Update on the garden:weeds growing faster than plants

My neighbors runner beans are in flower while my second planting only 3 or 4 inches high

The Red Zone rhubarb is doing well: happy to be out of the liquifaction in a munted Christchurch section

I ate raw broad beans and peas while weeding, and bought this silverbeet and puha ( sow-thistle) home for tea

No-dig gardens and strawberries

• Well I have just had my first strawberry of the season from my garden - my balcony one not the allotment. It was not as tasty as the ones I grew in Christchurch but maybe they will improve with the sun! And, if I curb my impatience and wait until they're fully ripe that would help too! Did you know strawberries don't ripen any further after they have been picked?

• I am on the mailing list for the Yates garden newsletter  and this one has a link to the 'no-dig video'. My garden is not 'no dig' but it will be 'low-dig' as I plan on covering it with mulch such as straw or pea vines to keep the weeds down and the moisture in.

• On the other hand, here is a garden in Canada  I visited that required huge digging! 

Chilli, courgettes, cucumber and more runner beans in the nursery of my balcony!

More organic veg

More organic veg are on my table tonight. Picked a second crop of radish this afternoon (I can't believe how many people don't like these hot little numbers!) and a lovely bunch of silver beet - not sure how I will use it tonight.

I noticed my broad beans have flowers ready to open over the next few days, but I also saw some rust on the lower leaves :(  not good!

The weather in Wellington was superb today and has made me realise I need to take a bottle of water with me each time I go up there - I took a book to read and it was great to sit there and have tui singing in the background.

Tasks achieved this afternoon, weeding, and planting two capsicums plants, and two hot chilli plants I'd grown on my balcony: there are still four plants in pots on the balcony so it will be intersting to see how each perform.

Planted and emerging into the spring sunshine (and rain)

Already planted and emerging from the soil into the spring sunshine are:

Broad beans

Broccoli

broad beans - planted very late in the season

Peas

Rhubarb

Red onions

Spring onion

Mixed lettuce

Bok Choy

Silver beet

Spinach

Radish

Planted but not up yet are:

Runner beans

Beetroot

Pumpkin (to be re-planted in some waste / weedy area)

And, at home - on my 3^rd floor balcony - I have chilli peppers growing, two of which will be taken up to the allotment in a week or two.

 Red Zone rhubarb from Christchurch

On my still-to-plant-list are:

Jerusalem artichoke

Capsicum

Carrots

Basil

Coriander

It will be interesting to see how these plants grow in Wellington ...  much wetter and windier conditions than I’ve gardened in before – although I did have gardens in Tokoroa and Mangapehi many years ago and was always pretty successful despite the conditions there – my garden was always a good month behind my fathers in Christchurch.  People often assume it gets warmer and warmer as you go north in New Zealand, not so. So much depends on how close to the coast and how high above sea-level.

Wellington has the same annual average temperature as Christchurch – however, the summers are cooler and winters are warmer in Wellington.

 I will miss the clear blue skies and high temperatures of Christchurch (and even the hot dry nor’wester) but I won’t miss the ‘beasterly easterly’ and the sunny, crisp and clear days that followed a frost.

I enjoy the warmer winters already: the difference between night and day temperatures is not as pronounced in Wellington and I have rarely had to have a heater on this winter!

Nature is unpredictable

Funny how nature proves again and again you cannot trust small children and animals to do what you want – on command - today was no exception.

I walked up to my garden, via a section of Wellington’s city to sea walkway, through Central Park  (see this photo of United States troops camped  there during WW2) and this time had my regular camera with me … I didn’t want to see a rosella or kaka and not be able to get a photo - again.

Neither birds showed up in the 30 mins I was there but on leaving, I saw a kingfisher (kotare) on the power line: I stop, get my camera out, the bird moves into a tree.  I turn my Cannon on - you would think it sounds like its name as my target flies off – adding yet another bird seen but not captured on film. (Going to the International Birding Conference in Gujarat India  has started me on the slippery slope of becoming a birder perhaps!)

Kaka

Kaka ( at Zealandia)

   

My daughter saw a kereru (native wood pigeon) while on her only, so far, visit to the allotments but I haven’t seen one. It’s great the Wellington hills have so much native bush as it encourages the bird life … and of course Zealandia ( Karori Wildlife Sanctuary) is a fabulous nursery for them too. I suspect that's where the kaka I saw came from: see more about their kaka breeding  and banding here

Kereru in Botanic Gardens, Christchurch

I have just received a fabulous photographic guide (Birds of NZ – Collins Traveller’s Guide) which I know will be useful for me. It’s authored by Julian Fitter and Don Merton (who was, and still is, one of NZ’s nature heroes, and who died before the book was published in 2011).

