Blog 661 - Starting a New Garden Life

[gote]

You are a wise woman Lesley and I sincerely hope you will be happy.
I should probably follow your example but the land on which I garden was bought by my great great grandfather in 1867 and the house was built by my grandfather 1918. It is difficult to let go. (But I have got rid of two of the old cars - only six more to go).
Again
Good luckt o you both.
Göte 

[Darren]

Very best wishes to  you Lesley and we look forward to seeing how your new garden develops!

[ian mcenery]

Good luck Lesley it looks just great. I can just see you with G and T in hand

Ian

[angie]

Well done, Lesley!
Maybe you can take us for a "drive by" after the NZAGS Study Weekend!
I look forward to further instalments of the new blog
cheers
fermi

Lucky you. Maybe in the future we could have a SRGC outing, as they say distance is no object when its worth seeing something you enjoy. Also I have always wanted to gaze up to the stars in warmth.
Lesley it's so exciting for you and I am glad that you are sharing your future with us.

Angie 

[ranunculus]

... And great good luck from the Bookeroo ... too.

I hope you are preparing that gorgeous little Ranunculus semiverticillatus for the move with some tender touches and quiet reassurance?

All the very best Lesley and Roger - with both the move and your long-term gardening and health issues.

[Lvandelft]

Looks like a lovely place for gardening in the middle of the fields, Lesley. I think you will improve the garden soon with many lovely plants.
The making of new gardens is something which let you think very positive and you forget to think about health and other problems.
I expect in the future there will be less lawn mowing in this garden. The place where now are the Armeria is really inviting for a rock garden, difficult to wait a few months and not start immediately
I wish you much luck and pleasure in your new place!

[Martinr]

Looking forward to episode 2. I may have missed it but what size is the new plot?

[maggiepie]

Lesley, am so pleased you started your blog, can't wait for the next installment.
Your new house looks beaut as do the gardens.
Hope your move goes smoothly.

Can understand your frustration and disappointment at being gazumped with the first property but hopefully this will turn out even better.
Wishing you the best of luck with it all.

[frits.kp]

what a brilliant read. we are selling our house, I am now worried! Your house in the pic looks lovely

[Lesley Cox]

Again, thanks everyone. I'm enjoying the writing but every day that slips past without my doing something outside toward the move, really is frightening me now. There is so much to do.

frits.kp, house selling and then buying is a traumatic thing at the best of times so I do wish you every possible success in your sale and finding a replacement when you're ready. I hope it all goes well for you. Ours would have been much easier if I hadn't wanted to take so many plants and re-establish a run down nursery. Most people decide to sell and get on with it. I've been planning it for many months before we actually took the fateful step.

[Lesley Cox]

Cliff, I really hoped you'd forgotten about the R. semiverticillatus because I have to tell you, that it has died. It became very overgrown last summer then died down but has not come through again this year. From germination in, as I remember, 1992, it never flowered even once so though I feel bad about it, it wasn't a spectacular part of the garden's display.The over grown syndrome applies everywhere and is really the main reason for the move - we just can't cope with it all. I didn't want to tell you and I know you'll never speak to me again, but I hope in time we can be friends again.

[Maggi Young]

I don't think the Bookeroo will hold it against  you , Lesley.  I suspect he'll weep for a moment or two and then be relived that  he no longer has to envy you having the plant! He's got a very sensible streak in there somewhere, I'm sure.

I can't remember how long we struggled on with a non-flowering Ranunculus semiverticillatus - it was quite a few years, though not as many as yours. Sweet little knotty growth each year, getting gently bigger, but never a flower and then, one year, no re-appearance - just the sort of torture we are all daft enough to put ourselves through!

[ranunculus]

Let the mourning begin ...

As Maggi has kindly noted; "He's got a very sensible streak in there somewhere, I'm sure." ( ... and without a concluding question mark, quite surprisingly) - I send sympathy, understanding, condolences and the hope that seed will find it's way to you once again in the future.
   

[Lesley Cox]

Blog 661 – 5th December 2012

A quick word of apology. I mentioned in the last entry that I would leave home for work at 4.15am. Of course I meant 5.15 as I start at 6am. I’ll get up at about 4.30 as I like to shower, cook and eat porridge and have a tickle of Marley’s (the dog’s) tummy before I leave.

