Summer Update

 It's now past mid-summer and i've been slack with my garden updates over christmas and new year.  But the garden has provided a number of surprises and satisfactions this summer.  I have been appreciating some of my herbs - taking time out to see the beauty of small things - like this azure blue borage flower.  

Then contrasted with the brightest display from my calendulas.  Which this year I used to make both a calendula cream and calendula soap with a tincture of the petals and dried petals.  The medicinal benefits of calendula are renown, particularly for skin complaints.   The flowers contain antiseptic, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties that promote healing.  Aside from the above mentioned medicinal uses i've been throwing them liberally into our salads.

I extended my herb garden early in summer into an area of unused space at the end of the raised beds.  Old wine barrels seem to fit the space well and i've put in an apothecary rose, horseradish, french tarragon (because you can never have too much tarragon - it's such a lovely herb) and sage.

I'm very excited about growing horseradish for the first time - I figure the wine barrel is deep enough for the roots and by all accounts it's quite invasive - so should prevent unwanted spreading!

I've never had much luck with sage - so hoping that the free-draining soil I used in the barrel assist.

The new rose at front of house (another Madame Alfred Carriere) has taken off and looks gorgeous - who says roses don't do well in the north - rubbish.

I re-discovered a lost treasure in my green wall - a small native orchid is holding on and flowering for the first time this year.  It's delicate orange flowers are so perfect.

And finally after years of coaxing - my hydrangeas are finally looking healthy and have flowered profusely with a dense underplanting of sweet violet.  A particularly poignant success as I have such nostalgic memories of hydrangea and I really wanted some in my garden.  But more about that another time.

Papery poppies

Planted 12 seedling poppies in spring and in early summer was rewarded with the most gloriously decadent display of blousey, papery flowers.  I've always lamented not being able to grow paeonies in our climate - but these divine poppies would give the best paeony a run for their money!

One of the delights of these plants is that at every era of their lifespan they provide a interesting and beautiful displays - leaves are a buttery green colour and then the opening buds are a delight in themselves, with a burst of colour seeping out between the split calyx.

Then the flowers themselves - a troupe of ballerinas in pink toned tutu's dancing through the garden.

and last, but by no means least - the gorgeous seed heads - who gradually dry out and open up little holes at their top to release (in their own mini pepper shaker) the tiny black seeds we all love on our daily loaves (i've collected millions this year and we will be having our very own poppy seed loaf!

I wasn't sure how long the flowers would last in a vase - but I put together a potager bouquet for my mother in law's 60th and the flowers lasted for quite a few days before dropping their petals.

What a lovely result the bouquet ended up being - who needs a florist when you have a vege patch - poppies, artichoke leaves and rocket flowers - fabulous...

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.