IN good Company

 

Bringing back our native birds

 

Working away behind the scenes, there has been an invisible "Garden Gnome Guardian" who has given our Westport North Garden Gnomes a lot of support over these last years. Little packets of seeds and cuttings would be sent through the post, all the way from the North Island to be shared with our Garden Warriors.

 

Our "Garden Gnome Guardian" is actually none other than our own Head Garden Gnomes Inspirational Mum, who has just been nominated as 1 of 5 finalists in the:

 

 2015 Gardenia NZ Gardener of the Year Awards!

 

We would really love you to have a look at what our "Garden Gnome Guardian" has achieved in 10 years, to bring back bird life to the Harbour peninsula where she lives. Please show your support and vote, so that this inspirational group of volunteers have a chance of winning some wonderful tools to put to use on their project.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/home-property/nz-gardener/72352549/katikati-gardener-bringing-back-birdsong

Waitangi Day Potatoes

 

 

HOT potato, hot potato!

 

This week we have sunshine forecast for the entire week!

 

So it was time to get back into our school garden and plant out potatoes to have ready for Christmas.

Our Head Garden Gnome rushed out the door so eager to get out into the sunshine and garden... that she forgot her camera so this is us with our Waitangi Day harvest of potatoes in February earlier this year...

 

Just before term ended last year, with the help of our Whanau Group, we planted up all the potatoes that had gone to seed in the bottom of our Head Garden Gnomes potato bin!

 

We hoped to have potatoes ready for harvesting for the Waitangi Day Hangi!

First we needed to clear the rainbow silver beet that had gone to seed...

 WE were surprised to find a lot of birds nests in the silver beet, it seems that after the BIG Easter storm that demolished over 50% of our mature trees...that the birds were really struggling to find any where suitable to nest.

Looks like we REALLY Need to plant some more trees for our birds!

 

 We all got down to work sorting out seed potatoes to plant out...

 WE were very careful to bury the potatoes as deep as possible...

 ...and space them nice and evenly!

 Then in the New Year we were all delighted to find our potatoes ready to harvest!

 Much fun and delight was had digging for these "golden nuggets" !

 There were even a few beans to be found growing up our sweet corn...yum, yum, they didn't last long!

 Time to wash our massive harvest!

...then sort into 3 different sizes ready for cooking in the Whanau Group's Waitangi Day Hangi!

 

This was only half of our harvest, we dug the remainder to sell at our Twilight Gala at the end of March.

A very successful and Harvest that managed to earn the Whanau Group funds to put toward Kapa Haka costumes.

Once again, nice work Garden Warriors!

Sunshine, rhubarb, parsley and worm farms...

 It has been a VERY wet few weeks here on the coast but today the sun made up for her absence and really turned it on for our Garden Warriors...

 Always looking for something tasty to take home and share with their whanau our Garden Warriors made light work of harvesting rhubarb and parsley...

 Leafy tops were trimmed off for the compost with rhubarb stems clasped in eager hands destined for home with much talk of rhubarb and apple crumble and stewed rhubarb on weet-bix...

 Just as much parsley was being consumed in the garden today as was heading home protruding from school bags ...destined to enhance scrambled eggs, mashed potato and pesto...

 After being completely stripped bare of every single leaf in last years HGUE Easter storm, our Tamarillo tree came back with a vengeance this season with a very heavy crop that has proved most popular with our Garden Warriors...

 This modest Tamarillo has feed 3 different lunch time garden sessions but is now completely bare of all vibrant magenta fruit! The last of the treasured fruit exiting the garden today to be taken home and proudly displayed and eaten with whanau.

 Two matching new entrants enchanted by our worm farms!

 

 It was time to refresh our worm farms and set up some new trays for the worms to migrate into...

 

 ...as it was literally worm spaghetti in one of our trays...

 ...great work everyone on collecting worm food in your classes. Our worms are thriving!

It was nice to be reacquainted with you today sunshine...there were certainly Garden Warriors out in force at lunch time enjoying our garden space!

See you again next week!

Tasting Tuesday

 

Autumn has arrived on the coast...if it weren't for tamarillos and fejoas, you wouldn't really notice the change of season as our climate is pretty mild and we are surrounded by beautiful native evergreen forrest!

 

 It was time to shake the tree and see what was ready...these glowing orbs have been the focus of much attention these last few weeks and patience was wearing thin...so it was time to harvest a few!

 There was another special tree in our garden that was hung this time with beautiful green orbs...like ornaments on a Christmas tree...

 Tasty treats ready for the chop!

just how HUGE are our fejoas!

 What do you think Mr Fantail?

 Tasting time...

 Well that didn't last very long!

 Our Tamarillos proved VERY popular and we had to reload with a 2nd lot!

So popular were our Tamarillos that everyone requested one to take home for their parents to try...