it was really cold here today Alex. IF youd been home youd have been complaining about this "stupid bloody country". I got a little teary thinking about that and hoping you were warm wherever you are....and no i didnt mean that you went down lol......just that i know you hated being cold.
lost myself in hard work today, but im gonna pay for it tonight i think, my back is already aching, but it was all stuff that needed to be done. Then typically, when i did sit down i made myself sick with worrying about whats gonna happen when the house is sold. How the heck its gonna work taking people around with all the animals and stuff!! i dunno, and it worrys me.....and i can hear you saying "dont worry, itll be ok" but i dont know if it will, and that scares me. God i miss your happy go lucky, itll all be ok attitude, but i dont seem to be able to look at things in anything other than a pessimistic way lately.
I spoke to your mum yesterday by email at least. Theyre going to Raro soon, which i think will do them the world of good. You know the bottom of your mums world fell out when you went, your dad too. They need a rest, and i hope that they get it. I wish i could even think about it but i cant....i cant seem to be able to get over the fact that you arent here anymore. My mind hits that like a brick wall. NOTHING is the same any more. Im mourning you, but im also mourning me, cos im not the same person any more, i cant help that. Im finding that a lot of the things about myself that i thought id left behind when i found you, werent that far behind after all. I worry that this is it......that this is all theres going to be forever, until hopefully i can see you again. I worry that i wont be able to find a job.....im worrying all the time, even when i dont know why or what im worried about. Its crazy, but its the way it is. I cant even get out of the house...no money for gas I know i should be making an effort to be sociable, but i dont seem to be able to....not that anyone is going out of their way to see me lately. I know its hard being around someone who  is mourning, but i dont shove it in anyones face, least i dont think i do, but people seem to avoid me like i have something nasty and catching. another reason to miss you....you liked people, and they liked you.The Golden Celebration rose is flowering again so ill bring up some blooms to the cemetery tomorro. I know you liked the roses. Anyway, im gonna go and sit in front of the tv and vegetate for a while till hopefully i go to sleep. Love you baby, and i miss you,
Your catzy

Today is going to be a long day. Woke up at 3.30 ish, and couldnt get back to sleep, so was awake and watching tv reruns till about 5.30 or so. Had a little cry, cos all i could think about was that you werent in the house, and wouldnt tell me to "go to bed, ya loony"
i miss all those little things....i miss saying good morning, i miss your "MY catzy" i miss the hugs and the laughs. I miss feeling like i mattered to someone, like i was cherished. I wasnt ever used to that, but you made me feel it, you made me believe it. i miss being loved and loving in return.
This is all so hard. Why the hell do we love anyway if its only going to be taken away? Id almost given up on finding someone who would love me when i found you, and then you made me think that ok, maybe i DO deserve to have someone care about me........and then you were taken away. I dont want to go back into the greyness, but its all i can see. I wont ever renege on my responsibility to look after the animals, but Alex, its really hard on my own. Not physically, but emotionally. I keep wanting to tell you all about what your cat has been up to, but youre not here. I keep seeing things on tv that i know youd love and thinking "ill have to tell Alex about that" and then have to remind myself that i cant, even tho i do anyway. I dont know if you hear me, and i hope that youre happy wherever you are.....i dont want to believe that someone as alive as you, can just be gone. You lived more in your 27 years that a lot do in a lifetime, but you werent finished, and its just wrong that you were taken away when you and i still had so much to do together. Im writing this with tears streaming down my face, wanting to rail at the unfairness of it all, but knowing that wont do any good.
ive been thinking about going back into the bedroom, maybe just to watch a dvd, but theres just so many memories attached to that. We were watching a DVD the last nite you spent with me....it was such an ordinary night....how the hell could it end in me losing you?? how can that happen? how can someone go from munching on his favourite cookies to being dead in the space of a night? i tried so hard to bring you back.....i tried but it didnt work. and now im left all alone, and its too quiet, and nothing seems to matter anymore. A big part of me died too that morning, and i often wish the rest of me had too. But yes, i know, someone had to take care of the babies....you know theyre my lifeline, dont you? without them i might very easily have followed you, but i know that youd have been angry with me if i had, and for good reason, so i didnt. That doesnt mean i dont wish i could have tho. i cant help but think of life now, as the number of days, months, years i will have to endure without you. Life isnt a pleasure, its something to be endured, its a burden, and i just carry on thru it like a clockwork toy, going thru the motions. I know it didnt used to be like this, but it is now and its hard to remember what it felt like back then...i was a different person then.
You used to say that you were bOrken, but you werent, you just had some bits that didnt work so well. Im broken tho, and i cant seem to get the pieces to fit back together anymore, the pattern has changed, all gone to grey now. I miss you with every fibre of my being Alex, and i love you so much, and you were right.....you should always say i love you as many times as you can and i wish i had more often.
im crying too much to see the screen anymore so i think ill stop now. Wherever you are Alex, i hope you know that i love you and that you were and are, the light in my life. Wuvu.
Your catzy

A lot has happened. Today is 12 weeks to the day, that my fiance died suddenly in his sleep. It still hurts. I was of two minds as to whether or not to just get rid of this blog, but then it was suggested to me that i use it as a diary of my search for....whatever it is that im searching for. This is the thing....im not sure myself what i want, im adrift. Its like i died too on that day, and now, my body carries on doing stuff, but the rest of my isnt here anymore. I spent the last 2 years, taking care of Alex full time, and now i have no purpose. I have no job, and i dont think i could manage one even if i had one. Im just filling in the days, without anything to look forward to, to plan for...that all stopped 12 weeks ago. i miss him with every fibre of my being, and it just seems so wrong that he isnt here, wont ever be here again, that i wont ever hear his voice or be reduced to tears of laughter by some silliness of his. I just want to shout its all bloody wrong!!!!
I have no family, leastways none that i can talk with up here. Alexs mum is lovely to me, as are the rest of the family but theyre not here either, theyre downcountry. Alex and i were my family, with the animals, and im doing my best to take care of them, but a lot of that is done on autopilot, I have no one to talk to, and while most of the time thats fine cos i dont want to talk to anyone, sometimes it would be nice, but everyone avoids the person with the sadnesses. Its always been the way of humans and its no different now. Even my best friend admitted to feeling like i should "get over it" tho i understand that thats just cos she cant handle me being so upset. Sorry, but i AM upset and im gonna show it, and its gonna take a long time before its not the first thing i think of when i open my eyes and the last thing i think about before dropping off to sleep. Ive lost a part of myself and im bleeding and i cant pretend it doesnt hurt. The funny thing was that i dont think she realises just how obvious her pulling away was, and normally i guess that would have hurt my feelings, but right now my feelings are too busy with other things to care less.
I spend my days in a grey haze. i feed the cats, feed the dogs and let them out, let levi out, clear the dishwasher, and put in last nights things, watch the same tv shows over and over, day in day out, cook dinner, and maybe eat it, let the dogs in, feed levi and ozzy and put levi away and at some stage go to sleep, then repeat. I havent been able to bring myself to sleep in the bedroom, either bedroom for that matter since Alex died cos everything in there reminds me of him and i end up in tears, so i sleep on the couch so that i can leave the tv on all night to keep me company. I tend to wake up at least once a night and watch tv for a hour or two before i can try to sleep again.
i dont know if sleeping in the lounge is my way of distancing myself from the house cos i know i cant stay here, or what. Maybe it is, but i try not to think about that cos that way lies madness, I dont know what is going to happen and it scares me more than i care to admit. Ive looked for jobs but half the time i get part way into the listings and i stop, overwhelmed, or totally discouraged cos nothing is suitable. The few that ive applied for ive failed to get obviously, and that just confirms to me that im not wanted. I want alex back....i want him to reassure me that im not useless and that ill get there in the end. I thought years ago that id come to terms with being alone, and then i met him and i thought "i wont have to be alone any more" but thats not how it worked out.
He was my rock....he was the anchor that stopped me from going off the deep end, and now i dont have him anymore i dont feel stable at all, and i can feel depression looming up at me like a huge grey cloudbank. i cant write anymore
Alex, i love you and i miss you,
your catzy

Fruitful autumn

Lavender

This is my first post in a while, as life has been a little hectic. Ive been feeling a bit under the weather lately. I also got engaged, and yesterday ended up having an asthma attack and spent 5 hours in A&E lol.
In the garden things are steadily winding up towards winter. Most of the tomatoes have finished so an upcoming job will be to pull them all out and replenish the soil in the pots ready for new plants. I still do have some tomatoes that are just ripening now, so id imagine ill still be picking for another couple of weeks at least. One of the toms still with fruit is a garden peach and the other im not sure about. The fruit look to be yellow but its another of the "mystery seedlings" so we shall have to see.

