Hi, Sarah here from my little garden at Netherby. We are on a lifestyle block south-east of Auckland. At the end of last year, I decided I wanted to get our old vege garden going again so set out to get a fence built and painted and repair the raised garden beds. Working on the garden over lockdown really helped deal with everything that was going on, it became a project that brought peace and joy!
I mulched a lot of the autumn leaves and worked these into the garden as well as manure from the chooks and horses over winter to build-up the soil. I also laid pea straw in the garden beds with the goal of suppressing weeds (great idea in theory!) and to help retain moisture once the warmer weather arrives.
I have also been slowly adding wire mesh around the garden to keep out the mysterious nighttime visitors, we have had whole plantings completely eaten overnight, I suspect rabbits but we have possums too that I need to get on to sorting out!
Towards the end of winter I planted a new orchard of mainly heirloom trees; pears, apples, plums feijoas and some citrus. This was hard work with our mainly clay soil, even with an auger it was an effort getting the holes dug. The fruit trees arrived like a bundle of sticks as they were bare rooted. So amazing to see them with blossoms and leaves already.
To get ready for spring I drew up a bit of a garden plan, partly with my recipe books in mind thinking about what we love to eat. In the past I have grown the usual suspects, a few broccoli, lettuce, beetroot but I really want to branch out and try and grow a wide variety of produce. On the shortest day over winter I even planted some garlic bulbs for the first time!
I have the first lot of seeds growing in the greenhouse AKA the lounge. Currently I am growing beetroot, cucumber, leek, pepper, zucchini, cabbage, cauliflower, tomato. I direct sowed some Yates spring onion and carrot seed tape – got to love seed tape! I have sown some flower seeds as well, marigold, portuloca, nemophila and dahlia to add some colour to the garden. They looked so pretty so I thought why not! Lavender and borage has also been planted for the bees.
Looking forward to reading everyone’s blog and following people's garden journeys. Happy Gardening everyone!
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