I have written a few blog posts about myself so my readers can get to know me. I thought it might be nice to continue to share a bit about my passion for gardening and describe what it means to me. I have been gardening for over a decade. I divide my time between gardening (a practical act) and garden writing (in the form of my blog and free weekly gardening newsletters). I also maintain an active Facebook and Instagram page which enables me to connect with people who would like to be a part of my world. I enjoy sharing my gardening journey. So many people have inspired, encouraged and taught me about gardening so it’s nice to share what I have learnt with others.
I started by planting a lily in an existing garden bed after my father passed away in June 2012 and it grew from there. I do put my heart and soul into our garden, which is quite humble and situated on a suburban sized section in Manukau, a suburb in South Auckland in New Zealand. I dug up our entire front lawn! Those were the exact words that one of my former bosses, a partner at a large law firm in the city, said to me when he saw the garden one evening. Gardening has helped me to grow and develop as a person. However, it isn’t for everyone and others may find that they enjoy other activities. I made the mistake of creating a larger garden than I could handle because I got carried away by my passion. I ended up developing a love/hate relationship with gardening, so I try to make time for other hobbies to maintain balance in my life. I enjoy going for a walk in the morning and swimming at the local outdoor swimming pool occasionally. I also try to remember to make time for socialising. I catch up with my best friend who I went to school with and is a secondary school teacher. This year I want to spend more time chatting to my younger cousin in Whangarei and getting to know her more. The garden has helped me immensely with my mental health. I have already written about this here, so I won’t repeat myself. You can also read the post I wrote for the UK Gardening with Disabilities trust here. The garden is a little sanctuary, an oasis where I can escape the hustle and bustle of the outside world. It is a place where I can go to so I can reflect on things. While I am working, so many ideas for developing my garden and content for my blog and newsletters come to mind. It’s a lot like that when I exercise outdoors. I find that I think a lot more clearly when I’m active than resting and also when I’m outdoors rather than indoors. It was a lifesaver during the lockdowns because it provided me with a safe space to go where I wouldn’t catch Covid. I didn’t want to go out because I would have to use the Covid app or sign the register. I didn’t want to risk being forced by the government to take a Covid test and whisked off to the Airport hotel under the law if it came back positive. I know that the people isolated and incarcerated there were looked after very well with proper meals and good medical care, but I didn’t like my freedom being interfered with like that. It was bad enough that our rights were already infringed by measures taken by the government during the pandemic. The airport hotel was the last straw. A major worry was being separated from our adorable cat Ginger, who is currently missing from Anita’s Garden. We hope she returns to us one day after she has enjoyed many exciting cat adventures somewhere else. The garden has helped to unleash my creative side. In recent years, I started to spend time designing garden beds, such as my formal mass flower displays (click here to read my blog post about them). Gardening has also provided me with a way to express my gratitude and affection for others. I love sharing produce, plants and flowers with people that I’m close to. I used to go to a gym in a neighbouring suburb and really enjoyed sharing things from the garden with staff members who were very kind and helpful towards me.
