.

 

28 March 2010 - I dug trenches for the paths and lined them with planks of wood for the edging. Then I laid down weed mat, and coarse builder's mix for the base. Then I laid the bricks, knocking them into place with a rubber hammer. Finally I brushed Pavelock sand between the bricks - this sand turns hard when sprinkled with water, so the weeds shouldn't grow through. My paths aren't perfect, and the width fluctuated a bit. In some parts I had to chip away at the bricks to get them to fit, and in other parts I had to pack extra sand around them. I just remind myself that the rustic look is what I am going for here!

 

23 May 2010 - Two months later and I've managed to finish the cross paths, work out the positioning of the bricks for the curved path and dig over most of the beds. You would not believe how much rubbish was under the top layer of dirt... bricks, broken glass, whole glass bottles, shards of pottery, coal, rusted metal and even a pair of rotted boots!

13 June 2010 - I wanted to plant my garlic, but I couldn't plant up that bed until the circle path was laid (or I'd just end up trampling on the bed while I did it). The circle path was the most important element of the design to me - I love the symmetry and strength of the lines. I'd have preferred not to have the straight paths crossing right through the centre - it would be nice if they stopped at the edge of the centre and I could have a sundial or something in the middle of a round bed. But that was not going to work for several reasons... firstly, I'm a building novice learning on the job, and it was just too damn hard for me to work out how to connect the paths at that stage. Secondly, I like to be able to dash in and out, bring the wheelbarrow through etc and though pretty, that layout would not have been especially practical. And thirdly, I like having my four little "quarter" beds - they are a great manageable size and good for planting with "little" crops such as lettuces.

  

3 October 2010 - I delayed laying the rest of the circle paths for as long as I could because believe me, I was well and truly over bricklaying by then! But I wanted to plant my spuds, so I needed to move onto the next quarter. I used recycled black plastic garden edging to line these paths, because it was the only thing I could think of that would curve. It worked, but presented its own set of problems, mostly because it would warp and buckle when I hammered the bricks in. So most of these curved paths do have wonky fluted edges if you look too closely... which is why I've since grown lettuces along the edges to hide all that!

 

5 November 2010 - the circle paths are finally finished! I just have to do the outer curved path, before it gets completely overgrown with grass.

10 January 2011 - One year later, and all the bricks are finally in! Not that you can see much because of all the monstrous vegetables, but I'm planning some more traditional potager style plantings for winter that might highlight it a bit better. I also want more flowers in there amongst the greenery! In the meantime, the harvest is coming in. This week I've brought in spuds, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, rocket, rosemary, thyme, spring onions, red onions, zucchini, chilli peppers (glasshouse), runner beans and strawberries.

Well, I've come a long way baby, but there's always more to do. It's taken me three nights to organise the photos and write this post, so maybe in a week I'll have another for you! In the meantime I'm going to browse through my folder of inspirational potager images and dream about next season's layout.

Tomatoes and garlic

 

Sorry to keep you all in such suspense with this, I know you were dying to know. The first tomato of the season was... Juliet! Harvested on 30 Dec. I do like this variety - it is F1, so obviously bred to be reliable. It has lots of fruit which are a quirky oval shape. They are sweet and firm and, most importantly, quick to ripen!

 Quickly following up were Brown Berry. I may have picked one before I left - can't quite remember - but I definitely picked them when I was home on the 7th of Jan. They are tasty little cherry tomatoes, but not too sweet (I'm not really that fond of super sweet tomatoes). And they ripen quickly too, yay.

This is Sunset's Red Horizon, which I thought would be the first pickings. I guess the size of the fruit is what's taking them so long to ripen - they are about the size of cricket balls now. Not far off tasting though!

  

Here is the garlic harvest, dug up on 27 Dec. I let it dry in the sun for several days and then plaited it using Gillybean's tutorial. 

 Then I hung it on my trellis to dry some more. ♥! I saved the five biggest bulbs for seed for next season and put them in a plait of their own. There's also a little plait of bulbs I had left over... the big one was getting unwieldy! Next time, I'll add flowers.

Potager update

 

Hi again! I didn't intend to be away from the blog for so long - I just got into summer holiday mode, doing what I want when I want, and I happened to not feel like blogging. It was hot, a stack of magazines was calling, I had daydreaming to do... oh, you know the story. I love summer holidays. 

Well, I'm kidding a little bit, because I did more than just laze about. Above you can see what I got up to... the curved brick path is finally laid! It was hard hard work, as I knew it would be, which is why I put it off for so long. And the ground was hard hard dirt.

 

Here's another shot to show how the paths connect. In the foreground are potatoes, which are being steadily harvested. Right at the front I planted some dianthus. It will probably take a while to bloom, but I really felt the need for more flowers in my vege garden! Plus they should hide the messy edges quite well. In between them I'll probably sow some drifts of salad greens, or maybe rainbow chard.

 A side-ish view. Golden zucchini, going mad. To the right, potatoes! At the back left you can see the tomato grotto. The A-frame stakes at the back have peas sown under them and I think might be used for broad beans in winter. There's also a butternut squash plant sulking in front of them, I think it might be a bit late in the season for it. Of course if it does take off, it will smother the peas.

 This is the bit I meant to show you a couple of weeks ago - the Ellerslie-inspired flower garden. More plants are blooming now which is great, but it needs to fill in a lot more. Possibly more silver foliage is needed too.

