Gardening, Life at No.22

Pottering Around Plot 11 – An Assortment

Suzanne

Not much action has been happening with my gardening posts though I am happy to say that action has continued in the garden, which has returned sufficient produce enough to fill our bellies and a few others we know.

Like most gardening groups, it involves much chatter, and I emphasise the amount. Mostly intriguing and especially so one day when discussing the odd things we use to predict the weather. That subject has been in hot demand for mulling over these past months with it’s unpredictability.

A very wet kingfisher during our unpredictable summer – luckily, there’s been more sunshine than rain these past weeks.

Predicting the Weather

Oddities such as the NZ Cabbage tree’s early flowering mean a long hot summer, as does the showing of early pohutukawa flowers. If wattles bloom early, it will surely be a wet spring, or the native clematis blooms periodically; a warm season with gentle breezes lies ahead.

As any meteorologist will explain, plants can’t foretell the future – instead, they reflect the season that has passed. For instance, a fiery autumn display results from a preceding long, hot summer. Nearest weather is another matter; for example, pinecones and seaweed are good indicators of approaching rain (or not), but they don’t ‘forecast’ months, or even years, ahead.

Community knowledge gathered over generations differs from a crackpot theory about a plant’s ability to predict natural catastrophes. In New Zealand today, Māori knowledge, or mātauranga Māori, is gaining a wider audience as science comes to understand the validity of this understanding of the natural world. 

What’s going in and out

Back to the mundane gardening chores, there are new plants to be dug in and old plants to be removed. More spinach, leeks, beetroot, and onions went in, and the dregs of what was left of the climbing beans became compost. Dwarf beans are still happily producing crunchy pods of goodness, so they get to stay.

Back to our luck with tomatoes. Well, they did come good and deliver in abundance, like tomatoes do at the end of summer and early autumn.

What’s happening in the neighbour’s plot?

Then time was spent admiring the work of nature and other gardeners.

Our gardening neighbour managed to produce a few pumpkins. On the other hand, we had to spend a grand $10 on one this week; we gulped and shallowed that cost as what’s autumn without pumpkin soup and roasted vegetable salad?

Nature – Pukekos

More surprising than the exorbitant cost of vegetables is the hatching of various birds in and around the estuaries I cycle through to reach our garden. Luckily, they will be larger enough before the arrival of winter.

Patience and luck on my part to capture this gorgeous Pukeko chick and her watchful Mum

Published by Suzanne

Travel and Life Musings from New Zealand and Beyond. . . . . . .

29 thoughts on “Pottering Around Plot 11 – An Assortment”

  1. So glad you found my last post after I’d been absent for some time from WP as the said WP is no longer delivering posts from those I was following. This may be because I had a massive problem with the computer which had to have an internal clean and may have taken out such info, who knows, but i only managed to find a few in the Reader. Now I’ve found you again I hope I will manage to keep up with your posts. Incidentally, I haven’t seen a gardening one before. How long has this been going on?

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    1. Hi Maris, it is good to see you back into blogging. I started the gardening segment of my blog about 3 years ago. Though don’t write too often on the subject of gardening, things take time to grow and change. I hope you are able to see everyone’s posts after sorting out your computer. Take care.

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  2. G’day Suzanne, I’ve been absent from blogging for a while. Your weather comments amused me. I used to take so much notice of the weather, recording the amount of rain in a rain gauge, and keeping an eye on when the garden would need watering. But how things change, no more recording rain, in fact can’t even hear it when inside the apartment. Love those pukekoe photos.

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    1. Hi Pauline, you have been gallivanting about the place haven’t you 😉 Good to see. Not so much for us. I am pleased to hear you are enjoying the apartment life. We love it and the ease of living in a small environment.

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    1. Eilene, I would be extremely wealthy in more ways than one if I could predict the weather. We all like to try and no harm in that is there. Some weeks more than most there is work to be done. Working bees keep the surrounding areas reasonably tidy.

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    1. Who knows, Tracy, for me nature seems to be all over the place at the moment. The productivity has been a joint affair and we are enjoying the fresh vegetables. The chick is so cute.

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    1. The black tomatoes were prolific growers though we still prefer the red for eating. The pukekos live around the estuary with no lawns to worry about. Thanks for commenting 🙂

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