My garden...

With all that has been going on with Hubby's knee (and recent broken toe!)

I haven't had time or much inclination to start my garden here.

I had scattered some seeds and bulbs but the weather has been quite

un-summer like and now autumn looms.

Oh, well! Next spring will be better :)

I did manage to get some angel-winged begonias hung up on the

front porch.

 

And so it begins

Officially, spring began on the first of September, although, here in New Zealand, it's a chosen date as opposed to being based on the solstice.

Either way you look at it, winter has been soooo mild and spring-like. We usually run out of firewood some time before it warms up but it looks like that won't happen this year. 

And, so with each passing day, as I prepare and expand my flower beds, it was so hard to wait until the end of October (when it should be after the last frost) to put out the seeds. Many of the flowers are already sprouting and I have one open tulip with hyacinths showing color!

So, I decided that I couldn't wait any more...

All the seeds that I harvested from my garden last year went out to the garden earlier this week. Today, I see little green sprouts popping up and I couldn't be happier!





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I still don't have comment moderation for this blog, so if I don't return your comment soon, I will be there eventually :)

oh, my head!

We had a HUGE tree/bush removed from the garden two summers ago and it left a round patch of dirt where grass didn't grow. I thought I'd used that patch as a flower garden since I couldn't see us reseeding it with grass. 

Now, in my organized head, nothing had grown there for years, so I expected that only what I planted there would grow and I'd have wonderful colors all spring and summer. That worked out pretty much like I though last summer and I was happy with my first-ever starting-from-scratch flower garden.

I mentally made note of the first seeds I put out. Some grew well, some didn't. That's ok, You live and learn. All autumn and winter, I gathered up seeds and plans to make it a better garden this year. 

Imagine my surprise and confusion when, on the first warmish spring day, I found stuff that I hadn't planted growing up ALL OVER my garden!!

There's a LOT of this stuff that reminds me of parsley. Now that I think about it, it might just be cow parsley, but we will have to wait and see.

And there's this one that could be parsley's cousin.

I truly don't remember planting anything this close to the lupins!

And this large-leaf plant has popped up in several places.

When I saw 5 or 6 of these little guys that look just like the leaves on a penstemon we moved from another part of the yard to the garden, it finally dawned on me that many of these green things could have been a garden from years gone by!! (Sometimes, it takes me a while, but I eventually get there.)

So, the plan for this year is to let things go until they bloom and only pull what I know are not wanted.

It ought to be an interesting year for the garden.

my learning curve in gardening

The weather has blooming times jumbled at my house. This camellia--named 'Frodo the Rhodo who's really a camellia' by my LOTR fan bestie (don't ask!)--isn't suppose to bloom until October some time. 

Like lots of other plants in the garden, the warm weather after a slight dip of temperature has, apparently, convinced it that it's spring already.

As I have mentioned before, I'm quite a literal person. So when I bought some hyacinth bulbs, I planted them according to the directions 'in autumn'. Well, the calendar said autumn, but I have since learned that bulbs can't read.

It wasn't cold enough for them to know winter was still on the way and they poked their little heads up soon after planting. *sigh* I do hope they will be willing to bloom again next spring.

my first ever garden and other surprises

I have mentioned before that my brain can't find its way out of 'the box'. I confess, I am anal in my thinking. 

I hate movies and books that don't tell me how things end. 

I flunked math in college because I had to know why complicated math problems had to be solved in a particular order and nobody could tell me. 

I have to work really hard sometimes to understand puns. 

And so it is with our garden. 

As a bit of background, this is the first house that the owners built to live in as they build the 'family home' on the other end of the pastures paddocks. I have no idea how old this house is but it has wallpaper that I would guess is from the 1960's. 

I can't imagine how many people have rented it, but I do know that most renters don't do much with the gardens. We are exceptions and try to make each place we rent a little better than we found it. 

Last summer (our first in this house)  since I had hurt my back and Hubby was working a lot, there wasn't much done outside. Hubby did move some irises that needed to be divided and he planted some pink dahlia bulbs that we had brought with us. In the back, there were 2 huge, pink, gorgeous peony poppies growing. That's all--just those 2 flowers. So Hubby and I made sure that when it went to seed, we gathered the seeds to plant the next spring. He also re-planted my two jasmine plants that we brought in the space where the peonies were because it didn't get sun all day long. Besides having a huge unnamed bush removed from the front garden, that was the extent of our gardening.

This summer is quite different. Where the 2 peonies were (and the jasmines were planted), there are many peonies growing (apparently we missed quite a few seeds!) along with a heap of calendulas (of course, they grown everywhere) and some interesting plants that have tiny blossoms. Even with all their company the jasmines seem quite happy but my poor brain wasn't expecting this explosion of color!

In the front of the house, where the bush was remove, I planted that space for my very first ever garden from seeds.

In my 'organized' (Hubby calls it OCD) way, I planted specific seeds on one side and mixed seeds on the other. To my great and anal surprise, there is stuff that I didn't plant growing everywhere! Remember the peony poppy seeds? Well, I planted my seeds, but those plants are tiny and other poppies are taking over! In the photo below, all the light green in the middle are poppies I didn't plant and the tiny ones to the left are the ones that I did.

Hubby says that the weather is better for gardens this year than last and I'm sure that has a lot to do with all the blooming going on. I know I shouldn't be surprise that decades of people have come and gone in this house and some have planted their own gardens along the way, but I am still a little girl full of wonder as I see the fabulous colors of nature all around. 

my garden is mixed up

I know that flowers are engineered these days to bloom at different times of the year but I expected this bloom in the summertime, not in the middle of autumn! 

