Home Grown Goodness

We are going on our 5th year since moving to the ponderosa and life just keeps getting better in terms of all our wonderful home grown goodness.  In saying this, our home grown ventures haven't always been an easy road with a few trial and errors occurring. 

Reflecting on some past blogs we didn't get any plants from PROPAGATING FROM THE GARDEN.  Unfortunately I forgot to change the timer on the sprinkler within the greenhouse which proved disastrous!

THE OLIVE GROVE is still there, however a few of them were attacked by the local rabbits.  They weren't eating the trees, but they were burrowing into their root system which made it difficult to get established but they are starting to get going now.  Especially when we decided to get rid of the pine trees.

Trimming the chooks wings is a must or trying to grow a vegetable garden turns into a losing battle.  There was a time there when our chook numbers were going to decline at a fast rate and keeping sheep inside a paddock can prove more challenging than we thought.  They definitely aren't like beef, that's for sure!

With all the trials and errors, we have learnt from them to look to improve and learn from the experiences and the results are only getting better.

Happy living peeps!

My Treasured Terrarium

Pondering on my post MY BENEFICIAL PEACE LILY I thought it would be a great idea to introduce some other indoor plant ideas into the home.  Enter the idea to DIY a terrarium.  It has been something I've been wanting to try for a while and when Jayden woke up one morning and said "lets do it", I thought why not.

Off we went to the local k-mart and $2 store to pick up a couple of glass vases, to showcase them in.  A few miniature cacti from bunnings and some succulents from my garden, some stones (both new and those that I bought back from Wanaka), soil, dried moss and some small pieces of drift wood from Wanaka which I blogged all about in DIY DRIFT WOOD.  We were all set to go.

This is mine that I completed.

I started with my stones from lake wanaka to ensure my plants don't have wet roots.  I followed with a layer of dried moss, succulent mix, then my plants.  Finally I finished with a few pieces of drift wood.

Jayden's finished product

Jayden enjoyed making them so much, she made one to sit on our dining table using my trifle bowl & a small one using an old jar

3 of them now sit on Jayden's drawer in her room

I have to say that both Jayden and I were pretty happy with our work that day and they look absolutely fabulous in the home.

Happy learning peeps!!

West Garden Revamp

On the west side of the home paddock at the Ponderosa, is a wonderful part of the garden that I think has potential for a more formal look about it.

When we first moved on to the property, this particular garden had a mish mash of different plants that didn't really do anything for me.  One day when we had a digger to lay some power to our shed, I jumped on the digger and had a play to pull out what was in this particular garden.  A job that would've taken half a day took about an hour once I got the hang of things.

Because it's on the other side of our rose garden, it backs onto the new recycled fence that we did and I blogged about it in NEW ROSE GARDEN.  This will form a wonderful backdrop for the garden.

I am a great believer in planting in mass, which basically means planting the same plant in bulk.  I think it adds a more dramatic and finished structure to a garden as opposed to having a mix of different plants in the same space.

So in saying this, I've (with the help of my wonderful husband Gig), planted some port wine magnolias which will form a hedge against the fence.  This plant is quite fast growing and has a wonderful scented deep red flower that flowers from spring through to autumn, which is just stunning. 

In front of the port wines, I've planted some dietes glandiflora which looks like a long grass and has beautiful white and purple flowers.  I wanted these plants to add "texture" as oppose to the flowers which flower from summer through to autumn.

In front of the dietes, I've planted some gorgeous puple iris, in fact 100 of them.  Of course, the flowers are seasonal which means spring time but the foliage may stay all year round.   I love this flower and can't wait to see how these turn out.

Weedmat on our property is essential and although I haven't put any mulch down, it is in the pipeline once the iris' look like they care coming through.  I also haven't decided on how to frame the garden with a final planting in front of the iris'.  All I know is that plant will be planted in mass, like the others, and will be low growing, but not ground covering.

Once I figure that out, the garden will be complete.

Happy living peeps!

