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!

Coriander In Winter!

Ok .. so there's going to be quite a few gardening posts this season, purely because of all the work needed in autumn and winter to help prep for spring and summer :-)

I just had to share this with everyone about the latest discovery in my vegetable garden.  Coriander .. yip fresh coriander  .... in winter???  I'm really happy to find it actually.

Last summer I planted some coriander and as it does, it grew so fast it seeded before I could pick it all.  No real problems there .. so as I prepared for my winter vegetable garden, I prepped this particular space and planted some kale, spring onlions and beetroots back in April.  This photo was taken in May.

Coriander is a herb that can be expensive in the supermarket but if you go to the chinese or indian vegetable store you can get a big bunch for about $2.

It's an acquired tasted if you're not used to it.  I love to use it in my broths/soups, curries and dumplings, so I'm really happy this unexpected find has worked out a treat.  With the weather cooler, it's taking awhile to grow to a point where it will seed .. if indeed it does seed, so we will have a plentiful supply for a little while.

Happy living peeps!

First of My Maori Potatoes

I'm right in the middle of planning and planting my vegetable garden for the winter/spring period and couldn't resist sharing this blog.  

Last night we harvested the first of our maori potatoes. I've always wanted to grow my own maori potatoes and I was lucky enough to get a good supply of potato seeds from a great whanau friend from Ngaruawahia who gave me a couple of different varieties.

I planted them in early November over a 4 week period in a combination of my raised vegetable garden beds and a portable potato bag - the second idea was based on watching Annabel Langbein doing her piece on her TV programme. I planted over a 4 week period to stagger harvesting time to ensure we had a good supply from the easter period onwards.  We just had to decide when was the right time to test the first harvest.

Yesterday we were presented with the perfect opportunity.  My husband decided to burn off the results of trimming a few trees from around the Ponderosa, then came up with the idea of cooking our dinner over the fire.  Just quietly, he's been wanting to do that for a while.   Venison stew was on the menu using only things from our vegetable garden or in the cupboard so up came the potatoes, carrots, spring onions then bay leaves, tomatoes, rosemary, homemade herbed salt (which I will blog about soon), garlic, lots of cracked pepper, brown onions and two good bottles of red wine.  One to go in the pot and the other to drink while sitting by the fire watching the magic happen.

It just so happened my sister came over to help me drink the bottle of wine and enjoyed the experience of sitting by the fire and watching our dinner unfold.

The potatoes weren't as big as I thought they would be, but they were delicious none the less. Our harvest didn't even dent the side of whats still in our garden and I'm really happy with this.

If I'm to plan for the next lot of maori potato planting, I definitely need a different and bigger area to plant as they are one of those crops that need space in order to multiply and do their thing.

Happy living peeps!

Mushroom Season

We are well and truly into the autumn season and my garden is starting to change.  The leaves on the trees are changing colour and starting to fall, and the grass is turning from brown to green which is making our cows happy.

One great thing about the start of autumn is the rainy warm weather which means one thing on the Ponderosa - Mushrooms!  They are everywhere and soon it will be difficult to find a spot in some of the paddocks where you aren't walking on them.

My mum was so happy last night that she went out and picked a whole bunch for dinner.  In fact, she picked so many that we couldn't eat half of them so she ended up taking the rest home.  Now she has begun sending her friends over to the house to collect them - which freaked my daughter out when she opened her blind this morning to find strange cars up the driveway and voices coming from the paddocks :-)  Got to love my mum!

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!

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!