We also have some lilies that are growing like it's spring and dahlias that have died down and are shooting up again! There are some green slender shoots coming up in remote parts of the yard garden that look like they will be gladiolus, too, but I have to wait and see what they do. And one azalea bush keeps putting out one or two blossoms so there is a bit of color on it all the time.

I have to say, my interest is quite piqued by this garden!

In other news, I have found that cows will NOT eat calendula flowers or parsley!! I sure wish I knew other flowers that they won't eat, but it seems that they will try anything once :)

This and that.....

It's only been 50 years that NZ has had television and there were special programs to celebrate this past month. I didn't watch the first one, but from the local comedians' and friends' reactions, I didn't miss much. Apparently, it was in the format of a quiz show (now take a few moments to visualize how that is not the way to celebrate).

We just watched the first of 7 parts of the Prime Channel special historical program and it was quite fascinating. I was stunned to realize that our family's most-watched free tv station has only been on the air since the late '90's. I guess I'm used to free US tv that has been around forever.

But, alas, the program was consistent with NZ reporting. There were acronyms and groups and other things that were not explained in the show. [Grrrr...again, my biggest gripe about NZ press and tv--if you don't know what they are talking about, you won't find out from the article or program.]  Fortunately, I had dear Hubby to explain things to me. Bless his patient little heart.

We all know that Disco died a while back, but dances socials that are given by schools or other groups to raise money here are still called a disco. Hmmmmm.

Most baking recipes state 'margarine or butter' as a regular ingredient. I always used margarine in America, as did most of the people I ever knew, as real butter was quite expensive and hard to work with. Here in NZ, since dairy products are one of the top exports (except to the US, where they are not allowed in), I buy real butter to do all my baking. I can buy 500g (about a pound) of butter on sale for $3.99. The spread (real butter combined with oil to make it spreadable) that the family likes to use for everyday use costs just over $5.00 for 500g. Go figure.

I have always noted that crime in NZ is probably as low as it is because there is no place to hide. The whole of New Zealand is not quite 104,000 square miles, about the size of Colorado, and then that area is divided into two main islands. Apparently, an alleged Chinese murderer though it was to his advantage to run to China to blend in. Makes sense since it's so populated. Didn't work. I, for one, am impressed. Hubby and I agree that he should be tried in China. 'Nuff said.

It has rained so much the last month or so that all the spring-blooming plants in the garden and my spring bulbs that I just planted have decided winter is done and it's time to bloom!

Fall is just around the corner

 ...and we could wake up with the weather turning ugly any day, so  I thought I would post some of the last blooms of the season.

As you may know, we inherited the garden when we rented our house.  It just took a little TLC to bring it to life and we are still stunned by it's beauty.

Cosmos

This cactus dahlia is so big we have to stake individual stems.

Gazenia

This is the result of a yellow daisy and this flower (a daisy hybrid of some sort) being cross pollinated.

We are always making plans for the garden, although we both prefer the 'English garden' look for most of our beds.  I never thought I'd enjoy gardening so much.

My 'down under' garden

I know that for most of you, it's the middle of winter, but here in the southern hemisphere, it's the middle of summer. And my garden is looking soooo good!

So, in the spirit of sharing [and the spirit of giggling because you could be knee-deep in snow  ], I thought I'd give you a peek at the blooms in my yard.

We rent a house whose [obviously well-established] garden had been neglected for quite a while. Whoever planted it put a lot of care and love into it and we are proud to be able to restore it to some extent.  

We aren't gardeners--or I guess I should say that we weren't gardeners before we moved into this place.  But now the 'bug' has bitten us and we are loving planting seedlings,  pulling weeds and moving plants until we find the best place for them.  It's amazing how much joy we get from such a simple pastime.

I hope you enjoy the pics.  I know I will be flipping through these when it's your turn to giggle at me because it's cold!

Meet some of my garden friends

Here is the patheticat we call Bubba. I always thought that cats innately chased winged animals, but obviously I was mistaken in that theory. The fact that the ducks are not even the slightest bit bothered by his presence is almost as eerie as his lack of enthusiasm to attack the ducks.



This is the neighbor's cat. Shhh!! She thinks she's a lawn ornament!

This is a tui that caught me taking his picture as he dined on the nectar of the kowhai (ko-fie) tree. They have a white tuft at the throat of a metallic black/green body. Their own song is hauntingly metallic, but beautiful to hear, but they are also mimics of humans and other animals--it's strangely funny to hear a duckling calling from a treetop!


I believe you have met the fantail in a former post. They are very nice to have around, especially in the summer, as they eat flying bugs like mosquitoes (called mossies, here). They are not particularly afraid of humans and seem to be showing off their beautiful tails all the time. There is a pair of these that have discovered our compost barrels!


I know this isn't the mental image you get in the US when I mention the word 'pigeon'. It's a wood pigeon and is much larger than those in America. I love their red beaks and feet, such a distinctive trait. They eat berries, so they are attracted to the strawberry trees across the lane in the summertime.


Earlier in this blog, I mentioned Einstein, who seemed to know when I was going to put out bread or seed. These are a few more of the gorgeous yellow finches that beg for food on the back patio. Their color is quite striking and they apparently don't mind getting wet if there is birdseed involved.


These are cute little waxeyes. Click the picture to get a better look to find out where they got their name (warning, the pictures are big). They are smaller than the finches that come around and they definitely let the other birds get to the seed first! But, I find them fascinating in their color and deftness of flight. I don't recall anything quite like them in Kansas.