I got a new vase this week, I’m thrilled to bits with it. It’s by glass blower Gary Nash, one of the Murrini series, which he started in the 80’s, which have the little flowery bits embedded in them. I bought it on Trade Me, which is a bit like Ebay, lucky me.
It’s December and suddenly it’s almost too late. The lack of shelter makes it risky planting early, wet soil can’t be dug, and then suddenly it’s a race.
I’ve only just planted the zucchini seed – 2 types: Zephyr(F1) and an Italian – Costasta romanesco, in pots in the greenhouse . I’m not crazy about F1 seed because it can’t be saved, but Zephyr is very sweet, keeps producing over a long time, and is pretty: bright yellow with a green end, looking like they’ve been dipped in a pot of green paint. And zucchini crosses madly anyway, so saving seed leads to surprises and not always nice ones.
I found today that the mandarin we call ‘Richard the Ungrateful’ has died.
Continue reading “Kumara, Corn, Zucchini seeds: too late, too late”
October started with the Pride of Madiera (Echium candicans) covered with tall blue spikes of flowers where bumble bees and honey bees got happy together. At the same time the Lemonwood (Pittosporum eugenioides) was literally humming with honeybees as well.
A friend brought these little bottles of sake from Japan, and I’ve been dying to use them as little vases. The gold one had real gold flakes in it.
I quickly picked these roses before the storm really wound up and put them in a bottling jar so as to take part in Cathy’s ‘In a Vase on Monday’ meme at Rambling in the Garden. It’s the first year for this rose; it was only planted a couple months ago in the new garden below the solar panels. With plenty of compost, manure and rain it’s doing well so far and is covered with big round buds.
Well, it’s here right on time, the windy rainy storm that follows the tomatoes being planted out. I’m grateful for the rain, so far about 2 inches in the last week, so not a huge amount but it’s still going and it’s steady so it’s soaking in.
It was raining, not hard and not continuously but enough that after a day of plodding around planting tomatoes in the mud I didn’t feel like collecting flowers. More rain this morning but by the time I got home from work it had cleared enough to pick these slightly bedraggled iceberg roses.
Continue reading “In a Vase on Monday – rain lashed icebergs”
As the sun went down last night C was lucky enough to see the oldest starling family leave home. Whether it was because they were distracted by him or just lack of skill or both, 2 of the 3 babies flew into trees and had to pick themselves up before making it to the top of the ridge, closely sheparded by their parents. We waited for a while outside until it was cold and almost dark, but they didn’t come back.
Well, not exactly in the house. There are families in at least 3 of the bird houses on the hut, and 2 on the greenhouse. The hut is 3 m square and our bed in the loft is a slim piece of plywood away from the nests, so it’s a raucous experience waking up these days.
I thought I would select flowers from what C calls the Coral Garden, a terrace where bulbs and smaller flowers grow under Plum trees.
Absent Gardener 