Spring Bulbs

If you are a keen gardener then you'll know that autumn is the time that most of the garden work gets done from preparing soil, to pruning, to planting to everything in between.  Right now, I have 4 gardens on the go awaiting for me to finish them before xmas and at least 3 of them are 90% completed.  The other one needs some extra work so I'll need to dig deep on that one.

Anyway, I'm a sucker for spring flowers and nothing talks spring more than daffodils BUT this year I've ventured out further into new and undiscovered territory.  One day when walking through the warehouse with my daughter Jayden, I stumbled over this heavenly display of spring bulbs.  Feasting on my moment of vulnerability, Jayden proceeded to convince me that we needed nearly every type of bulb available :-)  Crocus, daffodils, iris, tulips, freesias and ranuculus.  100's and 100's and 100's and 100s of bulbs.  When I got home, reality hit me and when it came time to plant them .. Jayden was no where to be seen!

A display of some of the bulbs

I managed to plant them all around the Ponderosa with the exception of the iris, daffodils and tulips.  I have visions of the tulips going into some pots because they are so high maintenance and have to be collected at the end of their flowering life and stored away.  The iris will line part of my west garden and I haven't quite decided on the daffodils yet.  I have a couple of weeks left before winter sets in for good and I can't wait until spring to see their beauty!

Happy living peeps!

Back Garden Gets A Transformation

When we first moved onto the Ponderosa the gardens were a mish mash of the previous owners creativity and as time has progressed, we have placed our own personality with some of the gardens.  

I blogged about one in NEW ROSE GARDEN and another in HAMMOCK GARDEN, but I truly think the one garden that's taken the biggest transformation at the moment is the back garden which has now turned into our vegetable garden.

The original garden was a combination of flax, roses, lavender and hebes and it's fair to say was an overgrown mess tangled into a trellis fence.  After a year of thinking about what I wanted to do with the garden, one thing was sure.  I knew the bed of miniature flax had to go as it was a breeding ground for rabbits and mice.

Both my husband and I weren't feeling digging them out by hand so I asked my brother in law very nicely if he could do it with his digger.  He's a drain layer and watching him work on a digger is like watching a baker delicately ice a cake.

As we peeled away the layer of flax we found it was concealing the old stone wall used to retain a raised garden.   As the digger cleared more away, the original footpath to the outhouse became exposed.  I immediately started thinking that this garden has more potential than I thought.

Weed mat was placed down, then four raised gardens created to house the beginning of our vegetable garden.  My husband made them from fence palings so not only are they perfectly square, but it kept costs down as well.  We planted vegetables relatively quickly and began to reap the rewards.

The roses were entangled with trellis so just like the rose garden, down it came, replaced with used iron from our farm.  A good paint with karaka to blend into the native garden behind it.  The garden was transformed instantly!!  We did decide to keep two roses which sit above the fence line.

The stairs leading up to the outhouse have been lined with rosemary and the idea is that it will grow into a hedge that will frame and define that space better.  At the top of the stairs is a beautiful hot pink hibiscus that takes centre stage when it's in bloom.  At the bottom of the stairs I've planted thyme and bay trees.

We are still undecided on the stone retaining wall as it hasn't been put together very well so we either have to take it to pieces and then put it all together again, or replace it completely with something else.  It's for this reason that I haven't permanently placed any plants between the bay trees and the existing roses, but planted vegetables in vegetable mix bags so we could cope with the volumes I wanted over the summer period.

The flax removed along with some trellis revealing the stone retaining wall and pathway

Raised gardens and Gig replacing the trellis with the used iron

Gig starting to paint the fence

Fence painted and vegetables starting to grow for summer

A look from the outhouse deck

The view from my back porch

The garden is still a work in progress as I'm still not decided on what ground cover I'll put down around the vegetable gardens or what the decision of the stone walls will be, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks at the moment.

I don't believe that the photo's really give it justice and once the garden outside the outhouse is completed, it'll all put everything into perspective.

Happy living peeps!!

