Struan Farm

Sent Out to the Wood Shed

As I recall, this expression used to mean you were being expelled from the house, or sent outside for a spanking, but in these politically correct days that is definitely not the case for me! I'm a good girl, really, painting the new wood shed in the backyard at our new house at Struan Farm. It's been built out of timber and recycled corrugated iron.

I did a coat of special primer paint first, have just finished a top coat of Karaka Green (yep, your basic farm green). On everything but the roof and flashings, that's for John since there's no way I can reach that on my little ladylike stepstool, it may actually require standing on the roof!

And as reported earlier this week, the mountain of firewood is now stored safely inside, waiting for winter. Clifford is guarding our stash, clearly.

 

Companionship

On my recent travels to garden centers I came across a sign from Oakdale Organics, explaining companion planting, with some ideas on what herbs and flowers to mix in your vegetable garden to attract beneficial insects and reduce pests. 

And so I have planted the following:

Tansy: Attracts lady beetles and lacewings which eat lots of aphids. Deters flying insects, cucumber beetles, squash bugs and helps repel flies and ants. Great companion for cucumber, squash, roses, berries, grapes, fruit trees.

Hyssop: Flowers attract bees, hoverflies and butterflies throughout the summer. Plant near brassicas to deter white cabbage butterfly.

Shoo-Fly Plant: Effective in the veggie garden as a natural deterrent to whitefly.

Nasturtium: Good companion for radish, cabbage and cucumber. (You can also use the flowers in salads, they are edible.)

Marigold: Attracts hoverflies and parasitic wasps. Helps repel nematodes in the soil.

Borage: Bees love borage.

Calendula: Attracts beneficial insects, good companion for anything in the cabbage family.

Bee Balm: Improves the growth and flavor of tomatoes. Attracts bees, parasitic wasps, beneficials flies, loved by hummingbirds.

Herbs as in Herb Alpert

I don't always pronounce things properly in the Kiwi context, and "herbs" would definitely be one of those things. I vacillate between a hard H the Kiwi/English way, as in "Herb Alpert and the Tiajuana Brass," and "urbs" the American way a la (adulterated) francaise.

It's gotten to the point that I'm not aware of what I'm saying when I say it. What I can say is I've been buying quite a lot of "herbs" this past week, however you want to say it, to fill up the big round trough in the new veggie garden area at Struan Farm. Basils, dill, oregano, thymes, parsley, sages, tarragon, chives, lemon balm, marjoram. (The chervil was looking a bit ratty, so I have yet to plant that.) I've got a rosemary hedge down below on each side, English lavender in a circle around the bottom, and mints planted in their own segregated trough.

I've FINALLY been able to use the beautiful herb markers I bought quite some time ago from Country Trading, made out of recycled old spoons.

And p.s., although I've planted quite a number of tomato plants, you won't catch me calling them "to-mah-toes!"

Troughs, Part 2

Aaron returned to Struan Farm with his bobcat to get the recycled farm troughs lifted into place near our new veggie garden area, filling them with metal and topsoil after additional drainage holes were drilled in the bottom. We set them on recycled foundation blocks from Jim's Hut to keep them up off the ground, which worked really well.

Of course I jumped into action shortly thereafter, planting herbs and a few more tomatoes; Aaron spent some time grading the rest of the backyard area now that the topsoil pile has been used.

Now for the black currants and Meyer Lemon to arrive from Wairere Nursery! Oh, almost forgot, I'm going to need to rake everything once the soil settles and put down some grass seed. That will be a bit of work.

Less Than Perfect Pumpkin Patch

Okay, go ahead and laugh! And no need to tell me that it isn't nearly big enough and the rabbits will most likely win.

