December 2011

Everything had been ticking over nicely with our new section in November (except of course for the bronze beetles) until we suddenly got the offer of a trip to an island way down south as volunteers for the Dept of Conservation, which of course we could not refuse. We had just 2 weeks to sort everything out so that we could be away for about a month (including our already planned xmas trip) and so it was quite full on.

We had to hurriedly harvest the remaining crops in the last 2 beds as they would not wait till we returned, so we processed and stored what we could. We had already frozen about 30kg of broad beans but bed 6 was completely planted with the wretched things which we just couldn't face, so we took them by the wheelbarrow-full (literally) to Pam, the organiser of our lagoon restoration group who seems to know everyone around here, and they were apparently very well received.

I had grown all the seedlings for the first 4 beds from seed but the last of these were still in the greenhouse and would need to be looked after while we were away and there seemed little point in planting seeds for the final rotations at this stage. In addition, watering had to be automated as much as possible, the chooks food and water had to be made as easy as possible, and everything had to be mown or weeded or tied up so that it would survive a month without us, whatever the weather.

But after some very long days, it was all rather neat and tidy and we had a succession of lovely friends and neighbours organised to help out.

All the house plants were shifted to the breezeway and a trough that could easily be refilled.

The plants around the house and the trellis were weeded and watered.



The magnolia grandiflora was watered and mulched and looked quite healthy.

The willow hedge could have grown a bit more but was still alive.

The climbers on the pergola were tied up.


The pumpkin patch was in its infancy but looking good.

There were lots of flowers on the feijoa ...

... and about 50 apricots on a very healthy looking tree. Let's hope they don't ripen in the next month.


Some rather sad looking kumara plants had arrived just in time to be planted. Not sure about their chances.


The vege patch was looking good. Bed 1.
Bed 2.

Bed 3 - sweetcorn

Bed 4 - just mulched as no time to plant it out.

Bed 5 - some very lucky chooks with quite a lot to eat.
And bed 6, recently stripped of its broad beans.

The strawberries were just coming into in full production and it was sad to leave them.

The greenhouse was all planted up and looking good.


The new path looked good, from a distance.


The grass had been cut around the natives, as the bulbs had died back, and were looking good with their new mulch.


The willow house was alive and well and developing a Sonny Bill Williams haircut!

There were the first signs of comfrey around the fruit trees in the orchard.


And the natives and the surrounding kikuyu grass on the soak field were thriving.

And then on December 7th we were up and away. Let's hope they don't miss us too much!

.... So, we were due to have 2 days back from our volunteering before our Xmas trip but the plane broke and couldn't collect us from the island so we only had one day. In addition, our camera had broken while we were away, so no more photos for a while.

The weather had been mixed, or even wet, while we were away, so everything had survived. Our helpers had done a great job and we just had some frantic tidying, mowing and picking to do in our 1 day back.

We also discovered that we had had an aerial photo taken of our new section on December 2nd and we thought it was rather interesting. Our new section includes the strip of bush to the right (west) of the section which is bounded on the other 3 sides by the almost visible gum trees. Our pony paddock is to the left of the main section and only partly visible.

November 2011

November dawned and, as last year, with it came the dreaded bronze beetle! And not just one bronze beetle, masses of them, night after night after night. They collect on the fruit tree of their choice at dusk and can strip it of leaves over night. They are the adult form of the native grass grub and although we have never found grass grubs on our new section, they come in droves at dusk each night that is calm. Last year we had not realised what was going on until too late and woke to find our young trees completely eaten but this year we decided to fight them. This meant spraying with neem tree oil from dusk and took about 2 hours each night. And though this killed the visitors it did not seem to reduce the numbers on subsequent nights. Their favourite seemed to be apricot trees, but plums and pears and then feijoas all seemed to be popular. And they didn't even realise when December arrived and continued on till we went away on December 7th.


But on a more pleasant note, the flaxes flowered and attracted tuis into the garden for the first time.


Our soft fruit was growing well and we covered them with the old strawberry net which was white and makes it more or less impossible to see what is inside, but does keep the birds away.

And the new blueberries were all still alive if a bit hard to see. Still they now had a water supply so hopefully they will grow big and strong.

The greenhouse / poly tunnel was going well but getting far too hot so we added some wind netting / shade netting to keep it cool. But it had allowed us to grow all the plants for the first 4 beds in the veggie patch from seed this year.

The climbing plants on the pergola were at last starting to grow. I nearly gave up on them during the winter but decided to give them another year and they were all making progress up their supports.

And the cocktail kiwifruit and new grape vines were starting to make some impression on the new trellis.

The native border round the 'front lawn' continued to grow slowly but was fast becoming overtaken by the grass that could not be cut until the bulbs died back. The sand quarry has recently shifted to a new hill to the north ...

... so that we now look right over to the river to the north east.

And then we started to clear the beds in sequence. As expected / feared, we did have an abundance of broad beans along with carrots and leeks and strawberries. We froze 30kg of broad beans during the month with the last bed which was solely broad beans still to be harvested.

And we gained a new shoe rack! A visitor had admired our old pint sized rack that we brought from our old house and had promptly been given it so Dave could make his new rolls royce version and doesn't it look nice!

October 2011

Long time no blog, but that doesn't mean things were not still happening on our new section! It was October, the month of the breezeway deck. Following the very slow progress last month, and my very harsh comments on it, the deck fairly shot up! The piles had all been finished and were correct in height to the millimetre so the woodwork was a piece of cake and grew by the moment. There were bearers ...



... and joists and dwangs ...

... (quite a lot of them) ...

... and then decking with lots of pretty melteca samples from the kitchen showroom as spacers.

And it grew and it grew and I was even allowed to put in spacers and take them out again although I caused so many hold-ups when actually drilling holes and putting screws in that I was soon relieved of those duties. BUT I had drawn up a plan of the whole deck so that all the joins were staggered and as little as possible of the decking timber was wasted and most of the blemishes on the wood were avoided. And for the most part he stuck to the plan and soon ...



... it was looking very fine. Ahhh, apart from the designer chair of course and the step that wobbled. But they are tasks for another day.

The garden was going well and the next magnolia flower appeared.

And the willow hut, or not-willow hut, sprouted well and promised much.


Still not sure if it really is willow though - some leaves looked round, green and shiny while others looked long pointy and shiny. We shall see.

Joanna's cherry tree looked lovely (in a sparse sort of way) ...

... and one of the smallest camellias in the new hedge actually managed a flower.

Our friendly eastern rosellas were frequent and quite noisy visitors and seemed to enjoy the flowering tree lucerne.

And the vege patch was abundant. Lots being the keyword with so many wonderful healthy broad bean plants that imminent gluts seemed likely to be the biggest problem.

The strawberries were looking good and were covered in new black netting soon after the start of the month so all we had to do was pick and eat.

Bed 1 - almost ready for the chooks and new planting

Bed 2 - mmm more broad beans and a lot more besides.

Bed 3 - mixed veggies

Bed 4 - another mix but rather a lot of broad beans

Bed 5 - another mix of winter veggies - a bit younger than the previous beds

Bed 6 - OK, full of broad beans, we had become too exhausted to plant anything else.

The trees surrounding the vege patch were doing so much better than the trees in the orchard and we could see lots of pears ...

... and even more apricots (yummmmm).

Actually just over 50, which were counted very regularly.

And the flaxes around the outside were just about to flower.

And Little Grey took up duties watching out for stoats - why waste an egg on bait if you have a willing and able worker!