Happy Anniversary On this day, 18th January, back in 2018 we were embarking on a great change. We sold our house in the swamp and moved to the seaside. To be completely honest it was moving from one challenging landscape to another, but what is life without a little challenge.  The last place was at that point where it was done. The interior was how …...
Too Hot If you can’t handle the heat, get out of the garden. We are in the midst of a heatwave. It might not be the burning inferno that some folk experience in summer in other places, but it is hot for me. In the last week the hottest the thermometer in the garden registered was 38°C yesterday at 6:27pm! Surely the evenings are supposed …...
New Year is a state of mind. It is all very well to treat the new year as a fresh start when you are in between seasons like all the wonderful gardeners in the Northern Hemisphere. The previous season behind them, with lessons learnt from the successes and failures and all the hope and expectation of a new season just around the corner.  While the …...
Tomatoes are the Star In my opinion, in a summer garden – of all the wide range of plants that can be grown, the tomato is the superstar. The one that just owns the season. Sweetcorn could come in a close second if it wasn’t for the fact that in spite of their sunny yellow disposition, which can be stored in the freezer to bring …...
50 Gardens in one Month It isn’t often you can say you have visited over 50 gardens in one month, but this November that is what I did. Well, if I’m completely honest – a few were in the very tail end of October and one of the gardens was mine, so the exact tally is a little hazy, but it was all part of …...
I’ve been away again. But the best kind of away. I put on one of my favourite hats to do my job as a Botanical Tour Guide for Botanica World Discoveries. I hosted a bus load of garden tourists across New Zealand over two back-to-back tours. Firstly, it was the NZ Taranaki Garden Spectacular and Private Gardens Tour followed by the NZ Private Gardens and …...
Birthday weekend I am super blessed to have my birthday at the best possible time for a gardener. This weekend was Labour Weekend which is also the last frost date and it is safe for planting out the summer garden in my area. It is a moveable holiday and can vary by up to a week, so extra caution and common sense needs to be …...
My ‘Did-dah’ moment I have been working on a project for a very long time. When I say working on it, I mean thinking about it. And when I say thinking about it, it is more of a guilt induced frenzy full of woulda, coulda and shoulda. I thought making the family give it to me as a Mother’s Day present would make it happen …...
Digging, danger and fast things. I don’t know if it is because I’m getting older or because I have so much to do, but time is marching away on me. I’m working as fast as I can, with appropriate breaks so I don’t burst a foofoo valve, but we are nearly two thirds the way through the first month of spring! But then spring is …...
Spring Things in the Greenhouse Do you ever have a season in your life where it is extraordinarily busy and all you have time to do is put one foot in front of the other. Well I have. I can’t exactly put my finger on what it was that made things so busy, but it has been a struggle.  But the garden has always …...
ONE WEEK OF WINTER LEFT This year has whizzed by, and the fun is about to start. There is a lot of anticipation and expectation this season, probably more so than ever after the disappointment of last time. There was just too much rain. My hope that things will be different this year is due to the shift from a soggy La Nina to a …...
The great reset …once I finish coughing! This year has been really light on the gardening – it has been maintained but that is about it. The combination of a horribly wet start to the year curtailed most gardening efforts because I wasn’t in a hurry to garden in torrential rain and working with sodden soil is never a good idea.  The other thing was …...
Now is a good time to start to organise for the new growing season. With hope in my heart, I began taking dreaming about the next season to the next level and started making plans. Last season was a complete washout – literally! I only used my irrigation system a couple of times. Ironically, the only time it should have been used but wasn’t, was …...
Good Habits start today. This is just a quick post and a public declaration, that I will be getting stuff done or be publicly shamed. The recent short weeks combined with a new ‘no back to school’ empty nest thing has really thrown the start of my February into disarray. I feel like I’ve been waiting for some kind of normal to kick in but …...
Heroes and Superstars. The garden has really been pumping out the harvest. Everyday there is something new to deal with, on top of the things already overwhelming my harvest basket. It can be so easy to just take yet another zucchini for granted or leave it languishing on the plant a little longer in an obstinate attempt to delay the inevitable, which ultimately results in …...
It’s over, move on. January is the strangest month. It starts in holiday mode. There is absolutely no expectation to do anything remotely productive, unless it is for personal gain, like indulging in a hobby.  And as the middle month of summer, it is – most of the time – too hot to want to do anything anyway.  I can’t cope in the heat, especially …...
Making a Shrubbery In the garden shrubs are generally considered the understated backdrop of the landscape – mini trees that provide the green and occasionally have flowers or fragrance but for the most part aren’t even noticed. In the kitchen shrubs are something else. They are so amazing that once you make one you wonder why you’ve never done it before.  I am about to …...
Happy Anniversary On this day, 18th January, back in 2018 we were embarking on a great change. We sold our house in the swamp and moved to the seaside. To be completely honest it was moving from one challenging landscape to another, but what is life without a little challenge.  The last place was at that point where it was done. The interior was how …...
Too Hot If you can’t handle the heat, get out of the garden. We are in the midst of a heatwave. It might not be the burning inferno that some folk experience in summer in other places, but it is hot for me. In the last week the hottest the thermometer in the garden registered was 38°C yesterday at 6:27pm! Surely the evenings are supposed …...
New Year is a state of mind. It is all very well to treat the new year as a fresh start when you are in between seasons like all the wonderful gardeners in the Northern Hemisphere. The previous season behind them, with lessons learnt from the successes and failures and all the hope and expectation of a new season just around the corner.  While the …...
Tomatoes are the Star In my opinion, in a summer garden – of all the wide range of plants that can be grown, the tomato is the superstar. The one that just owns the season. Sweetcorn could come in a close second if it wasn’t for the fact that in spite of their sunny yellow disposition, which can be stored in the freezer to bring …...
50 Gardens in one Month It isn’t often you can say you have visited over 50 gardens in one month, but this November that is what I did. Well, if I’m completely honest – a few were in the very tail end of October and one of the gardens was mine, so the exact tally is a little hazy, but it was all part of …...
I’ve been away again. But the best kind of away. I put on one of my favourite hats to do my job as a Botanical Tour Guide for Botanica World Discoveries. I hosted a bus load of garden tourists across New Zealand over two back-to-back tours. Firstly, it was the NZ Taranaki Garden Spectacular and Private Gardens Tour followed by the NZ Private Gardens and …...
Birthday weekend I am super blessed to have my birthday at the best possible time for a gardener. This weekend was Labour Weekend which is also the last frost date and it is safe for planting out the summer garden in my area. It is a moveable holiday and can vary by up to a week, so extra caution and common sense needs to be …...
My ‘Did-dah’ moment I have been working on a project for a very long time. When I say working on it, I mean thinking about it. And when I say thinking about it, it is more of a guilt induced frenzy full of woulda, coulda and shoulda. I thought making the family give it to me as a Mother’s Day present would make it happen …...