Garden

September 5th, 2010

Time for bulbs



I’ve just discovered Thompson & Morgan as I was trying to find a non high-street online shop for bulbs – how had I not discovered them before?

So as the seasons change and we move house in just a couple of days it really is time to start thinking about the garden – and most importantly, the bulbs for next Spring. That’s the one job I never fail to get done. Imagine a Spring without beautiful bulbs coming up – it’s just not worth it. I am so excited I just had to compile a list and I’ll whittle it down from here.

Did I mention we’re moving home on Tuesday? Can’t wait! A proper, big, whole house. A beautiful rustic English home. With a proper garden just waiting for me to get planting. And a whole blissful month of quiet, doing my projects, writing new blogs, having some time for glorious end of Summer walks on the Heath. It really doesn’t get much better than this.

Anyway, here’s my garden wish list;

Buddleja Buzz™ Half Price Collection
Allium Cottage Garden Mixed
Tulips pink passion mixed
Brodiaea laxa Royal Blue
Daffodil poeticus Plenus
Hyacinth Midnight Mystique™
Hyacinthoides English
Lily Oriental Miss Lucy
Russian Snowdrop
Tulip Paul Scherer
Daffodil – Fragrant Jonquil Mix

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June 14th, 2010

Adventures at home





The girls love the little path down the side of the house where they take their brooms and hide on the little porch where there are taps to play with.

It’s a lovely gentle English summer, if not a touch chilly. Life is brilliant fun – mostly. Daddy even bought mummy a new red KitchenAid food processor that Astrid chose. Last night we baked sour cherry and vanilla spelt and almond meal muffins in our new silicone muffin cases.

Read the rest of this entry »

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March 1st, 2010

Garden notes

This is our winter order from www.ediblegarden.co.nz

Yesterday I actually sat on the front porch and enjoyed the sun and the new roses and thought about where I’d plant the new grapes.

All the hard work is paying off – it’s a pretty good feeling being able to sit down and enjoy the garden.

1 almond – self fertile $24
1 apple – KOANGA hayward wright $26
1 apricot – KOANGA tamaki $26
1 nectarine – KOANGA black pearl $26
1 walnut – wilson’s wonder $50
1 quince – taihape $22
1 cherry – compact stella $24
1 grape – KOANGA black dalmation $16
1 pear – KOANGA triumph de vienna $26

PS. Yes, photos all gone from flickr. Will be sorting them out this end evenings… more new Blurb books and photos back on the blog.

Spending quite a bit of time discovering the joys of twitter too. Pardon the french. It’s what working in advertising does to you.

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February 3rd, 2010

Gardening with intent

So much to write and show and so many emails to ask if things are ok and they are. I am gardening with ferocious intent. My camera cable breaks after thirty images download and I’m too lazy to do buy one after one failed attempt.

Mimi had her first birthday and I need to do last year’s Blurb family album. I cook, I garden, I play with the kids, I go to work and sometimes I clean. Or sew astrids curtains. which really ought to be finished by now.

And then there are all the things I want to do but don’t; including knitting, making moisturiser, baking muffins, digging a vegetable patch, cutting down deadish shrubs. But I have ordered heirloom Elderberry bushes. Five of them. From Sarah at Edible Garden. And we planted beans and lemon trees this weekend. And I washed the carport. And cleared the front garden. And Astrid helped. We’re going to become members of Koanga so we can access their rare heirloom seeds.

For winter we’ve ordered a small orchard of heirloom trees suited to the Auckland climate; Almonds, a Walnut, a Nectarine, Apricots, Cherries and a Quince. We’ll be planting the Elderberries this weekend, creating suburban hedgerows.

Not a jot of sewing or knitting is being done. Expecially now Astrid’s the head gardener (and cake baker), and Mr Green Rabbit (one of Dawn’s Jacks) has the vision. He’s the one giving the instructions.

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December 13th, 2009

home

Something I have so far failed to mention.

We’re home. We. Are. Home.

