The day of the capsicums.

Ah yes, these babies took the place of those nasty tomatoes.  I’ve got green, brown and red capsicums all growing like trifids.
Only problem is neither Felix or I are very keen on them!!!

Green is good! Especially tomatoes!

Well haven’t I been a slack little garden reporter.  Doubt I’d make it in journalism… leave that to my niece.  A whole 6 months has flown by since my last blog and it is not because I have stopped gardening, I think it’s because I got disheartened because this happening to my tomatoes….

Blight, Blight and BLOODY BLIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had to pull up all 16 plants.  Sob   I did however learn a good lesson.  Do not plant tomatoes directly into soil that used to be a compost heap and had rouge potatoes popping up all over the place.

However here are a couple of photos taken in November 09 of the German Green tomatoes Felix’s dad gave me the previous year, from which I saved seeds.

Ah, lovely sweet little tommys, and they are still going, just finishing up now.  They don’t go red, just an off green yellowish… not that attractive but sooooo yum in sandwiches.  They make a funny coloured tomato sauce too.

The other little joy of the summer was a great first attempt at growing garlic…

These all did pretty well, some bigger than others but after seeing how the pro’s Liz and Rick do it my crop WILL only, CAN only get better!

Now I’m back I will get out in the next couple of days and show you some of the new stuff that’s taken place of the tomatoes and they are doing HEAPS better, till then don’t forget to sing to your plants…… actually maybe not.  I sang to those rotten tomatoes.

Labour weekend planting and earwigs

Well Labour weekend is traditionally the time to plant out the seedlings so thats just what I did.

I have put the plastic bottles (gathered from the re-cycling centre) over various plants as i have discovered that earwigs… yes you read it right, earwigs have been chomping through my plants.

I have asked some of my gardener friends about how to get rid of them but they look at me as if I have just told them a Triple Headed Noonoo monster from planet Peablah rode a bike through my bedroom.  None thought that earwigs would do such a thing.

However on one of my nightly patrols of the garden I discovered a tribe of the little blighters,  ripping into my beans… even an albino one (R.I.P).

If anyone knows of a way to get rid of them… please let me know!

Boo helps out.

It may seem that I have been a tad bit slack on my gardening but this is not true.  I frequently sit and watch my seedlings grow.  I water them and coo encouragingly.

As you can see in the background of this photo I have erected my tee-pea.  My peas are now planted out and obediently growing up the structure.

I have a little friend staying with me at present.  Her name is Boo Shine.  Now Boo does not have a good earning capasity so I put her to work in the garden turning the soil.  It takes her a while but she gets it done eventually.

Buttercups up!

They say there is no point in watching paint dry but I have had so much fun watching the buttercup seedlings come out today.

Honestly there was a little leaf showing this morning and by this afternoon this is what they looked like!

I am slightly worried about my new found sense of fun, but in the mean time I’m off to pour myself a wine and watch their progress. -x-

Seedlings in!

I have been busy planting seedlings for the future garden of Hesperides.

I bought seeds off Jon which have been sourced from the seed bank so they are lovely original varieties.

So far I have planted; tomatos, courgettes, buttercup, egg plant, capsicum, chillies, peas, basil, pumpkin, and sunflowers.

The peas have taken 8-10 days to come up as I planted at the beginning of the last week of August.  The tomatos which are under glass are just starting to pop through… my little darlings.

Free cow poo and seedling box.

I believe that all the good things in life are free or cheap at the least!  Thus I spent the after carrying buckets of cow manure  from the paddocks where  Mrs. N’s bullocks have been to the new garden patch… free fertilizer… yay!  I dug it over first and then added the pure poo.  Mrs. N says it’s pretty mild as far as shit goes (she did not say shit), so it can go on anything.

A cosy little box for the seedlings

Now I have been meaning to get a seedling box for some time now and went to the recycling centre to do just that.  As Felix says positive thoughts must be put out; be specific in what you require!

Well freak me green and call me a frog it works.  This was an old window boxing that had the glass missing.  It even has a window lever that can prop it open during the day.  We found two planes of glass that fitted the width which meant only trimming one end to get a perfect fit.

I have a glass cutter at home and it is a good thing we got two planes of glass as the first attempt went horribly wrong.  Try two was perfect and the lesson is when scoring glass with a cutter sometimes less is best – a single score is suffice.

With a few tacks to hold the window in all that was needed was to nail on a handle, give it a quick sand and … one mini glass house suitable for seedlings.

Clearing and Creating, stumps and garden beds.

Well Monday was a very productive day!  Lets start with the before and after shots of the garden…

in the beginning......

.....after an afternoon's slog

Dharma (the dog), Felix and I took a wander down the beach – We live in Whaingaroa (Raglan) – and found quite a supply of boards and solid wooden posts washed up on the beach.  These were ‘skillfully’ sawed and turned into boxing to stop the soil sliding down the bank at the back of the garden.

Felix fitting the boxing.

The completed boxing... the soil shall not escape!

My little pretty's...

…………..The soil is so rich and dark.  It has had years of lawn clippings, discarded prunings, and  rotted stumps from the fig tree.  It varies in texture and colour providing good nutrients and mulch all in the one place.  As I was digging it over with the fork I found so many healthy and hard working worms, I was ecstatic.

... a very happy find.

I also found my greenstone necklace that a friend Rick had carved for me.  I lost it over a year… obviously while I was mowing the lawn… figured it would turn up if it really belonged to me and… it did, in a lump of compost.  It felt like a good sign for the Garden of Hesperides.

Digging out the lilies and stump.

Much of the day was spent removing the titch from the garden, digging out the lily bulbs and removing the fig stump.  Apart from pulling titch out by hand does anyone know any tricks (not spraying) to get rid of it?

The day finished off with a well earnt Vodka!  For Felix and I… Dharma is still to young, she got back all the bones she’d buried in the compost.

Mrs N inspires AJ and the Garden of Hesperides.

I remember, not that long ago, getting dragged around peoples gardens being shown little green shoots poking through the soil, five different varieties of violets and a compost heap and thinking;  “Please let Thor smite me with his hammer so I don’t have to see another f#*king seedling!”

… but all that has changed, now I find myself dragging others around my garden as they beg for Thors mercy.

Finally my landlady and a bit of a garden legend, Mrs N. … who has been known to crack jokes about my ability to tell the difference between a weed and a plant… has realised I’m serious about this gardening lark and has given me a bit more  garden to experiment with.

Now when I say garden I use this term loosely because this is what I’ve been given..

Now it may not look much at present… rusty tin can included… but it is the inspiration for the project that will be know from this day forth as “AJ and the Garden of Hesperides”.

To be continued…