Summer colour and bounty

The recently planted and still in progress claret garden is coming along well, the Japanese maple is doing well now that there is some protection from wind and the mix of red and deep red/rust coloured perennials such as chocolate cosmos and Echinacea are mixing together beautifully.

The dahlias are doing well also.

and the potager has a great crop of eggplant, basil, corn...

nasturtians (i have a plan for pickled nasturtian seeds but in the mean time the small leaves and flowers are wonderful in garden salads)...

and cucumbers on our cucumber frame.

Pollinators

After being inspired doing the illustrations for the NZ Gardener Plan Bee Campaign  I have been noticing the pollinators in my and others gardens a lot more.

 The macro lens provides a close up view of the intricacies of these vitally important insects at work.

Water Chestnut Experiment

Was inspired to try growing water chestnuts for myself by recent trip to China, where timed with the moon festival, a rather alien looking vegetable was sold by street vendors on nearly every corner.  

 

I was served this delicacy at a small rural restaurant just outside Wuhan where I discovered it was a type of water chestnut - the water caltrop or horned water chestnut.  

This version had a hard outer shell that had to be cracked open with ones teeth - so i've opted to grow the common water chestnut Eleocharis dulcis which is an aquatic sedge with edible corms which have a soft brown skin that can be peeled and then they are ready for eating.

Water chestnuts are grown in a similar way to rice in Asia - within flooded paddy field type situations - so by all accounts an old bathtub with 10cm of flooded water at top over a good quality rich soil will be perfect.  So, old baths put to good use - I like that kind of up-cycling!

Then the corms arrived with new shoots in the post - nothing better than receiving tiny parcels of life through NZ Post wrapped up in a box - best mail ever to open!!

Once unwrapped you can see last years corms that the small plants have started to re-sprout from.

So, in the bath they go and we'll see what happens over the coming months - apparently 6 per bath will be plenty and they are supposed to grow like crazy - here's hoping we'll have fresh water chestnuts in autumn to stir fry!

 

They have pride of place next to the bath dedicated to my nettle crop - which is doing particularly well so far this spring.

Pizza Oven

The pizza oven I built about 7 years ago from the shed magazine instructions had a chimney extension this summer to allow for the new shaded outdoor loggia and a bit of a revamp.  Working like a dream - nothing better than puffed up wood fired pizzas with home grown basil, garlic and tomatos.  Another favorite, as shown, is chicken, cranberry and brie with fresh french tarragon from the garden.

Planting Underway

The new japanese inspired water courtyard is about 90% complete with planting undertaken in late spring.  Just a few more rocks and pebbles to add to hide pond liner and a year for the plants to mature.  Here is the plant list for the garden – a blend of native and exotic species with predominantly green on green with occasional silver and white colour scheme:

Exotic

Zephyranthes candida (white rain lily)

Anemone hupehensis var. japonica

Juniper (cascade style bonsai)

Lomandra longifolium ‘Tanika’

Native

Sporadanthus ferrugineus

Pimelea prostrate

Selliera radicans

Selliera microphylla

Coprosma prostrata

Coprosma ‘Red rocks’

Pittosporum ‘Humpty dumpty’

Pittosporum ‘Golf ball’

Clematis ‘Purity’ 

growing up existing large Silver weeping pear (Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’)

 Old basalt curbstones and concrete pavers form edge of pond and stepping stones.

 Clematis growing up rusty chain into Weeping silver pear

 View down onto garden from balcony

 The dappled light on the deck from weeping silver pear is delightful and perfect for the lounger.

 And in my view you can't have a pond without a white nymphaea.

The little Selliera is starting to do its thing and grow through the pebbles and interlace with the Pimelea prostrate.  I envision a mixed tapestry of plants.

 The lounger is the new favorite spot, late afternoon with glass of wine.

Porters liquid rust paint used for planter and plywood fence panels to give that rustic rusty backdrop.

 A small bubbler provides that wonderful sound of water.

 And the area has become a haven for wildlife already.

Dragonflies are frequent visitors.

And within a few days of filling with water a golden bell frog (named Lord Nelson) took up residence.

And the skinks are slinking in and out of the rocks and pebbles.

Wedding Day

There is nothing more overwhelmingly flamboyant than the spectacle of Rosa 'Wedding day' in full bloom.  The sound of the bees that smother the flowers is deafening and for that brief moment in early November it is as if the clouds themselves have tumbled down to earth.

A Garden Close Up

A generous lend of a macro lens from Jack Hobbs at the Auckland Botanic Gardens for my trip to the rainforests of Borneo has ensured a new addition to the ‘must have’ list for Christmas.

On return home from Malaysia where the focus of the lens was on miniature fungi hidden in the leaf litter and bizarre invertebrates (see below) I played around in my autumn garden – oh what a delight there is in seeing things from the perspective of a bee. 

It reminds me of the wise advice of an elderly gardener I used to visit as an 11 year old.  She had a large rambling garden full of roses and bulbs and some very sweet bantams (of whose eggs I always went home with).  Over a glass of lemonade and a biscuit, she would tell me to “always remember every day and all the tiny details of things – as one day I would wake and be her age (70+) with a wish to have spent more time observing and noticing the ‘beauty in little things’…