:: 30 days of Spring - small miracles ::

thirty days ago, on the 20th of September I stepped out on a Saturday morning, amazed suddenly at the rate at which growth was surging ahead in our gardens - and decided to take a few pics as I went for this wee ramble...

 I didn't imagine I'd be so taken with the actions around me that I'd explore this every 10 days. It has been fascinating for me, plus a good excuse for a wander. Some plants have 'seen it all' in just 30 days - l like this rose, which was a promising bud, here...

 

...and these were a tiny cluster of tightly-closed fuschia-pink buds...

 ...under an ever-enlarging canopy of shade and protection this year's bottling supply of pears is quietly growing...

...the quince tree is now covered with many more baby quinces than one family could ever consume...

...and here's that tiny grape sprout!!! - stupendous growth...

 

 ...these look like the tightly-gripped fist of some mean ol' fella...

...not so easy to distinguish/comprehend the scale - the fig which was apparent here, too...is MUCH bigger...

 ...now why would the background of this photo be SO blown-out, I wonder?? because to FIND these two plums, I had to crawl under the tree and point the camera skywards. They are now cleverly, nestled very carefully away deep among the leaves, right under the branch...and today was one of those incredible Spring days - hot, sunny, clear with a bright blue sky...

...just a bit bigger...

...and this week we ate the first strawberries...mmm...so the original ones I photographed are...GONE!  These ones sit on a dandelion plant - a weed, perhaps, but one I don't find the heart to rip out, so they remain bedfellows.

Well, it has been a wonderful gift, a meditation perhaps of the wonder of the divine energy that imbues all things. I feel privileged to have witnessed all these miraculous events.

What small mirales have you seen lately?

:: the passage of Spring, 20 days on... ::

20 days ago I departed on a quick morning tour of our garden with my camera in tow. I had a some time at home alone and a walk around to check out the changes felt like a beautiful way to enjoy it.

 I have been enraptured by the speed at which Mother Nature can create...the now-spent bloom on the left was a bud 20 days ago...

 ...a cluster of baby apples - a sweet group of bright fuschia-coloured buds, petals tightly packed...

...very clearly we see miniature pears now - WOW!

 

and the base of the crumpling quince blossom swells now with a small, fuzzy quince fruit...

 ...not as pretty-looking yet - never-the-less the promise of succulent beauty is here - these berry blossoms are busy pushing forth berries...

...whilst the very subject of my initial wonder - this end of the grapevine has unfolded no less than 7 leaves and 2 bunches of grapes so far from that tiny, furry first sprout - only 20 days ago!

 

the tiny fig is now the size of a golf-ball and has a proportionally-large canopy for protection...

...a strong theme for these immature fruits - the two plums are considerably bigger, as is their soft bright leafy shelter, seemingly fluffing out all about them...

...I nearly didn't find the same cluster of sly blackcurrants, now almost entirely hidden...

  ...last for this morning's walk were the strawberries - and I'm determined to believe there IS a hint of blush there!

 I've truly experienced awe and wonder while recording these small doings in our own garden - there is no doubt in my mind a divine creative energy exists.

When I posted 20 days ago, it was a couple of days shy of the Spring Equinox - and it truly has felt as if Mother Nature has a countdown going to get everything grown to complete perfection in the 182.5 days until the Autumn Equinox.

:: big egg ::

 Phoebe came in from collecting the eggs the other day with wonderment and lots of giggles...

there was definitely something different with one of the eggs...

L to R: bantam egg, regular hen's egg, 'whopper' egg

so she set out to see just how much different...

 Phoebe loves to bake and knows perfectly well that an average hen's egg will weigh approximately 60gm...after a bit of thinking she worked out that this beauty is more than half as big again...

 it was agreed that she would have it sunny-side up for her breakfast and indeed it was a DOUBLE YOLKER!

and a breakfast enjoyed at least one and a half times as much as usual, maybe even twice as much :)

:: walkabout wednesday ::

 

A couple of weeks ago now, we were invited to walk a neighbour's organic farm property with a group of other organic-growing farmers and gardeners in our small local area.

The weather afforded us a very fine, sunny Spring morning and we much enjoyed our morning tea then set out to walk their farm.

 It was interesting to meet the herd of lovely Dexter cows who have the privilege of fresh grass every day or so - yes - there are 30-something paddocks here for these bovine beauties.

It was good to just chat and discover ideas and perhaps solutions to common challenges to working with the land organically.

Like this simple, yet highly effective carrot-raising concept: lay newspaper in an open-ended piece of plastic guttering (in another container to hold the soil/seed-raising mix in), fill with soil/seed-raising mix, sow carrot seed.  When the carrots are big enough to go in the ground - simply dig a suitably-matching small trench in the garden and slide the seedlings directly into the ground, including the newspaper - which will break down - and firm up the sides with soil!

