Another wildflower bed in the making

For the past week I have been busy preparing another wild flower bed. This new one is 200 metres squared (4 metres wide by 50 metres long). We marked out the area in the paddock first and then dad mowed it with his ride on mower. We then paid a contractor to rotavate the area by tractor. The area was too big to tackle by hand.

There was a delay in sowing the wild flower seed due to rain and high winds for a few days. The rain was much needed though to settle the soil down. When the rain stopped I divided the wildflower patch into eighths with markers. Then I used 780 grams of wildflower seed in total mixing 98 g of seed at a time with 2 L of fine pumice stone in 8 batches. I then sowed the seed by hand.

This morning I finished sowing the wildflower seed, yaaaay! It was a fun job to do, if a little bit back breaking. I felt like a farmer of olden days sowing a crop by hand. It was quite therapeutic.

The birds have found my seed to be irresistible to eat, especially the doves. The blackbirds have been turning over the soil looking for worms. And the rabbits have been digging holes at the edge of the wildflower bed. Sighs. Luckily I sowed the seed densely. Dad and I covered the seed finely using eight 40 L bags of compost, so hopefully this will slow the birds down.

Now it is a matter of keeping my fingers and toes crossed that the seeds will germinate. We are expecting light rain over the next few days, so that will help. Because the area is so big we aren't able to water it ourselves, so it is up to nature to do its thing.

It is exciting waiting for the flowers to pop up. The seed was a mixture of 30 different types of flowers which were un-named on the packets. I recognised poppies, cornflowers, calendula, French marigold, cosmos and scabious seed. I hope that the flowers will be blooming by Christmas time :)

Time now for a cup of tea and some more colouring in.

I hope that you have a good week.

See you next time.

Hugs.

Rose x

A Day in Johanna Basford's Enchanted Forest

I couldn't think of a better way to spend a rainy Spring day than by absorbing myself in painting in my Enchanted Forest colouring book by Johanna Basford. So I dug out my tin of watercolour paints and my very tiny size 2 sable paint brush and set to work at my desk while the thunder, lightning and hailstones did their own thing outside.

The photos above are snapshots of portions of the pages that I was working (playing) with. And the photo below is of the middle section of the picture.

I just love colouring-in books for adults. The drawings inside are exquisitely detailed and I enjoy losing myself in the pages as I colour them in. There are little things that aren't noticed at first until you look closely and see little creatures hidden amongst the foliage.

Now I am quite happy and relaxed and looking forward to my next session of colouring in.

Two more recently released colouring books arrived in the post last week - I couldn't resist buying them - Johanna Basford's Magical Jungle and Millie Marotta's Wild Savannah. The pictures inside are just as delightful. I have quite a collection of books now to enjoy.

Happy colouring.

Love Rose x

From 50 Ixia bulbs to thousands of flowers

I started this wild flower area many years ago and planted just 50 ixia bulbs in it. Now the ixia have taken over. It is surprisingly one of the last surviving plants in this spot. It gives a splendid display of thousands of flowers now and takes little, if no, looking after. I let the plants happily seed themselves after flowering and just mow around the edges to keep the garden in check.

This is a view from the ixia bed across to the pond. It is my favourite place to sit in the Spring time. I like to watch the flowers blowing about in the gentle breeze and watch the birds flying overhead from here.

And this is my old garden seat which has now been put into retirement because one of the legs rusted through.

Yesterday we bought a new garden bench seat which dad assembled today. I will have to photograph it to show you, it looks great in its new position. I am very happy with it and so are my cats who like to sit with me.

I am hoping that the flowers will continue putting on their show for a few weeks more.

See you next time.

Hugs

Rose x

Spring has arrived in my garden

Spring is here and all the bulbs are flowering which puts a big smile on my face. Spring came quite early this year. It has been very wet, I don't remember so much rainfall before, but the plants are loving it.

The golden African daisies (arctotis) began flowering a few weeks ago. I have been deadheading them this year because I read that they will continue flowering until Autumn if I do. Each arctotis flower only lasts for 2 days, so that will be a lot of deadheading for me!

The purple babiana is flowering well. I have quite a few large clumps of it now which I plan to divide in the Autumn and spread them through the arctotis. I like the combination of gold and purple flowers.

The white onion weed is spreading rapidly, I won't be pulling it out as I like the look of it, it reminds me a bit of snowdrops. Just a pity it smells of onions, so not any good for picking and putting in a vase.

My white hellebores are putting on a great show again. When I cleared out the large dead leaves I found hundreds of tiny hellebore seedlings. I need to find another shady place to plant them in.

The multi-coloured ixia flowers have just started to open. They look lovely waving about in the breeze.

This mass of pink frothy succulents has been flowering for weeks now. I have forgotten the name of this plant?

And here are some of my bluebells flowering. I love their scent, just like hyacinths.

I am enjoying these flowers while I wait for the soggy land to dry up a bit. I want to have a large area of paddock ploughed over so that I can sow my wildflower seeds that I bought last year. I can't wait.

looking forward to seeing you here again.

Hugs Rose.

My green green vegetable garden

I never tire of looking at the greens of nature. It is very restful for the eyes on hot summer days.

Today they promised thunderstorms, but instead we got a hot, balmy 28 C with just a spot or two of rain. When the clouds started to clear a bit I took the opportunity to venture outside with my camera, accompanied by my cat Oscar.