Shallots

I harvested the shallots yesterday, after leaving them in the pot to cure for a week or so. Unfortunately we had some damp weather during that time so i decided to bring them under cover to finish curing. Yesterday i sat out on the swing seat and plaited them up and hung them in the garage. In spite of having three collapses of the plaits, it was a really fun job, and i felt a ludicrous amount of pride when i hung up the plait. After those three three tries i got a plait that didnt fall apart! go me!! So i now have two plaits of shallots (one rather short one cos i couldnt get it to hold together with the others), hanging up in the garage alongside the drying oregano and the lavender. The lavender is lovely and im hanging new bunches as the season progresses. Some lavenders dont hold their scent well when dried but these ones, one of which is munstead and the other foveaux blue i think, are wonderful.
I also have a couple of bunches of oregano, trimmed when, as usual the plant went crazy just before flowering. Its almost as long and lanky now as then tho, so i might just have to cut it again!
The apples are ripening apace, not yet ready to pick but many are getting some colour now. I have had one apple drop from the gala, but i dont think it was ready. Its a big apple though, so its sitting in the kitchen while i work out what i want to do with it, along with the last kilo of tomatoes. Tom sauce or passata may be on the cards, as i already have several jars of tomato relish!

Todays raspberry haul

Im also harvesting raspberries, and there look to be plenty coming. I need to fertilise them as theyre fruiting away, and id like to encourage them. Even tho they are fruiting well, theyre still only producing dribs and drabs of fruit as i only have 4 plants in total and only the golden ones are fruiting atm. Usually i get a handful a day, and rather than gobble em, im free flow freezing them so i can gather enough together to do something with them. Im not sure how well golden raspberries work in jam, but im interested to find out! I suspect the colour might be less than appealing, as it often is with yellow/white fruits, but im sure that can be fixed somehow. I dug into the base of the canes earlier in the week and took out the old and spindly canes, and i just need to tie them up again now. They have plenty of new growth at least. It all seems to be the white raspberry though. Not seeing much from the black one that is planted with it, but well see.

Veg seedlings

The seedlings are all up as well, so i DEFinately need to evict the spent tomatoes to give these guys somewhere to go.
Here we have beans at the back. These are "Patio Runner" which is supposed to be a lot smaller than the regular runner bean. I hope so as i love runner beans.
In front of that are the mini cabbages, and alongside them the caulis. The ones that havent come up yet are "Snowball" caulis, but the violet and yellow ones are all up and growing. Theres also a couple of basil "Genovese" seedlings and some coloured silverbeet, all of will be needing homes in the next week or so, so i can forsee some hard graft emptying pots and carting bags of compost lol.

Sliding on into Autumn...

Summer is over the hump and its all downhill into winter now, and you can tell in the garden. Even if its as hot as ever, and trust me, it IS!! many of the garden plants are starting to wind down.. One of the things that ive noticed in Auckland is that, while we dont get the dramatic colour changes that you do overseas where there are a lot of deciduous plants, you still see a colour change in early autumn, from the fresh bright green of the spring garden, to a more yellow/gold toned green as autumn approaches. Or maybe its just the heat affecting the foliage. That said, in an Auckland garden, things dont really slow down much due to the seasons.
I have, however planted out some of the autumn/winter veg seeds in peat pots. We have 3 different colours of cauli, yellow, purple and white, a mini green cabbage, and banking on the fact that it in general is a lot warmer on the deck than in the garden, a few "patio runner" beans which are supposed to grow in a more compact form than your average huge runner bean. I know that beans need heat, but im banking on an indian summer this year lol. Who knows? i might even get it.
The apples are looking good, most of them are at full size now, though a couple of trees, the ballerina, and the Golden Delicious, are still swelling fruit, so i need to overcome my laziness and ensure that i keep watering without fail. The Montys Surprise has HUGE fruit on it, but only about 5 of them.  Ill be interested to see if we get more fruit off it next season. If so i might have to look into another stake and some proper tree ties.
The lettuces that i planted at the beginning of the month are going great guns, so i need to pick some soon. The trouble with lettuce around here, and salad greens in general, is that im the only one that eats them. so its usually a case of feast or famine. I either have lettuces coming out my ears or i have a spindly little plant that im scared of killing if i take one more leaf lol.
The little bush basil is growing strongly now, and the scent is just stunning. I find this small leaved, globe type basil to have a much stronger flavour than the big lettuce leaf types. Only thing is they can be a tad TOO strong in some cases. You have to be cautious with them. Every time i water that plant, the smell is just lovely though.
Im still harvesting tomatoes, and along with a couple of beefsteak types, i have some more "mystery seedlings" with green fruit still to come. I dont know that  ill persevere with beefsteak type tomatoes any more though. They never produce well for me, and while i always get some fruit, its nothing on what i get from other kinds of tomatoes. Roma however has a home here forever. Roma tomatoes always produce well for me, fruiting for ages, and even when the conditions havent been the best. Last year when everything dried out to a crisp, the orange roma tomato managed to produce fruit. This year, i have 2 yellow roma plants and theyve been fruiting steadily all season. Of the 5 kilos or so that ive had from the tomatoes this season so far, the majority have been yellow roma. Definitely a keeper. Another one that i might try again next season is yellow Brandywine, ill just find a better spot for it. Its produced several good sized slicing fruits, and theyre very pretty with their red streaks on yellow, but its been attacked by both birds and snails poor thing, so its hard to judge just how well it might have done.  
Speaking of tomatoes, i have another 2 kilos in the kitchen that i have to make used of pronto. Methinks another batch of relish is on its way (i already have an order lol), but i have to get the jars first. I do have a couple of 500 gm perfitt jars, but i find thats too big, and besides i want those to bottle a little fruit. I really need to get some smaller 250 gm jars, which make just the right amount for one or two people, not a huge amount that ends up being shuffled to the back of the fridge where it can dry out and go crusty! Hopefully i can manage to get some jars before the tomatoes go yuckky. I HATE wasting them, and when you consider the effort that goes into growing them, it would be a crime. Plus i love that sense of pride you get when you have a few jars of home made preserves in front of you!! its very addictive

Things that make you go, yay!

One of which is new plants!!
Over the last day or so ive gotten my seeds, two seperate lots, and my new roses, The seeds are mostly for things to get planted for autumn/winter like a mini cabbage, and three different colours of cauli. I also got a patio runner bean, mainly because it sounded really interesting, so i might try a few of those. Hopefully therell be enough heat left in the summer for them. I also got some "Bright Lights" seed, for the coloured silverbeet, as my plants have had it, and need replacing. I also have some baby leek seeds. We shall see if i have any more luck with them than the last time i tried leeks, which as you may have gathered, was not a success. Pity as i love leeks and love using them in cooking, so fingers crossed.

Michaelangelo

With the roses i have got 3 new ones. Michaelangelo is a HT with a lovely light scent, but its the flowers that really sell it. One look and i was hooked, and i was delighted to find that when my plants arrived, the Michaelangelo was in full bloom! Hes every bit as lovely as his photo makes him appear. Im still not sure where im going to put him, or his fellow new arrivals but ill think of something!
Another of the newbies is the David Austin rose "Prospero". This one is another of the dusky purple roses, reminiscent of the gallicas, a colour that i love. He, too was in flower on arrival and his scent is all that it promised to be. His colour too will work well with the colours i have, though to be honest, who am i kidding? If i like it, itll work well, good taste be damned lol. His flowers are petal full and he has a little green button eye.

