There's no rule saying you can't mix vegetables and ornamentals in the same garden. Furthermore, some gardeners line out ornamentals in the vegetable garden while they bulk up or until space becomes available elsewhere. Providing each has sufficient space and ornamentals do not interfere with cultivation and harvesting there is no problem.

Does it have an Avocado stone in the earth at the base of its stem? Even here I get Avocados popping up where I spread my homemade compost. This year one even came through our winter.

Regardless of where in New Zealand I have visited there was always something to remind me of how young this country is. Forestry is the fifth biggest industry today and everywhere you look there are planted production forests. The tree that covers many thousands of hectors of country side is Pinus radiata, the Monterey Pine from California. New Zealanders have determined the Monterey Pine that grows to lumbering maturity in a fast twenty years and is a hard enough wood to have an export value. What I found remarkable was how diverse most farmers are, for example a large sheep farm was more than likely to have a "retirement block". A retirement block is a section or block of land planted with Pinus radiata when the farmer is young with the expectation that the profits from the lumber will be a nice "nest egg". The pines are planted extremely close to one another and are limbed up through the years with intent of straight lumber with less prominent knots. Some pines those that were not limbed up would be farmed for paper. That said anyone who has ever tried to eek out a living from farming can probably appreciate that the best use of the land is certainly market driven. As recently as three years ago when the international apple market bottomed out the apple trees were removed and now wine grapes are going in everywhere I have never seen anything like it. I am happy to report that the few apple orchards around are still doing some exporting and everyone is a buzz about a new variety "Jazz" that should be ready for export soon. The approximate cost of planting grapes is $15,000.00 per acre and Pinot Noir seems to be the most sought after. One vine will produce three to five bottles and there are many smaller growers (under 30 acres). The central Otago wine region has a six winery coop where they all use the winery facilities but bring with them their own wine maker (or not) and then all have one distribution center. The explanation I received as to why I can rarely find New Zealand wine in the US but Australian wine is filling the shelves was to be reminded how small NZ is and it is just a numbers game, I was told that rather than trying to compete in volume they are focusing on quality. Pine and Grapes Thanks for the nice comments I am back in New England now while we were traveling I had "Robbie" my laptop with me and wrote these journal entries while traveling from one location to another. We were in NZ looking for land as well as general touring so we hired Robert who arranged the garden tours for me, fly fishing for Joe, meetings with Realtors and solicitors, all the while travelling the south island and experiencing the amazing beauty.

Bill has given you excellent advice on your first thread, and it's a good thing you posted photos. I agree with him that the pot is way too big and the plant is getting too much water. What size was the pot you took the plant out of? Were the roots completely filling the pot or was there still loose soil in the pot? If the roots were completely filling the pot so it needed to be repotted, then the new pot should only be about 1" bigger in diameter. That is, if the old pot was 3", then the new one should be no bigger than 4". If there was still loose soil around the roots in the old pot, then I would put the plant back in that pot. It was not ready for repotting. Repotting to a bigger pot assumes that the plant is in active growth and the roots will spread into the new soil. This plant is stressed and unhappy and is not about to leap into rapid growth. I don't know if you can still save this plant, but my feeling is that you will definitely lose it if you keep it in the large pot. Claire