Even though I've grumbled a bit over the summer about the amount of effort that has gone into my expanding edible garden, I am extremely grateful now that I have all the fruits of my labour to sustain me through the COVID-19 lockdown period. The pantry and freezer are filled to overflowing and still the harvest continues. My work from home outlook isn't too bad either. I thought I would share with you the changes that have happened since some of my previous posts. When I first started … [Read more...]
Popadome Pest Protection Covers
This year I discovered the Popadome pest protection covers and they have been amazing! These domed fruit & vegetable net covers are so easy to use, come in a whole range of sizes and are a simple way to protect your fruit and vegetables from garden pests such as slugs, snails, cabbage white butterflies and birds. The green and black colours mean that they blend in well to the garden even if you have got big 'structures' in place. The Popadome covers have an easy to assemble framework … [Read more...]
Creating a Backyard Haven
This year there has been a significant change in my garden as I continue my quest in creating a backyard haven outdoor living area. One of my very first blog posts was about A Changing Garden and showed how my garden has evolved over the years. I mentioned then that another reinvention was still underway. In the 3 years since then I have focused on developing the productive, edible parts of the garden, putting in vegetable gardens and planting fruit trees in the borders. But there wasn't a great … [Read more...]
Autopot System for the Greenhouse
Having got my new greenhouse installed and kitting it out so that I could make the best use of the space, now came the fun part of setting up my Autopot System and getting everything growing. I first came across the Autopot System when I was looking for my greenhouse from Edenlite Glasshouses and it really appealed to me for many reasons: it is a gravity fed watering system that is simple and easy to use it means that I don't have to water the plants every day - suiting a busy … [Read more...]
Kitting out your Greenhouse
Having finally achieved my long-time dream of getting a home garden greenhouse, I realised that my decisions were only just beginning: now I needed to decide how to kit it out. When I ordered my greenhouse, I also ordered an aluminium and mesh bench to go down one side of the greenhouse and jumped at the chance when I was offered a wooden stand to put water reservoir tanks on. Great! I thought that would be pretty much sorted for what I needed. I couldn't have been more wrong. My greenhouse … [Read more...]
Home Garden Greenhouse Solutions
I've always dreamed of having my own home garden greenhouse but there never seemed to be a sensible space to put one. And I didn't really have the available time or money to justify getting one. I have tried various smaller or more temporary solutions over the years with varying degrees of success. Just recently the stars have aligned and I am the proud owner of a new greenhouse that is perfect for my space. Over the years I have tried a range of different solutions: A plastic bag over … [Read more...]
Gravity-Fed Garden Irrigation from Water Tanks
I wrote in an earlier post about Water Tanks for the Garden that I had installed 2 water tanks and was waiting for summer to see whether my planned system would work. There wouldn't be enough pressure from the tanks to power a regular watering system unless I used a pump and I wanted to avoid doing that but my property is on a slope so there should be some pressure from gravity (and the Tank Guy thought this should be enough). I asked a couple of different "garden irrigation specialists" to … [Read more...]
Feeding Birds
Last year I wrote about my love-hate relationship with the birds where I had been feeding them bird seed, bread and bird truffles and spending many hours enjoying watching their antics. Over the summer I valiantly tried various means to keep them from eating all my fruit. Now it is winter again and I am trying different things to feed them: Bird Seed Cake Fat is an excellent source of energy for small birds in winter, when their body reserves are used up quickly. But the only species … [Read more...]
“Home-made” Honey
In earlier posts, I have talked about planting flowers to attract bees to the garden, and my decision last spring to rent a beehive to make sure I was getting lots of good pollination for my increasing numbers of fruits and vegetables. Over the summer I enjoyed watching the hard work of my bees (and the beekeeper) in my garden. I really started to appreciate the amazing process of making honey and the wonderful symbiotic relationship that humans have with bees when I read Manuka: the … [Read more...]
The Bees are loving the Pohutukawa
The New Zealand Christmas tree or Pohutukawa is in full bloom around Auckland including the one in my backyard. And the bees are loving it! They are busy making honey while the sun shines and the beekeepers are racing around trying to keep up - the more space you give the bees in the hive, the more honey they will make so the layers are building up. I was home on a sunny afternoon when Angus from Over the Hill Beehive Rental came to check my bees and put another layer on my beehive (see my … [Read more...]