Prospero

The other rose i got was "Hurdy Gurdy" a McGredy rose that i had years ago. Its a miniature, and it has deep red and white striped flowers of lovely shape. This one unfortunately wasnt in flower, but hopefully next season ill have more of the little "peppermint" roses as i used to call them. Its great to have found this one, as ive been looking for it, off and on for several years.
Hopefully on Saturday ill have yet another new addition too, depending on whether or not the garden centre managed to get them in. This is another Austin, again one ive had before and fallen in love with. Its "Troilus", and i adore its perfume, and its unusual honey colour. OK, i know it has blackspot issues in Auckland weather, but to me thats a small price to pay for the blooms.

Four and a half jars of tomato relish

Ive been harvesting in the garden fairly steadily over the last week or so, mostly tomatoes, of which ive had a couple of kilos, (and the birds one too), and i was feeling very homesteady the other day and turned a kilo of mixed yellow roma, tigerella, aunt rubys green(which really WAS green but had been bird pecked) and garden peach and made a batch of four and and half jars of tomato relish. I dont know why, but making preserves always makes me feel ridiculously proud of myself, so much so that i finally cooked up those apricots which have been sitting in the fridge all week, into 3 and a half jars of apricot chutney this evening. This is ofc more relish and chutney than even i can eat on my own, but people love being given home made preserves. Just as long as i get the jars back! Thats the most expensive thing about preserving these days, is the jars! As the tomatoes are still going and the bigger slicers arent even ripe yet, i think that some tomato sauce may be on the cards yet. Or maybe some tomato and wood fired pepper relish, as i have a half dozen or so, capsicums ripening on the deck.
I finally harvested the last of the Honey Babe peaches today, and ate it out in the garden sitting in the sun, and it was lovely. I really have to get another one of those trees. The little one i have produced 8-9 ripe fruit this year, and id love to have enough to bottle, though the instinct with peaches is always just to eat them then and there.......and who am i to argue with instinct?

Cut 'n Braai

Yes i know, its a terrible pun, all intended to introduce the fact that we had a bbq last night.
I may have mentioned before that i love my Weber knock off bbq, and nothing cooks a butterflied leg of lamb better than a bbq, or to use the South African term, braai.
I have to say that personally i find lamb a little bit on the dull side, but roasting it on the bbq give it a much needed edge of flavour that it needs. I alway add lots of herbs when i bbq lamb too, and give it a good rub with oil and seasoning.
For this lamb, which turned out lovely, i pounded a handful of rosemary sprigs, some thyme, and lots of oregano in the mortar and pestle, I gave this a really good bashing, then added a couple of small garlic cloves, some salt and the zest of a small lemon and gave that a good working in till i had a rough paste. Then i added oil. Normally id use olive for the flavour, but i didnt have any so it was just plain old vegetable oil. You want to add enough oil to anoint your lamb before it goes on the coals and enough to baste it while its cooking. I also added the juice of the lemon to the oil just to give it a pumch, then squeezing the herby mash as you go, rub a good amount of the flavoured oil into the meat, concentrating on the meaty side (what would have been the inside of the leg)
The coals should have been started before you even got the meat out of the fridge, so by the time youve slapped on a coat of the oil, it should be ready to go. Just to remind everyone, this is when the coals have a layer of white ash on them. I set up the coals by pushing them over to one side of the bbq, and putting a drip pan in on the other side with some water in it. This could also be a flavoured liquid like beer or wine of you want. The idea is that it will catch any drips from the meat and prevent them from burning and giving an acrid flavour to your meat, and the heat will also create a moist atmosphere from the liquid, in the bbq when you close the lid.
Give the meat a final season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper on both sides, and pop it in the bbq over the drip pan, put the lid on, and adjust your bottom vents to about half way. You want the meat to cook relatively slowly. Then you leave it alone for about 30 mins. Check it when half an hour is up and see if its cooking well. If it needs more heat, open those lower vents again, and if less, open the top vents and close the bottom ones. Baste the meat, turn it, baste it on that side and again leave it for another half hour or so. After the hour check to see if the meat is the way you like it, remembering that like in an over, the meat will continue to cook after coming off the bbq. When im satisfied with the way the meat is cooked i usually give it a few minutes directly over the coals, just to crisp and brown and get that real smoky flavour. Remove the meat from the bbq, and if you want, throw on some corn, still in its husks, thats been soaked for a while, and grill this with the lid off, just to use the last of the heat. When the corn husks are scorched and blackened, the corn is ready.
Eat!

Aww they grow up fast dont they...

Im well known for having a low tolerence for peoples baby pictures. While im not so rude.....or foolhardy, as to turn away an advancing granma with piccies of her "lil precious", i just dont DO disney moments. Show me pictures of the growth in your GARDEN however and ill be all ears, and eyes and whatever other bits are required!
To me its magical how a garden can grow from a few insignificant isolated plants, into a burgeoning garden in a matter of weeks! It astonishes me every time.....this also explains why, EVERY year i end up with rampant tomato plants taking over the deck, as i always, and i mean ALWAYS, forget how big they get.

Honey Babe peaches

With that in mind i have a few progress pictures of the garden, mostly of the fruit on the fruit trees, and in one case. OFF the fruit tree.
These are the latest harvest off the Honey Babe peach. Thus far weve had about, including these, eight fruit, and there are still fruit on the tree. This little tree has done so well for me, as this is only its second year here, and it fruited well its first year too. Theres something truly magical about harvesting your own peaches. The fruit look so perfect, and so beautiful, and the scent is something else again! Fresh, ripe peaches have a wonderful peach fragrance, and the whole tree smells terrific when the fruit is ready. Im seriously considering getting another one of this lovely little tree.

Garden Belle

The pear is doing well too, and also has some sizable fruit on it. It also flowered again a few weeks ago, and so has more fruitlets coming on as well. This Garden Belle tree is very attractive, especially when in blossom as it just gets covered in white flowers, and looks so pretty. I bought the tree as an experiment, as i love pears, but didnt think id ever have enough room to grow one of my own as theyre big trees. This, though is a dwarf pear, so i thought id give it a try, and so far im well pleased that i did, Ill be even more pleased if i manage to get some of the several fruits on it, to actual eating stage! Atm theyre a fair size but not ripe enough to take in for finishing off indoors. The trick with pears is knowing when to take them off the tree, as pears dont ripen fully on the tree. Usually you bring them in when they seperate from the tree without effort. You then need to take them indoors to finish ripening. Not there yet, though.

Montys Surprise

The apples all have some good sized fruit on them too, especially the Montys Surprise. Those are BIG apples, particularly on a small tree. These apples are said to be good for eating and cooking, and going on the size alone i think theyd make good cookers. Ive never tried the variety before so im feeling my way with this one. Thus far the fruits are green with an amber/red blush, and quite a squat, flattened form in the fruit.

Gala 

The Golden Delicious also had a second flowering a few weeks back, like Garden Belle, and has a few new fruitlets as well as the developed fruit. This tree only has a few fruit on it this season, but it looks like we might actually get something from them. The Gala on the other hand has several fruit on it and a couple of them are good sized.