I know this. But I was faced with a dilemma. I needed to get our pumpkin seedlings in the ground, or we wouldn't have any home grown pumpkins this year. John is off travelling, but recommended that I simply plant them out near the spuds and cast our fate to the wind. I wasn't willing to do that, having read that while rabbits won't eat anything in the nightshade family (spuds/potatoes, tomatoes and eggplant), they LOVE pumpkin, squash, zucchini blossoms in particular. I wasn't willing to sacrifice my Musquee de Provence, Marina di Chioggia, and Jarrahdale pumpkins to those rabbits!

And so I got out some unused plastic trellis netting from the garden shed, recycled wooden pegs from our building projects, a few spare standards and my trusty staple gun. (When in doubt, get out the staple gun!) I constructed a little pumpkin patch under the tawas near the spuds, and planted out the seedlings. Sprayed them with a pest proofing spray that's meant to be a bit of a deterrant, and also created a "ring of fire" around the perimeter with chilli powder and garlic powder, things rabbits don't particularly enjoy. 

Fingers crossed. The chilli and garlic will need to be refreshed after rain.  I've come to the conclusion that this year in the veggie garden is a total experiment, we'll see what works where, what doesn't, and regroup next year as need be. And in the meantime, hoping John and Clifford can deal with the rabbit numbers.

I also planted three surplus pumpkin seedlings near the spuds, circled with the chilli/garlic powder and sprayed with the pest deterrent:

Stay tuned.

Moving Mountains at Struan Farm

I decided it was time for me to try to tackle moving the mountain of firewood sitting on the new house's front lawn at Struan Farm into the wood shed. John is away overseas, and I thought I'd surprise him with an unobstructed view upon his return. It's been an eyesore demanding attention, but given the giant fallen poplar on the bank opposite the Cottage there just hasn't been time to deal with it. 

And so I started, one wheelbarrow at a time. I got to eight and needed a break. The builders arrived to start boxing for the pending concreting of the drive. They had a trailer, and offered to help. I thought about it briefly, and accepted. Of course this derailed them <temporarily> from the boxing, but I must say it was a huge help! We all agreed it was a serious pile of firewood. It took two-three guys with some limited help from me half the day.

Here's before:

And here's after, pending my final clean up. I need to rake up and remove bark and trim the overgrown grass before John arrives home.

But it's looking a whole lot better now, isn't it?

The New Gnome, Named

You will know that we don't diddle daddle around in the Robertson family. A week or so ago I announced a contest to name Freya's new gnome at Struan Farm. Suggestions were submitted by various family members, I then went back out with a list of semi-finalists for the final vote.

Unlike the New Zealand general election, where MMP can result in some unlikely coalition partners, we're "first past the post" at Struan Farm. Majority rules!

Introducing "Doc:"

 

And while he wasn't happy about it, Spud didn't get a vote. Everyone younger than eight years old will receive a prize (sorry Matt), most likely much coveted jelly beans.

"World Famous Homemade"

Here are some surprise home baked treats I've delivered to recent guests at The Cottage at Struan Farm. Thinking "World Famous Homemade" needs to be our tag line, should I copyright it?!

 

Supporting Local

We're doing our darndest to support as many other local businesses as we can here at Struan Farm farmstay/bed & breakfast. I can't do a "Top Ten" just yet, but I can get to nine, and that's not counting tradesmen or contractors of which we are still seeing a fair few.

Right now we're buying Piopio Berry Orchard strawberries for our guests' breakfasts, counting the days til the blueberries and raspberries are available too. (While I love all berries, must confess the blueberries are my favs.) My homemade blueberry and strawberry jams are also made from their delicious fruit.

We're also offering Piopio Gold Fresh Free Range Eggs as part of our breakfast provisions. I buy these at The Oily Rag, our local petrol station, which is also the Intercity Bus stop.

Guests are supplied with Waitomo Limestone Soaps. (The cute little galvanized tray I'm using as a soap dish is from Oops.A.Daisy in Te Kuiti, but I'm not counting that.)

We're encouraging guests looking for lunch and dinner options in the area to visit our award winning local cafe The Fat Pigeon and its new(ish) sister restaurant, The Night Owl.

