Very Special Visitors

With the cooler weather and the appearance of berries in Brook Park, we are often treated to a visit from keruru, our native wood pigeon. They are very heavy fliers and often the first you know of their arrival is the swish, swish of their beating wings. This year there are two of them. Beautiful snowy white breasts and iridescent wings and heads. They are not as common as a lot of the other birds that visit the garden and it is usually at this time of the year. They are a favourite for use in artwork because of their structural presence, beautiful colours and easy to replicate form. We have a bird bath just below these trees and they often come to sip from the water. They will sit in the tree watching until they are sure there are no dangers then swoop down and sit on the edge of the bird bath to drink. The tui are very territorial and will try and chase them away if they are around.

Rob had just driven down the drive and I had gone out to pick something up when I heard the swoop of there wings and looked up to see the first one. And then I noticed the second sitting high in the tree. I raced inside to get a camera and fortunately they were still there when I came back. It is simple pleasures like these that make the bigger section and trees worthwhile

Redeveloping the Area of the Septic Tank

In late Winter we had to have our septic tank replaced and the garden around that area was completely destroyed. It is a heartbreak at the time but as a gardener you soon find ways to create new focus in the area. I have placed azaleas in the back of this area - they were flowering when they went in but have finished now till next Spring and fuchsias along the front. I have a bit of a penchant for futures as my Mum used to grow them commercially and I always had extra “stock” plants in the garden for her to take cuttings from. They are gross feeders and flower on the new growth so they need to be attended but they are providing a wonderful display. some of them have been started from cuttings from other parts of the garden and others I brought as small options. Watering regularly and fertilising wit bioboost they have grown remarkably well so that the area doesn’t look like a bomb sit any more. On top of the septic tank itself I have put potted plants and a statue that reminds me of one of my grandsons so that it is now in keeping with its surrounds.

Hydrangeas

These have been lovely this year. We have had enough rain to keep these ones on the bank at the back of the house flowering well. I really need to select some flowers to work on in my textile work. This bank is clay so when it is very dry it dries out a lot and then in the winter it becomes a slippery slide. As I am getting older I am less inclined to want to have to work on the bank so over the last few years I have been planting hydrangeas (mostly grown from cuttings on the bank. They are really starting to be the sculptural back drop I was aiming for - and of course it cuts down on the weeding that needs to be done. At some stage I will have to cut off the dead flower heads but they flower for ages so that won’t be till the weather is cooler - hopefully.

There is a range of colours here from bright pink through to move , blue and white with a few of the lacy ones intermingled in there. I can never understand why they are so expensive at the garden centres because they are so easy to propagate - although I guess it take two or three years for them to get to saleable stage

Epiphilium

This beauty has burst into life in my glasshouse. They always remind me of my great grandmother who grew these when I was a little girl. They are fairly mundane plants until they flower and then they are spectacular. I don’t think we could grow these outdoors here but this one sits in a corner of the glasshouse looking dull all year until the flowers arrive. I will have to try and paint this at some stage.

Spring Hostas

I love this time of the year in the garden. Everything looks so fresh and vibrant and my love of hostas keeps me daily looking to see what new ones may have popped up from their winter sleep. They respond so well to fertiliser and having the mulch around them discourages the ravages of slugs and snails though i do sprinkle a bit of slug slam around just when they are beginning to poke through the ground.

Sometimes I think I am crazy trying to manage such a large along with my art interests but one supports the other and I do get a lot of enjoyment seeing the response to my efforts out there. The garden is like a giant patchwork quilt with form and foliage creating the backdrop with a few bright spots of annuals to provide interest. The foliage plants give the longest value for money but I raise a lot of annuals from seed to pad them out - and now Kim wants me to grow plants to enhance the garden side of Shoppington so it can be a bit time consuming.

Monarch Butterflies Love the Blue Floss Flowers

This floss flower is always covered in bunches of shaggy flowers at this time of the year. And with the flowers come the monarch Butterflies flitting around the garden and settling on the flowers to sip the nectar. For many years these beautiful butterflies seemed to be in decline and they are such a wonder subject for embroidery or craft projects. The bright orange and black winds, their fragility and yet their strength in flitting around the flowers. The bees also love these flowers and while the plant is a bit unruly it earns it place in the garden

Why I like foliage

This is the garden under the kitchen window. You can see the Virginia Creeper at the back is far from coming into leaf but the bright colours of the heucheras still add interest. They will continue to add colour, pattern and texture throughout the year.

The bird statue is part of a water feature that was damaged at the shop so I have reinstated it as a feature in the middle of this garden. At the back I have bromeliads which add there own impact with more strappy leaves.

I often think of my garden as a living quilt with colours, textures and design elements working together in much the same way as a quilt. This garden is a wide semi semi circle with the heucheras continuing on each side and a grassy piece in the centre.

Once Spring gets here the Virginia Creeper will provide a mass of green in the background. It disguises the industrial nature of the wall behind. Our house is built on the foundations of an old butter factory and though I have to keep the creeper trimmed to window height over summer it completely disguises the industrial concrete behind it.

A Riot of Spring Blossom

We have had the first really nice day in ages. Everything is still very wet out there but I try to remind myself that at least we are not contending with fires or floods like so many places in the world. The days are lengthening and soon I will be able to get out there and work on tidying things up for all my garden treasures that are still sleeping under the soil. In the meantime I have this wonderful mass of spring blossom to herald the change of seasons. This tree is out be the clothes line so when I go out to hang clothes on the line it greets me with its abundance. Later in the year its leaves will provide media for eco printing or stitching on but at the moment it just a burst of colour in what has been a very dreary winter

Bromeliads

We never used to be able to grow bromeliads outside but with the changing environmental factors they are now a favourite. This old wooden wheelbarrow sprouts several different ones that I have gathered over the years. the H the elephant Hindu god in the from is Ganesha, the elephant god. In my work I am brought into contact with many Asian and Hindu people so it is good to be able to relate to their spirituality.

