It's great getting the email each Friday - and great learning all it includes! Our garden is flourishing and better than ever.
drewboy,
Jul 13, 5:48pm
got the last of my veggies undercover in their very own hot house which im sure they are thankful for this morning as we had another frost.in just 48hrs you can see that they are all now standing to attention and looking a lot less sorry for themselves.
jules.,
Jul 14, 2:34am
hubby and i fixed up all the broken braches, and chopped a few more off this avo. we have loaded them on the ute ready to go on the burn heap at hubbys work tomorrow. have had 2 good days now, cold though. apparently its supposed to pack up again for the weekend. further north was harder hit, as seems to be the norm lately. son and i dug up 8 potato plants and got 3/4 of a bucket of spuds. thought it was time to dig them up before we lost them to frosts. some of the leaves were blackened from the frosts already.
juliewn,
Jul 14, 8:58am
Good luck with those Drew. I've been thinking about getting a glass house at some stage - we were at the Warehouse at Papamoa last week - they had heavy plastic covered shed-like frames to use in the same way as a glasshouse - they were about 2 metres long, 1.5 metres wide, and about 2 metres high - a curving frame for the roof. metal racks and shelves inside, and the plastic went from tied down onto the frame one side, up and over, and tied down on the other side, and on one end, with a door section at the other - they were about $200. look a good option, though I guess they wouldn't be quite as warm as a glasshouse. Hope your garden's are growing well.
juliewn,
Jul 14, 9:06am
ps. I meant to write. We've been getting major frosts here in Whakatane - plants I've never had hit by frost before have been damaged this year - Jade plants, Plumbago, plus a special hibiscus my Son Chris asked me to buy for my Daughter Jenni - he described the colour to choose in a phone call from Canada, so I'm really hoping it will survive - it's just over a year old. Our tamarillo's have been hit really hard too. the frost cloth I put on got blown off when it was windy, and I took it off, intending to put it back on - and didn't get it done. Ahhhh! One tree was about 2 metres tall, huge healthy leaves, flowers. and now the leaves are blackened and hanging. Even geraniums and pelargoniums have frost effects on the top of the plants and have dying leaves. have never had that before either. We're having some amazingly warm days too - not even needing to wear warm clothes - those days are ok. just hope the frosts stay away. Anyone else having frost problems!
stevee6,
Jul 14, 4:20pm
Julie - only get that glasshouse if you don't have strong winds. We bought one a couple of years ago and with one of our gales it was completely trashed. Luckily I'd not put plants in it yet. We're going to make a solid one out of timber and heavy grade plastic.
jen92,
Jul 14, 5:30pm
We've had some cheeky frosts Julie. Usually nothing to write home about, but some of my hardier plants have taken a knocking.It must be very confusing for the garden, a few days of warmer weather and then frosts, hail and gale force winds!Too much !
whiskey13,
Jul 14, 7:26pm
THANKS GUYS :)I had a wonderful birthday even thou i had to work. I work afternoons and there are only 7 of us on that shift and the girls put on a pot luck smoko shout for me. I only take the day of if it's on a friday, not cos it would be a black friday but cos then I'd have a long weekend. lol. My 38th birthday will now only be remembered for the loss of Gage, the police dog shot in the line of duty, down here in christchurch. RIP Gage, you will never be forgotten
javlin,
Jul 15, 12:06am
Growing own edibles Hi all. In the past year we grew about 33 different varieties of fruit and veges. Looking to increase that number this year. In late summer we did manage to have quite a few meals that were completely home grown. It will be a real challenge to produce enough year round to feed us all. We did have real problems with water restrictions last summer and have just purchased a tank.
javlin,
Jul 15, 12:13am
chooks We also have our own chooks. Have three of them. They have their own big enclosure. When we dig over a new bed we encourage them to join us but not after the plants go in ! We feed them our kitchen scraps. I buy a bag of pellets for about $10 which lasts about 2 months. We get more than enough eggs to supply our needs and can use the aged manure on the garden. We are in town on a 1/4 acre. If you are thinking about getting chooks try to avoid shavers if you want to keep the peace with your neighbours. We have Red Hampshires which are quiet by nature. They are very friendly. I'm very fond of them.
javlin,
Jul 15, 12:53am
home grown for tea This thread has encouraged me to use just our own produce for tea tonight. We are having potatoes, pumpkin, silverbeet, leek, beetroot leaves, chickweed and parsely. Boiled eggs for protein.
