Morning Diversion

I was pleasantly distracted this morning as I opened the gate to go to work - a delicate gossamer threaded web (strung between the bare winter branches of the Pin oaks) caught my eye in the morning fog.  It's nice on occasion to be reminded of the pleasure of stopping to notice the small things and the beauty and delicacy of the natural world - suffice it to say I had a lovely drive to work!

Early Spring

Spring has sprung early at Violet Hill Farm with one of my new hens going clucky and successfully hatching (a week ago) the first ever 'home grown' Violet Hill Farm chickens.  I could spend hours watching her demonstrate the art of grass pecking and scratching to her fluffy wee children.  I'm hooked now and have set up a special nursery area so we can have the ongoing delight of baby chickens running around the orchard.

Such an amazing process - the tiny life squeezed into an oval capsule and finally breaking out...

A Passion for Purple

Although the weather outside is still cold and frosty,  the later winter and spring flowers are defiantly blossoming in all their glory.  Purple seems to be the color of choice at the moment around Violet Hill Farm - most appropriately of course, given the farms namesake!

My all time favorite flower - the sweet violet (Viola odorata) is forming a profuse carpet of bright green and purple in the shady bed under the elderberry trees.  It has taken me quite some time to get a full carpet, but it was worth the wait as it has become the perfect spot for these tiny late winter and early spring jewels.

The Australian climber Hardenbergia is a cloud of starry purple pin-pricks - it's almost over-whelming...

...and the rosemary is making it's contribution to keeping the bees fed over winter with it's pale violet flowers.

But, still - there is no beating the beauty and scent of the wee sweet violet.  Diane Ackerman has written a beautiful book on scent and her description of the scent of violets is delightful "Violets smell like burnt sugar cubes that have been dipped in lemon and velvet".  She also explains why the scent of violets is so difficult for perfumers to capture; "Violets contain ion one, which short-circuits our sense of smell.  The flower continues to exude its fragrance, but we lose the ability to smell it.  Wait a minute or two, and the smell will blare again.  Then it will fade again, and so on."  - but despite it's flirtation with our senses it evokes such memories (in my case of visits to Mrs Hart's magical garden where I always went home from my fortnightly visits with a bundle of seasonal flowers, a few bantam eggs a tummy full of lemonade and dreams of secret gardens and the beauty and delight of plants), as Helen Keller wrote "Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived."  My garden is full of plants that evoke particular memories and I love the depth of sensory experience that provides as I wander the garden.  

I have a lovely old book of English wildflowers which contains a gorgeous description and illustration of the violet and I still adore the Shakespeare quote from Midsummer Night's Dream "I know a bank whereon the wild thyme grows.  Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows".  

Now, the only problem is that one bed of violets is never enough - so the hunt is on for another secret shady spot to expand the territory of this purple sensation!

A belated documentation of work carried out on Sunday 8th July.  I was spoilt with a range of new plants for the garden from my favorite garden centre Wairere in Gordonton as a mid-winter birthday gift.  So, finally after a two week wait in their pots - on a glorious sunny winters day I spent an afternoon planting my new additions to the garden.  Two roses to frame an archway which will lead up into an extended area of garden in the current paddock (yes, the time has finally come when I can no longer restrain myself from digging up the grass and planting more trees)!  I wanted something of a similar nature to my all time favorite rose Madame Alfred Carriere.  She is such a gentle creature, with very few thorns and flowers profusely - even in the middle of winter!   So, I have chosen Crepuscule - a soft apricot yellow which will complement the soft blue of the archway posts.  Crepuscule is a noisette climber which is supposed to be very long flowering and (most importantly) fragrant, and by all accounts with few thorns.  I can only dream of one day having an archway swathed in green and gold (like this photo below).

 - and just so I remember the magic of plant growth - here's a photo of the two plants on day 1 - for future comparison. 

Other activities on the day included planting three new fig trees (we are totally in love with figs at Violet Hill Farm).  Fig Brunoro Black, Fig Omapere (both red fleshed - cause figs just look all the more delectable with the succulent red flesh beneath either the black or green skin), and Fig 'Panache' - which is an amazing striped fig (again with strawberry red flesh) - I just couldn't resist its melon-like disguise.  They are also known as 'tiger figs' - how fabulous is that - tigers in the garden!

And then a final pergola extravaganza - two seedless table grapes, one red and one green either side of the burnt crimson pergola - I have visions of plucking grapes while walking under the pergola to the glasshouse.

Winter Garden Preparation

A total 'winter clean-out' has been occurring over the last few weeks, with beds being cleared of old plants and fresh worm compost and soil added with winter veges then going in.

