Struan Farm

Countdown to Veggies (and Tomatoes, of course)

I'm itching to plant out our vegetable and tomato gardens here at Struan Farm but am holding off on most things until Labour Weekend, the traditional date by which most frost risk is passed. I do have edible flowers, coriander, parsley, radishes, and spring onion growing, along with garlic and shallots. And a few days ago I couldn't restrain myself, and went a bit wild putting a few different varieties of pea seeds in, thinking we'll enjoy the sprouts as well as some peas, as well as the Benhorn carrots and Santana spinach. None of those mind cool weather, in fact prefer it.

I've set out the tomato stakes and bean supports and enhanced the troughs and beds with sheep pellets, blood and bone, fertiliser. I'm watching the seedling tomatoes, basil, parsley, chile, zucchini, pumpkin, and butternut grow in the warmth of the glasshouse (along with the marigolds, zinnia, chocolate cosmos, and echinacea). It's bursting at the seams.

This year I'm planting peas, beans, tomatoes (of course: 20 plants at least, eight different heirloom varieties), edible flowers (borage, cornflower, calendula, viola, nasturtium), garlic, shallots, radishes, spring onion, coriander, parsley, sage, dill, thyme, mint, rosemary, zucchini, pumpkin, butternut, chiles, corn, lettuces/mesclun, carrots, spinach. I'm sure I've forgotten something! And I just realised it's the potatoes. I've got two different types of seed potatoes chitting in the garage to be planted out as well.

Enjoy a wee tour as we count down to veggies (and tomatoes, which are technically a fruit).

We don't water the garlic or shallots at all since they prefer to be dry, pretty much leave them to the rain. In the back are are supports for peas, corn and tomatoes beyond. The tomatoes need to be rotated around the gardens each year.

I'm planting the black cherry tomatoes around the water tank in the back, where they can sprawl all over:

The potatoes will go below, after I dig trenches on Labour Weekend. I'm planting Agria, which is a main type of crop, along with an earlier type. John is always hoping for new potatoes for Christmas, which may or may not happen.

Last but not least the groaning glasshouse. I'm starting to share tomato plants at the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand to give me room to pot up basil, parsley and the flowers. At the moment I have neither the room nor the pots for that!

 

Back to the Future

Most frequent readers of this blog will know that we do a fair bit of physical work around the property here at Struan Farm.  We're used to being high energy and working hard. But springtime puts us to the test. There's just so much that needs to be done pretty much all at once when the weather cooperates.

The past few weeks we've kicked it into high gear in the gardens and around the Homestead, Garden Cottage and Cottage before the farmstay season gets busy. Cleaning windows, gutters, roofs, painting, weeding, trimming. John pulled out Maurie's old Oregon pine wooden ladder to get up on the roof. It's so heavy he can barely lift it. Kids, please don't do this at home! 

We've also been working on refining John's updated vision for the back gardens. He's laid out limestone rock for the back edge that Mike will dig in, after which the soil will be turned over and I will get to planting. The trellises will also get washed and painted.

Part of this process involved removing a "rustic rubble" edge to that garden on the left hand side above. The rubble has gone to a path in another part of the garden. It will be replaced by a low brick edge, in keeping with the front edge of that garden. (Please note that this looks quite rough at present, it will all be prettied up and reflect our high standards when done!)

As I was digging up a special pink dahlia to protect it from the concreting and related construction, I found a brick edge submerged deep in the soil. It had just been buried when replaced by the rustic rubble. A major find!

So I've managed to save nephew Mike a bit of work laying out bricks and concreting, he'll only need to add a second layer on top of what is already there.

It also seems, at least to me, that we're taking the garden back to the future, where it has gone before....

Bluebells for Kinloch

Good news to report. Sister-in-law Anna has learned I am digging out hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds) of bluebells from the gardens here at Struan Farm and WANTS HEAPS. She'll plant them in Kinloch, a suburb of Lake Taupo.

Bye bye bluebells, have a good trip and don't come back!

Bee Bombs Germinating!

You may remember my recent experiment making "seed bombs for bees," dried balls of soil and clay into which bee friendly seeds were embedded. The idea was to toss these out into gardens to grow and provide food for pollinators. I put most of them into Piopio's Community Fruit & Veg Stand, but also decided to test them out here at Struan Farm.

Well guess what? It's rained and the seeds are growing. I tossed them out in our roadside edge, near the slip a few years ago where I'm trying to encourage plants for Monarch butterflies as well.

Apologies that it's not easy to see teeny tiny plants growing in the dirt, but they're there!

Bombing Out with Sprouts

Just so you know I don't always succeed with everything we try to grow here at Struan Farm, the brussels sprouts planted in the Homestead raised bed have gone to seed, without any real sprouts forming on the plants. I purchased the plants, didn't grow these from seed, and probably put them in too late. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The bees are enjoying the flowers so I won't pull them out just yet.

Hand to Hand Combat

I've been feeling pretty boring over the past week here at Struan Farm. Yes, the seedling flowers and veggies are taking off in the glasshouse, but I've been occupied mostly with my ongoing battle against the bluebells in the Homestead gardens.

As I've worked around different areas of the gardens they've put the word out and gotten much sneakier, embedding themselves in tree roots, joining forces with the onion weed. I've moved from using a shovel to a trowel, from upright to stooping over, sometimes even on my hands and knees. This is now hand to hand combat.

Here's the sort of taunts that I get from them:

One peaking up surrounded by hellebores, daring me to try to dig it up without injuring the hellebores. I promise you I've made a major dent, but have ended up quite sore.

After finishing all but the far back and roadside I'm ready from a wee break in the bluebell campaign. I need to recover before the next stage of the battle can commence.

Jam & Jelly Strike a Pose

I decided to see if I could get pet lambs Jam and Jelly to do a photo shoot for the Struan Farm 2018 Christmas card. Rather than the reindeer antlers, which I figured would freak them out, I recruited Santa. They were quite interested in getting to know him!

Hmmm, they may be giving Bambi a run for her money for Piopio's Next Top Model 2018!