I did look at a local one on Yahoo! but it was 'those conditions' that put me off. I don't know whether signing up leads to spam in the mailbox or not, but I like my peace and quiet.

I know I enjoy the folk who pop up here as time permits - including the Aussie ones. A whole new world of plants and garden conditions. Great!

Winter gardening. The frost got me. I have little pots of mush in various places and I'm refining my frost protection systems night by night. Today I struggled in the big pot with the Brugmansia, leaving a trail of falling leaves and put up the most well, something, structure made from #8 wire (of course!) to keep the fleece off the plants.

However, the Galanthus don't mind, and my first buds on G. nivalis are opening to keep the paperwhites company.

For gardening studies I'm currently getting deeper into both pruning timing and general design principles so those are topics I'd love to explore, expound on - and spend a bit of quiet time taking my feet from my mouth, doubtless.

How about you?

A light frost in Auckland, lots of rain over the last few weeks hence there have been lots of ants looking around inside.

All garden sites are slow at present there seems to be an active one at foodlovers.co.nz, combined with the gardening and cooking chat on sat mornings with radio live.
Heather

We have only had one frost to speak of in Lower Hutt. The winds are the biggest problem. Tomorrow winds are expected to reach 150km in the lower North Island. It is interesting to read others opinions on winter pruning. For example hydrangeas. I prefer to prune them at the same time as I prune roses, in late july, when the flowers have really turned brown. I find if they are pruned earlier they tend to be more leggy. This time of the year is good to cut back and divide perennials.

On my soil (clay loam) I find that early May is better for dividing perennials. There's still a touch of warmth in the ground and they can make some growth before winter puts all that on hold.

I bought some late-late bulbs - Lachenalia bulbifera. They'd shrunk to about little fingernail size and have long green sprouts. I put them in a gritty mix (more grit than mix!) and put them on a warm windowsill as the light is so low. Fingers crossed that the roots get going soon.

I bought some bulbs of Lachenalia 'Rupert' about two-three years ago. They've plumped up, they have roots, but there's no sign of leaves - unlike L mutabilis which is budding up nicely. I might just condemn them to the hot water cupboard when summer comes. A long spell of warm and dry...

On the other hand - I saw L aloides doing brilliantly in a warm and steamy orchid house so I'm a bit confused about what would really suit.

I bet there's relief down Canterbury - despite the snowfall. At least the aquifers will be getting a good top up - and the hydro lakes. Better than drought any day!

I have just joined too. I picked Washington State (sinilar climate??) and a post code near Seattle.
I would be interested in a NZ seed exchange forum, because of the MAF restrictions on importing seeds seed companies don't seem to ship to NZ.
I am particularly interested in Chile peppers, Aji Dulce and Peruvian Purple are two varieties that I would like.

I think you can get pepper seed in from the US. I certainly managed last year. They had a hissy fit about the corn & sunflowers but I got thru pumpkins, peppers, spinach & tomatoes. All you need to do is get the ppl sending it to you to declare it with the latin name on the package.

Otherwise not much going on here in the garden. It has been very unfrosty this year. The garlic me & the kids planted on the equinox has shoots several cms long already. None of my potatoes that got left behind & started growing have been frosted & our red ribs brussel sprouts have stayed green. I was going to get into mulching all my fruit trees this week but it has been too wet to do much at all outdoors.