I have experimented with a cloche of hazelnut branches (sourced from my yet to fruit hazelnuts - at least this is getting some use out of them) for my winter planted peas - i'm hoping they will not only provide a frame for the peas, but also protect from those nasty frosts that we get in the valley.

Aubergine

The aubergines have been very successful this year and have produced a number of large glossy purple/black fruits.  I love the idea that they (including tomatoes, potatoes & capsicum) are all from the nightshade or Solanaceae family and potentially so dangerous with their vast and interesting mix of alkaloid properties!  Which reminds me of a wonderful book that I discovered recently by Amy Stewart - Wicked Plants, The weed that killed Lincoln's mother & other botanical atrocities.  This is a book which explores the realm of poisonous and deadly plants and the science, history and folklore surrounding them - it's a fascinating read with lovely ink illustrations reminiscent of old botanical texts but with a modern twist.

There are a number of famous gardens which highlight these types of plants - the most famous being that at Alnwick in England.  I rather like the idea of a garden of plant 'prisoners'.

Garden Bouquet

The one remaining dahlia corm that has survived the wet clay conditions of the garden is in full flower.  Makes a dramatic focal point in a green garden bouquet of herbs (rosemary, lemon verbena, bay, parsley and coriander flowers).  I am very fond of the perfect architectural form of the dahlia flowers so must hunt out a free-draining spot in the garden to have a full on old-fashioned riotously coloured dahlia bed.

Local History

There are some special sculptural elements which have pride of place in parts of the garden.  The one above is a terra-cotta creation by local artist Jill Guilleman.  It is a wonderfully rustic rendition of a local historic landmark - the old butcher's slaughterhouse in Kaukapakapa (see below).  

I have placed the 'birdhouse' on a gnarly old Totara fencepost (still with rusty barbed wire attached) to emphasise its rural character and origins.  

Kaukapakapa is one of the earliest settlements on the Kaipara, and it is really special to remember that history in the garden and create an interesting focal point.

Nectar of the Gods

I planted two rock melons in the glasshouse and they have grown like weeds in the warm environment and now have no less than 10 individual fruits swelling in the summer sun.  I can't wait until the day arrives when I walk in the glasshouse and am overwhelmed by the sticky, honey-like scent which indicates the melons are ready to eat.  There is something satisfying about growing a fruit which seems so exotic and decadent.  You read about the victorian kitchen gardeners spending endless hours tending over precious melon plants to coax them into growing and using melon nets to take the weight of the fruit.

A Plateful of Pink

I'm totally and utterly smitten with the Sedum 'autumn joy' I planted last year in my pink and yellow garden.  They are such wonderfully large clouds of gorgeous pink flower heads which then fade to autumnal rust and burgundy as the summer sun wanes.  As you can see from these photos, they are also an absolute feast of delight for insects, in particular the many bumblebees which frequent my garden.  They are the perfect landing pad for their heavy nectar laden bodies.  Count how many on just this one flower head...

I'm so impressed with the display that i'm re-thinking this whole garden bed, and will in autumn remove some of the existing planting and create a massed triptych of sedum, yellow flowered perennials and grasses.  I love the notion of a sea of pink sedum flowers floating amidst a sea of wavering grass dotted with yellow.

I first saw these sedums in New Zealand at the gorgeous Queenstown Airport planting (see photo below), designed by Blakely Wallace Associates Landscape Architects.  Nestled under the Remarkables the planting design at the airport is a wonderful example of how public plantings don't have to be boring or lacking in color and vibrancy.  The sedums, mixed in with native plants link beautifully to the rusty, sunlit slopes of the Remarkables and inspired me to try the sedums in my own garden.

Feathery Babies

We just picked up 40 new 5 day old Barnevelder chickens from Poultry Valley Lifestyle - they are such lovely bundles of cuteness and the dark camouflage coloring of the Barenevelders is just lovely.  One of the first out-buildings at Violet Hill Farm was the 'little red chook shed' and Barnevelders were the breed of hen I chose all those years ago.

There are four remaining of my first girls, and they still produce their lovely brown eggs every second day after 7 years!  Makes me wonder at the tragic waste from battery farming where after a year the hens are considered 'unproductive'.  After 7 years (and still counting) producing eggs my girls have earned a well deserved old age scratching around in the orchard and will NOT be going to the pot.  Anyway, they are wonderfully well-behaved examples for my new chickens.  Hoping that we won't have too many boys in the new cohort, but it's always a lottery.

