Motorway to the washing line

So, we have the line up and an explanation of why it is where it is but you haven't been told how we'll get to where it is from where we are. After much thought we decided on a path. No, don't scoff, we ruled out the flying fox on the grounds that Occupational Safety and Health would probably object to having it fly over a rose bush - far too dangerous - a helicopter would cost too much and a lift was just too darned impractical. Yes, a path, or rather a motorway, it would be.
This job was going to take an afternoon but CIS (Creeping Improvement Syndrome) reared it's ugly head and so far it's taken three days, on and off. There's still a good day's worth of work to finish it off but hey, it's operational. If you look closely at the lower image you can see a seat at the end of the lower wall on the left, which just happens to be right beneath a tree house in the cherry tree to the right. The tree house was a project of a couple or three years ago and was built for our grandchildren who love to climb up and have Janice and I sit below while they tell us stories, made up on the spur of the moment. The seat will facilitate easy listening. Don't forget to call back for the next exciting installment in the saga of the washing line.....washing actually hanging on it!

Brrrrrrrrrrr !!!

Wanganui doesn’t get too many cold winter days but this is sure one of them. We woke up to hail and went to bed to the sound of hail too. I have yet to see snow settle on the ground here but this may well be the year.

Cold and rain notwithstanding, it’s been a good week. At the nursery we’re right into tidying up for the next season and at home I’m enjoying having more spare time to get into the garden. The clothes line that I made while Janice was in Wellington a couple of weeks ago was a real hit (all we need now is some fine weather) and right now I’m building a pathway (more like a motorway really) from the back door to the said line. Janice is really over the moon and I’m loving adding to the garden.

Ok, ok, ok so you think a line is a line is a line. Not so. This one is a four strand line, about twelve metres long (48m of line in total) and will take over three large loads of washing. There is still plenty of space for the air to circulate between strands as they are about 400mm apart.

The next bit is geography, climate and engineering type stuff. Just warning you that’s all.

The land is sloping such that the distance from the ground to the outside line on the upside (where small items are hung) is over half a metre less than the distance to the outside line on the downside (where sheets are hung). What makes it work so very well however, is the actual positioning of the line, the general garden area and indeed the house too, on the side of a deep valley some 10 metres or so below the general lie of the land. Thereafter the valley continues downwards beneath the house and line at an angle of about 45 degrees (and steeper) for another 40 metres.

Ok, more geography. The valley and line are orientated roughly north/south. We have an almost constant prevailing wind from the west. This wind creates a vortex in the valley such that we almost always have a breeze rising from the valley floor (just a gentle breeze) up past the washing line. In fact, no matter what the general wind direction may be we invariably have breeze blowing up the valley towards and through the line, so that on any given day there is always at least a little wind to move the washing and tadah! dry it. Even in winter.... Except when it is raining..... Which is what it’s been doing for the past two weeks, since Janice returned from Wellington..... Except for yesterday, when we dried a whole two week’s worth of washing. This was really useful as we were both getting down to our last few pairs of underpants/knickers and the sheets were getting stiff. Only kidding.

Just in case you can’t visualise all this I’ve inserted a Google shot of our place taken a couple of years ago and indicated where the house and line are. The lower image is of the valley floor.

Storm in a tea cup.

All the shortest day activity overshadowed the fact that we have a new dog. Friday afternoon was spent preparing the garden to receive a 6 month old Alsatian cross (mongrel) puppy. Well, it's a bit late to for taking outdoor shots now but some of the NANSQ (New Zealand quilting body of which Janice is the newsletter editor) committee members who are also in Wellington for the meeting want to see images of the dog. I'd better get some!

Why have I titled this blog "Storm in a Tea Cup"?

Because the puppy was called Storm but I think it is far too gentle for that name so have instead called it "Tea Cup". It has already been shortened to "T" when training

The Shortest Day

Today is the 21st June - Winter solstice in New Zealand and Summer Solstice in Canada when Anne Cook carries on her tradition of working all day (about 19 daylight hours) in the garden.















A few years ago Janice and visited Anne on the longest day and helped her with this feat.

Today I'm going to work in sympathy with her, only for me it is the shortest day and only from 7.45am until about 5.15 pm.

Janice is away in Wellington for the week end and I've decided to build a new clothes line. The images are of progress throughout the day. By lunch time I had the posts laid out and ready to place in the hole and ram tight with soil. After lunch I took a trip into Wanganui to buy clothes line chord and hardware.

The posts were then stayed for soil ramming. I'd earlier in the day trimmed a few large branches off the cherry tree to make room for one of the posts





























Interruption!! Nick Churton, our neighbour's grandson, has come to dig a pond in our paddock. This will be able to be seen form our dining room. I have to break off from the washing line to supervise.















Ok, too busy to take photos until near dark. Posts are rammed in and lines up.
















And that was that. 5:50pm and too dark to continue. Just the tidying up bits and pieces to do in the morning. That's hopeful as there is some heavy rain forecast. With luck it wont arrive until morning tea and I can get some pathways started.

Summer/Winter

At this time of year, when northern hemisphere gardens have delphiniums either blooming or heading that way gardeners often write with questions about how well, or not, their delphiniums are growing.

Usually they have been growing well but as the flower spikes reach, say a metre tall, we begin to get reports of lower leaves dying, or a paleness of colour in the leaves or maybe short, thin stems. What is causing all this? Is the question, and how do I fix it?

I thought it may be a good idea to run through a few common problems and their cures, for the benefit of any reading this blog who may like to know.

