Erica's new bed

Slow start to the day, but worked hard once we got going. Decision made about our old rose penelope (dug out but lives on in her offspring and a slit trench cutting), but decision deferred on the mulberry tree.  We need to do some more research there.



Erica watched with interest throughout. We were joined by a very vocal robin at one stage.

We also managed to trim our little hedge and shred everything using the lovely Atco quiet shredder. I still enjoy putting big stuff through it. It must be a man thing.

penelope had to go, but she has a daughter plant that has sprung up from her old root so that went next to the piece in the slit trench.  It will be interesting to see which bit survives the best.  We planted her in the spot where the children run down the garden and leap off the wall.  She may prevent that but may get destroyed.  We'll see.


The first refugees (Sedum telephium) from the slowly disappearing island border.




The pukekos picking over where penelope used to live.

Erica Surveying the Curves

We are pondering executing the uninspiring Mulberry tree.  Judith has been lobbying for this for years. We gave it a decade to come good but it hasn't.  A new herbaceous border needs a wider bed so the island border probably gets the bullet too.

Oops

Working on the new bed and found the lazily placed pipe from a few years ago. Think I will re-route it now there are no plants in the way.

Back in Blighty.

The garden was in a sorry state when we got back from NZ, though it was about the worst day of the year to look at it again. The lawn is mostly moss. The roses are gone to seed and the vegetable garden is covered in grass. The raised beds were a cat toilet. We'll post photos when we remember but there are not too many. It was so upsetting!
We didn't get very far with the New Zealand garden. It was a short growing season and it is hard to motivate yourself to invest in a garden you are leaving after a year. 

The Return

A few pictures of the garden on the 1st of February. It was a miserable grey day, the worst day of the year to see the garden! No idea why the bench was like this, but it was.

Below is the vegetable garden (now vegetable lawn), the choisya has been cut back and the ceanothus pruned somewhat.

This is the bed we are remodelling. Behind is the pleached hedge whose framework has completely collapsed. One more for the list. We may well model the framework on the one outside St Paul's cathedral which has nice inverted V shapes.

Surprised again

We are slowly sorting ourselves out and have now started to take action on the vegetable patch. There were some spuds coming up so we have put them in to proper rows and Tamsin has stuck in some lettuce that was also poking its head up. We bought a chili at the Primary School garden opening day and also we have a friend who is in to horticulture who has passed on some tomato plants that can cope with the cold. So, we are up and running!

Boat

Boat
Originally uploaded by Thomas W-P

I have given up on the long held thought that I would catch up with blog entries and am going to try to start afresh from here.

The latest news is that my mobile phone has a crack right across the lens cover that is making the photos come out a bit odd and blurry at times. This is evidenced by the attached photo of Tamsin posing with our new boat of which we own half. Whether she gets in it at all I don't know but it is big enough for the whole family, and good for coaching.

We are settling in nicely. It took a while to get to grips with everything and I think that the landlord saw the knee length grass last week and got a bit worried. I got a very nice email about it tonight saying he knew someone who could mow it for us. Little did he know that I have mowed it twice in the intervening few days. I got tired of losing Harriet in it.

School is cool. It is on a rebuilding phase and there is a lot of angst around from what clearly were the bad old days. But the current staff seem strong and making the school move in the right direction. The kids are kids though a little immature compared to those in the UK. I am not sure this is a bad thing since the kids in the UK have forgotten how to be kids I suspect.

The girls are doing really well and are happily settled in school. I just wrote a note to get Elizabeth out of bible class. She finds it all rather dull and has stuck it out nobly for several weeks. She and I delight in discussing the questions she dare not ask and the things she dare not say for fear of offending the god fearing.

I have an erg in the garage now, and am looking forward to getting a regular schedule for rowing on it. How I have missed it. How hard it seems now! It is also getting a bashing from some kids at school who are interested in rowing.

South Island is absolutely stunning. I was driving back from Timaru with the boat this evening and came around a corner to be presented with the most stunning vista of Mackenzie Country. I had no camera other than the dodgy phone but will go back there some time and get a photo to post. For now though, here is the view from the living room. Sigh.

From The Surprised Gardeners