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Gardening in New Zealand

Keep this forum alive!

22 years ago

Where are the gardeners? Obviously, out doing it - LOL! But we need to keep this forum alive, or might we lose it...

We few who've posted meassages here can't be the only ones visiting, but it looks pretty sparse in terms of support. Tell your friends about this place - we need this!

Let's share more, ask more, help more!

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Comments (15)

yvonnej
22 years ago
It is a bit dull isnt it, maybe we need to do somethig differently.I am interested in being able to talk about plants and where to get them ,what they like and how to propagate them. I am not really good at planting seeds, but cuttings etc seem to work for me. Maybe someone else has good ideas on how to make this site interesting.
mutzi
22 years ago
Part of the problem might be that there is such a wealth of information already on the site in other places, that people tend to go there first. Maybe we just need to be a little more active in posting our questions, comments, etc here.
I, to, have your problem, Yvonne; my seed sowing results tend to be very inferior to those that I buy from the garden centres. Weedy, thin and slow to develop in general. And that's a pity, because I would like to be able to use the moon-planting calendar to better effect. Guess I should just persist and develop my skill levels a little.
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You know, the racier implications of my username never occurred to me until after I entered it. The first time I realized it was when my husband was looking over my shoulder and I said my username out loud to him. We had a great laugh over it. I thought I might change it, but have been unable to figure out how. I am surprised that it did not occur to me from the beginning, but after two years of heavy duty landscape/gardening the only thing I could think of was how rough my knees were from spending so much time on them in the yard. I literally had to chisel out each hole in some areas of my yard and replace half or more of the dirt after I hand sifted out the rocks. I groveled out there for two years before I found this site and then I did a lot of things over. Actually, my feet are more calloused than my knees. I grew up in Hawaii and spent my entire childhood barefoot. I rarely wear shoes even now... sandals until it is below 20 degrees or so. My knees are tough from years of getting down on them to play with my kids, clean, pray, garden and well, with this many kids, you figure it out. :o
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Thanks for all your sweet comments everyone. To answer a few questions. The area is our hay field in the back ground. The family still owns 100 acres behind our home. No water close by. These tall lillies have never had any real TLC so it must be the breed. I counted the one red one and theres at least 150 blooms on it. I'm so sorry to hear about the leaf beetles. We just had rain for almost 24 hours so that should bring things to life around here. Wish I had more time to chat with all of you fun ladies but I sure enjoy jumping on here late in the evening and seeing all the beautiful yards. Punk
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Comments (41)
Good Morning Everyone!!!! I have missed all of you as well. Often, I would check to see how each of you were doing, and I enjoyed gardening through your daily posts. My Health made life a bit challenging. Kidneys were close to shutting down 3 times- gall bladder inflamed, had to be removed,before surgery, i could not even think of eating anything,SO>>my beloved made me his favorite treat for all sick people. Soft boiled eggs. From this i managed to get a bout of salmonella, with 10 days in the hospital.Fell again, tore my rotator cuff. Surgery for that, 6 weeks of no movement, 6 weeks of therapy, only to find out, the repair failed. Of course, during this time i used my left arm for everything,resulting in tearing the left rotator cuff. Waiting for surgery, as soon as my kidneys say OK. The big addition to our home turned out to be a trip to hell and back, a dozen times. From the usual small problems, to no proper foundation to no roof tie down, Major problems everywhere. The new roof,which cost in excess of 80,000., has to be replaced, since the underlayment was installed incorrectly. As you see, we had rather a "wish i could forget" kind of a year. Hopefully, next year will be a lot better. If i offended anyone with my dribble, I am sorry in advance. Cindeea, I hope all your proceedures will go perfectly well, and you will have a comfortable, painfree new year ahead of you. Happy Holidays to All, Irene
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Let's keep this forum ALIVE !!
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Comments (45)
Nope, never had orange juice pancakes. I usually make them from a delicious buttermilk pancake recipe I found online and add a generous handful of blueberries. I keep some mix here, too, for those mornings when I just don't have time or inclination to cook from scratch, or when I don't have real buttermilk for them. It's acceptable but nowhere near as good as the scratch ones. The Black From Tula tomatoes were decent but I won't grow them again. They're not good enough to justify the space and energy. I grow Better Boy and Big Boy, too. They're almost always dependable producers of good tomatoes. I like trying new varieties every year and keeping some of the old standbys for the majority of the production. This year I also grew Mortgage Lifters. They were okay but I don't think they lived up to their reputation. I've grown Brandywines, too. It was a year that I had trouble in the garden with disease and drought and they didn't produce much at all. I might try them again another time. We do a taste testing day at the Heirloom Tomato Demo Garden every year and this year my favorite was Todd County Amish. It had more true tomato taste than the others. I hope to grow some next year in my garden. If the Demo Garden folks have seedlings I'll probably get some from them rather than buy seeds. I usually order from just one or two catalogs (Totally Tomatoes is a great one!) to save on shipping. If I can get the majority at one place, I'll order a special or two from some other company. Otherwise, I rely on local seeds or transplants. I can't see adding several dollars to the cost just to get a couple of packets of seeds. One of my favorite books is Dr. Carolyn Male's 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden. I've learned a lot about growing tomatoes in general and often try a couple of new varieties based on her recommendations. Okra is delicious in soups and stews! My sister and her husband used to grow a lot of it but I only want enough to freeze some for winter use along with a little in summer. I grow it about every 2 to 3 years. I've been a Master Gardener since 2000 and love every minute of it. Our record keeping is very simplified and done online now. The only difficulty is sometimes recording the demographics at these seminars or at clinics but I usually have a helper at the seminars (a new MG in their first year) to do that. I also work the new to us Ask an Expert email system and answer a wide variety of questions through it. I mainly teach the veggie classes but have done a number of different ones, too. For example, last year I taught a group at an assisted living facility how to do a cut flower garden. I work full time in my husband's business and volunteer in two other organizations (both work related) so I really do burn the candle at both ends! I'd like to have more time to devote to the Extension programs, but can't do it right now. Love blackberry cobbler! I don't make jelly or jam much anymore but remember the year we picked 125 quarts of blackberries! That was a great year and we lived where there were tons of vines. Not so many where we are now but enough for a few good pickings. I've thought about growing some in the end of the garden but never bought any. Do the cultivated thornless varieties have the deep blackberry taste like the wild ones? Maybe I could get the grandkids interested in picking thornless ones. They seem to be "alergic" to the scratchy wild ones here! Sandy
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terry_lister
22 years ago
I agree with all the above.Could we broaden our horizons to keep people interested and maybe get them to post on here
I put some stuff on here which was a humorous story about getting married and it was removed because it did not concern gardening which it did in my opinion so I have not posted as much as I would like.
Cheers Terry
snotrag
22 years ago
Hi all