After much (heartbreaking) fruit drop, I've been making sure to water Miss Rose Chiffon the peach tree every day. She's now clinging to her last 12 or so fruit and I damn well intend to eat them.

 

  I am proud of this petunia though, she's been flowering her little heart out. Pretty much carrying the whole show really.

Further down the row, thyme and catmint are good friends. I like the country-cottage feel in this little patch - maybe I'll just distribute herbs all over the place.

Well it's back to work for me this week so my holiday is over. Bring on the weekend...

New year

So here it is, 2011. I'm hoping fervently that it's better than 2010! I'm trying to relax at the moment, since I'm on holiday from work. But as the year ticked over I felt the urge to make lists - all the projects I've had in my head to make, things to plant in the garden, books to read etc. There were a lot of things written down and I know I won't get through half of them. But having them on paper at least means they're out of my head and I don't need to keep worrying about them.

I've been down in the dumps ever since that stupid earthquake - so to cheer myself up I'll be doing another series of "Simple Things" posts - just as a reminder to take joy in the little things. But first, I'm going to Timaru to stay with my mum for a few days, catch up with some friends, and make the most of this summer weather (don't turn, don't turn, don't turn!)

How's this for a new year's harvest? Spuds, baby carrots, borlotti beans, garlic, zucchini and the first two tomatoes. This lot all went into a lovely vege curry. I have some pictures and future posts planned about the garlic harvest and the first tomato (it wasn't the one I was expecting!).

Till then, happy new year to you all.
xxx

Handmade Christmas present round up

This is a round up of the gifts I made this year. It's not as many as in previous years - I had to cut back a bit or I'd have been holed up in my craft room all year! I started fairly early, October I think, and made a big pile of Christmas cards as well.

This little cloud mobile was easy to stitch up from felt. I made three of them, one for my nephew, one for Jonny's nephew and one for my goddaughter. The raindrops are scraps of cotton fabric.

The quote on the front was hand embroidered. It comes from quite a beautiful little poem by Langston Hughes:

APRIL RAIN SONG
Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.

These were presents for my workmates. They are coloured glass nail files, and I made a little sleeve for them from the green openweave ribbon.

Stitched a few beads at the bottom for added sparkle...

... and attached a flower and ribbon at the top. I was going to make one for myself to keep, but of course I never quite got round to that and I'm unlikely to do it in the future!

This wasn't made by me, but for me (yay!) My mum made it - you might recall seeing a similar one in her garden in my first Real Gardens post.

That's it for the round up this year. Did you give or receive anything handmade?

Want flowers, need flowers

This is a picture I took at the Ellerslie Flower Show this year. It's been on my desktop ever since, burning itself into my consciousness until I'm sure it's only a matter of time until it just turns up one day outside.

The design is "An Englishman's Retreat" by Chris Beardshaw. The key elements are the tall trees and the spires of the delphiniums, and the colour scheme of purple, silver and shots of red.

And here is my garden... not looking very similar at all I know! I grew most of these plants here from seed, and they have not been particularly quick off the mark, even with the warm spring. The exception is this rampaging petunia, although it comes with its own story of failure (out of a packet of about 100 seeds, only 4 germinated). The other plants are alyssum, angelonia, godetia, gilia and lambs' ears (which is going well - it's already been divided about 4 times). And of course, some extra tomatoes next to the fence.

Anyway, I'm really craving an abundant garden filled with flowers. My slow seedlings weren't cutting it, so I went to the garden centre and looked for Plants That Are In Flower Now. Happily, I managed to make most of my selection from the bargain bin too.

I got gaura (pink and white), nicotiana, impatiens, echinacea Hope (the same as in the show garden! Yay!), arctotis and a pretty, cottagey shrub with pink flowers that I forget the name of.

Close up of Arctotis Louise. I'm going to put this along the side of the driveway - hopefully I'll be able to divide it into two or three sections.

Instant seal of approval.

Today was 31 degrees C, so I waited till late afternoon when it was a more modest 25. Then I planted them, watered, mulched, and admired... and completely forgot to photograph! The forecast for tomorrow is rain, which is good for little plants establishing themselves, but not so good for photos. Anyway, I'll update when I can.

Season's Greetings

I'm a little relieved that Christmas has been and gone - what with everything that's gone on this year I really wasn't feeling the spirit! I had a nice, whirlwind kind of day catching up with lots of family in Timaru, all of whom I don't see often enough so it really was great to see them.

Arrived home about 6pm yesterday to another flurry of aftershocks, there are more cordons up around town and plenty of police directing traffic. We missed most of the aftershocks due to being down south (and I'm glad about that - particularly glad that I wasn't in town or in a mall when they hit!) but there were a couple of goodies last night which had me waking up in a hurry.

I have the next couple of days off work and I'm really looking forward to taking it easy (ha! Like that will actually happen with the garden looking the way it does), or more likely being lazy.

Hope you are having a good summer/winter break, wherever you may be.

Weird Cat Behaviour #4

WEIRD CAT BEHAVIOUR #4*

Sleeping on the doormat. No, of course you're not in the way there, I can step quite easily over you balancing a basket of laundry and the hedge clippers! It's especially fun when you jump up and try to go in the door while I'm closing it, balancing said objects!

To be fair, it was 28 degrees C. I couldn't be bothered moving much further either.

*Usually followed up by Annoying Cat Behaviour #1358 - sharpening claws in the screen door while wailing to be let in or out.