As the 2023 Growing Challenge winds up I look back on another wonderful year of interacting with really nice people, really interesting gardens and just enjoying watching other peoples gardens develop and produce while sharing my own triumphs and tribulations.
I'd love to know what your plans are for the upcoming festive season and how they involve your garden.
As per my pictures our plans involve sunshine (the sunflower), sweetness and blue skies (the sweet peas) and spuds.
Sunshine is a must. We've had enough rain and cold and we want our kumara and garlic (in their far off locations) to ripen and thrive. We want to garden in our tee-shirts with our hats and heaps of sunblock, and we want to enjoy a well-earned wine and beer as the sun sets on a busy day.
We're almost guaranteed sweetness and blue skies with a brand new 2 month old grandson Finn. We will spend Christmas day with him in New Plymouth and 2 of our sons and their wives - playing cards, talking nonsense and generally enjoying being together.
The spuds are a very special plan. We usually dig our agria crop just after Christmas. Our middle Grandson Stefan (7) helped us harvest our early crop of potatoes and was hooked. He made us promise that he could be here for the big dig. So we will have him and his big brother (9) to stay on the 27th of December. We will dig the potatoes with their help, we'll roast a leg of lamb on the spit and we will wrap at least four of the biggest newly dug potatoes in tin foil and cook them in the spit coals. We'll split them open and douse them with butter, salt and pepper and we'll have a Nanny, Poppa and Grandson feast.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
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