Ballerina apple

This is growing into a nice little tree, but i think im going to have to be vigilant about pruning it, as its put on a lot of growth this year, and i dont want it breaking branches. Id also like it to fruit well next season, and according to everyone, pruning is the way to do that. The quiet achiever in all this growth, is the Ballerina apple. Like the Golden Delicious, this was really slow to get started this year, and was, like the GD, under threat of removal at the beginning of the season as it hadnt even produced leaves when everything else had set fruit. Its made up for lost time now though, with luxuriant foliage, and even some good sized fruits.
And just to illustrate how FAST things change in the garden, this is a picture of the lettuces i planted recently, the day after they went out i think, and then, a picture of the same lettuces 2weeks after.

lettuces today

                                                                                                               

Lettuces then

Apricot dreams (with apologies to Tangerine Dream)

I have a kilo of apricots sitting in the kitchen today, waiting to be transformed into chutney. Im going to be trying a new recipe, as ive never made chutney with apricots before, just tomatoes, so the outcome, while not guaranteed, will certainly be interesting.
Chutneys as we know them, were and are still an English thing, though now, along with the English, theyve spread all over the world. Originally though, they were absorbed, like a lot of other english flavours, from Indian foods. During the British Raj, a lot of english gentry developed a taste for the spices of the sub continent, and so they tried to recreate those tastes at home. The difference between an indian "chatni", and an english chutney was vast however. This was due to many factors, such as not having the right fruits or vegetables "back home", or access to the right spices. There was also the english cooks to consider, many of whom had no idea what indian food was like other than "foreign". Even if you had an indian cook, which became rather popular at one stage, you still had to change things a little to take into account the palates of those who were new to indian foods, so chatni changed from a fresh fruit or vegetable relish, into a cooked condiment usually made with fruits, and befitting its colonial past, often dried fruits as well as spices and sugar and vinegar.  It also appealed to Victorian frugality by being a way to use up gluts of fruits, and could even absorb green fruit, and make a condiment that would keep for a long time.
By the same token, the tastes of the english influenced indian cookery. Many indians were, after all, employed by the brits as cooks and the like, and even though some (a small minority) of the british would become "indianophiles" and indeed  "go native", at first they all had english palates, used to the blander, english food, so things began to be adapted and changed. In the 1960s in London there was even a name for Anglicised indian dishes, which were referred to as "Chutney Mary" by the indians themselves.
Almost every country that was once a part of the British Empire, now has a taste for cooked chutneys (fresh relish/chutneys still exist and are still popular but im talking here about the cooked and preserved style of chutney), and theyre big business. Looking at the supermarket shelves here youll usually see at least half a dozen kinds of commercial chutneys, made with everything from mangos to green tomatoes, and theres few things better than chutney to have with a sharp cheddar.
Theyre not difficult to make at home though, and really, are just a combination of fruit, onions, vinegar, sugar, salt and spices. Sometimes dried fruits are added, sometimes all the fruits are dried, and the spices are as varied as the cooks that make them, though chilli in some form is almost always added.
In any case im going to give this a try today. This is the recipe im going to use, pretty much a generic one, thats all over the web in slightly different versions, that are all basically the same, and i think based on an Elizabeth David recipe originally. A lot of them have sultanas in them, but since sultanas make me heave, and are even worse when theyre cooked....think flabby little wrinkled things like baby toes.....ewwwwww!, i just leave them out.

Fresh Apricot Chutney
1.5 kilos of apricots, stoned and chopped
2 onions finely chopped
1 tablespoon salt
1.5 cups brown sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 teaspoon coriander seeds (lightly bashed in the mortar and pestle)
1 teasoon mustard seeds
3 cloves of garlic thinly sliced
pinch of clove (optional)
1 small red chilli finely minced (optional)

The original said to cooke the apricots with everything else till very soft, then remove, and cook the liquid down to a syrup. Personally i prefer to leave the fruit in and just cook the whole thing down. The fruit will disintegrate, but thats what i want, rather than chunks of fruit. Its a matter of taste. when cooked pour into hot sterilised  jars and seal.

I have most of the ingredients, bar one or two, so if i manage to get out to the shops today, i should be able to give this a try today. Watch this space

Things to do....

I have to admit to an ever growing pile of "Things to do" particularly in the garden. Ive been a bit crook the last few weeks and it means that i havent gotten a lot of the things that i wanted to do done, so i thought i should enumerate the tasks...if nothing else my laziness might shame me into getting on ;)

Blackberry Nip

1. Dig the extension to the garden bed so i can finally plant out the Blackberry Nip rose, the two Heliotropes, the Alyssum and the two Lavender plants that are frying to a crisp in their little garden centre pots
Now this job is WELL overdue. The problem is Kikuyu. It forms the lawn, and it is SO hard to cut through with a spade. The last bit i dug of the bed saw me standing and jumping on the spade to try to get it through the stuff! Still, weve had some rain so if i was ever going to do it, this is a good time to get into it i suppose, and i know ill be happier when its done.

2. Plant out the little (or not so little now) parsley plants that have been sitting on the deck in the empty pot for the last 3 weeks
No excuse here. Its been pure laziness, and im annoyed with myself because i also managed to let the silverbeet seedlings that i bought with it , die. I just have to decide if i want to plant it in a new container or if i want to pull one of the existing plants which have gone to seed, but whatever i do i kinda need to DO it.

3. Decide which of the roses is going to be potted on into the containers i have on the deck and which will have to wait a little while, and then DO it. 

Pat Austin

The problem here is that i keep changing my mind as to how to do it. I have 4 small roses that arent in dire need of transplanting yet and wont be for a year or so. but i do have three that really should be planted out. One of those is the Blackberry Nip though, and that is going into the garden proper, but the Paul Gauguin needs a bigger container asap, as does Pat Austin. I have 3 containers available, 2x 50lt and one slightly smaller, 30 lt i think. I also have the small Meyer lemon that needs a container too. I guess ill have to put the Paul Gauguin in one of the big containers, Pat Austin in the other, and the lemon in the smaller one....i think

4, Feed all the plants
This isnt really something thats overdue as something that i have to remember to do. For some reason time has flown this season, and the Autumn feed kinda snuck up on me. I have to check to see if i still have any general garden fertiliser left, and if not, get more. Actually, this brings me to point 5 on the list, which is...

5. Get the worm farm up and running
I got a couple of polystyrene boxes to start a worm farm before xmas, aaaaand unfortunately theyre still just standing in the garage. I have to get that up and running as i could really do with the fertiliser, not to mention it would be brilliant for recycling our greenwaste. All i really need to do is to poke some holes in the bottom of the top box of the two. This then gets a layer of compost and some compost worms (red tigers) and is placed on the top of the empty box which will act as a collector for the worm tea.I just have to find a bit of extra cash to buy the worms, but hopefully ill have it up and running soon.

6. Get the winter veg seedlings in or started
This one is again, money. I know what i want to get, i just have to get some money together to get em. Ive decided to get a few different colours of cauli seed, and see how they go. I also want to plant some mini cabbages, though im still dithering as to red or white, and some broccoli, and i might try the white broccoli, Cauli Greens.

Potatoes

7. Plant out the last bag of potatoes
Ive been meaning to do this for a while. I still have a couple of potato planter bags over, and some seed potatoes. Ive no idea what the potatoes are, but might as well use them up, and i suspect that there might be more than one kind. TImes like this, my lassaiz faire attitude to labels sneaks up and bites me on the arse! Still, its always fun seeing what you get ;)

In a bit of a pickle....

My strawberry jam, complete with recycled jar

Or a chutney or jam for that matter. I dont really know where the impulse is coming from but im feeling the need to do some preserving. Maybe its just that "pioneer stock" need to be laying things down after harvest. Not that i have enough of a harvest to preserve, but then again we never did when i was younger and yet we always had preserves. Thing is that at the height of the season things get a lot cheaper so it makes sense to preserve them if you like jams and chutneys etc, as home made are much nicer and a LOT cheaper, so when we were kids wed go and get bucket loads of fruit to be made into jams, pickles and chutneys as well as bottled fruit.
Im nowhere on that scale and as i was pretty young, i wasnt intimately involved with the preserving. That was more my sister and mum, using the recipes in the little brown leather folder that held any number of clippings from magazines and newspapers and hand written recipes scribbled on the back of envelopes. It didnt seem curious to me then, though it does make me wonder now, why my grandmother, and then my mother, both kept that little folder (or the recipes inside it at least) when neither of them was that good a cook and neither of them enjoyed it that much. I say that my grandmother didnt enjoy cooking, but tbh i cant recall if she did or not......given that when she was young there wasnt much choice i dont think enjoyment came into it really, it was just "what you did". Preserving though wasnt an optional extra back then. It was how you got through the year, and everyone had to do it. I can remember as a kid that whole cupboards at home were full of empty jars waiting for the annual preserving gluts.
Anyway, as i said i didnt really have a lot to do with the preserving other than picking the fruit and helping to prepare it, and washing jars, so the impulse to make jam and chutney came as a bit of a surprise. Jam though, is dead easy, so a couple of months ago (at really the wrong time of year as fruit was still pretty steep in price) i decided to bite the bullet and make some jam. Why precisely i decided to make strawberry i dont know, cos i dont like strawberry jam much myself, but the OH does and i figured i could find a use for the extra.
The lovely thing about jam is that its easy and you can make small quantities. With a chutney or relish, you have to work with larger amounts because theyre cooked down a lot and if you start with a small amount youll,
A: have trouble boiling it without burning, and,
B: finish your preserving with a magnifying glass to see the tiny amount you have left after the long cooking!
Funnily enough, i had some jars in the cupboard to fill. Old habits die hard and i find it next to impossible to throw away a jar even though i wasnt preserving up till recently lol, so i threw them through a dishwasher cycle and then into a 110c oven to sterilise. Thats all there is to sterilisation btw, you just need to watch that you dont touch the inside of the jars before theyre filled and that you fill them straight from the oven whilst the preserve and the jar is hot.
I must admit though, i did cheat a little and used jam setting sugar. Now this was unknown when even my mum was preserving, but all it is, is sugar with pectin added. Pectin is what causes the fruit and sugar mixture to jell into jam, and some fruits are notoriously low in it, strawberries being one, hence adding it. Some fruits have lots of pectin though, like plums, and the trick with plum jam isnt to get it to set, but to get it to set without turning to rubber! Another fruit with lots of pectin is apple, and also lemon and youll often find one or both in old jam recipes to ensure the all important "set"

