For those who raise seeds, track where an what has been planted in their garden, how do you do it? Keen for some extra tips. My first time needing to keep my own, so it's a little messy as I sort of figure out system based on others I have seen in my family and gardens.
Tradional English manor vegetable gardens are scourge on what vegetable gardens should look like and have effected us for generations. Show gardens suck, they are controlled, manicured, weedless, neat rows, and don't at all think about biological layering gardens like natrual plants do. I come from back ground of home vegetable gardeners, through generations on both sides, some it was everything they ate outside of wheat, dairy, and meat. I have heard my Granddad complain about this too, he would tend to rich people in the Waikato as professional gardener, were he got to freely take vegetables as their gardens where just for show so they could look like they where healthy and green to their friends etc.
But why do I complain, most of us are not rich here? well magazines show beautiful orderly gardens, neat rows, and super tidy spacing. Then also advice that trickles down from market gardening for optimal commercial production, where looks matter as much as volume, taste some times comes secondary too this as well, it's complex and skilled interweaving to get things to cool storage or/and the supermarket (referencing an Onion grower, who during peak season was doing 110 hours a week looking after onions some times at 1am moving irigation in the morning).
Home gardens we don't have to care, we can hop out side, snip some of the tastiest freshest beans, wash and chuck into a pot. We get to experiment, have fun, learn, trial tons of fast perishable crops that can not make it to supermarket. We need to be either weary, or critical of the advice of influencer or genuine advice gardeners online too; subsequently proxy gardening on "YT" and binging videos instead of being outside with your patch of dirt.
The only real bit of consist advice I have known is; think like wild plants, think about layering: like a forest right from the canopy to the under story, the shrub layer and the forest floor, but every layer of that has a another unique sub layer.
For example, I think this summer I might plant a squash purely as shade crop to cool my lettuces so the soil temp is slightly lower to avoid it bolting to quickly... but I do this in this garden as it's a rather hot and spicy broad northerly facing garden next to glass window and and massive brick wall.
Outside of setting up a controlled growing and light space, like a weed grow lab, outside is flexible shifting and evolving, from industrial growers, market gardens, and home growers we need to observe the world, feel the changes, take bets, think like weather men, think like weeds, thinks like dirt, think like compost, think like the great aunty Papatūānuku or Mother Earth has her jandal out to slap us.
Non of us are right, non of us are wrong, but we all are puha, tutu, blackberries, and gorse; stubborn and resilient in so many environments, but we must adapt, from a wet hollow to the windiest wildest hills. Advice from anyone is for their sunny corner of paradise, and must be taken in, an applied to your sunny corner of paradise. And when you must move house; it's starting anew, starting from bare earth, to eventually in due time, the tallest leaf, your inner log book of what works is always remastered for any slice of new dirt.
That is my long thought, especially on tonight's awesome post on musing in climate change
I want to hear your deep an insightful thoughts on any topic of gardening, your musing is valuable to me, any learning is grand it helps challenge thoughts and assumptions I have, and gives me things to ponder amongst my walks.
So I have a result of 109 nmol/L with a given range of >140 (rbc test)
How does this sit against others here on the scale of low?
On supplements now, so lets see if this works out, along side all the other weird things going on.
Nice to finally have plants planted, a nice trellis up, and some cat proofing panels made. Got scarlet runner beans, some broad beans (I know it’s in the wrong season), lettuces, and some rainbow beetroot for salads. Just put on some seeds to germinate. Glad I have mum temporary staying with us so I can re learn the planting side. I guess i'll post again once the garden is fully, full; and the whole thing feels positively overgrown in summer.
If anyone is interested, you can make your own netting, not at all sure where I picked up this skill from. But it’s fairly easy, and no weird tools are required, you don't need to measure anything. The art to doing it quickly is remembering you're not making a fishing net, and you're not aiming for perfection. I like doing this, becasue they look lovely also everything is decompostable.
There are two weft poles of same diameter (in my case two gardening stakes), one acts as weight, hinged off a net gauge loop (sets half the height of the diamond) of the pole weft pole above, you just do a simple overhand and just keep rough spacing as you go along, and it alternates from left to right as you go down your frame, switching your gauge loop to the opposite side, and then knotting your way along to it, etc. etc.
When casting on, you do it just as you're doing a row of netting, and tie with a separate string or lark's foot on each new diamond onto your top pole/rope and aim to keep your bottom weft even with the top pole for your first row, then once you finished first row, add you second weft pole in.
To finish off, you pull out your top weft pole, and then with a separate cord, from the opposite side you (I just go straight out of the spool of cordage) temporary pull down your netting on to the bottom pole/rope then, pull out your last weft pole, and then take your bobbin, and cast off, and as you go taking out the temporary cordage
I just use a simple cardboard dog bone bobbin, with two notches on the end, and wind on my cordage, you’ll be surprised how many times you have to refill it.
To my fellow tinkers’ and builders’ sorry I gave you a new fun project. And sorry my instructions are not the most detailed, you sort of just need to have a go at it and figure it out. For a laugh I had a go at triangle panel, surprisingly slow, but worked out. So far no cat poop in my garden. Yes I am removing tape from the cardboard as the rain loosens it up for me.
Edit: the cat netting is temporary and is very light to easily remove for gardening the trelice is quite sturdy in comparison.
