Since climate change is a hot topic at the moment and is not going to go away, I thought it might be helpful if I share further thoughts as they come to mind. In this post, I would like to concentrate on the issue of wind. I have been gardening for a decade now, but I don’t recall it ever being this windy. So far, I have only come up with a few ways of coping as a gardener while working in windy conditions. Ideas regarding how to protect plants from wind is a different topic which I will give thought to as the season progresses and I observe how the seedlings I recently planted outside develop.
Learn to live with it Unfortunately, I think that this is something we just have to get used to. Although we can easily get used to things being a certain way, it is amazing how adaptable we are, especially when we have no choice. To me, it’s still better to brave the outdoors on a grey, blustery chilly day than staying indoors. Gardening is great therapy for depression and I always feel so much better while I’m working outside. I also find that I can think much more clearly. For some reason, I feel especially happy when tackling unglamorous tasks such as weeding and laborious jobs such as pulling out kikuyu grass by hand, which is great therapy if you’re feeling down. Work around the wind Generally (but not always), it tends to be calmer in the morning and becomes windier as the day progresses. You could try getting as much work done earlier on in the day, if possible. It depends on your schedule. If people work during the day, they may find the only time they have to spend in the garden is in the evenings, when conditions are not as ideal. I have set out some thoughts about how to cope while gardening when it’s very windy below. Survival strategies
0 Comments
Pumpkins are incredibly expensive right now in New Zealand so I thought it might be a good idea to write a blog with some tips for growing them. It is the wrong time of the year to sow pumpkin seeds in the southern hemisphere, but this blog post is timely for any readers in the Northern Hemisphere who wish to grow pumpkins this season.
Inspite of having such a terrible summer, we ended up harvesting around 30 pumpkins. I was very surprised. I sowed quite a few varieties, but the ones that were most successful were Blue Prince (a crown-type), Queensland Blue, Jarrahdale, Blue Hubbard and Marina di Chioggia. Unfortunately our butternut pumpkins did not fare as well. We only harvested two of them. I think they tend to need very hot weather in order to crop well. Pumpkins do need a bit of space as they sprawl over the ground. It is not practicable to grow them in containers. If you don’t have a lot of ground space, you can grow things like capsicums, chillies and eggplants in containers and use your ground space for growing pumpkins and squash. Reasons why I recommend growing pumpkins
Tips for growing pumpkins
Gardening isn’t for everyone. Not everyone has much spare time these days. Some people may prefer to spend their spare time another way and that is perfectly understandable. Gardening is a lot of hard work and is extremely unglamorous! For some people, it might not even be possible to have a garden due to where they live.
To me, gardening is never boring. It is actually really interesting. In order to encourage others to give gardening a go, I wanted to set out some benefits associated with gardening. This isn’t an exhaustive list. There may be other things that I haven’t thought of.
|
Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|