Is it too late to say Happy New Year? Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and festive season salutations! As the first Monday of a fresh new year, it feels like the perfect time to start afresh. It always feels a little odd to be calling a fresh start when we’re in the middle of a growing season – but it is what it is, and … Continue reading Is it too late to say Happy New Year?
Welcome to Summer. It is almost like November never happened! One moment I’m happily doing my thing, tending seedlings getting ready for the season ahead and sharing it all with you and then next thing I’m listening to Christmas carols in the warmth of early summer! It has been a bit of crazy period. Since I last updated, I was throwing myself in to preparations … Continue reading Welcome to Summer
Best Valentine’s Day ever! I’m honestly not sure how we are going to top this, and it all revolved around the garden. I have been on a mission to showcase the vegetables I grow in the meals I make. I’m a gardener well ahead of being a cook in terms of priorities, passion and ability. I revel in bringing forth life from bare soil and … Continue reading Best Valentine’s Day ever!
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 … Continue reading 50 Gardens in one Month
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 … Continue reading I’ve been away again.
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 … Continue reading Birthday weekend
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 … Continue reading My ‘Did-dah’ moment
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 … Continue reading One week of winter left
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 … Continue reading The great reset…
I am determined not to moan about the weather this year, but to be honest it leaves me no choice. We got home on the 4th of Jan, and it has done nothing but rain or be gloomy and bleak. To be fair yesterday was nice and today was nice-ish, but the weather is closing in as cyclone Hale is heading our way. Hopefully it … Continue reading Caught between two storms