~FYI this comes from fishing nets, but I learned this from a gardener, who knows when. but damn if I have the patience for such accuracy making fishing nets, and tying each knot in a way it does not slide. Instead of top pole, you have a net frame (two vertical poles), and your frame rope is hooked to the wood frame and then your netting is then subsequently sewn/tied into your frame rope . It allows you to make very long nets by hand with a single thread, instead of having tons of lines dangling down. I would like to find a source for this garden netting, but damn if I can, I might have to go hunting through some library books, as online search has become a bit useless.
Many I see post here about their lawn woes. I thought share one end of the spectrum of maintained lawns, not a correct or wrong end either, just an end.
Maintaing a manicured lawn you see in a garden magazine is hard, but it's a hobby folks love, but if you don't love it, keeping a magic uniform even carpet is hard.
This is my beloved ugly shag rug, grown on lovely Rototuna swampy soil, during summer it gets selectively mowen to keep it green without water along side trying maximise crown fullness and moss coverage. Weeds are kept, lawn is allowed to grow to it's optimal variety be it on the under side of fence on the first image where its wet and shady all year, or the afternoon sun lawn very buttercup heavy as trees keep it not the most ideal ph or water levels, you can even see the three zones of open grass, shade, and permanent cover on that lawn.
Then the council lawn terrible hard clay soil, but its now full of moss and sturdy grass, in the last image and keeps out those annoying thin barbed prickles that's on everyone's lawn.
We weed out prickles, dock if it will be an issue or risk flowering, and occasionally a broad leaf that's just getting too big.... and one year gorse.
It's mown with a strimmer and raked in summer, and use lawn mower in the high growth periods on highest height setting. But the lawn tends to grow quite slowly outside of those two short periods.
I some times have to use lawn grub killer.
It's soft on the feet, wild, mossy and when the edges cut in, very tidy... but does attract proverbial Jim's mowing leaflets no matter how much I ask for them to not.
Yes it's water logged in winter, but with so much ground cover it really holds deep into summer.
Me and my neighbour joke best lawns on the street for completely different reasons, he does such nice edges on his lawn and such a tidy mowing... while his dog loves rolling round and eating our precious moss. We have 5cm lawn height difference in summer and keep a stunning crisp line between our two lawns for laughs.
Wow that was a long post.
Digging my own garden for once, upturned a foot deep of our lawn, and mixed in a bunch of goodies... With rather free range long cut lawn, our top soil was quite lovely and deep for what it is. Mixed in some pumice, wood chip, some old compost from last year and bit of new. It's exciting to have my own garden for first time, having large garden like at my mum's place I helped build nice to finally have my own. A bit of bold choice to go with ground, instead of raised.
I also fitted round peg to square hole, with mallet handle out an old ship adze as hoe, and I also found small adze or hoe (it's round eye so more likely a hoe), and carved a new handle out of a very curvy magnolia branch with a hatchet, so I could have an extra long weeding hoe. A side quest purely to get more bark chips, as it's about 1/4 the original size of the branch. Like to say, that mallet handle round peg in square hole works great, and did not wiggle even after doing most of the hard work. Both these are both my first time at fitting and making handles.
Delightful start to the season, now just, fail lots on my first season, and find out what will survive this pending drought that is coming upon us. Okra is on my list, both for it's stunning flowers, and that it might be a hot season.
The silly things we get up to in our 30's, I am so glad I am getting well enough and feel strong enough to have my own garden for the first time, after this many years.
Though at least at 31 I have an answer after a life being asked to "eat less, move more" has an answer to my struggles. Has anyone had a weird episodes of just immense hunger, that is so incomprehensibly overwhelming you don't know how to deal with it? I mean levels that are panicking?
Not that anyone has believed me about this, or cared that my diet is rock solid, or fitness nerd who can't escape
Blood sugar is mint, no thyroid issues or cushings disorder, diet is rock solid, don't drink or smoke, blah blah. Basically I am everything I should be, boring except T, LH, FSH.
I tried posting this few months back, but I got a lot of weird comments, so I am trying again, with clarity of diagnosis.
testosterone is: 5.6 nmol/L, I am now on a clomifene trial (we don't have enclomifene yet in New Zealand), so lets hope it goes up.
3rd page into a sketch book, of trying out water colour painting/brushes for the first time. I read a lot of books that use that style of ink and water colour and I rather loved it.
I really like the fact you can ink in your lines first like the table or draw lines in after like the red blobs for the flowers or the choc chip buscuit. It's so fast and rewarding with a delightful second dip of enjoyment to add the finishing details.
The mystery fruit/veggy is my favourite kind of practice item. I have always hated learning spheres and cubes, something about making up a believable plant really helps my brain understand blending.
But if you have name for today's mystery fruit and what taste/function it has I'm keen to hear lol.
This is my first ever time painting and using water colours (I used pencils). But please, please, roast the hell out of me, I have arted long enough to enjoy a good laugh.
I have used cheap water coloring pencils as quick drafting pencils because usually draw with oil coloring in pencils to draw flowers and birds, and those are so expensive compared to a cheap 24 pack of $24 (nzd) water colouring pencils.
At 30 odd, I finally decided to actually buy some nice brushes and paper, and just paint something random and fun, so I could have crack at using water colouring pencils with well... water, haha
I am for sure going to enjoy painting more with water colours, and actually do some basic things like practicing shapes and form so I have more understanding of how water colours blend, and think after a few more fun drawing maybe buy some nice pencils.
It's quite interesting having to sort of pre think how the colours will stack. Also water is lot more controlled then I thought it would be, as the last time I painted with brushes or used water colour I would of been like 10 years old on office paper.