It will help to list those conditions that delphiniums like and to also tell you that they are gross feeders. Not gross feeders as in gluttonous individuals eating a hundred and forty four giantburgers in the minimum time possible and slopping tomato sauce over a “once white” tee shirt t-shirt; no, not at all. There’s a big difference. Delphiniums don’t like hamburgers, or tomato sauce for that matter. What they do like however is plenty of food, particularly when they first begin new growth. They like plenty of NPK. Go more heavily on the nitrogen at the start, gradually easing off and putting more emphasis on the potash as the stems grow tall and the buds begin to form. If you have access to animal manure you probably won’t be able to give them too much no matter how hard you try. If you are relying mainly on chemical fertilisers then using a 12-10-10 fertiliser at rates just as much as you dare will give great results. As a rule of thumb feed delphiniums about 1 ½ times what you would feed your roses.

Be sure your soil ph is above 6 and preferably closer to 7. If not add lime, lots of it.

Delphiniums also like that ideal type of soil that most growing books and planting instructions demand ......well drained, holds lots of moisture, doesn’t dry out too quickly, doesn’t go puggy and get too wet, not too fine, not too course and obviously after all this, it should be covered in at least 2 inches of good, rich, brown, friable organic mulch. If your soil is like this then I’ll send a truck right over. If not then just be sure that the ph is high, the plants don’t get waterlogged and they have plenty of tucker, plenty of tucker, plenty of tucker.

If mulching, make it thick. If mulching with wood products then be sure to add more nitrogen.

Delphiniums like lots of sun so give them plenty of room in a sunny spot.

Delphiniums do not like lots of heat so if your summer temperatures regularly exceed 25 degC then plant them in a position that gets afternoon shade.

Keep them damp, but not wet.

Place slug pellets (or sharp sand or something similar) on the crowns to deter slugs and snails.

Remember, feed them often and well, water them often and well, sing to them often and well and to enjoy them. If you can’t sing well – practice.

Beware of the wind. Delphiniums are a bit like you, they enjoy a good steak and remember, if your delphiniums don't look like these you need to give them more fertiliser. If they still don't perform, buy some of our seed. You will really see the difference.

Take care. Have a great time in the garden.

Falling into Winter

Hi again,

A whole month has passed in a couple of days again. Where does it go?

Part of it went with a trip to Auckland to see my mum and dad and I was able to be with mum for her birthday and as a bonus see our daughter Emma in Hamilton on the return joureney. Emma works as a software tester for the largest dairy company in the world (Fonterra). As you can see from the foyer of their head office, they have a thing about cows!

The drive was a good one with typical autumn weather – heavy showers and fine spells – and the trees were beginning to put on a great show. All in all it was a good three day break, leaving Wanganui on Wednesday morning and returning by 5pm in time for “Fries on Friday”.

On the nursery we have been finishing off the last of the season’s pollinating, taking a few cuttings and starting to close the delphiniums down for their winter rest. The most exciting and stressful part of this was having the trees trimmed. We’d left it for over three years so there was quite a lot of growth to cut away and I was anxious that no trimmings flew off and punctured the plastic growing houses, especially the new one. However, the contractor, Ron King, knows his job and is a careful dude so there was no damage. All that remains now is for his mate to arrive with a rather fierce mulching machine and drive over the trimmings, reducing them to a fine mulch, we hope.

All the wood is now cut up and either in the wood shed or stacked outside to dry. Of course I was late doing this again so we’ll have to buy some really dry stuff in and save most of ours until late winter or for next year. Now that would save a job!

The garden is a mess so I’ll not show images of that until I’ve tidied it up a little.

I really enjoy the seasons changing and wherever you are, outside the tropics, the seasons will be changing for you too right now so I hope you’re enjoying it too.

Cheers

Terry

The tree fell

Daylight saving came off yesterday so, naturally I’m up at 5am this morning and what better else to do than catch up on the blog.

The delphiniums continue to display their enjoyment of the cooler conditions (below 24DegC highs and cooler nights) by producing, dark green foliage and strong, new flower spikes. The summer heat seems to have delayed the autumn flowering a little but it looks like the quality will be excellent. This is good news as seed for some of our lines is scarce and we need more to fill orders.

I’m not sure where I left the saga of the new growing house. The situation now is that since being “fixed” it has sprung leaks in both the roof vents, where rain water is somehow seeping between the two layers of the “twin skin” plastic, and in the central gutter from where it pours inside. I’m told that it will be fixed. We await developments in this on-going saga. In the mean time the delphiniums are growing well inside.

The automation of the roof vents is still about two weeks away and that means I have to keep a close eye on weather conditions (wouldn’t want the vents blowing off would I?). To help with this I bought a weather station. The monitoring of this was going to need the cooperation of our computer in the work shed, the LAN cables from the shed to the house and a friendly computer programme to allow me to “see” the station from the pc in the house. Well, this time we have a bonus as the weather station can communicate directly with the house, 140 metres away via radio that is advertised at being good for 100 metres only. This goes to prove that in life there are swings and roundabouts – but sometimes we get to go on the slide!

This last week end was populated by other fortunate events too. I felled the last pine tree destined for late winter firewood. This was fraught with possible calamities as the 25 to 30 metre tree had to fall in exactly the right place in order to avoid ...the garage; the large, decorative oak tree; the young feijoa (really nice fruit); the “Black Boy” peach and the ginkgo. Of course the garage was the most important target for avoidance. Well, the feijoa is mid distance between the oak and the peach, there being about 5 or 6 metres between each one. I figured I couldn’t possible fell the pine with that sort of accuracy so decided to aim straight for the feijoa. Bingo! It landed mid distance between the feijoa and the peach as you can see – what a cunning plot!. I was extremely happy and relieved.

If your week end was half as successful you will have had a great one.

Cheers

Terry