New Year Garden Tour

Today is super hot and muggy, and a massive storm system is moving down the country. So, so hope we get some decent rain - have had very little since October and everything is dry as a bone. Ironically my Facebook feed reminded me this morning of a post from 5 years ago today, when the ground was so wet I couldn't dig it, and I was baking goodies instead. However, destructive winds at this time of the year could be a real blow, with many plants tall and in their prime. 

I decided to take pics of currently my far-from-perfect bit quite productive garden - as a record of where I'm at right now, and also "before the storm pics" - hopefully tomorrow's won't look too much diff!

The entrance to my main gardens. The self-sown nasturtium is far less lush than normal, with much higher production of flowers than leaves, thanks to the "big dry." They are running over the top of parsley and pansies, so I'm actually kind of glad about that - they haven't out-competed them. My husband replaced the fabric in our free swing seat with wooden planks - much better as water now drains. The Banskia Rose I didn't get around to topping like I meant to is providing welcome shade over the seat at the mo. My husband set up a led light that comes on at night and shines lots of little green (and a few red) spots of light up into the rose leaves - which look magical as they gently move about,  causing the otherwise static lights to appear to shimmer and twinkle.

Next to the house is my bathtub on a stand, planted with strawberries and chives on top, and mint and impatiens underneath. The strawberries haven't been very good so far this year - partly because it's been so dry, and partly because I didn't get around to refreshing the soil and feeding them as I ought - though the chives were MASSIVE (I've now thinned them out and cut back a lot, before the pic). However, since I added a good layer of compost and some food a week or so ago, they are improving. I also had to thin out the mint by taking large chunks out, and filling the spots with new compost, as it was getting root bound and looking pretty sad. It quickly bounced back to lushness.

The potted Tumbling Tom tomatoes hanging on the deck are doing well - lots of flowers, soon to be tomatoes. Will have to put them somewhere sheltered tonight.

Inside the garden gate (below) - this area is weedy and messy. Chives are flowering, oregano is spreading all around behind the rosemary, but there is a lot of couch coming through. Thinking about digging the lot up and redoing it. This patch of rainbow chard and perpetual spinach bolted pretty quickly - have been cutting for the chickens, who don't mind. They were purchased seedlings, and I wouldn't have expected them to bolt, though the dry weather may be the issue.

Parsley doing fine. Mix of nasturtiums and calendula behind. 

Below: My productive little lemon tree, which was smothered in bindweed - I set it free yesterday. Sill a bit of work to do behind it. 

Finally, a few of the 1000 poppy seeds I sowed in the corner have come to something! 

The globe artichoke planted early last season flowered massively this year - it had over 35 globes on it. It's now mostly collapsed, all over the pathetic patch of garlic that came to nothing much, which I intend to clear out soon and plant something else - dwarf beans?? Really should pull the garlic, such as it is, while it's still dry. I've pulled out some of the "biggest" (tiny!) over the last few days and used in cooking. Need to take a very different approach next year!

Behind them are some newly planted corn seedlings, and 50 corn seeds, covered in net to keep the birds off.

Above: Yacon patch, with a dahlia in the front corner, and a row of polyanthus which need to be dug up and divided. I've planted cornflowers along the edge of the yacon a short time ago, after digging out the old edging on that side and adding a shallower version of the root barrier and wooden edging to it, like I'm using around the main garden beds. 
I've also planted a couple of rows of cosmos seedlings along the back of the yacon, in front of the marshmellow plants which are now supertall and flowering. These were first planted last year. One is supposed to wait 3 years before harvesting the roots. To the right of the yacon are the carrots, planted nearly a year ago, which I have left to flower for seed. 

Below - a view of this part of the garden back towards the house. Out of shot to the right are a damson plum, a pile of woodchip waiting to be used, and a couple of massive peppermint and lemon geranium plants.

My wondermesh covered brassica (and tomatoes and beetroot) bed - the plants in here are doing fantastically! Strong and healthy, no caterpillars, but possibly the most impressive thing is the effect of the mesh microclimate on growth. Of course, that's not the sole factor - there's also the warmth, reasonable water, and good soil prep, and I don't have any "control" veges growing uncovered next to them, but just look at this produce below, planted 20/11, so 6.5 weeks ago as little seedlings! Most of the cabbages are a good size, the kohl rabi is close to ready, and the brocc are just starting to form heads (which is great - my greenhouse ones are still producing well, but I'll be ready to pull those out soon). The cauli are looking great too. Even  the ever-finickity Silvery Fir Russian heirloom tomatoes, who normally drop dead at the drop of a hat, are looking extremely healthy! So big pics from under the nets....

A bed full of rainbow chard and perpetual spinach - I just sowed all my left over saved seed from a couple of years ago, intending the plants to be mostly for the chickens. Row of Coreopsis Amulet flowers along the front. Far side, some chives, a cucumber, and a cocktail tomato. Also some rosemarry and a couple of dahlias. The tree in the middle is a young dwarf pear.

