Category Archives: Tikorangi notes

Tikorangi Notes: Friday, April 1, 2011

The blue autumn crocus - a fleeting seasonal delight

The blue autumn crocus - a fleeting seasonal delight

Nerines flowering in the rockery

Nerines flowering in the rockery

Latest posts:
1) Camellia sinensis is grown for harvesting, not for its floral display though its little pink flowers are charming if you look closely. The tea camellia in Plant Collector this week.

2) Garden tasks this week as we enter the second month of autumn.

3) Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History – book review.

4) Outdoor Classroom this week looks at options for garden mulches in the first of a two part series. I was a little surprised to find that the dreaded scoria is still available.

Latest posts: While early spring is widely seen as the prime season for bulbs, autumn can be pretty rewarding too. The nerines are currently at their peak, the Moraea polystachya, zephyranthes and Spiloxene alba have particularly long flowering seasons, the Cyclamen hederafolium create carpets of pink and white, while the autumn crocus, colchicums and sternbergia are more fleeting delights. April heralds the start of our off season when we say the garden is closed, except by appointment. Mark stood in the rockery today, wondering why we advertise such an early closing date when there is still so much colour and interest.

Tikorangi notes: Friday 25 March, 2010

Double white brugmansia in flower this week

Double white brugmansia in flower this week

Latest posts: Friday 25 March, 2011

1) The frilly, double white brugmansia in Plant Collector this week.
2) Family bonding and the world of Canberra gardening and landscape – Abbie’s column predominantly on the topic of the new National Arboretum of Australia.
3) It is autumn and the earliest camellias are opening their flowers. Garden tasks for this week.
4) Bromeliads for the Contemporary Garden – a review of the new edition of Andrew Steens’ book.

Tikorangi Notes: Friday, March 18, 2011

The watermelon catfish

The watermelon catfish

Why I am still married to the same man after nearly four decades – who else would leave vegetable and fruit creations on the kitchen bench to amuse me?

 

Not a common sight in the rural area of Tikorangi - Rango in performance in our garden

Not a common sight in the rural area of Tikorangi - Rango in performance in our garden

Latest posts:
1) Frangipani in Plant Collector this week – but not, alas, in our garden here yet.
2) Garden tasks this week, including our method of preparing tomatoes for the freezer.
3) Outdoor Classroom – replanting the strawberry patch using runners.
4) Castanospermum australe – a mission which required the extension ladder – in Plant Collector last week.
5) Woodland gardening in Abbie’s column last week.
6) Garden tasks for early autumn last week including crop rotation, lawns, hedges and fertilising.
7) Does credibility and reputation count for nothing these days, or does Penguin NZ think we have short memories?

Members of Rango in our carpark area

Members of Rango in our carpark area

Tikorangi Notes
A taste of WOMAD came to Tikorangi. Generally we do not embrace the functions market (I met Bridezilla and it made me decide that we are not so desperate that we need to offer a venue for garden weddings) but the opportunity to host Sudanese Egyptian group, Rango, in performance with school children from our local country school was a different proposition altogether.

Alas it rained, especially as people arrived for the luncheon

Alas it rained, especially as people arrived for the luncheon

After a week of fantastic weather, we felt the event manager may have been overly cautious in deciding to erect a marquee just in case, but as we woke to rain which became torrential during the luncheon for invited guests, we were greatly relieved to have additional covered areas. Nobody even looked around the garden which we had prepared in readiness, but the vibrancy and fun of the percussive rhythms of Rango made that irrelevant.

Tikorangi Notes: Friday March 4, 2011

It must be autumn. The Cyclamen hederafolium are flowering again.

It must be autumn. The Cyclamen hederafolium are flowering again.

Latest Posts:

1) To say that we were simply amazed to see that Penguin is reissuing the Tui NZ Fruit Garden in May would be an understatement. Same cover, same author. This is the book they withdrew from sale extremely quickly a year ago when the massive problems of plagiarism and inaccuracy were pointed out to them. Presumably the text has been reworked because the early blurb refers to it being in conjunction with a panel of industry experts. It is to be hoped that industry experts include people with extensive personal experience in growing these plants at home throughout the country and not just the commercial producers who want to sell their plants. That aside, it is astonishing that Penguin appear to think that sticking with a discredited and blitheringly ignorant author is just fine. Are we really meant to have such short memories?

2) Alcantarea regina (or is that geniculata?) in flower this week.

3) Garden tasks for this week as autumn officially starts.

4) The third part in our series of step by step compost instructions – this time making cold compost which is the common technique for home gardeners.

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 25 February, 2011

LATEST POSTS: Friday 25 February, 2011

1) The romance of the summer meadow garden and why, alas, they do not work in our climate.

2) Haemanthus coccineus in flower this week – a plant better known, perhaps, for its foliage than its paintbrush flowers.

3) Garden tasks for the last official week of summer and praise for the Japanese Black Trifele tomato.

TIKORANGI NOTES: Friday 25 February, 2011
No Tikorangi Notes today. This remains a country in shock with the Christchurch earthquake. No matter that it is quite some distance from us (different island, opposite coast and different faultlines). When the main issues remain the search for buried survivors, finding the missing (dead or alive) and, for the survivors in our second largest city, access to that most basic necessity of water, writing about our garden seems completely irrelevant.