Pruning

Lance use to prune apple trees for a job, I found his tools today. I Love pruning!

It was a bit silly of me to not take Mum up on her offer to prune my roses though cos I still have alot of other pruning to finish.

Completed the biggest fruit tree this morning and my least favorite bramble, the boysenberry - they're so prickly. If you're turning a small section of land into a garden I'd leave these off the plant list unless you really love them. I've got four which I thought were going to produce enough berries to make jam, eat fresh , bottle and make wine out of but these four bushes take up as much space as the raspberries, require twice the effort in pruning and yield about half as much. I'd go for a thorn less blackberries and raspberries instead. Our single blackberry probably produces as much as those darned boysenberries all put together. To prune the boysenberries and blackberries cut out all last seasons fruiting canes and tie up the growth that came up during summer make kind of a fan. Easy. Peach trees I've got sussed too. Before......

.....after

When you select your tree or seedling from the garden centre have in mind the shape you want. All mine are vase shaped cos I reckon that's the easiest. You prune it to have four or five evenly spaced main branches. I like them to start low so they can be picked without a ladder. During summer I prune off alot of the new really fast leafy shoots and in winter I fix anything I don't like shape wise. Thin it out so there will be good airflow and sun reaching fruit to ripen. I shorten the end growth to try and keep the tree vase- ing out wards instead of upwards where I won't be able to reach the fruit. I don't let my fruit trees produce fruit for their first two years, picking off all the flowers so that they put all their energy into producing a good root system is worth it.

I found some buried treasures today too. Last year I didn't have room to put yams in, I've missed them, so I was pleased to find some wildings under some weeds. The Jerusalem artichokes are mammoth! I've grown them in the past for their ability to make a tall screen but these beauties will have to be tasted. I'm a bit nervous cos they don't look delicious.

Garden notes july- seaweed

I'm obsessed with seaweed.

I've been helping out a relative by managing a holiday home for him at Kina beach, after cleaning ready for guests I thought I'd pop out to the peninsula to give the dog and kids a run around. My heart beat with excitement ,( I know! I'm a pretty low maintenance chick.) when I saw masses of seaweed and leaf mulch deposited on the beach. Thank goodness my cruddy old station wagon was due for a clean out, I was able to fill a sack, some supermarket bags and 4 of my reusable bags with seaweed. When I got home, of course I didn't have enough. So I went again the next day with lots of sacks and some bribed helpers.

So that's the asparagus patch by the neighbours fence, it's thoroughly covered. The peach tree is living on borrowed time, if it doesn't produce with significantly less brown rot this year it's out of there. The little triangle patch next to the glass cloches and baby mandarin is also covered. Haven't decided what's going in there yet but I just love my garden at this time of year the control freak in me likes everything mulched and weed free.

See I've mulched more beds here with pea straw and seaweed over by the naughty chook ( prison) run. They go on weeding duty in this run if they get in the garden. No one's in there at the moment as they're all behaving and laying eggs.

Other jobs being done this month: Half the pruning is done, the rest is waiting for the last quarter of the moon next week to finish it off.

I'm not doing carrots at the full moon, my garden's too cold and wet but I've got pea seed in behind the asparagus right up against the fence where it's a little warmer.

The brassicas in the glasshouse are looking very happy on a diet of worm juice.

Cuttings of grape vines are done but there's still plenty of time to do cuttings of berries, grapes, herbs etc.

Tree tomato looks dead in the frost. Passion fruit is holding on.

Seeds are sorted ready to plant in the next first quarter. I'll do hardier herbs and veges in the glass house and tomatoes and peppers on the window sill inside. Feeling more low maintenance excitement here!

Not feeling like going back to work!

Knitting

Last week I set up my stall for an event our Playcentre had organised. We had quite a few people through the doors but I didn't make many sales. I'm pretty convinced it's because food and fuel are now so expensive people don't have as much disposable income. I'm optimistic about continuing crafting to provide a little extra for the family though as I know there is a movement out there which appreciates handcrafted items which have far less impact on the environment. My Mum is a great spinner and a good but reluctant knitter so we've combined our talents in making these vests. Since they didn't sell last week (alot of work still needs to be done to re- educate people on the benefits of pure wool garments) I've listed them on my Felt shop.
Finished this cutey, cutey kimono cardy too. Not too sure yet weather to sell it or gift it to someone so I can see it being worn.

Midwinter birthday

Yesterday we celebrated the red head's 3rd birthday. It was very low key, we all have awful head colds, sore throats and two of them have earache. The olive oil infused with garlic, strained and then poured into the ear seems to be helping them with the pain along with paracetamol when the temperature gets high. Daddy's at work in Reefton so Granny came to help out, back just in time from my brother's family in Adelaide.

I can't believe it's three years since he was born. I'm kind of grieving that breast feeding and nappy days are over. I miss my baby. He was born 10 days over- due and though I went to bed every night thinking, get it over with tonight, I woke up every morning saying thank goodness. It wasn't till my friend who was due three weeks later than me rang and said "hurry up I'm at the hospital with a baby" that I got a move on. I had him at 5 past 6 that night. Much easier labour than all the others and not worth all the worry I'd been putting into it. I'm sure it helped to have a brilliant midwife. The big kids came in moments after he was born but seemed more interested in looking at the placenta than their baby brother.