The Vege Garden Is Going Off

 I am loving this time of year when the whether is wonderful and warm or shall I say hot, everyone is looking relaxed after their holidays and most of all the summer veges are starting to produce like crazy.

I had a plan for our vegetable garden.  I carefully planned out what vegetables and herbs we needed to plant so that we had a lovely supply over summer with the garden structure we have.  Although we still haven't finished building a small part of the garden structure, we still have four great raised gardens.  To cope with the volumes, I simply planted some vegetables like tomatoes, lettuces, basil, sweet corn, chillies, and sweet peas in garden bags.  I hadn't done that before, but I must say it worked a treat particularly if you are pressed for garden space.  Simply buy a bag of vegetable mix ... and plant your vegetables straight in it them.

I even planted some maori potatoes that a great whanau friend gave me back in August.  That really fulfilled my vision that I blogged about in HOMEGROWN FOOD and I was so excited about.  I didn't get them in the ground in time for xmas picking, but nevertheless they are in the garden and it'll be a month before we see the fruits of our labour with those beauties.

My vegetable garden about 2 weeks into summer planting

The fruits of our labour .. and this is only a small portion of produce we are getting.

I'm really enjoying my vegetable garden and since we moved it closer to the house, it's wonderful to look out the kitchen window and gaze upon how lovely it connects to the house.  Maybe I'll blog about the transition to make it happen.

We have courgettes, rocket, herbs, cucumbers, kale, spinach, silver beet, radishes, lettuces and beetroot all constantly coming into the kitchen and I've made some lovely relishes to try and keep up (which I'll save for another blog).  

Our carrots aren't quite ready and neither is our water melons, sweetcorn, capsicums, spring onions, tomatoes and chillies but it won't be long to go now and I can't wait.

We haven't used any form of pesticides on the garden either which is great so the only real challenge is ensuring there is sufficient water.  Living off a water tank and with such dry weather we have been experiencing, conserving as much as we can is critical.

One thing that has definitely become clear during this summer exercise is that we need a bigger vegetable garden! 

Happy living peeps!

First Of The Summer Peaches

My dwarf peach trees have been coming along quite nicely this year.   I blogged about them in SPRING BLOSSOMS and again in AWAITING THE FRUITS OF OUR LABOUR.

One tree in particular has produced better than the other two in terms of the size of the fruit and I just had to share some photo's of the crop we picked from it.  I say we because my cousin Marian has been staying with us and enjoying the joys of what the Ponderosa has to provide over the past couple of weeks.

Marian picking the crop from the small tree - the basket isn't even half full yet!

The fruit from the one dwarf peach tree

I was so impressed with the volume of peaches, especially from such a small tree I just had to send a photo of the basket to my husband.  His response 'HECK!'

The birds have gotten to a couple of the fruit so Marian has plans to slice the good bits off and caramelise them for a yummy dessert!!!  The rest will be devoured au naturel

Happy living peeps!!

Awaiting The Fruits Of Our Labour

The Ponderosa sure does look wonderful this time of year and with the weather being so lovely I found myself wondering around looking at all the fruit trees we have planted over the past 12 months.  I blogged about these in HOMEGROWN FOOD.

To my excitement, they are beginning to show some really positive signs of our expected summer crops.

The property has 5 plum trees now with all of them showing great produce. The Japanese plum tree is a mature tree that was on the property when we arrived with its fruit having a lovely sweet yellow flesh with ruby skin. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a good photo of the tree to show all the fruit.



4 of our 5 plum trees.  The tree in the top left has a wonderful yellow flesh & skin which we bought with us from our previous property.  The other 3 are black doris plums.

All 5 of our cherry trees are showing great signs of fruit and I'm very determine to get some fruit before the birds beat me to it.  Fingers crossed I win!!!

3 of our 5 cherry trees.  I'm determined to get some fruit this year before the birds get to them.

We have planted 7 peach trees.  4 of our favourite variety - Golden Queen and 3 dwarf peaches which have a lovely red skin.  I expected it would take a few years for our golden queens to establish themselves before producing the volumes we wish for because we love this variety so much.  Imagine my surprise to find that they were performing better than anticipated.  Although we won't get dozens of fruit, just to have a taste for a couple of days will be suffice for now.