We've got Piopio tea towels in the kitchens for use, tempting guests to call into The Crafty Pigeon to stock up on gifts, Piopio themed or otherwise.

And of course we rabbit on about how no visit to Piopio would be complete without a visit to Hairy Feet Waitomo, The Hobbit film location and generally spectular setting! And if they're keen to experience a llama trek, we'll send them over to Sandy and Bob at Greenmount Llamas.

Hmm, maybe I can get to ten if I count Melanie (serial entrepreneur behind The Fat Pigeon, Night Owl, and Crafty Pigeon empire) yet again as a caterer for special events in the Homestead gardens and corporate offsites? Would that be cheating?

News on the Spuds

Suffice it to say that the Spuds are all continuing to grow at Struan Farm. Here are the Jersey Bennes and the Agrias:

And here is the other one, the one who stands outside our bedroom window and wails from 6:05 a.m. to get his bottle:

I can tell you that the little darling is getting weaned the next time Clifford and I have to hit the road on an overnight trip! That way we won't be around to hear all the inevitable wailing that will go on.

Heading Toward Veggies

Big progress on the new raised vegetable beds at Struan Farm this past week! Aaron arrived with his bobcat to lift and move things around, while the builders worked with him to put the bases in and metal/gravel underneath. The troughs have rocks over their drainage holes, then metal/gravel, then topsoil. 

Once they were done I got straight into it, since we're 2-3 weeks late in planting.

TA DA! Next comes planting black currants and citrus trees (a lime and probably a dwarf Meyer Lemon) in the area behind the troughs near the garage, and herb gardens in some older rustic troughs (that we have yet to position).  Landscaping and lawn eventually too, but these things take time.

Weekend Roses & Strawberries Too

A friend of ours came to visit Struan Farm for the first time from Auckland this past weekend. 

The roses have started to bloom, so I was able to come up with some flower arrangements for the guest room and dining table that are starting to look like summer:

For dinner we had rack of lamb, fresh local asparagus, beets just picked from the garden, and rocket/arugula salad.

And of course at this time of the year no visit to Piopio is complete without berries from Piopio Berry Orchard. I baked an angel food cake to use for strawberry shortcake (low fat!), served with berry coulis, fresh berries and softly whipped cream (not low fat!):

 

Heaven on a plate, really. 

The Big Clean Up, Sort Of.

Do you remember this?

A huge poplar tree at Struan Farm keeled over in a wind storm about a week ago, on the bank below the main road. One of our builders, Pete, offered to step in to help John with the clean up, since it's not the kind of thing one person can manage. Chains, wire ropes, etc. are involved.

  

 

Yes, there was a mishap or two. This huge section of log tumbled down and landed within inches of our main water pump. It was so big that they couldn't pull it out in one piece, had to slice it into chunks that could be pulled out...

Two very exhausted guys at the end of Day One. Bring on Day Two, which entailed dealing with a huge tree trunk and root:

This has now been moved off the track and put away out of sight (sort of). Now John and I have to chainsaw and pick up the rest of the smaller, damaged trees on the bank, regrass and replant trees. The soil on the bank is quite loose, these trees really do shore up the roadside.

We've got weeks and weeks of work here, but the good new is: lots of firewood!

Make Way for Ducklings

We've had five new wild ducklings swimming in the pond at Struan Farm with mum for several weeks now. While we've seen them quite often, I hadn't managed to photograph them-- they scurried away into the weeds every time I arrived with camera in hand. Until now:

Of course they're bigger now. But it's great to see we're providing a good riparian habitat for ducks. And while you can't hear them, the frogs are croaking away too!

Spud Meets the New Gnome

We decided that Struan Farm's resident pet lamb Spud should be introduced to the new gnome:

(John can't believe I managed to get Spud to do this!) They talked rugby and the big game this past weekend. Spud (of course) supported the All Blacks, while the (still unnamed) gnome, who belongs to Manchester based Freya, felt he had to support the English. At least until she returns home to NZ.

