My favourite new dahlia grown from seed - it is almost purple and hangs it's head a little I am known for not enjoying working in the rain but the 20 mm or so we have had this month has been so very welcome.  High temperatures, windy days and virtually no rain has meant a very dry garden in need of water.  I have been saving 'grey' water from the sink and washing machine to help the flowers and trees along, especially those that have been relatively recently planted.  As a township we have been on a sprinkler ban since December and I have tried not to use the town water for my ..read more

The new Forest Pansy garden is situated behind the garage and below the water tanks.  The soil isn't great and it slopes down to the fence.  However, it is sheltered.  Either end of the garden is a tree - the beautiful Ceris Forest Pansy is one end and the other end is a Tasmanian shrub/tree Drimys winteri.  It's a multi stemmed affair and not the prettiest specimen but does retain its leaves in the winter. There is another young tree at the lowest and dampest part of the garden Myrtus luma, also evergreen.  This was purchased as a shrub and I am encoura ..read more

    My gardening blog has sadly been neglected. A number of reasons, not least a Mum who is ill - but the garden here, itself is on-going and is my happy place.  Time to start over and try and record what is happening at Holt Cottage.  I have been making photo cards of the garden to send to Mum instead of writing the blog - so I do have the photos.  A couple of plants that are flowering right now.     Left is miniature rose Winsome which had a repot and move recently and has responded amazing well.  A bit of care makes all the dif ..read more

A flu in late March knocked me for a six and then Covid arrived on April 6.  I did however, have a fine and well day for my birthday in the gap between these two nasties.  The Tidy gardener made me a lovely carrot cake and Mum was still here to help celebrate my 59th birthday.  As a result, not a lot of action on my part happened in the garden nor in writing the blog, hence no April posts.  I am still coughing occasionally from Covid and still not back to my usual two walks a day with Rocket. It has been a glorious summer weather wise with lovely fine days days one followin ..read more

  My Mum gave me money last birthday - which of course I bought plants with - what else would you buy as a treat!!!  11 small perennials from Marshwood Gardens.  It's almost my birthday again and its special to have some of those plants flowering this autumn and as a bonus my Mum is here to see them. Six of them are growing in the wintersweet garden - Helenium Dark Warrior, flowering now is a new plant for this garden and it will be interesting to see how it performs.  Also flowering late March are Aster Helen Ballard, Campanula Kent Belleand Nepta Walker's Low.  Not f ..read more

  I have grown some dahlias from seed this year just for a bit of fun.  I collected the seed  mostly at Mum’s place last year – they are nothing fancy – just singles which are better for the bees – they are just starting to flower.  The test will be getting them through the winter as they don’t make very much of a tuber the first year.  We’ll see what happens.  I collected seeds from two different plants, both pink - one seedhead stolen from Suffolk Road - that one only gave me one plant and the rest from Mum's bright dark pink one.  I have grown them in 15cm ..read more

This year we are growing cucumbers for the first time.  I choose the heritage variety Marketmore because it's no burp.  When the seed arrived the Tidy gardener said "I've got some cucumber seed already (variety Long Green)."  We looked at the expiry date and it said 2014!! Not sure why he had seed but nothing to lose we put a few of each in and both varieties came up!!  I sold the surplus seven or so plants for $1 each on the local Facebook page and gave a couple away too.  So note to self that there is a demand for plants locally.   Two Marketmore cucumbers ..read more

Less than a month ago I was writing about plenty of spring rain.  Now we are desperate for significant rain after some terrible windy days, one after another.  We have had some warm days too.  Last Sunday, the temperature was 29 degrees celsius, which is a hot day for Southland.  It is currently raining and hopefully it will continue all night and into tomorrow. (And it did - we received at least 12mm of rain). My Nelson roses (as I think of them) are flowering well.  I bought them as rooted cuttings from the Nelson Heritage Roses AGM in 2019.  I was in Nelson tak ..read more

Time continues to march onward.  Weeds and growth wait for no one, but if the recent winds keep up, everything will be dried to a crisp!!!  It is now dry for the time of year and the forecast rains have so far not fallen.  The roses have taken a battering but yesterday there were buds suitable for a Christmas arrangement for my special friend Kay.  I know progress has been made when I have enough flowers to make an arrangement - though both the rose and the conifer pre date my arrival to Holt Cottage.  The roses are beginning to flower earlier in the summer - though th ..read more

The upside to plenty of spring rain is that the roses are flowering well. Manure makes a big difference too!! I didn't manage to get them sprayed this spring, and just hoping they will be ok by trying to pick off black spot leaves. The scent from the roses and honey suckle is just glorious at present. One of my new roses Big Purple has flowered - I am very impressed. As the buds showed their colour, I thought oh no, it's a red rose that will age to purple. I was proved wrong and it's that lovely colour similar to Blackberry Nip. The stems are lovely and long and the two blooms so far have thor ..read more