Carrots have been one of my difficult crops...and are notorious for their dislike of being transplanted...I shall definitely be trying this.

And I found it fascinating to notice that our neighbour, who is growing this garlic less than 500m from where we are growing ours, has so much more growth there.  Planted at the same time, I wonder whether their garden is just that much more elevated and sheltered than ours?

The name 'walkabout Wednesday' has been coined and the intention is to walk each others' properties over the coming Spring months.

Heck, it was just great to actually stop working on the land for a morning and go and talk with some real, local people about stuff that really  matters!

The Mandala Garden and Pruning the Fruit Trees

Here is our mandala garden. Wendy has been in it for two straight days and the results are amazing.
There were so many weeds to pull and there were about 50 plants (super sized) to plant. (That's right, this is Aaron reporting).

The chickens were moved first, onto a new bed. They clucked and squabbled all day - which they do - and demolished every bit of living green available. Not to many eggs though.

I have been pruning. Scared me to death I have to say. Having completed a certificate in organics and biodynamics with Taruna, I thought I would have a little more knowledge, however I found myself searching youtube for tips.

The fruit trees had not been properly shaped from the beginning and so 'water sprouts' had become large limbs and had to be 'sorted' out. If you had been watching you would have seen me up the orchard ladder looking confused, worried, pensive and all those emotions that come with having to 'deal' to a beautiful fruit tree.

The Mandala garden and its 14 or so fruit trees is now done... off to the orchard tomorrow... or sometime later.

:: autumnal mandala garden ::

Autumnal Northern Hawke's Bay

A lovely, long, dry and warm Summer (well, not so lovely and way too dry for the vast majority of NZ!) has given way to a golden Autumn in these parts.

our rainbow permaculture mandala garden

We have been blessed with just enough rain to sustain our gardens' green good health and have been eating well from them all Summer through.

Blue Bay, Opoutama

After Summer's often frenetic pace - just keeping up with the garden was a feat this year - it has been necessary to mark the change of seasons and give consideration to the new pace of the new season.  One night last week we went for a walk here and soaked up the beauty...some much appreciated reflective time.

:: garlic crop 2013 ::

Summer...sunshine, warmth, long days, holiday-time, stone fruit, crickets and cicadas, lushness giving way to parched landscapes, eating outdoors, short-sleeves and jandals, cricket games on the radio, painting the house...and an abundance from the edible gardens...and garlic harvest.

The quiet transformation from muddied globs wrenched from the earth to these bright, white tidy bulbs is magical!  We pulled 51 bulbs that could be considered a 'bulb', plus 8 that bolted before becoming nice and fat.  The plait weighs 2.4kgs, which averages at just under 50gm per bulb - I reckon that is pretty good. 

Especially so, since, while I was meditatively-sitting, cleaning and trimming the haul, I glanced down NZ Gardener garden-diva, Linda Hallinan's feature article on garlic from the June 2012 magazine and read with horror that I'd planted our rows much too close together - should be bulbs handspan apart and rows approximately 40cm apart - allowing enough sunlight to penetrate to each plant!

:: brag-basket #4 ::

I believe this is Silverbeet 'Argentata'

this truly tickled my fancy - this one leaf of silverbeet ('chard' to some) is so large it has almost entirely covered my basket! HUGE! A meal in a leaf. 

And the only other things you can see from this FULL basket of green goodness are the tips of more and more broadbeans - I love broadbeans, a little more Cavalero Kale - which I sauteed along with 'the leaf' and the 'ears' - two gigantic zucchini (Yes, I mean marrows - they hid - I did not know they were lurking in the undergrowth - no I'm not the world's tidiest of weeders ;-) )

So tonight's meal consisted of the aforementioned greens, including 'broccolini' (sprouting broccoli that I completely encourage) and the broadbeans and in the oven was a huge tray of spuds with onions (wedge-cut, for speed and finesse!) and peppers and zucchini - all tossed about in olive oil, chilli flakes and Himalayan salt and fresh ground black pepper. A generous dollop of fresh, homemade basil/parsley/sunflower seed pesto graced each serving! Yum.

+ dessert - because it's New Year's Day - so we had to, of course - I'd been wanting to try 'Clafoutis' for a long time - no red-fleshed plums in these woods yet - so used some special organic apricots from Bremdale Farms instead and what a divine dessert emerged - straight to the pool room with that one! [ooh - and easy-peasy, too - I'd imagined that something that sounded as fancy as a 'Clafoutis' would be a finicky thing to create - not so - you must try one if you haven't already fallen for its charms!]

Happy 2013 to all and may you dream big and boldly!