The other large jar, now half eaten.

Testing for this was for many years to many people, an arcane art full of mystery, but really, its pretty straightforward. You put a few saucers or shallow containers (pottery holds the cold best which is why saucers are best) into the freezer, and then as your jam comes up to setting point, (you can tell this by, often a colour change to a deeper colour, the bubbles will be less frantic and will form and burst more slowly, and it will start to smell cooked) , you pull your pot off the heat and you take a small spoonful and you put it on your cold plate. To test it, give it a moment to cool, then push it with your finger. If you get a clear track through your little puddle of jam, and it wrinkles into a skin when you push it, its done! If not, put it back on the heat, boil for another 5 mins or so, then test again till it does. Once your jam is at setting point, stir in a knob of butter to disperse the scum. Now, youll read all kinds of directions for "skimming" but i wouldnt bother unless you have kids around. The skimmings were treats when we were kids, and i think would still go down well....hey its sweet and lurid in colour, its all good! If you dont have kids about then just leave it, and as i say, the butter will disperse it back into the jam. Pour your jam into your HOT jars, using a ladle....and if youre as messy as me a preserving funnel might be a good investment, and leaving about a cm headspace, put on the sterilised lids(put em in a bowl of boiling water). Again theres a lot of advice about 'do tighten your lids immediately, dont tighten em immediately, dont cover at all till coll, cover while hot etc.....I cover while hot and tighten the lids straight away. If you have the lids that have the little pop button on top, they should pop as the jam cools. If one doesnt, dont worry about it, just store in the fridge and use first. i got 3 small jars and two larger ones from my recipe, and even though i dont like strawberry jam much, i have to admit to a glow of pride a couple of weeks later when we had homemade scones, cream and homemade jam. It was yummy too ;) I also gave a jar to the neighbors, which went down well.
Given that jam making turned out to be such a trauma-less experience, ive decided to give chutney making a go, so ive put an extra 1.5 kilos of apricots in the fruit and veg order this week. We shall see how it goes, and hopefully some time soon ill be able to use my own fruit to preserve!

Drips...or irrigation for the clueless...

Its finally gotten a little cooler, and the clouds have gathered. Yesterday it rained which was a blessing for two reasons. One it cooled things down, and two i didnt have to water the garden, which as i was in bed all day feeling like blechhh, is a VERY good thing.
The thing about gardens, like pets, is that they chain you to them. It doesnt matter if you need a break, the garden still needs to be tended and watered, as i found out rather dramatically last year, so something ive been looking into lately is irrigation. The other reason for looking into irrigation systems is that i have rather bad sciatica, which can make it impossible to stand for long periods,and if i dont have irrigation and i extend the garden as i plan to, SOMEone will have to stand there with the hose.
The thing with irrigation is the bewildering plethora of kinds and makes, and ofc like most of these things most makes arent compatible....hell, why make the purchasers job any easier?
The basic types are i guess, drip and seep systems, and sprinkler systems, and ofc sometimes both are combined, and i have to admit that the whole thing just confuses me something chronic!
Sprinklers are my least favoured idea. Theyre the most inefficient method of watering allowing a greater amount of evaporation and its hard to site one so that the water all goes to the plant intended. Most nurseries run a drip system because its efficient and gets the water where its needed which is to the roots of the plants. They work very well in a system of rows of plants, but its not so straightforward when the plants arent placed so regularly. They  can also be a bit of an eyesore, and while that doesnt matter in a nursery it does in a home garden. Ofc there are ways around this, but some, like digging the pipes in, are hard work and expensive. Its also hard to work with containers unless its done at potting up time when a line can be threaded through the drainage hole of the pot. That however means that the pot then becomes fixed and immovable, which isnt always whats wanted.
Seep systems are the "leaky hose" kind of irrigation. This is also efficient but again there are issues with placing of the hoses for maximum efficiency and so that the hoses arent in your face. Again this system is better with rows rather than clumps and drifts of plants.
In principle, theyre simple enough. A drip system consists of the water source, a pipe or hose that has holes in it to allow a slow water release, and end caps for the hose to seal the system. A more complex system might have T junctions to allow more lines to run off the one hose and might also include a computer to automate the watering cycle.
Ive seen several examples of drip systems done with pvc piping, which would work well as long as you could arrange the plants in rows. Might be a go for the fruit trees though id still have to get over the issue of needing access between the two lines of trees, and allowing wheelchair access through too.It wouldnt work at all for my deck plants tho, nor the garden beds which arent arranged in rows or anything close to it.
A hose system would be an option there, but to do it myself would require sourcing the fittings which is a task unto itself! i have seen them for sale in garden centres but theyre expensive, ofc then theres always going to a hardware, DIY place and purchasing items that might not be meant for the task but that would do it just as well. It can be a process of trial and error though, finding the right items to do the job.
Then theres the option of purchasing a system, but the trouble with that is that a bought system never quite fits your needs, plus theres the expense involved. Theyre not cheap at all.
LOL i know i sound like a real pessimist, but i prefer to be that way and then be pleasantly surprised when things work, than frustrated the other way when they dont quite ;)
I guess i need to do more research and pricing, but hopefully ill have a system of some sort in place by next summer. That would be my ideal.

A li'l bit 'o this, a li'l bit 'o that....

A couple more yellow Roma

This time of the year things are starting to ripen. Like most people with a little garden i tend to get things coming in drips, unless its something like tomatoes where you get a lot of fruit all ripe at the same tim. Atm that isnt a problem tho, as the tomatoes are still just giving me one or two a day. More annoyingly im still getting at least one a day that the birds have gotten to. This morning i picked a couple more of the yellow Roma, and there are fruit coming on a largish , at this point yellow fruited, tomato as well that i dont have a name for. Just going on the size and shape of the fruit im thinking maybe a yellow Brandywine? There was also some pinkish fruit that i had to throw away (birds again) from another of my mystery plants, but im really not sure what that one could be. There is plenty of green fruit coming on though, so hopefully soon ill have enough to do something with, other than the odd sandwich. I have to admit tho that my BBT (Bacon, Basil and Tomato) sandwich is best with fresh from the garden basil and tomatoes
To make a BBT you need:

1-2 slices of good bread per sandwich-this can be white or brown, sourdough or not, its up to you. It just needs to be a bit robust to take the tomato juices.
as many bacon rashers as you want 

Yellow Brandywine?

enough basil leaves to cover your bread
mayo
cracked black pepper

Toast your bread. You can use either one or two slices per sandwich, its up to you. If you want to be really indulgent you can fry your bacon (please make it GOOD bacon, which means it has fat and its not all soggy and slimy), and then toast the bread in the pan using the bacon drippings. YUMM. In any case you need to have your bread toasted to taste, and your bacon fried or grilled or cooked to your taste. Spread your toast with mayo, then cover with basil leaves (lettuce leaf basil is best here and you can be generous with it. If you have a stronger kind (eat a leaf...if its pleasant to eat its cool, if its very strong read on) you can chop it finely and mix with the mayo to cut it a little and then use this on the toast. Lay on fresh sliced garden tomatoes, as many as you want, season with black pepper( i like LOTS) then add your bacon (and 2nd slice of toast if you have/want it) get out a napkin or a supply of paper towels, and eat.

