The Summer Garden

 My favourite vegetable - Orange Marrows

Tighe's favourite tomato - yellow pear

 Butterflies and dahlias.

 The lavender has a good crop this year, looking forward to drying some.

This blue flower is in the fish pond, I don't know it's name.

Garden Harvest

 This year we tried growing different types of tomatoes.  Indigo Rose, Tigerilla, Fruit Punch, Yellow Pear.

 The urchins were a bit hesitant eating a black tomato, they were full of flavour.  Will grow again.

 There is a mutant orange marrow growing, it's the size of a waterpolo ball.

 Tigerilla ripens in Rotorua, and have great flavours.  My favourite. Will grow again.

 Lots of different cherry sized tomatoes to choose from. Tighe likes the yellow pear ones.

Our harvest

 The tomatos are finally ripe.  The urchins love the yellow pear tomatoes.  The tigrila tomato is my favourite.

 The urchins aren't convinced that this yellow thing is a tomato.

 Lots of variety, and colour.  The pears are ready too, and there are more on the tree - exciting.

Mutant Marrow

 

Growing with the orange marrows is a green mutant.  Not sure if the skin will turn orange, or stay soft like a zuchinni.

 

The size is great, and if it tastes sweet like an orange marrow, I will save the seeds.

 Well, the skin is softish, like a zuchinni, but it's not as sweet as a marrow.  Nice though.

Colour in the garden

It's the beginning of the year.  I wandered around the garden to see what colours were around in the flowers and fruit.  The one of the cosmos by the fishpond is a "double".

 I love the subtleness of the pinks and purples contrasting with the yellow.

 I don't know the name of this flower, but the red is so vivid.  There is also a yellow one in the garden as well.

 The feijoas are in bloom, looking forward to late Autumn when we can enjoy nature's bounty.

 Frank, the new kitten, has been helping me in the garden.  At least he hasn't dug up too many seedlings.

 The raspberries are delicious for breakfast,  I am picking a handfull a day.  Yum, Yum!

 The pear tree has 10 fruit this year.  Last year there were 2. Exciting, can't wait until they ripen.

 I think this is either the tangelo or lemon, plenty of blossoms on the bush.

Candytuffs.  They are such a sweet little flower.  I have grown them along the path to Erik's office.

The long and short of it

The gumboots on the left are Anneke's, the ones on the right are Erik's.  Guess who fits the ones in the middle?  Hint: it's not Quinn...

No dig garden

As I am allergic to work, the no dig garden is perfect for me.  Put some cardboard down, spread the compost out on top.  Plant the seeds, put down mulch.  Perfect.  No digging and more importantly, no weeding!
The orange marrows need to go in.  I planted 24 last year, and Erik was concerned at the time,  that it wasn't enough, so this year, we are putting in a larger run of them.  If the slugs and snails don't get them, perhaps we will get 50 plants.  Ran out of plant houses, so need to go to the recycling centre and get some plastic bottles.

  

Plant houses and mulch down

Picked up a Tamarillo, tomatoes, aubergines, spring onions and rock melons from the garden center.  We just need to work out where to plant them now.