:: Brag Basket #3 ::

bounty

Tonight's dash about the garden beds was a mad hurry at the end of another busy and hot day. And in about 6 or 7 minutes I had this lush basket full of everything to complete our evening meal - and a few bursts of pretty colour for the table - for is a vegetable garden complete without...flowers?!!
Varieties:
Silverbeet - or chard: Argentata and Rainbow Brights, Basil: Sweet Genovese, Broccoli: de Cicco, Zucchini: Lebanese, Black Beauty and Florence Long-ribbed, Kale: Toscana di Nero, Parsley: Triple-curled, Thyme: French, Nasturtiums and Dahlia.

:: brag-basket #1 ::

basket #1

time flies when you're having fun, 'they' say...well - we must be having oodles of fun - as time appears to just zip by...we're now into the beginnings of a warm Summer.
The busy-ness of Spring has not let up - the garden has been keeping us all incredibly full and busy - so demanding!!  We've experienced a wonderful warmth here, with just enough rain at the right moments - got a touch dry here and there. We've begun hosting Wwoofers again, which has been soooo helpful for us - and great to meet people from other parts of the globe.  I've wrapped up my studies for the year - with a final burst of study and graduate on Saturday - exciting!  Home-educating has been full and engaging with Phoebe.  Aaron continues to work creatively with hypnosis clients on Skype, crafting incredible rustic furniture for some local organic gardens, cutting lawns, house-painting and even bakes the pies for the local tearooms! As well as all that Aaron is now studying, which is truly inspiring - as he is embarking on a 32-week Certificate of Applied Organics and Biodynamics - also with Taruna College in Hawke's Bay.

Thankfully, though (and finally!) the fruits of our labours are now filling our evening baskets easily - time to see what produce we cooked with tonight:
Strawberries - picking them on the early side, quietly, when birdies and little girls are not noticing... 3 kinds of zucchini (Lebanese, Florence long-ribbed and Black Beauty)...Broccoli de cicco (sprouts on for a reasonable time after the first head = like!)...long and fat broadbeans (superaguadaluce?!)...rocket, cos lettuce, basil, mint and oregano are also tucked in there.
I would like to remember to take a photograph of the evening basket every so often as a lush basketful such as this is just so beautiful to admire - I hope you liked it, too!

:: end of winter garden update ::

counting the millimetres of rain so far = too hard basket 

Northern end of the Mandala Garden

Southern end of the Mandala Garden

Here we are in the middle of August, after a particularly wet first seven months of being 'home'.  Not that I'd know for sure, as I've found the extra little job of dashing out in the morning to read and empty the rain meter just one thing too much and definitely sitting in the too hard basket at the moment.  I'm relying on the local farmers who tell us this is the wettest they've found the area to be.  Which has a bright side - if this is the wettest, surely, it can only get drier from here...?

The hens are still sitting on the bed just next to the one they started on back in February, patiently awaiting their relocation...maybe tomorrow?

To their right is 'the state of it all', in general - wet, sodden, puggy, dense, slightly smelly, clumpy and not terribly bad, just not the wonderful airy, loamy, worm-filled, crumbly, nutrient-rich, mulch-covered magical garden beds I'd been wishing for!

Each one is needing to be left as long as possible before planting into - just so wet and heavy.  The idea for planting into this system is for immediate transplant of super-sized seedlings in individual bottomless pots, so they would have a head-start and minimal transplant shock - well, this season that is just not happening!

 Having said that - here are some lovely-looking photos (partly because they are taken on a sunny day and I've only let you really see what I want you to see (HA!)) of what has been a success over the past few months.

triple-curled parsley

Gigante Italian Parsley

Of our greens, the lighter-leafed plants have fared better - so both types of parsley - the Gigante Italian and the Triple Curled are striding along very fervently at the moment.

coriander

Coriander is doing well and has done all through the Winter - and it was 'Indian Summer', a few seedlings planted at the last of Summer.

tatsoi + bumblebee

Tatsoi has pumped along, looking beautiful in its pleasing posy form - here a fat Bombus bombus (Bumblebee) is enjoying sitting atop the sunny Tatsoi flowers.

celery

The celery, although a bit slow, has been one of those marvels - I grew it myself! - I hear myself saying to myself out there in the garden.

swede

And, although swede and turnips may not be everyone's cup of tea - we have grown plenty of these, swelling to very decent sizes with all the rain, and our favourite recipe has been the 'Turnip Soup Italien', which seems a world away from boiled veg!

broadbeans

We have some very nice-looking broadbeans, standing to attention.

garlic

Garlic is in and all looking like it is surviving quite well, so I'm very happy with that, too!

Oats waving lushly in the sunshine

Spring is around the corner...

Overall,  given the very poor levels of sunshine and huge quantities of rain, consistent throughout the Winter, we've still managed to grow food and feed the hens and ourselves - I for one am certainly not suffering a lack of food!
Each sunny day is a gift we relish at the moment and a day closer to the real warmth and vigour of Spring - it feels as if it is only a sniff away at the moment...when the ladybirds get busy like this...Spring is definitely in the air...

How is your garden?