Unfortunately the birds havent been content with the tomatoes and have also been having a go at the peaches, and this morning knocked one off the tree. Each morning when i go out to the fruit trees i check the peaches, lifting them to see if theyre ready to pick. If they come away in your hand theyre ready. Once again the birds beat me!! Anyway, there was another ready to pick and there should be more ready tomorrow. Hopefully i can beat the birds to it!!
There can be few things as pleasant as picking a peach off your own trees, and then eating it there and then. Freshly picked peaches are heady with fragrance too, shop bought ones are a pale imitation. A good fragrance from your tree is a good sign that the fruit is close to ripe as well.
The apples and pears are still a way from harvest yet but there are some good sized fruit on them, especially the Montys Surprise, which are very big, and the Gala.
The Bearrs lime is flowering again, and rapidly swelling the fruit from the last flush of blossom, and the little Meyer lemon has several good sized (so far) fruits, so i might yet get some lemons too, and from the smallest plant lol. I DO have to get my A into G and get that little Meyer planted into a decent container. The passionfruit has set more fruits, and there are now 3 on the vine which im ridiculously excited about.

Cymbeline

In the flower garden things are still blooming. Leander, up on the deck has produced another small flush of blossom, this time smaller flowers as the Autumn flowers usually are. Glamis Castle is also still flowering after a slow start this year, producing her lovely ruffled white crinolines of flowers, which stand out beautifully from her mid green foliage. Cymbeline has put out another show of blooms in her delicate ashy pink, but the star turn has to be the Jude the Obscure. Beautiful cupped flowers with a heavenly scent, produced in trusses, she has been, and still is, truly stunning. As well as the roses, several other flowering plants have produced lovely flowers this year. The Hydrangeas have flowered magnificently, in fact a little TOO well as theyre crowding the driveway. Ill have to cut them back hard this year. 

Ornamental GInger

Another plant thats flowered well this year is an ornamental ginger thats tucked into the back of the section under a cabbage tree and behind the Puka. Its never really flowered much and i just left it there as a nice foliage plant where not a lot else would thrive, but this year the Puka lost a branch on that side, and i can only guess that the increased light has allowed the ginger to put out the best flowers ive ever seen on it.

Jude the Obscure

Nips and Tucks...

Once again its HOT! This is going to be a recurring theme in the next few weeks btw. I have to say, its not really the heat that gets to me, but the high humidity is a killer! In any case, on to what i really wanted to talk about today which is changes.
Gardens arent static. By their nature theyre always changing, sometimes its the regular progression of one thing following another when it has finished its cycle, veges being harvested and pulled out to make way for the next crop. Sometimes though, its a more dramatic change, perhaps caused by natural causes like a big storm, or a fire. But sometimes its planned change by the gardener. By their nature, most gardeners are tinkerers, always making improvements and changing colours, putting this with that, then changing it round the next year. All this is a really roundabout way to get to some changes that im looking at making.

The Puka

When we moved here there was an existing  Puka tree in the back yard. Its not a big yard, and the tree, while not particularly big, dominates the area totally. At the time we thought we could live with it, but over the years several cons have come to mind. The huge dropped leaves are a pain to have to pick up (so i have to admit i dont). Also this past winter there were some pretty heavy winds and the back of the tree has lost a big branch which has unbalanced it quite a lot.
My major problem with it though, is that as its an evergreen like most natives, and it has very dense foliage with huge leaves, the shade it throws is totally dense too, even in the winter, so im seriously considering removing it altogether.
Id still love to have a tree there, but preferably something that isnt quite so heavy, that can throw lighter shade, especially in summer but opens up in winter ie: something deciduous. An apple or plum tree or other fruit tree would work well i think, as it has to be something that can be restricted in height to about the size of the Puka now. I might even wait a couple of years and plant the Aprigold there. Its in a pot now but its supposed to get to 3m and it has lovely foliage.

The Punga

Another tree that is definitely in for the chop is the Punga up against the house. The problem here is its just too big, as its up above the eaves of the house and is pushing on, and fouling the guttering. Its also dropping huge dead fronds everywhere, one of which narrowly missed me one day, and took a few hours off my life! I know you can remove the fronds before they die off and fall, but lets be honest, i have NO way of getting up to the height required to do that, and if i tried id probably kill meself! Its also hanging over the ramp and increasing the slippery factor considerably, however due to its size and its position, right against the house and also right in front of one of my garden beds, removing it is definitely a job for the professionals, and hopefully we will soon have the job done. Due to Xmas and New Years i havent done anything about it yet but in the next week or so ill be getting some quotes. While i actually love it, its really just a matter of it being in the wrong place, and after discussing it with the landlord (the OHs mum) were in agreement that it has to go.
The upside of this is ofc, a new area of garden bed opened up which ill have to fill.....its a tough job but someone has to do it!
The other main area that i want to do some work on is in the front of the house. Most of the front yard is fenced in with a solid fibrolite fence where the dogs spend their time but there is one little triangular bit thats left over on the corner. Its very hot and dry, but im thinking it would suit roses beautifully. Atm theres still a lot of to-ing and fro-ing there as the new heating system has a tank on that side of the house but once thats all finished i can get stuck in. Its a pretty big job though, There are some defunct beds along the fence, but theyre waist deep in kikuyu, so even clearing them could be a major, but well see. You never know whats under there until you get into it. It would be lovely to have some more room though, as i have PLENTY of ideas as to what i can get to fill it lol, particularly with roses. Likse most gardeners with a favourite plant, i have a very long wish list ;)

What's new Pussycat?

We may be past the longest day, and thus officially heading to Autumn, but DAMN its hot. To be more accurate its hot but its also incredibly humid, as always in Auckland, which is good for plants....well most of them, but can leave people feeling a little squirrely, not least cos of lack of sleep. OFC come 4 months on and I'll be moaning about the cold or the rain lol. That notwithstanding, once ive written this post im back off to bed.

My first "Pat Austin" flower

This morning when i went out to look at the garden one thing caught my attention immediately, It was the first flower on my new "Pat Austin" rose, and its stunning! It literally GLOWS, a beautiful flame copper colour against the green of the background foliage. The picture doesnt do it justice by a long way!
The flowers are a little smaller than the "Pat Austin" s that ive seen before but most roses produce smaller blooms in Autumn, and it is still in a nursery pot (note to self to rectify that asap!). Im just blown away by the colour though, Its a burning ember of a flower. Once again Mr Austin, you have not let me down, shes a show stopper!
"Pat Austin" is one more ticked off my list of Austin roses that i want to acquire, but the list just keeps growing, as the nursery keeps putting out more
and more lovely roses.

"Ebb Tide"

With the other roses, my dusty purple floribunda, "Ebb Tide" is flowering again. I love the colour of the blooms of this rose. Theyre not as flamboyant as some but they have a lovely subtle richness of colour  which ofc, works beautifully with the brilliant gold tones of "Graham Thomas" and "Golden Celebration" with which its planted. It also has a lovely sweet, what id call "old rose" fragrance, and i love the flower form.

"Paul Gauguin" & "Faithful Friend"

Packed with petals, with just a touch of the golden stamens showing when fully open, it has a real charm about it, and is something that was for a long time, missing in modern rose breeding. I can remember when the only roses you could buy in mainstream garden outlets were stiff, formal HTs, that were designed for formal, rose only gardens and rose shows, and not really for the home garden at all. Then there was a period not long gone when you couldnt find any roses at all save for (the rather boring) "Iceberg" because everyone was trying to grow "architectural" plantings with yuccas and palms. Not really my cuppa tea i have to say, and i was very glad when the "home garden" made a resurgance, and along with the growing of food for the table, came the growing of flowers for pleasure. It would be a poorer world without roses like my "Faithful Friend" and the gorgeous "Paul Gauguin" in it, i feel.

