From reading your recent posts it looks like you had a wonderful and productive time.  Labour Weekend is a bit special for me as not only is it planting out weekend, but it was my birthday on Monday.  I love getting to have a public holiday for my birthday.  Having said that if it wasn’t a holiday or a birthday the day would probably look exactly the same.  Just me doing what I love.

The panic is on just a little for me though – I not quite finished planting out but need to get it done by the end of the week, because I’m going away.  I’m off on my annual three-week job as a Botanical Tour Guide, escorting a bus load of Australian tourists through some of the best gardens NZ has to offer.  We’re starting at the Taranaki Garden Festival, then the Marlborough Garden Festival and another festival near Canterbury, and a load of other gardens along the way – then checking out Milford Sounds and Queenstown before flying north to do Hamilton Gardens, Lynda Hallinan’s Garden and a few others…  It will be an amazing time – so long as I don’t lose any tourists along the way!   I'll be back in my garden on the 17th Nov.  

But I won’t forget about you.  I’ll still be there keeping an eye on you all – I’ll pop a like on you posts so you know I’ve seen it, but I may not get time to comment.  I’m also asking the lovely Kayla from the office to keep an eye on things to, to help deal with problems and send out the weekly free seeds etc, so if you need help while I’m away you can comment below this post, and we’ll get it sorted.  Meanwhile you just need to keep being you and posting fabulous updates so I can get my edible garden fix – like Sue said in her latest post – fancy gardens don’t tend to do vegies….  If I see any good ones I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.

As the garden gets growing one of my favourite things to do is give the garden a liquid feed once a fortnight with Yates Thrive Natural Fish & Seaweed+ Plant Food Concentrate.  It is so rich and thick and plants respond to it pretty much straight away! I feel like I’m giving them the best stuff! 

I’ve also got some encouraging to do…  As the gardener who is the furthest south and still getting frosts and high temperatures of 7°C! it can’t be easy to watch the rest of us up north planting out our tomatoes and things.  Stacey is putting on a brave face and being really patient, but I just wanted to say hang in there – your plants will thank you for waiting.  Stacey – an Encouragement Award Prize Pack will be on its way to you shortly. 

And finally – our lucky random winner of the weekly free packet of seeds is Northland Backyard Gardener.  The seeds will be on their way to you very soon.

Keep posting your wonderful updates to increase your chances of being next week’s winner!

I hope you all have a fabulous week in the garden and as always – if you want to get in touch leave a comment below.

Sarah the Gardener: o)