We’ve got mixed views on being home. The good news is Astrid and Edith are both into the school we came home to get them into. We all miss our walks around the Heath. We all miss the villages in the area we lived in. There’s not really that much to walk to from here. Mt Albert shops anyone?

The cats are happy though. The kids adore the garden. I adore the garden. There’s no rhubarb yoghurt. But there is passionfruit yoghurt. Living here is without a doubt more expensive than London.

So I’m now working full time. And currently I’m lacking much motivation to do anything past that. I get home and cook, we give the girls a bath, put them to bed and then flop out. I miss making, creating, sewing and knitting. I’m half way through sewing a curtain and it’s taking forever because it’s just too hard. Really, it’s dead easy – four hems? Waaay too hard. It’s going to be a beautiful curtain though – vermillion cotton velvet from Trelise Cooper. It’s all pinned. Only two hems to go. Might finish it tonight.

One thing I am interested in though is the garden. So far I’ve planted four feijoas, four guavas, three redcurrants, three blueberries, two passionfruit, six pots of lettuce and a pile of heirloom tomatoes. I’ve also pruned and dug and weeded and cleared; put down bark and de-forested the carport.

In fact I had planned to not sew for a while in order to sort the garden. Really it’s one or the other for me. Both are so demanding. As is having a full time job and a mortgage to pay. Today I was saying to Kevin how it’s not really public knowledge just how expensive it is raising children. Anyone know how much daycare costs? Or a nanny? A lot.

So here we are, back in our beautiful oasis. Thinking about getting chooks and bees. And hinting like mad, Kevin, about the cheese making kit for Christmas.

Oh! And 44 times two lives…

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October 12th, 2009

what’s your favourite native bird?

Vote at the Forest and Bird Society.

Here

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June 15th, 2009

my perfect garden





Just down the road a little old lady has a wonderful meadow garden. Ours never had the chance to establish itself but this is exactly what we’re after. Vegetables in amongst the flowers and flowers everywhere. Perfect!

I felt a little bit naughty taking photos so these don’t quite capture the full magnificence of it all.

Two of my other favourite gardens are this one and this one.

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March 18th, 2009

wenn der frühling kommt





Wenn der Frühling kommt,
Von den Bergen schaut,
Wenn der Schnee im Tal
Und von den Hügeln taut,
Wenn die Finken schlagen
Und zu Neste tragen,
Dann beginnt die liebe, goldne Zeit

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April 7th, 2008

Turning

Yesterday Astrid took her first steps. Today she left the house for a walk with a new nanny. They’ll be back soon.



As the souls of the autumn leaves slip quietly into the sky and their bodies shatter underfoot, another year passes – another circle of time completes. This is my time of year; when nature speaks loudest – the colours intense, rich and vivid, the light moody and sharp, the air teeming with atmosphere.

So close to the end… things never seemed more alive.

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November 15th, 2007

Lovely NZ improvements

Today I finally got around to creating the new Lovely NZ homepage – which lists all updates. So people no longer have to trawl through each site, hoping for updates (when there probably haven’t been any). Now it’s easy to see all one the one page – and I even updated each and every one of the sites today too!



In between all that I managed to waste plenty of time looking at vintage kimono and checking the chirimen on Yahoo! Japan auctions. I also received the brilliant news there is at last a certified organic preservative on the market (very big YAY). Astrid has just learnt to sit up on her own so every now and again there’s a big thud as she falls back onto her head *ouch*. The office is now full of cushions but the thuds are still getting through.



I did cheat a bit with the Ellerslie Flower Show story – I’ve not actually written anything yet – just uploaded the photos. Tuesday was Media Day and it was very cool going when it was so empty – it only took me an hour and a half to look at everything. I slightly missed the crowds though – they are in fact quite a part of that kind of event aren’t they?



The only slight bummer was the food people were still setting up. So no yummy samples this time – especially from naked organics who are always the best. Anathoth Beetroot Relish was a good discovery while we were away at Sandy Bay. Highly recommended with sausages and burgers which I think is all we ate whilst there – and we’re still recovering.

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