Passionfruit

Elsewhere in the garden, the passionfruit has set another fruit and im ecstatic!! Its flowered like crazy this year, but set no fruit up till about a few weeks ago when i noticed a solitary fruit. Not solitary any longer, and as the vine is still flowering, im hoping there will be more still to come. This is great news as i love passionfruits, and theyre a great ingredient in cooking too. Melting moments with passionfruit filling, passionfruit curd, cheesecakes with passionfruit....the list goes on, and id love to do something with my own fruit some day.

tomatoes

Speaking of fruit, i have FINALLY managed to get some (mostly) ripe tomatoes that the birds couldnt reach. Its not much yet, but the big beefsteak types arent showing colour yet, so atm its just the little fellas. The yellow ones i think, are yellow "Roma" going on the shape and the meatiness. They were among the seedlings that i planted out after they started coming up everywhere and theyre fruiting well....i just dont always beat the birds. They taste pretty damn good too if i say so myself! The little red one is a "Tigerella". You cant really see the stripes in the picture as theyre quite subtle when the fruit is ripe, a kind of pale yellow orange on red. Hopefully ill get a few more of them, but because of the red colour the birds hit "Tigerella" pretty hard.

Looking ahead...

Now that we've passed the Summer Solstice, which is when the earths tilt takes us in the Southern Hemisphere closest to the sun, we're on the long slide back down through Autumn towards Winter. Not that we should feel it for some time yet. Due to the effect of the atmosphere and the mitigating effects of the oceans, the temperatures won't be dropping for some time yet, so theres still time to grow more salad crops.
It IS however, time to start thinking about what to be putting in the garden for the colder months, and this time of year is the time to start things like cabbages, caulis, broccoli, and also to plant out more potatoes.

Potatoes

I already have two containers of potatoes going atm, and I want to plant another one. The ones I have are Agria and Purple Heart, but Im still dithering between putting in more Agria, which are the spuds I use the most, or somthing else. I know I have another bag of seed potatoes but i cant remember what variety they are (as usual) so I might take a punt and see what I get.
I always have to have a good lot of Agria planted every year though. I know they all of a sudden became the darling of every TV chef in the country, but don't hold that against them! If you love a good roast spud, or pride yourself on your mashed potato, then Agria is worth growing. I just love the buttery yellow flesh, and they make the worlds best baked spuds too.  Its a fairly heavy cropper with me as long as you remember to earth them up. This means that when you plant your tubers, you put them on top of about 10-20 cms of soil in the bottom of your container and then you cover them lightly with soil. Water regularly and it shouldnt be long before your plants are showing their leaves above the soil. As they grow, you keep covering them with soil, leaving just a few leaves showing until you reach the top of your container at which time you can just let the plant finish its growth and flower etc. What youre doing is allowing the plant to form tubers all the way along that main stem, and obviously, youre going to increase your yield dramatically. I love growing potatoes. There are few plants that are as tolerant, and yet give you so much in return. Even last year with the interruption to garden care, I STILL harvested a couple of kilos of spuds!
With the potatoes taken care of, its time to look at what else to plant. This is always a dangerous time for me lol. I get onto a seed merchants website and before you know it, I have enough seeds to plant out a garden 10 times the size of mine. Everything just looks so tempting!
One thing I DO have to grow tho is carrots. Funnily enough, some people will tell you that carrots cant be grown in containers. Dont believe a word of it! I always grow carrots in containers and did so even when I had a garden bed. The main reason is that you can grow them in clean soil each time, and the soil quality will be good. If your carrots have to grow in rocky or stoney soil what you will find is that youll have a lot of forked and twisted roots as they grow around the obstacles. In a container, you dont have that issue and you get lovely straight roots.
The important thing with growing carrots in containers is that the container has depth, to allow root development. I never buy carrots in any form other than seed for the garden. I often wonder if any of those punnets of seedling carrots in the garden centres ever come to anything, because the one thing that carrots really dont like is being transplanted. Its best to plant em where you want em, and I usually just broadcast the seed onto the surface of the container and then cover it lightly with seed raising mix (its finer) and MIST!. Dont water full on with the hose until you have established seedlings or youll wash them all over the show, and even when established go gently. A fine spray is what you need.
And Im not sticking to orange carrots either, in fact the orange carrot is the johnny-come-lately of the carrot world, which is a very old one indeed, as it can be traced back 5000 years or so. The carrot  is believed to have originated in Afghanistan, and came in many colours, red,white, purple, but not orange. That came later, when Dutch breeders started crossing various kinds and came up with an orange carrot. This became an emblem of the House of Orange and William of Orange who was a leader in the Dutch independance movement(and became the royal house of The Netherlands) I like White Belgian carrots, but you can also get them in yellow, red, purple,and ofc, if you really MUST, orange.
I think this year I might do a combination of several kinds. When sowing carrots, particularly the way I do it, which is to broadcast(scatter) the seed, you WILL get clumps. Some people like to thin their carrots when theyre small by "pricking them out" which is waiting till the seedlings have true leaves and then thinning till each little plant has a space of its own. If youre VERY careful you might be able to replant the thinnings, though Im way too clumsy to consider it, and even with a lot of care they dont often take. I prefer to thin as they grow, taking out the biggest little baby carrots regularly, which the rabbit or the possum will be only too happy to nom on.
Another thing I want to start are some cauliflower seedlings. This is another vegetable that is far more colourful than youd imagine, going on the white caulis in the shops. Cauliflowers come in white, green, purple and yellow/orange. Ive grown Orange Bouquet before and its a lovely cauli, and grows well here. I also want to grow Violet Sicilian, for its gorgeous colour, and if i have space, maybe a green one or two, thought Id also like to grow one of the whites too like Snowball, which is another heirloom variety. There's also a white broccoli called Cauli Greens, which isnt a cauli and isnt green, but there you go! Ive never grown that but Id like to give it a try.  I havent even gotten onto the cabbages yet. Now you can see why I end up with more seed than garden, but I love choosing what to plant each year and this year Im determined to get my seedlings started in good time.

*yawn* Good Morning garden...

I walk around my garden every morning, usually accompanied by the sound of one or more of the cats, protesting loudly that they aren't allowed to come too, and it always amazes me how much things can change over the space of a few hours.

Red oakleaf and green cos lettuce seedlings

Take the lettuces for example. I planted out the seedlings yesterday, a mix of red Oakleaf, and green Cos....ok, yes after a delay of a couple of days while I got up the energy to clear out the seeding lettuces that were in the containers. After I put them in, they got a good watering in, but it was very hot yesterday, and when I watered that evening I REALLY wasn't sure if they'd make it. They really looked like they'd been cooked!
Go out this morning, and they're looking just fine, and hopefully will get growing and producing greens, thought I still do need to put down snail pellets. On the subject of snail pellets, I'm not keen on using them, after all, they're poison and lettuce is a food crop, but in order to GET any lettuce I've come to the conclusion that they're the only way. It might be different if we had chooks or ducks, but we don't (yet). While I try to avoid using chemicals if I can, sometimes needs must, as they say.

netting on the deck

Now, normally, my morning garden excursion puts me in a better and more serene mood, and every little bit helps as I'm NOT a morning person, however some things are just BOUND to ruin my zen-like state, and the latest attacks in the Great Blackbird War is one. This morning I find HALF a tomato hanging on the plant (the covered plant I might add). Its bad enough that due to their depredations my back yard looks like a birds nest of bird netting, but to add insult to injury, they're STILL pinching the fruit!