This part of the garden I call the enclosed garden. Originally where our house was built there was a butter factory and this area is where the inward and outward goods were loaded from. The house itself is built on the top and my studio is above this garden. It is sort of special to have a history that goes with the house.

As you can see I have some work to do clearing away the leaf fall over winter. It is just that it has been so wet and Rob has been struggling with breathing issues so I haven’t go to this area yet. On days when it is fine I try to get out there and do as much as I can between keeping an eye on him and working on my latest art project.

Our Beach House Garden

It will be two years in October since we purchased a run down little batch at Mokau. It was very overgrown and the first thing was to clear the section of rampant undergrowth. There was a standard clothes line that couldn’t be seen for the weeds and rubbish that had over run it and a sleep out that had been placed on a pallet frame but the pallets had rotten away, The inside was not quite so bad but the windows were in poor repair and we gradually replaced them with aluminium windows.

There is a wonderfully sheltered area out from the kitchen and dining room where we put in a fledgling succulent garden to provide privacy from the batch next door. Eventually we will build a deck in this area but the garden has blossomed and will still create a wonderful view when we come out the dining room French doors into this northern side of the house. A bedroom creates part of the protected L shape so the area is hidden from the road and completely private.

Over time the garden has grown and various members of the family have created painted rock figures that adorn the garden. This is a very funky modern garden and quite different to my home garden which is more traditional in nature. The idea was that anyone that wanted to paint a rock and add it to the garden was welcome. Because the sea at Mokau is battered during periodic west coast storms there are a lot of logs and rocks that periodically get beaten into the beach and up the river mouth. We have salvaged some to these to make painted “Pencils” which various members of the family have painted with their names on them. I have to admit I haven’t done mine yet. You can see families of rock ladybugs, funny faces and penguins who sport brightly coloured posca paint disguises hiding in the garden. Other opportunity shop finds have been brightly painted and added to the mix. The bright mustard marker charts the grandchildren’s growth and my daughter Kim has created mosaics on an old wheelbarrow and a pair of gumboots. This colourful garden is fairly low maintenance and the plants do so well in their protected environment.

We have put in some planter boxes at the back for seasonal vegetables and they do really well, especially over the summer. It is only an hour’s drive down to Mokau and their are endless walks both seaside and bush that continually inform my artwork and provide opportunity for photography, both landscape, family and textural. Even when the weather is not conducive to being outside the batch creates a cosy haven for crafts and aritwork

Soon the Tuis will be here en masse

The first of the flowering cherries is just bursting into flower so Spring can’t be far off. Tuis love the nectar in the flowers of the cherry blossom and they will arrive and fight over the best place to sit and gorge on the nectar. It is always a delight and it amazes me that if I go our with washing to hang on the line they virtually ignore me. But if I go out with my camera, they suddenly become very cagey.

The days have certainly lengthened but the weather remains wet and cold. We always seem to get colder weather after the Winter solstice. It wouldn’t be so bad if there was more sun but many days are overcast and bleak which makes it seem colder than the temperature says.

I still have lots to do in the garden with cutting back. You can see in the foreground of this photo the hydrangea heads have not been cut off since last summer. That has to do with how miserable it has been to be out in the garden. The few reasonable days I have spent adding mulch to the garden, trimming the buxus and weeding the garden under the kitchen window - where the heucheras are. I love the colourful leaves of the heucheras and I bought a new on out, wild rose, so I weeded that garden to plant the new one out there. I always look for heucheras that I buy that have more than one head so I can divide the plant and get two for one. As the name suggests this one is a deep pinky colour in the leaves.

While I do have spots of flowering annuals/perennials I tend to look more for foliage plants these days as they give a longer bang for the buck and create areas with their contrasting textures and shapes that are less work and more pleasure.

Dona Herzilia de Freitas Magalhaes-

Hellebores

Also known as the Winter Rose these easy to grow plants are coming into full bloom now. They can easily fill in shady corners and come in a range of colours from white to deepest maroon. I grow them on the back bank where you look up under the flowers to get quite a different view from when you view them on the flat.

I use a lot of mulch to keep weeds down and moisture in over the summer so I always have lots of seedlings if I don’t get round to cutting off the heads. I am tending to let plants mass group as I get older as it cuts down the work I have to do. Hellebores are ideal for this. They are not so happy to be replanted and may sulk for a while if dug off the edge of a larger plant. The leaves are sculptural and shiny green so well work the effort to grow

Harbingers of Spring

While the nights are still pretty cold., Spring is on the way. These beautiful daffodils down the drive are the first early signs that, with the longer days, spring is not far away. I love spring with all the precious plants that have been sleeping under the ground start to come to life and blossoms begin to break out.

I have been busy putting down mulch around the garden to keep the influx of weeds that come with warmer weather and keep the moisture in over summer. It is a big job as the garden is quite large but work now saves work later on.

Camelias in Bloom

At this time of the year as we head into Winter, colder temperatures and wet weather and shorter days, The camelias come into their own providing splashes of colour in the garden. Unfortunately they do not hold well as cut flowers but they are a joy in the garden. I have incorporated them into gardens underneath (rather than specimens on a lawn) so that when the flowers drop (and there are many of them) they don’t end up a mess on the lawn below. This way they integrate into the garden as extra mulch without much work at all

The flowers have become a favourite of mine to use in the eco heat press process as they generate wonderful water colour like images. When other flowers are scarce. these create a great focal point