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.