I agree,it's cool to have a forum for NZ'ers.I came here a few weeks ago and hav'nt been here since which is due to xmas ect..but I will visit 3-4 times a week from now on.

Also..MUTZI...if your seedlings are too leggy it's because they ar'nt getting enough light,don't raise your seeds inside at this time of year,put them outside in full sun and keep them moist.I have a 150 square metre vege garden and about 95% of it is from seed..practise makes perfect.
Stompy
22 years ago
I agree, with all the comments, but we do need something to help us keeping in touch more with what us gardeners are doing.
Well I'll take the plunge I went to a fantastic craft market bought a great water feature (had been after one for a while) got it all set up looks wonderful. I was thinking maybe a type of forum to exchange plants etc, what do others think. Cheers Christine
mutzi
22 years ago
Hi, Christine,
Spike has set us up an exchange forum already. You can get to it by clicking on "Switch to exchanges" which is just beside On topic discussions on the New Zealand forum page.
What sort of water feature did you get? I would like to set up something at some stage, but have to get the "backlog" sorted out first!!
Canuck
22 years ago
I am a Canadian but wintering in FLorida in the United States.

First time I have visited your site. Will check in often.

Amazing isn't it that we can do these things.

I love my gardens in Canada. THe problem is so much of it has to be brought in over winter. Or covered a foot deep with leaves and such.

That is why we purchased a little place in Florida. But here is quite a different way of gardening. Plants grow in terrible soil. Mostly sand. But they do indeed grow
rose_n_james
22 years ago
Hi, I live in australia now, but I still grow some plants that I grew in NZ.Perhaps we need an interchange, to add some spark to both sides.But lets not talk cricket, they get stroppy here.
Kiwi_oz
22 years ago
rose n james, I have lots of crickets in my garden the black variety, none in yellow and green.

Heather mother to 3 Australians :-))
triciac
22 years ago
Ha Ha Kiwi Heather, what a laugh that gave me!! Crickets indeed!!!
Sparaxis
22 years ago
Given the summer that we are experiencing here in Southern Australia, I think Wintering in Florida, right now, would be a good choice.
yvonnej
22 years ago
Wintering in Florida sounds great to me too. our summer has been a real non event this year and the roses look shabby . The rest of the garden is making lots of growth and the cyclamen are all blooming again.
kiwilad55
22 years ago
Hi there to all you kiwi gardeners. I used to be a kiwi gardener in the Waikato, but am now living in Hervey Bay,Qld,Australia. Its a beautiful place to live and here I can grow all the things I tried to grow back home. Frangipanis, heleconias, gingers, many varities of palms etc. Its a tropical paradise for those gardeners who have a passion for tropical plants. The sea is 28o - its like having a warm bath in the sea! Drop me a line if you are keen to check it out. Kind regards to you all. N.Z. is still a great gardeners place to be!
yvonnej
22 years ago
Kiwilad. Sounds like a lovely place to live and garden. Would love to check it out but not on the agenda this year or next, Maybe 2004. Happy gardening. The Waikato is as green as ever. Cheers yvonnej
Gillian_NZ
22 years ago
Kiwilad. You are lucky to be in such a place where you don't have to worry if your Tropical plants will survive. I love palms,succulents,bromilaids; most of which I have to coddle through winter! But they make my garden look wonderful, so it's worth it! We have some wicked frosts here, so I have to cover some of it over winter. I like to plant things outside, so anything that could be frost tender I plant well before winter to let them settle in.Gill

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