The lastest casualty in the Blackbird war

I KNOW you have to allow for some losses to the birds, but I would like some of my tomatoes myself, and do they really HAVE to pick holes in fruit that isn't even ripe yet?
Having had a small mini rant, its on to something a little less upsetting, and thats deadheading.
I know people that don't like deadheading, but I find it strangely satisfying for someone who hates pruning, and every morning when I go out into the garden I take my secateurs. The good thing about deadheading is that it helps to keep the plants flowering, and also it acts as a light prune to help to keep the plants in shape. The trick with it is to keep at it. Little and often, which is a maxim that could apply to gardening as a whole (and one with which I only have a passing accquaintance) is the way to go.

garlic plants

My garlic plants are looking like they should be ready to harvest soon, as the foliage is starting to wither and die back a little. I suspect that I'm in for bad news again with it though. I really don't have too much luck with garlic. Last years was a bust, mainly because like everything else, it suffered from dehydration which was all down to me. This year, it looked like it was growing well, and leaves and plants looked good, but an exploratory poke around the roots hasn't shown much of a bulb developed. Oh well, i'll leave them a bit longer.....you never know.
I'm also keeping a close eye on the fruit trees atm, as I don't want to have them attacked by.......the BIRDS!!
So far they don't really seem to have bothered them much, other than knocking off a couple of unripe peaches and apples.

Aprigold

One of the fruit trees that I haven't mentioned yet is the Aprigold. This is a dwarfed apricot, that has low chill requirements. Chill, or Winter chill, is a requirement of some kinds of stonefruit, apricots and cherries spring to mind as examples. Normally, there just isn't enough cold in a northern winter to convince the trees that its actually BEEN winter and therefore that its time to fruit. A lot of work has been done however, to find low chill varieties that don't require such low temperatures to set fruit, and this is one of them. To be honest though, its worth growing just for the plant, its so pretty. In spring, when its leaves had just burst, they were the most delicate bright green, and the little tree has a lovely shape. It didn't flower this year, but I'm hoping it might this year. The variety is supposed to fruit regularly in the north so heres hoping.
Actually there have been several new developments in the area of fruit trees for smaller gardens and warmer climates. My dwarf pear, Garden Belle is another one, and they've also developed a sweet cherry on a dwarf stock that only grows to 4m....which given that a cherry can easily top 10m is pretty impressive. Its also a low chill variety, though I'd be very interested to know if its low enough for Auckland to be an option. Also low chill is one thing but you also have to take into account the LENGTH of chill time a variety needs, as they all differ. I would dearly LOVE to have a cherry tree though!

passionfruit flower

The passionfruit vine is still bravely flowering away, as it has done all summer so far. I have seen more bees around, though nowhere near what I'd consider normal, but with any luck we might get more than just the one solitary fruit off it this season. I guess I could try hand pollination, but from what I've seen it doesn't work a lot of the time and also, being a clumsy oaf, and passionfruit stems being fairly brittle, i can see it all ending badly, for one if not both of us. Think I'll leave it to the bees. I've always loved passionflowers though. They're so beautifully complex and the colours are so bold, yet subtle. They were named because the stamens and stigma looked like the instruments of Christ's passion, like hammer and nails. A slightly gory association for such a lovely and flamboyant flower.

Oranges and Lemons, say the Bells of St Clements...

The Nursery rhyme/game of Oranges and Lemons or at least the last couple of lines:
"here comes a candle to light you to bed,
here comes a chopper to chop off your head!"
are supposed to come from the way that in Newgate prison in London, condemned prisoners were notified of their fate the night before their execution, by a warder carrying a candle. The execution itself was carried out to coincide with the bells from one of the churches. I've been told several different churches were the fateful bells, but as most churches used to chime the hours anyway, it could well have been any close to the prison........ahhh the "innocence" of childhood...
 Its almost as bad as "ring a ring a rosies" which is a whole 'nother , and equally gruesome, story!
Just what in all this, oranges and lemons have to do with anything, I'm really not sure, but today those lines are known to everyone even if they have no idea about the rest of the rhyme. And it is ofc the oranges and the lemons that I'm interested in, in my container orchard. (hows THAT for a segue, hunh?)
I have several citrus trees in amongst my container fruit orchard. All of them are new, purchased last winter (2012), so I havn't  had fruit from any of them yet, but they're attractive plants nonetheless, and i have a couple of more unusual varieties planted, with more planned.
I DO want to try to grow a "Lemonade" again, because I love the fruits, and hopefully this time, it'll last longer than a year unlike my last attempt, hopefully I'm not a "lemonade" serial killer like I seem to be with gardenias! Lemonade are fascinating citrus with fruit that look like lemons and have some "lemon" flavour, but are sweet like oranges and can be peeled and eaten like an orange too. The variety is a lemon mandarin orange hybrid, and was launched in Australia originally, and I'd dearly love to have one.

Cipo orange

One of the more unusual citrus I have is the "Cipo" orange, or "Pineapple orange". This orange has the most unusual growth habit, in that it's naturally weeping in form. The one I have here flowered profusely, and even set a fair bit of fruit but it has lost most of them now bar I think, two.
Thats ok though as I didn't expect it to fruit this year and most gardeners would say that I should have removed all the fruitlets myself. I hate doing that though, and in the end, the plant has done it itself.
I AM eagerly awaiting its first fruits tho, as it is supposed to be a good eating fruit, with few seeds and a sweet flavour. We shall see.

Bearrs Lime

Another citrus tree I have is the Bearss Lime, otherwise known as the Tahitian or Persian lime. Apparently this lime is the preferred one for pickling and is THE dried lime in Middle Eastern cuisine, and is named after  John T.Bearrs, who developed it in around 1885. The major differences between this and the other "true" key lime are that the Bearrs is larger, thicker skinned and sweeter, thought usually you see them for sale in an unripe state. The Bearrs is yellow when ripe and looks like a small lemon, but unless you grow them yourself you're unlikely to come across them. They're also indispensable in cocktails, especially frozen margaritas, which are brilliantly refreshing on a muggy Auckland summer day. I use a really simple to remember 1.2.3 recipe. With cocktails its always best to go by proportions rather than quantities, as you never know how many you are going to have to make!
Frozen Margarita
1 part sweet (triple sec)
2 parts sour (lime juice)
3 parts strong (tequila) 
ice
You may if you wish add some simple syrup to make a sweeter drink (equal parts sugar and water)
Throw all the above into a blender and blend till you have a slushy consistency. Drink and repeat as necessary!

Moro Blood Orange

Another unusual citrus I'm having a try at growing is the blood orange. There are several kinds of blood orange around, some bloodier than others. The one I have is called Moro, and is supposed to be one of the bloodiest. The plant I have is still small and won't fruit for at least a year yet but its a pretty wee plant in any case. Blood oranges are one of those things that have been "bandwagonised" if you will, by those who want the "new" but they've always been valued in the countries in which they grow, and are a good example of something "new" which is in fact , something "old". The main reason I'm growing them is for the flavour, which is said to be like orange but sweeter and with a hint of raspberry, which sounds very intriguing. And ok, the colour of the orange flesh and juice is a big drawcard too.

small meyer lemon

I really can't discuss my citrus without mentioning my lemons though. I have two Meyer lemons, and the plan was to get several more lemons of different kinds, but to start with the "dull (but easy to grow) old Meyer".  The Meyer ofc isn't really a lemon at all, but is thought to be a lemon orange hybrid, native to China and brought to the West by a Mr Frank Meyer. The orange cross gives it its sweet taste and lovely deep gold colour. It really doesn't have the sharpness of a true lemon like Lisbon, or Yen Ben, but it IS right at home in desserts. In some countries they're valued highly as a fruit,  especially today, but here, not so much, I guess because everyone has one or knows of one. "Familiarity breeds contempt" seems to be

The larger Meyer lemon

very true in the case of the Meyer. Ofc the reason the Meyer is so common here is that the climate (in the north at least) suits it far better than the true lemons. Of my two Meyers one is the larger one at the back door, and the other is a small plant, still to my shame, in the pot I bought it in. The little one was bought as a replacement for the bigger plant, which, about 3 months ago, I thought had turned up it's little rootlets and died. There were some signs of life though (due more, I have to admit, to laziness than any great observational skills), so I didn't throw it out and wonder of wonders, it decided to put out leaves and start growing and has continued to do so. Given it's rather rough few months, it didn't flower this year, but the little one made up for it, and has even got fruit on it, as well as more blossom. All in all, I guess the "dull old Meyers" have done me proud.