Beetroot in the Ground!

I was going to plant seed for my beetroot crop, in fact I still will, but I have opted for seedlings for this first crop, to get a head start.  

We have had great success with sowing seeds in the past and it really is more economical - it is just a time factor.  

My 10 plants will not provide me with nearly enough beetroot for the winter. I will be using the leaves for salad as well as the root once they are large enough, so I'm going to need loads of plants. Better hunt out those seeds.

Plants That Make Me Smile :-)

Ahhhh, a sunny afternoon at last. I managed to hunt out my gumboots and take a look at the garden.

We pulled out the sodden tomatoes and zucchini plants to make way for winter crops and have planted the fig tree I bought Hubby for his birthday.

I have mowed the front lawn, trimmed the goat's hooves and trimmed back some plants that have finished flowering for the year.

Surprisingly there were a few still in full flower and I can't help but smile to see them in all their splendour. My little chrysanthemum is a mass of flowers.

And some of the cape daisies are also doing super well.

Even the gazanias are still throwing out some sweet blooms. This one really caught my eye.

And the silver spear, a quiet achiever, while not flowering looked rather striking with the sun shining down it's long stems.

One of my favourite additions to the garden are my faux bull rush stems. My Mum made them herself. They look so real positioned in a reed bush in the front garden and I can enjoy them all year round - Thanks Mum!

Winter is on it's Way

The last week or so has been very wet and cold with a polar blast moving up the  country, reminding us that Winter is most definitely on it's way.  Our mountain ( Mt Taranaki) had its first snow of the year and it was a pretty good dusting!

#mounttaranaki

http://i.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/67733284/First-snow-of-winter-falls-on-Mt-Taranaki

The vege plot has halted its growth and the rest of the garden is looking rather sad and waterlogged. We will be pulling out the tomatoes and zucchini plants in the next week or so to make way for some winter crops. I will certainly miss the produce until our next crops come in. 

I have retreated indoors, not much gardening has gone on since the cool weather arrived. I've traded my gumboots for ugg boots for the time being. Hey, I'm sure the plants would prefer to be indoors too if they had a choice! 

Making Silver Spear Stand Out

Sometime ago I named our property 'Silver Spear' (after the mass plantings of Astelia - Silver Spear in our garden), I had envisioned doing more with the idea and in some spectacular fashion creating an identity, an overall theme that brought all my concepts together.

One of my ideas was to make a sign for the property.  Perhaps something that could be mounted to the front gate, or over the front porch (or both).  Something welcoming, rustic, homemade and fun, but not tacky.  This could involve some creative design and maybe a little help from some friends (with skills :-)

Another idea is to plant our narrow verge between the road and fence line along the front of the property with silver spear, or at least the verge on either side of the driveway to create a feature planting.  There are already a few plants under a tree up my the roadside and they are doing well.

My biggest concern is whether the mature plants would grow out over the roadside and create problems with visibility when exiting our driveway.  This is illustrated by our neighbours verge.  They have planted a variety of flax and other native plants and it has caused an issue with visibility for us as the plants have matured.

We have combatted this by having a mirror installed opposite our driveway, but we don't really need any further safety issues.  Perhaps lower planting nearer the driveway and then planting Silver Spear further down the hill would work better (currently where we have gorse and weeds sprouting up!)

I could also look at planting up some large pots with Silver Spear to place around the property, they are a great contrast plant and look striking against dark colours, like black, brown, red, burgundy and navy.  Pots are a big expense, so maybe this could be an option further down the track.

The existing plantings of Silver Spear could be further enhanced by planting darker / redder tones of plants around them to create contrast and interest (like below)

I have plans to start potting up the mass of smaller Silver Spear plants we have growing on the property.  A small plant in a garden centre will typically sell for about $14.95 each.   If I could sell a couple of hundred plants at half or even a third that price, It would go a long way towards paying for other plants, mulch and gravel for paths in the garden.

Home Sweet Home

We have just returned home after 4 days away over the Easter break.  It was lovely to get away as a family and being in different surroundings was refreshing and invigorating. We stayed at my Brother and Sister in Law's place in Auckland. They have a beautiful home set in a secluded bush setting, which we were lucky enough to have use of for the weekend. The views over the bush and city beyond are just stunning.

I've come home with renewed enthusiasm for our home and garden. I will admit I have been struggling to find the motivation to work on my household projects on a daily basis. It seems what I really needed was a break from the daily grind and to come back with a fresh perspective.

Home always feels sweet when you have been away from it.  I want to use this momentum and get some ZB and LB (zero budget and low budget) makeovers underway to inject some life back into our space. I've got my sights set on the lounge/dining/kitchen space. It will mean I need to get super creative, but I'm feeling pretty good about it :-)