We went into my vegetable garden to see how things were coming along...

Everything is growing so fast in this weather, it is unbelievable. The cucumber plants are now escaping from the vegetable garden and onto the pathway. I discovered my first cucumbers growing very nicely with not a sign of mildew.

The caigua (pronounced "kai-wa") is growing rampantly over the fence. This is the first time that I have grown caigua. It is a relation of the cucumber family which originated in Peru.

Some people say that caigua tastes a bit like green peppers and asparagus, and some say it is like eating green beans. I wonder what it will taste like for me?

The flower buds have formed and a few have opened into clusters of tiny cream coloured flowers. I can't wait to harvest it. In the meantime I am researching on how to prepare and eat them.

My herb patch is also doing well. There is a good crop of dill and coriander. My parsley and basil are the only things that are being slow this year.

The variegated marjoram has taken over the lemon thyme. I need to take some cuttings of the lemon thyme, or layer it, before it is totally lost.

I never expected my lemongrass to grow so big! It is so exciting that I grew it from a few stalks from the supermarket.

Here is my lettuce which I am growing like mesclun. All I do is pick a few leaves, from each plant, at a time whenever I need it. My perpetual spinach and coloured silverbeet are ready for picking now, also leaf by leaf.

The snow peas have been providing me with another good crop this year. I gather a couple of handfuls each evening. Tomorrow I will need to freeze some because they are piling up in the fridge.

The beans and tomatoes are growing nicely. I picked the grand total of four beans today! The first of the crop.

I wish that the tomatoes would hurry up. There is an abundance of flowers which are keeping the bees very happy, but not much sign of the fruit setting yet.

We have been getting courgettes galore since I came back from my holiday. They grow so fast that if I miss picking one one day, it will have grown the size of a marrow by the next day.

So far we have eaten courgette bread, courgettes sautéed in butter, courgette salad, and stuffed courgettes and we have given some away. I need to find more recipes for some variety before the glut really starts.

Dad trimmed my artichoke plants down, after I had picked the last of the crop, and they are looking really healthy with lots of new leaf growth. Artichokes are one of my favourite vegetables. Cooked by steaming them and served with butter, delicious!

Oscar approves.

See you again soon.

Hugs Rose x

My holiday in Hawkes Bay New Zealand

I have returned from a very enjoyable holiday in the Hawkes Bay area with my older brother and sister-in-law. My younger brother and his wife drove me down there with my little 6 year old nephew. It is about a 5 hour drive, so we decided to stop overnight at a friend's batch (holiday home in New Zealand language) on the edge of Lake Rotowiti in Rotorua to break the journey up a bit.

The weather was glorious. When we arrived at Hawkes Bay, where my brother has built his new house, it was 32 degrees C and remained around this temperature most of the time that I was there.

My sister-in-law breeds miniature horses and has now got 22 of them. They are delightful, especially the young foal who loves to be cuddled.

Here are some of my sister-in-law's bantam silky hens plus a speckled bantam. They occasionally lay around 2 to 3 eggs a day between them.

For my birthday my younger brother and his wife took me to the UB40 concert which was held in the Havelock North Tuki Tuki Valley with views of Te Mata Peak. When the band arrived the sun came out from behind the clouds and the wind dropped. We had an amazing time.

Then a couple of days later my older brother and his wife treated me to dinner at the Terroir Restaurant which is in the Craggy Range vineyard in Havelock North. The food and atmosphere was excellent.

I spent my days relaxing at my brother's new house reading, chatting, taking photos and being taken on day trips around Napier, Havelock North and Hastings.

Here are some photos that I took from the top of Te Mata Peak which is 399 metres above sea level. The weather again was glorious.

See you again soon

Hugs
Rose x

A pleasant evening walk on our land

It was a lovely cool evening this evening, after a rather hot and humid day, so I decided to go for a walk around our land to cool down a bit. We live on 10 1/4 acres of land here in New Zealand and our house is in the middle of it, surrounded by fields and trees.

This is the view from the top of the land. The woodland in the distance is native New Zealand subtropical rainforest known as "bush".

I took the following 3 photos near to the house and they are part of the view that I look out on from my bedroom window.

The tall spiky trees are native New Zealand trees known as Cabbage trees. These trees seeded themselves here amongst our feijoa bushes (pineapple guava).

Our grapes have grown wild and happily ramble over the trees which keeps the blackbirds happy.

Fennel seeds itself everywhere, and the patch on the left has been kept for their flowers to attract the bees towards my vegetable patch.

On my walk I came across one of the many pukeko birds that live on our land eating a kumara (sweet potato).

Our pukekos are very cheeky and don't fly away from us. I have grown quite fond of them, though many people dislike them as they wreck gardens, especially vegetable patches, pulling out small plants to eat their roots.

We have a fence around our vegetable patch to keep both the pukekos and our cats out. Although the pukekos can fly they tend to walk most of the time.

I found that my artichokes have started flowering. They look beautiful, but I will need to pick them all to keep the plants strong for next years crop.

Below is another view that I can see from my bedroom. The pink roses have almost finished flowering now but they put on a glorious show in early Summer and the scent is heavenly.

As I am writing this it has gone dark outside and I feel refreshed and so much cooler after my walk. I think I will have a relaxing evening reading my book and cuddling my cats. Then do a bit of mindfulness meditation to wind down completely.

Until next time,

Rose x