whiskey13,
Jul 15, 7:35am
Way to go Javlin! Can i come and live with you! We (my partner and I plus the foxy dog)live in town on a 1/4 acre and all i can manage(or attempt) to grow is corn, spuds, tomatoes, peas, carrots, pumpkin, leeks, watermelon, jerusalem artichokes, yams, chillis, garlic, strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, rhubarb, parsley, chives, rosemary, musclun, and stevia. When i look at it all, it does sound rather alot doesn't it! Well it just goes to show ya how much you can grow in such a small space. Garden on everyone!
books4nz,
Jul 15, 8:23am
Wow this thread is inspiring - Whiskey - do you use the stevia leaves fresh, or do you dry them - do you use them in drinks, or! - Hope you don't mind the questions - I found out about this plant being able to be used as a sweetener recently and am interested in finding out more. Thanks!
javlin,
Jul 15, 3:12pm
thanks for the encouragement Whiskey 13 not all of it is grown at the same time. In summer we had lettuce, tomaoes, about 6 corn, cucumber, cougettes(some of which turned into marrows and were given away), silverbeet, parsley, rhubarb. chickweed, (self sown), NZ spinach, celery, chives, basil, spring onion, climbing beans, dwarf beans, purple climbing beans (no good) in autum we harvested the spuds and pumpkins. We also planed beetroot and parsnip too late but forgot to thin them. :( The leks planted at the same time are coming ready now. Also have a small bay tree and permanent common mint.
javlin,
Jul 15, 3:26pm
sorry about spelling mistakes I meant "planted" and "leeks". Fruit: two fejoa, 1 grape, raspberies, 1 burbank plum which we got about two plums off (young tree), strawberries, tay berries(no good), lemon. We did run out of vege garden space so lettuces, tomatoes, celery and silverbeet were dotted in amongst the roses! They did fine. Sheep manure dressing on roses would have helped. This winter we have bought an omega plum, a passionfruit, a Monty's Surprise apple, a mandarin, a goji and (gulp) a mulberry. I think some of the ornamentals are going to have to go! DH thinks that I'm trying for some one upmanship with my contribution to this thread but that is not intended :) Happy gardening.
jules.,
Jul 15, 5:30pm
We've had a great week of nice fine, but chilly days, now the rains back, so no gardening today, was hoping to get out and do some weeding today, but it will wait.
Has anyone used 'Root Blast' with good results! I planted some of my garlic bulbs with it to see if there is any difference in the size compared to the others planted without it. So far they're neck and neck.
stevee6,
Jul 15, 5:49pm
Javlin - that's amazing! I think you're living what most of us are still just attempting, with mixed results! Still, half the fun is in the constant learning curve.
whiskey13,
Jul 15, 6:24pm
Hi-ya books4nz With the stevia you can just pick a leaf and seep it in your cuppa until the desired sweetness is reached (may take a few trys with trial and error) or you can dry the leaves and crush them up and sprinkle it on.I brought my seeds off "rhys5" check out his listing for stevia and have a read.
daleaway,
Jul 15, 11:18pm
I've just won one of the 10 copies of Cuisine magazine in the GetGrowing newsletter soup recipe draw. How nice! I sent them my Italian-inspired Bacon, Bean and Pasta soup recipe, but I won't put it here in case they want to use it. Thanks to y'all for directing me to this lovely newsletter.
juliewn,
Jul 16, 9:11am
Wow. we're at 1200 posts! I hope all the storms have eased and your gardens are left without too much damage. still gentle rains here - would be good if it was in September / October when lots of new growth begins. hopefully more then.
stevee6,
Jul 16, 4:48pm
Congratulations Daleaway. I love Cuisine magazine but the cost is just too much at present.
drewboy,
Jul 16, 5:13pm
congrats on the magazine.I love cuisine and taste magazine.I would love to do some of those dishes in there but I think my DH and kids were born without tastebuds LOL.give them meat and mashed spuds and they are happy LOL.javlin your garden sounds amazing!.im jealous.
sand6,
Jul 16, 8:00pm
please can i join in. Its taken me three days to read this thread! This thread has inspired me to get growing, I joined up yesterday. I put the boys in the car and drove off to the garden centre, they have specials on Wednesdays, fruit and vege punnets are just .99c I got NZ spinach, spring onions, siverbeet, rainbow beet, lettuces, parsley, rosemary, pizza thyme, winter mint, two large bags of potting mix and NZ Gardening Mag. I struggled to push the trolley and the stroller at the same time, both went in different directions lol. I planted them in buckets as soon as I got home and it rained last night so hopefully they are off to a great start. I ran out of buckets so ended up digging a small garden. We are renting so buckets are a safe bet. just incase they sell the house. I tried to get the oldest boy involved but he wanted to plant flowers not vegetable oh well. Julie, Stevie and the rest thank you so much:o)
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