He started Montessori this week, settling in alot easier than I had expected. I thought the structure would cause all sorts of problems for him but he's OK and I'm looking forward to a bit of breathing space.

Being a teenager's Mum.

I think I've figured out how to keep the teenager happy and stay sane. Every other night after tea bake muffins for the school lunches, banana and chocolate chip are popular.
Several nights a weeks get all the kids into the car just as the moon is coming up and pick the teen up from sport. Let the littlies out to run around in the dark on the soccor pitch as the frost begins to settle. ( That will stop them fighting in the car while we wait)
Finally on Friday night let all the mates come over to hook their lap tops together to play games and eat you out of house and home. At 2am remind them they have sport in the morning and maybe should sleep. Next day when sport is finished feed the stragglers. Then to avoid looking at all the computers, wires, junk food, sleeping bags and smelly but lovely boys in your lounge room - go out to the garden, plant garlic, prune the plum tree and weave a fence.

Felt flowers

Think I have got "french knots" sussed now with this wee consignment of brooches for a local craft co-operative shop.
Have had my head buried in soppy novels since last post. Trying to avoid thinking at the moment. Too much going on, trying to figure out direction, passion and priorities. Well life actually.

Will be sure to let you know if I figure it out.

Garden notes June, updated

As we approach midwinter I was amazed to find a green pepper in the tunnel house today. Note to self: plant more into tunnel house in late summer. Moon calender says good for planting so put peas in for spring. Looking longingly at the raspberry canes, they're due for a good pruning. More garlic needs to go in at solstice. Amazing winter weather, no rain for about 6 weeks since girl drowned in Motueka river. Very surprised local Iwi didn't place a tapu on fishing, or bless the river.

Need to complete pruning of fruit trees over next 4-6 weeks. Would like to give stone fruit a copper spray, their productivity was very average last year.


In response to comment: As I understand it, copper is an acceptable organic alternative to dangerous pesticides, used for about a century. It is used as a fungicide on fruit trees. Last summer I had quite a bit of leaf curl in two of my peach trees and the fruit went on to develop brown rot. It has been suggested to me that copper spray might help while the trees are dormant and then again at first sign of bud movement. Other strategies I've tried are under planting with garlic and spraying with dilute seaweed. I picked off alot of the leaf curl and burned it and am also raking up the leaves and shrivelled brown fruit now they have fallen off. If I was choosing trees again I would go for older varieties which have more resistance to disease. My seedling "black boy" peaches didn't suffer at all. Please leave a comment if you have any ideas/strategies about brown rot in stone fruit. Also I'm living in fear of silver leaf, which I think slowly kills fruit trees. I suspect a greengage I bought last winter has been showing signs of it. (silvery looking leaves) If it appears this spring I shall have to take out the tree I think so it doesn't spread to my other trees.

Morning

I really must learn to use my camera properly so I might be able to capture how beautiful the light is. These photos don't do our midwinter sunrise justice but I wanted to post some. We got up early and drove to Ruby bay for sunrise, it occured to me that most of the sunrises I've witnessed have been here on this beach. We camped here alot when I was a child so it's a very special spot for me. I've sat here desperate in tears, round a fire with friends and sometimes just to contemplate life. My older children have seen sunrise here before but it was very exciting for the littlies. We looked for the seven sisters. I'm certain I found them but all the stars looked bright to me. We talked about why I'd dragged them out of bed so early and we made an offering. For awhile we snuggled in our blankets and drank hot milo then listened to the birds waking up while looking for toggles at the high tide mark. As a youngster I walked alone alot following the river through the bush, saying hello to fantails, moreporks, lizards and water rats. I use to stop and talk to a giant totara and ran screaming at my Dad when he started chainsawing down a Kahikatia for firewood. Thismorning reminded me I miss it.


Found this to refer to for fishing and planting.

Garden notes June 08

Got a big bale of pea straw for mulching. Half the garlic is planted. By traditional moon calenders the moon is not right but I'm experimenting this year with planting it at Matariki which is Maori new Year. You can read more about it here. The kids and I are getting up early tomorrow to see if we can spot the seven sisters constellation at the beach. I don't even know where to look but it seems like a fun way to greet the New Year. I want to see for myself if the constellation is bright because it signals a good growing season and I may have to rely on my garden this year more than ever.

Well it seems I've been ruffling feathers again at work. Apparently my friends have known for years that I thrive on conflict but it's only really dawned on me in the last six months or so. I'm sure I'm not trying to make waves but maybe I'm a bit addicted to it. "Hi I'm Gilly and I'm a **** stirrer" I like to think that I stand up for a just cause, equality,integrity, honesty and what I believe in, does it matter if I enjoy debate/always think I'm right?

I shall spend a few days meditating on it while in the garden. I'm not all that great at self reflection but I don't really want to make people prickly.