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