Our dwarf peaches on the other hand are coming along leaps and bounds.  These are the same trees I shared in my blog SPRING BLOSSOMS.  For small trees they are loaded with fruit and I'm so glad I didn't move them like I had intentions to.


3 of our 7 peach trees fruiting well.  Fingers crossed our Golden Queens produce the goodies

Lastly is our nectarine tree.  I've never had much success growing nectarines so this tree is special.  It sits pride of place between the homestead and our shed and last year it produced one lonely fruit - yes ONE.  Every day we would inspect the fruit to see if it was ripe and it was a race between the whanau to see who got to try it first.  Husband 1 - Rest of us - 0.  In fact he devoured it all by himself.  This year the tree is showing signs of at least two nectarines.  :-)Fingers cross my husband shares this season. 

Our nectarine tree.  Not a good photo of the tree, but the pooch looks cute!

Given it's only been 12 months for alot of these fruit trees to establish and we aren't talking production that will "feed the multitudes", I'm still pretty happy with where we are at.  In fact, I'm pretty excited about it!!

Happy living people!!



Spring Blossoms

There sure has been some wonderful spring weather, however having the flu hasn't allowed me to enjoy it.  In fact it's taken a good 2 weeks to try and over it and as usual just as I slowly get over it, the weather turns.

I just had to share this photo of our miniature peach trees that blossomed beautifully this year.  I did have intentions to move them from their current place to a new home on the Ponderosa but couldn't bear to do it once the blossoms came out in spring.

Spring has to be my favourite season as the landscape transforms and new growth inspires you to refocus on what's important in life.

Happy living people!!!

Homegrown Food

In our quest to live off the land for a much healthier and sustainable lifestyle, you learn very quickly that having your own supply of fruit and vegetables is a must.

My husband grew up in Mangamuka, a small town just south of Kaitaia on a large farm with a large old villa .  He remembers vividly at least 1/4 acre of the property housed an orchard and would have a massive supply of fruit and preserves all throughout the year.

Although I didn't grow up on a farm, I did grow up in Ngaruawahia where all properties were 1/4 acre sections and nearly all the houses had fruit trees galore and vegetable gardens.  As a child I would go from house to house eating what fruit I could with all my cousins and it was great!

Imagine my surprise when we first moved onto the Ponderosa and there wasn't much of a supply, especially considering a property as old as this one.  In fact, there was a fig tree, pear tree, lemon tree, grapefruit tree, walnut tree, plum tree, hazelnut tree and 3 cherry trees.  The property did come with a green house, and was loaded with tomatoes and the vegetable garden had heaps of onions.  (Secretly my daughters thought the old owners had an obsession with onions, because they were everywhere).

I have blogged about the cherries, plums and nuts ARE YOU NUTS & SUMMER FRUIT SURPRISE but we took action and planted so much more.  An OLIVE GROVE , a citrus grove with lemons, oranges, limes and mandarins as well as plums, peaches, apples, cherries, pears, almonds and a nectarine tree. 

We repositioned the vegetable garden closer to the house as well.  The old vegetable garden was positioned closer to the front boundary which meant we had to walk a marathon to go and grab something for a meal.  Not good in the rain.  It's pretty close to the back doorstep now, and we get to look at the progress of the garden from the kitchen window which is great!

Beetroots, kale, radishes, spring onions, spinach, silver beet, celery, lettuces, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, sage, marjoram, thyme and bay have served us well over the winter months and I'm starting to think about what needs to be planted for picking this side of xmas.

Kale, Carrots & Beetroots

Beetroot, radiches & spring onions

Sliverbeet, spinac & spring onions

I am currently on the hunt for some maori potato seeds and hope I'm able to secure some soon as I need to get them in the ground this month just in time for xmas.  My favourite fruit tree supplier is Farrels has their annual sale on at the moment so I'm looking to add a few more nectarine trees and citrus as well.