Clifford, on the other hand, isn't so sure about anyone who supports England against the All Blacks!

Gnome Coming

A new gnome arrived at Struan Farm this week, claiming he belongs to Freya, our youngest grandchild. She hasn't had her own gnome heretofore, unlike Ella, Livvy and Charlie, who have Stuffy, Tico and Ringo, respectively. 

This one hitchhiked with John down from Dargaville. While Freya's living in the U.K. for a few years, we think she will want her very own gnome when she returns to NZ, so we won't send him packing. Here he is, about to join the guys under the tawas:

The only problem now is that he needs a name. Yes, yet another "Name the Gnome" contest! Send us your (all ages appropriate) suggestions. And for a good read about the history of garden gnomes, check out this interesting book by Twigs Way.

The Worst Kept Secret in Piopio

For years and years, the key to The Cottage at Struan Farm has been kept in the pocket of a ratty old rain jacket outside the front door, hanging on a hook above the heirloom mint plant. Family, friends, neighbours, tradesmen, everyone but the local horse thief knew where it was.

With the opening of the farmstay, it's now time to retire the jacket and put the spare key away in a safer place. I feel terrible doing this, but it has to be done. I should note that the hook is still there, so when family is staying we can dig out the tattered jacket and put the key back in its rightful place during their visits. These Robertsons, they don't like changes to family traditions...

Latest in the Gardens

I'd thought that this post was going to be about the profusion of rhodos and azaleas blooming right now in the gardens at Struan Farm. 

And yes, that's all happening, but my photographer's eye got captured instead by the dogwoods, hostas, and roses:

 

Oops?

Let the Berry Season Begin!

Piopio Berry Orchard opened for the season Labour Weekend this year, offering fresh local asparagus, coffee, ice creams and smoothies. When the strawberries (and blueberries) are actually going to be ripe and ready for sale is a different matter entirely. Certain years the berries are ripe by Labour Weekend, but in other years they are not. And 2014 was a "not" year. Berries march to the whims of Mother Nature.

So on Thursday afternoon I was excited to see a Facebook posting from Piopio Berry Orchard, alerting customers that the strawberries were in. Nothing else to do but down tools, get in the car and go get some!

It was hard, but I did wait to get home to try one! And yet another reason to "Like" Piopio Berry Orchard on Facebook.

p.s. We're hearing via the grapevine that someone out there is selling "Piopio" strawberries that aren't THE REAL Piopio strawberries. Capitalising on Mike and Angela Roy's hard work and delicious fruit. Word is, if you don't see this specific bird on the label, they AREN'T the real deal!

 

 

 

 

Developments Out Back

Early start yesterday. The concrete truck showed up at the new house at Struan Farm just before 6:30 a.m., and it was all on to pour the path in the backyard from the back door, one for the veggie gardens and also at the side of the garage. Six guys working away. The boxing had been done several weeks ago, we were just waiting for weather and availability to get the job done.

This is phase one. Next comes the driveway, which will be tinted grey, and edging around the workshop.

The wooden retaining wall at the orchard is being extended around the back of the workshop to finish that area too. At some point, most likely next winter, this means I can plant two new fruit trees in the orchard. One will replace our apricot, which died, probably due to diggers and fencers messing around that area. It hadn't been faring particularly well before all that, so we'll need to consider our options. Apples, quinces and plums do best, peaches and nectarines need copper but still get leaf curl, and the pears are too young for us to know how they'll do either way. (All of our nut trees are elsewhere.)

Getting back to out back, once the concrete is dry and boxing removed the area will be graded, fine metal/gravel spread, and then the concrete troughs for the veggie gardens lifted into place and filled with topsoil, compost, etc. At which point I can spring into action, planting veggies and landscaping.

I'll also be planting black currants, lime and pomegranate trees in the area between the troughs and the back of the garage. The latter two are total experiments, I'll need to use liquid frost cloth on them for sure, but this is a reasonably protected area. 

Reminds me I need to paint that wood shed too....