Various herbs planted under an Cox's Orange apple tree. The birds have been a real pain here, so have laid some rough prunings to deter them, but really need to be thicker. There are basil (green and cinnamon), two globe artichokes, one rhubarb, German chamomile, echinacea, and there were some sage before the birds killed them. Have more in pots waiting to plant. A small choko is starting against the trellis, directly behind the apple tree in the shot. 

The bright green bed is self-sown calendula I want to transplant before I remove that bed and dig the area over.

This bed was an experiment: If one cuts down a patch of grass and weeds, and lays down 2 inches comost, sets out seed spuds, and then covers with 10 inches woodchip, is it true that all the weeds will die, including couch, bindweed and buttercup, with a bonus spud crop to boot?

Result so far: weeds all came through, though not terribly thickly yet - I keep pulling them out. The lovage which I cut down to the ground was back in a matter of days lol. Not all spuds made it through. 

A collection of pots - spuds of various varieties in buckets, three citrus, a fig and a lemongrass which urgently needs dividing. The fig is unhappy because I moved these tubs from their original position to make way for the garden redevelopment, cutting off some of it's escaping roots. I really want to find a suitable spot in the garden and plant it out and espalier it. Will have to be in the front yard, not in this garden area, as it can spread surface roots some 20-50 metres eventually. 

Adjacent to the yacon patch, and right in front of anyone entering the garden through the gate, is my sunflowers - the tallest now 2.6m and gaining about 15cm/day! I've added bamboo to the top of the trellis to tie them up - hopefully they will survive the storm. Some boysenberries underneath, climbing beans going up the trellis (and sunflowers) and various flowers around the edge. 

Behind the sunflowers is what was my raspberry bed, but is currently a rough combo of sweet-leafed fennel - I've saved enough seed the last couple of years, so will cut most of this for compost materials, a nice patch of wild flowers (can't see in these pics), and a lot of weeds with a lemon verbena at the other end. I plan to rip most of this out soon and plant with...dwarf beans I think - want lots of beans for eating green and as dried beans for winter. The (empty) bee boxes are holding up a birdbath for birds and bugs to drink, under a dwarf double pear.

Second redeveloped bed row - lemon bergamot at the front, then 8 plants in two varieties of watermelon, then a zucchini. Behind the zucchini are two, recently planted, and three banana melon plants, also new seedlings.Sick of the birds digging in the mulch, I have laid fleece from our sheep over the bed, and bamboo along the side. That keeps them out.

This area (right) is old garden beds simply weedeatered flat (after sides removed) - still to be redeveloped as I have time. 

Below: strawberry beds under nets, a bed of spuds behind that are just about done, and now have some psyllid, and to the left what is my blueberry and raspberry bed, but massively overgrown. Mostly by borage and red clover. Also full of rashish gone to seed - the rat tailed radish because I want the seed, the others I will pick and eat the pods while still young. Plus marigolds, calendula etc in there. Need to get in there are weed, harest, and drop the nets so I get the blueberries!

(Right) A row of Feijoas to the right, with lots of NZ spinach underneath. Grapevine to the left. As soon as the storm is passed and it's dry again, I need to give it a MASSIVE summer hair cut, then net the grapes. I cut the framework of canes back to far fewer than usual this year, so I could keep ahead of it's growth. Clearly I failed, once again. 

My poor Chilean guavas - ready to bear heavily as usual, but a constant battle to keep the weeds down. Need to go over it again, and also mulch. Tempted to dig them all up at the end of this season, and re-do this area. There is another grapevine over a trellis out of pic to left. 

Below: A sea of squash in my front yard. I laid down black plastic a while back, to kill the couch grass and other weeds I can never keep on top of, but didn't do it earlier enough for my original intention of killing grass, then removing and doing no-dig beds. Having nowhere else ready to plant squash, I decided to just this once leave the plastic, and cut big patches in it, pile on compost, and cover with weed mat, then cut holes in that and plant squash. One big patch for each variety. They have exploded! They were planted only one month ago. The biggest ones are spaghetti squash (foreground), crown pumpkins (back left) and pink banana jumbo squash (right). There are also buttercup squash (planted later) and butternut squash (at the back behind the jumbos). I poked holes in the plastic to allow water to penetrate rather than pool.

My greenhouse - kumara in bathtubs outside. One half inside is mostly seedlings and pots - currently mostly swan plant and a few other things. I have pepinos in pots, as well as kiwifruit. Three tomatoes in the ground on trellises, some basil, 2 cucumbers, and the back half is planted in kale, broccoli and red cabbage, which produced all through winter and are still going strong. Some caterpillars, but the beneficials are keeping on top of them enough that they're not a major problem. 

Heavy rain has just begun as I finish typing this. Hope you enjoyed this look at my garden - always more work to be done!!