Grapes, passionfruit, raspberries, avocado, pomegranate and asparagus are all on the radar as permanent features too.  I just need to find the right place for them.

Have a great night peeps!

Hammock Garden

I've been trolling through old photo's of the garden and found some with our hammock.  Yes we have a hammock garden .. a place where we can rest, relax and reflect on whatever it is that you want to reflect on.

We've always had a hammock since our first home and enjoyed the thought of laying outside under a tree listening to natures best, reading a book and probably falling asleep.

When it came time to move into our second home, there was no place for a hammock.  That home had everything you could possibly want ... crammed into a 680 m2 section with an outdoor pool.  No trees to swing from, so a mattress on the courtyard with lots of pillows was the answer.

Enter the Ponderosa ... hammock paradise - it really was!!!  We just had to decide where to put it which didn't take long at all.  

The beginning ... the pooch lazing in the sun while my husband reads a book in the hammock

Add a small rustic cable reel to rest those essentials such as a glass or book

Add a bigger cable reel for an additional sitting area

I'm really happy with this garden.  It has a wonderful outlook onto the paddocks and rose garden.  The table provides a wonderful resting area for afternoon refreshments, and kids just love to hop in the hammock and have a play around.

In future I do envisage adding more plantings to the garden itself and some lighting in the trees for a little ambiance so watch this space.

Happy living people!!

Front Boundary Gets The Chop

If there's one thing I love about the Ponderosa is the wonderful mature trees on the property.  Not only do they provide privacy, but they give a majestic ambience that makes you wonder what stories they could share with you over their years.  It so relaxing to sit on the porch and gaze out over the land and look and listen to them swaying in the breeze.

During the different seasons the trees give a whole new take on the Ponderosa.  In the summer, the land is filled with lush foliage providing necessary privacy and shelter for us and the animals and not to mention fruit.  The autumn brings amazing autumn colours followed by the lose of leaves which help organically feed & treat our stock .. and not to mention fruit.  Winter the trees look dormant & sad while the birds nests become visable from below.  Then there's spring which brings new growth with new blossoms and colour into the garden and with it comes a sense of revival as the days become warmer and new fruit starts to emerge.  Out of all the seasons, I would have to say autumn and spring are my best times to sit and enjoy the trees and what they have to offer, either by listening to the breeze, birds chirping or the fruit they bear for our consumption.

So .... you could imagine my disappointment when I recieved a phone call from the NZTA saying they needed to widen our road, which meant taking the row of wonderful mature trees on our front boundary.  I was equally annoyed when they tried to say the trees serve no real value or purpose.  Grrrrr!!!  Enter my husband who had the task of negotiation.

 

The trees in the background - not a good angle I know

The trees coming down 

The trees all gone :-(

I do miss those trees on the front boundary and I'm not a fan of the Ponderosa being exposed to the road .. and all that comes with it.  The bonus is we get to plant new trees along the entire length of the new fenceline so I just need to decide what, when, why and how so stay tuned for the continuation of this story.  Hopefully I can create an outlook of tranquility from within and privacy from outside the Ponderosa which mets our needs.

Happy living peeps!

 

Scented Wonder

I can't believe that summer has come to an end and we are already half way through autumn.  I've been busy over the past few months as my beautiful grandmother has fallen ill which means I haven't spent a lot of time on the Ponderosa.

Today I had an opportunity to do some work around the house and during some reflection time of sitting on the front porch, I gazed out over the rose garden (which is coming starting to come to the end of it's flowering) and reminisced on the beautiful display it managed to produce this season as I was either leaving or arriving home.

I just had to post some photos considering the last post was about designing it.  

It never ceases to amaze me the enjoyment that the Ponderosa provides me.   99% of the roses in this garden are wonderfully scented so you can just imagine the aroma that drifts through the air when there is a gentle breeze.

There is still room for a few more roses, and there are specific ones I am after and need to look quite hard to source them ... watch this space.

Happy living people