See more about Collins Birds of NZ here

However, as this is a blog about my garden, it’s time I made a list of what’s growing in my plot in my next blog.

Progress photos from the garden

Thanks to Brian and Renee for the digging

Springtime - everyone is starting to prepare for planting 

 

 

 

 

the beginnings

what a view!

Thats a kaka on the right! I must take my bigger camera to the garden

three neighbors from my apartment block are neighbors up here too

one of the Asian gardeners is very neat and tidy in his plot

Martin Bosley: NZ top chef writes about Tanera Gardens

See what the NZ Listener says about the gardens - in an article by one of NZ's top chefs - Martin Bosley.

My last garden was also inner city - on a balcony

Here is a piece I wrote about my last garden – in Christchurch .

What is a garden?

Most people would not call it a garden: it’s about 3 X 1.5m and is on the 3^rd floor of an inner city apartment building.

But what is a garden? A place where plants grow? A place for relaxation? A place of peace? If that’s so, my balcony is a garden. Why?

After one year here, I have numerous flowers hanging over the edge to soften the concrete; I also grow rosemary, thyme, garlic chives, parsley, mint and my chilli are impressive. The space also kept me in tomatoes and a few lettuces over summer: right now I’m using lettuce, spinach, and silver beet, while my broad beans are doing really well.

I also have 3 bonsai trees, a water bowl and plant, and dormant in other containers are Christmas and tiger lilies, and some old-fashioned spring bulbs whose name eludes me!

As well as all that I have a bird feeder that attracts silvereyes, sparrows and finches; I have a comfortable cane chair where I can read, relax, and enjoy the sun on this north facing view with its tiny glimpse of the Southern Alps. I also have a worm farm!

This means I’ve reduced my global footprint by eschewing my waste disposal unit and turning all that ‘rubbish’ into soil for my pots and the ‘worm-wee’ is a wonderful fertiliser.

So do have I a garden? Absolutely.

Native birds and an Aussie import

The best laid plans often end up on the scrap-heap – or in this case the’ later-on heap’. My next blog was to be about plans for my little garden, composting and worm farms – all these now have to wait as I have something exciting to report!

Up in the Wellington hills, which are where our community gardens, or allotments are, the sound of birds is fabulous. Every time I’m there a tui sings territorially … or maybe calling for, or to, a mate … and  flies between two trees,  each tree on opposite sides of the garden area – I must photograph him and his cute little parsons white tuft under his chin. ( although I guess birds don’t have chins, just beaks)

However, this week when I went up to the garden I was very excited – and I made me realise I MUST keep my little camera with me [after all that's why I bought this little one with its 3x optical zoon and 14 mega pixels – to be with me always] as this time I saw what I believe was a brightly coloured rosella – an import from Australia. BUT I’m not a birder, just someone who likes them, so cannot confirm the validity of my naming of the so-called rosella – when I get photographic evidence I will post it here and birders can identify it for me. In the meantime check out the links above and see what our native bird the tui looks like as well as the Aussie import.

Black backed gull - on Matu-Somes Island - I expect to see these overhead from the garden too

My inner city garden allotment begins

Wikipedia says of  the site of my inner city garden allotment  “Tanera Park lies to the north and north-west of Central Park on the opposite side of Ohiro Road. The park has sports facilities, including soccer, cricket, and artificial surfaces as well as changing-rooms.”
 
It also has a dog exercise area beside land the Wellington City Council ( 1991) set aside for inner-city people to grow their own vegetables. The Tanera Community Gardens have some 33 plots and I’m the newest person to have acquired a spot!

Unfortunately I didn’t take photos of the overgrown area, but this is what it looked like after my daughter and her partner weeded and turned it over.

Coming from Christchurch, where I have lived and gardened most of my life, it was a surprise to have such heavy and wet soil - even though my inner city garden allotment is on a sunny slope -   and here, in wetter and windier Wellington, I’m sure I will need to use a few different gardening techniques to those I know – it will be trial and error, and getting advice from my fellow allotment gardeners.

Naturally there will be more to follow, so sign up for updates (top right hand side of this page), or bookmark me and keep coming back for news of my successes or failures … of course I’m open to advice from other Wellington gardeners, so, leave a comment for me

                                         Gardening with great views of Wellington Harbour