Barnevelder hens originate from the Netherlands, and I drove through the village of Barnevelder just outside of Amsterdam when I attended a conference there last year.  They are a dual breed, which means they are good egg layers and also good meat birds (handy when you have a disproportionate number of males in the collective).  I have never had any health issues with any of my old girls, but then letting them free range in the orchard no doubt helps with their general health and well-being.  Barnevelders are so fabulous there is even a whole website dedicated to them! http://www.barnevelders.co.uk/chickens

I particularly love the large brown sometimes speckled eggs they produce, and after spending the day hunting for insects and pecking at grass in the orchard, the eggs have the most gorgeous orange yolks you could wish for.  I'm afraid that not even store bought free range cut the mustard at our house any more.  I highly recommend anyone having their own chickens, even in a small back yard - they are so easy to care for and are a delight to watch as they run towards you at feeding time with their feathery bums wobbling from side to side.

Purple Haze

I have one clematis in my garden currently, and it has proven itself to be the most fantastic ambassador for the genus that I am now plotting the location of at least 6 new varieties.  I had always been under the impression that clematis were particularly difficult to establish, but this large purple beauty is proving my assumptions wrong.  Mind you, I have obeyed the rules of leaving well alone and not disturbing the roots.  In fact, I don't cut back the dead branches either - I just leave it to do it's thing.  I'm thinking of trying some of the new varieties sprawling up into my boughs of my orchard fruit trees - a romantic vision of orchard gorgeousness!

It's funny how my garden journey keeps being triggered by memory - and searching through my folios the other day, I found a water-colour painting that I did in a botanical painting course at the English Gardening School based at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London.  What dim and distant images must have been in play when I chose my purple giant - to bring back memories of that moment in time.

The bumblebees love the large plate-sized flowers and hang out on them for hours.  I'm going to spend many glorious hours deciding on my new range of clematis from Yaku nursery in Taranaki - a specialist clematis grower and supplier.  

Lily Late Arrivals

I planted a group of christmas lilies outside my kitchen window nearly 6 years ago and every year since then, without fail they have bloomed profusely just in time for christmas day.  This year, for the first time they were two weeks late!  However, they are easily forgiven, because as usual their display of fragrant white trumpets has been spectacular.  Even the little native solitary bees (look closely in the photo) have been enjoying their nectar.  I am planning to complete the front garden (currently a messy clay unfinished garden) this year and have plans for a mass planting of christmas lilies to frame a green rectangle of lawn. The intention is a purely white and silver garden with water feature, I have visions of Sissinghurst and Vita Sackville-West has been an inspiration for my garden as I visited there as a young landscape architect  and was inspired by the way she linked nature, gardening and poetry into one delightfully serene and comfortable landscape.  I like to think that the initial inspiration for her now famous white garden was derived from her love of nature and poetry, she loved walking at dusk and in darkness and was enchanted (as am I) by the luminescent quality that white flowers have at night.  Vita had a strong poetic vision of what the white garden would be, as she stated "I cannot help hoping that the great ghostly barn owl will sweep across a pale garden... in the twilight".  I may not have a ghostly white barn own to swoop over my moon (white) garden but the local Moreporks that call each night outside my window might oblige   - watch this space...

Vita's love of barn owls is reflected in this lovely poem...

Each dusk I saw, while those I loved the most

Chattered of present or of alient things.

The rhythmic owl returning like a ghost

Across the orchard cruising on wide wings.

She went, she came, she swooped, she sought the height

Where her young brood hid snoring for the mouse;

Tirelessly weaving on her silent flight

Between the laden branches and the house.

Creation of Living Roof

The following images show the stages in creation of a living roof on my shepherds hut sleep out.  I implemented the living roof myself and it was remarkably easy to achieve following  Dusty Gedge Living Roof DIY Guide.  The result is a stunning vegetated roof which not only provides great insulation for the sleep-out, but is proving to be a popular insect habitat and I think it looks fantastic.  I am now keen to have a living roof on any and every roof at the farm that I can manage - i'm a total living roof convert!

Structural roof beams

Plywood base to roof

Layer of pond liner

Adding timber edging and bringing liner up edge

Thin drainage layer added (Versidrain) - retains some water 

Adding substrate and plants (mix of sedums and succulents)

Completed living roof

View across living roof

Shepherds hut with living roof (plants peeping over edge)

Self seeded native orchid

A great habitat for bees and other insects

Elderflowers

My elderberry trees were in full bloom a few weeks back and I decided to try and make some elderflower champagne (River Cottage recipe).  The results were opened on christmas day and despite not having quite enough sugar the results were very tasty and had that lovely floral and yet slightly musky scent and flavour of the elderberry flowers with some great bubbles.  They are so short-lived it seems fitting to be able to capture their delicacy in a bottle.  I will try elderflower cordial next year and in autumn will look at using the wonderful purply black berries in jams and maybe a wine?  Not only do they taste delicious but just look at the gorgeous flowers, like tiny little start bursts - a favourite sign of late spring at Violet Hill Farm!