Green fingers
Home » Blog » Judy Sutherland » Green fingersNew home, new venture, new garden! Will Judy get green fingers at last?
I must confess that I have never been much of a gardener. I love gardens and frequently wander through others' gardens, praying for the ability, time and passion to develop my own. I have had several attempts over the years and, probably like many of us, had wonderful beginnings: any amount of money spent on buying seeds and seedlings, ground well-prepared, seeds or small plants sown and nurtured for a week or even a month … then the weeds start popping up and somehow I have more important things to do!
But not any more. New home, new venture, new garden! The small flat garden is for several grasses that will look lovely blowing in the wind—the only pleasure we will get from the wind! Interspersed among the grasses we need some colour: begonias, along with anything else that is colourful and costs nothing.
In our second, triangular garden goes everything else we can lay our hands on. We have been given some yuccas which, I think I mentioned in a previous rambling, have been planted along the driveway. And into topsoil, lovingly scraped and raked in place with the help of a tractor and a nephew, we plant an assortment of cabbage trees, more grasses, including black mondo, and some small flaxes and moss. There are also two lancewoods, three pukas and several I am yet to name.
I am keen to establish as many New Zealand natives as possible, but if a plant has been gifted to us that is not, it will not be relegated to its own corner but integrated with the others. One such plant is a rhododendron that we gave to my mother a couple of years back and has been transplanted from its previous home. I love rhodos and consider them a Taranaki citizen, such is their splendour and love for our climate.
It's also time to prepare and sow our lawn. It will be so nice to look out upon a small expanse of green leading to the splendid array of growth on higher ground.
As time passes and we are given garden hand-me-downs, they are added to the assortment on the slope. Recent additions are dahlias and another bulb that make a magnificent display in the summer, and even the cutting from a friend’s rosemary is thriving—though it looks amazingly like gorse at present and I am ever tempted to pull the little prickle out!
Some of these plants did become the diet of certain four-legged creatures but, now we seem to have overcome the wandering spirit of the sheep, I think the plants will grow in peace.
Non-essential plants firmly embedded and growing up quite contentedly, it’s time to grow some plants of the rather more useful variety. A spot is selected from the little choice available; I collect horse manure from Toy’s deposits; I begin to dig and work in the manure … Oh, this is too hard, time to call in reinforcements … and along comes rescuer, hubby Jim. Between us (someone has to encourage the man!) we get the sods turned and poo combined. I finish off by raking it smooth. Lettuce, herbs, brassica, silver beet and spinach are planted in neat rows, all carefully labeled for the novice.
I then remember the other wildlife residing in abundance on our hill: rabbits! And rabbits eat lettuce! Aaaah! Not my lettuce! Before we hit the sack, and so I don’t have to sit at our bedroom window all night, a rabbit-proof fence is erected in a hurry. Good job—I can sleep in peace!
With the best intentions, I weeded, I admired the colours, I even dug up more soil as necessary … but somehow other priorities eventually took the place of my garden. Because we look out upon the long narrow garden and the sloping garden, those are periodically weeded and otherwise tended. But the veggie garden was generally out of sight and the food didn’t prosper. Sure, we had a few leaves of lettuce, spinach and silver beet, and the herbs got thrown in a few stews and salads but eventually the weeds won. I have still never managed to successfully grow brassicas—but I will beat those odds when we create our large, permanent garden by our large permanent dwelling!
Green fingers will develop as I request gardening books for birthdays and Christmas. The web is a wonderful source of information and I have found the 'recipe' for a no-dig garden which will be a future blog. We have a stream at the bottom of the big hill paddock which beckons riparian planting. Unfortunately this needs to be fenced first to stop those marauding plant-eaters that we insist on allowing to graze on our land!
Wed September 30, 2009 @ 09:37 PM