0 Comments
It’s the first of March today and therefore officially autumn in New Zealand. The mornings are crisper, the days lovely and warm and daylight hours are shorter. The sun rises later than in summer and has started setting earlier. Before we know it, daylight saving will be here and we will have to put the clocks an hour back. The season for ordering spring bulbs has started and I’m so excited about the new bulbs I will be planting this autumn for flowering in winter and spring. We already have lots of jonquils, daffodils, dutch iris, gladioli nanus and freesias in our garden. We also have lachenalias and miniature daffodils growing in pots. I usually plant fresh anemones, ranunculus and tulips every year as they tend not to reflower that well. Although tulips especially are essentially an expensive annual, for me it’s worth it because nothing beats picking fresh flowers daily and making arrangements, many of which we share with close friends. I also love taking photographs of our arrangements so I have something nice to look back on when they are out of season or at times of the year when we don’t have flowers in bloom in our garden. I have ordered the following spring bulbs for planting in autumn. I have tried to order a large enough amount of each variety so hopefully some of them flower at the same time and I can make arrangements, which look nice. In saying that, bouquets of mixed tulips can also look nice. This is a bunch of mixed tulips which I gave to the gym I used to go to. I have indicated the supplier of the bulbs I purchased this year in brackets incase other gardeners in New Zealand are interested in sourcing them for their own garden or to give as a gift. I have done that myself a couple of years ago when I sent some tulip and daffodils to my cousin to plant in her garden. She was very happy. If you live overseas, you may be able to find these varieties through foreign bulb suppliers. You may also have lots of other lovely varieties which are not available in New Zealand so don’t worry. I’m sure there is a good selection overseas, too. Don’t forget to check whether your climate is suitable for growing tulips. I am not sure if they will do well in very hot climates. It pays to keep an eye on suppliers’ websites because sometimes they add more varieties over the selling period, which is usually autumn. On the same token, popular varieties can sell out quickly so it pays not to delay too much. You may find that you end up placing several orders which is what I did but suppliers are usually very understanding about this. Sometimes it’s possible to merge orders or the supplier might add the additional bulbs to an existing order and you can pay for them by transferring the funds into the suppliers’ bank account. For the first time, I ordered the following Italian anemones: Azzurro, Bianco Centro Nero and Rarity. I am very excited about growing them as they look so beautiful and very different to the ordinary varieties I have grown in the past. I have left it a bit late to sow anemones and ranunculus from seed but it gives me something to look forward to next year. Egmont Seeds have a great range in the cut flower section on their website. I haven’t seen Italian ranunculus corms available for sale anywhere but I would like to buy some plants from Emerden when they sell them in June or July. They also look very beautiful and different to regular ranunculus varieties. Suppliers Here are links to the New Zealand mail order bulb suppliers that I have sourced the bulbs set out below from. Anemones
Mixtures
I have already shared some pictures of tulips I ordered this year which I have grown in the past in my previous blog post. Here are a couple more photos. Usually I plant my tulip bulbs towards the end of May when it’s cooler as we live in Auckland, where the winters can be quite mild. If you plant the bulbs too early, they may not flower well. The bulbs are also going to be pre-chilled for me (or I am doing so myself if the supplier can’t do this. Some can, others can’t) which helps achieve longer stems in warmer regions.
Break Mum and I are currently at our bach (beach house) in the far north for a fortnight. We are very upset that our cat has been missing (see below) and needed to escape from our home and garden which our beloved cat is very much a part of. It has given me the opportunity to order more spring bulbs for the winter garden (see below), work on my free weekly gardening newsletters and write some blog posts. Ginger is missing! Our beloved garden cat has been missing from Anita’s Garden. We miss her dearly. If anyone has any information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. Spring bulbs Last year I had a break from gardening after a decade because I felt very drained. I am pleased to return to the garden with fresh ideas and enthusiasm. I have ordered the following spring bulbs for planting in autumn. Anemones and ranunculus
Tulips
Here are a few photos of some of these varieties that I grew two years ago Roses
Wairere Nursery have been expanding their collection of David Austin roses. I planted The Lady Gardener last year, which I purchased from them. I couldn’t resist ordering two more for our garden to replace some of the roses I lost last year while I wasn’t well. I have requested Roald Dahl and Bathsheba. Website audience When I first started writing my gardening blog back in 2017, I had not planned on having a global audience. I am an extremely passionate gardener who lives on a small section in a suburb of Auckland called Manukau. My intended audience was local and I started to write a free weekly gardening newsletter to help people get into gardening. I recently installed Google Analytics to help me keep track of the geographical spread of my website visitors and was very pleased and surprised to see that they come from many different countries around the world. Welcome to my website! I really hope you find the information interesting and informative. When I last checked, this is where my website traffic is from, in order of highest to lowest.
|
Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|