The house is certainly very comfortable and we are looking forward to occupying it. It is old – for New Zealand – built in 1900 and for this reason we have had quite a job of proving to our bank, from whom we need a small loan for just 3 months, that we can insure it. Insurance of all kinds has gone through the roof since the Christchurch earthquake. For this year’s renewal, our house and contents policies have increased by a massive 64% and for a new policy, as we will have here, it is even higher. This of course is better than for many Christchurch people who have been unable to insure at all, an appalling situation for home builders or repairers. However, at last we have been able to prove rewiring, re-plumbing, re-lining have been done within the last 20 years and that re-piling and re-roofing as our insurance company wanted, are not necessary, though the roof will need painting in the reasonably near future.

The little verandah which you will come and share with us Angie, will seat maybe 4 people in comfort and already we are calling it the G and T deck as it will be warm in the evenings. At the other side of the house is a larger decked area for coffee and croissants and light lunches. Maybe we could seat up to a dozen here. The kitchen is smaller than I’m used to so will have to be kept really tidy and I’ll have a good walk-in pantry. Then there is a dining-living room with a good view of the side garden and from this a larger lounge (I hate that word so let’s call it a sitting room), which has French doors opening onto the G and T deck. A wide hall from these three rooms has three bedrooms off it and the front door as well as a single bathroom at the other end but we also will have a self-contained flat with kitchen-living room and a large bedroom and bathroom/loo. So we can have people to stay in two bedrooms and I’ll be really annoyed if Forumists are in New Zealand and don’t take advantage of that.

The flat can also be used as a work room (Seeds!)

Then there is garaging for 3 vehicles and a 4th except that that part will be my potting shed and the nursery will be in several small areas at the back of the property, fitted in among the various small buildings and providing for sunny and shady places. I’ll have a shade house built and what was my original quarantine house years ago will be rebuilt as a propagating house. Maybe I’ll be allowed a small alpine house, if I’m very, very good.

There is a good and very well kept vegetable garden and with great generosity, the sellers are replanting it as they use the potatoes, beans etc, which are ready now. We asked Ian why he was planting main and late crop potatoes and sowing more carrots as they wouldn’t be ready in time for him and Shirley, his wife. “You’ll need something to eat when you get here” he said, “and with winter coming on I’ll make sure there are young cabbages, caulis and leeks growing on for later.” A tiny glasshouse completes this area, which also has rhubarb and berry bushes. I buy a lot of our vegetables at the market but fresh as those are, our own supply straight from the garden will be even better.

In spite of there being 3385 square metres in total, there is not a huge amount of lawn and some of what there is will (or my intention is that it will) become a series of small lawn patches, one totally of gentians, one with snowdrops, one with crocuses and Eranthis and one with Cyclamen coum in different shades. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions so time will prove the worth of my present aims but the material is here for these things to happen. It will be up to me to make them come to pass.

Downsides? Yes, a few but nothing we can’t live with. The main trunk rail line goes right past the front (south eastern) boundary but there are so few trains nowadays that so far, on the 5 times we have visited, we’ve not seen or heard one and in any case a thick band of trees is between the boundary and the garden, but we do have to drive across the line to enter our place. However, the visibility is excellent in both directions. There is more noise from the road traffic but one gets used to that. We have done, previously (anyone who has been on this stretch of what I termed our version of the M1, would roar with laughter at the very little traffic it carries in comparison, just a single lane in each direction).

The other thing we have noticed is that though the garden is full of bird life, we haven’t seen or heard a native wood pigeon, tui, bellbird, wax-eye, fantail or shining cuckoo, all of which we have at present, in abundance. The shining cuckoo population has exploded this year, with a least a dozen birds in our garden at present. We’ll plant especially to attract these birds and Roger has always put out drip feeders with sugar and water, very popular with native birds so when we get some of those hanging in the trees and around the house, we hope to have the native birds come to visit then stay.

We’ll also introduce a few – maybe 4 or 5 – hens for eggs of course and because they are useful for manure and to keep control of small garden pests. They’re nice to have pecking around one’s feet as one weeds too. Roger will make a contraption called a Chookateria, a self-service feeder, which can be eaten from, at will. The chooks will be free range of course, just going into their little perching house when they wish, for the night.

As you see there are many hostas, ferns and other cool-loving plants all very lush which suggests some parts are quite damp. The entrance way will change a lot and the lawn there is probably the most lawn in a single piece there is. The red doors are garage and my potting shed which opens at the other end as well.

[Brian Ellis]

We asked Ian why he was planting main and late crop potatoes and sowing more carrots as they wouldn’t be ready in time for him and Shirley, his wife. “You’ll need something to eat when you get here” he said, “and with winter coming on I’ll make sure there are young cabbages, caulis and leeks growing on for later.”

What a lovely gesture, this all bodes well Lesley, the house sounds delightful and it seems a shame that Ian and Shirley can't just move next door and be lovely neighbours!