I am very pleased with how the vege garden is looking and have popped a few seeds and seedlings into the tyres that are filled and ready. The vagaries of Wellington's spring weather have made themselves felt this last week or so with some of the stormiest weather in over 50 years. Of course, it's not just Wellington that has been hit, the South Island is in the grips of terrible rain/sleet/hail/snow storms which are playing havoc with the spring lambing amongst other things. I really feel for all of those involved. It's pretty rough following right on the heels of the Earthquake.
With the knowledge that spring is an unpredictable and random event here with summer often no better, I decided I'd sort out some cold frames to start my seeds off in. It's also easier to keep the baby plants safe from the ravages of slugs, snails and my all time favourite - The Mystery Axe Murderer!
When I was growing food in the first incarnation of my vege garden I used to get very frustrated and was completely mystified by the fact that one day I'd have a healthy row of seedlings smiling up at me and the next morning when I went to say hello all I'd find was a row of little stumps, with the tops laying neatly alongside. It was as if some sadistic mini lumberjack had been through during the night and felled my burgeoning crops with their tiny axe. I never did work out who; or what, the culprit was and I'm not prepared to watch it happen all over again. Ergo, the cold frames. This way I can keep my babies safe through their infancy until they are ready to toddle on their own in their new homes down in the vege garden. I guess the dwarf sugar snap and snow pea seeds I have already planted are just going to have to take their chances though! After investigating various possibilities; including making them myself, I came across a local company which manufactures a couple of products which pretty much met my criteria. The first is a cold frame:
Suntuf Coldframe
and the second is slightly smaller model:
Sun Tunnel
They are due to be delivered today - yippee... I can't wait to get sowing.
Next up will be sorting out the hoop / cloche system for the vege beds so that I can attempt to circumvent the inclement conditions in order to convince the veges that it is warmer than they think it is!
For a bit of light relief during the construction of the vege garden I have cleared quite a bit of the bed directly above the vege garden. This is going to be a flower bed ... a lot of my gardening friends think I've had some sort of breakdown because to date my garden has been an almost exotic flower free zone; the only flowering plants in residence have been native species. In the past I've dabbled briefly with flowers, but as most of the plants I tried simply got torn to shreds in the wind I gave up. I did manage to grow a few roses in the old vege garden but they were never really happy and I ended up asking my mum to adopt them. They are all doing very well up in Auckland now and I get regular 'report cards' on their progress.When I arrived home; after pondering and planning for 3 years about what I'd do in the garden if I was ever home for good, I could once again allow the urge to grow roses take root. This time however, I was going to be realistic and decided to put Rugosa roses in. These tough little customers not only handle the wind, but are more than happy growing in the teeth of salt laden gales right on the beach and will even tolerate poor soils. So far I've only planted three down the back. The remainder (5) are planted up in the top garden where I'm playing the 'wait and see if they will perform' game.
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| Myosotidium hortensia - Chatham Island Forget-Me-Knot |
Schneezwerg and
Fimbriata which has a little pink in it but I can forgive it for that for the time being!
I am going to add a couple more roses as I slowly move the current occupants out.The roses are:
Stella Polaris and maybe
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