Tag: organic gardening
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On Task
Yesterday was our first day of winter – in meteorological terms that is. Apparently we have two First Days of Winter, the other being the Winter Solstice which is still three weeks away, but for the benefit of this post and our feel-good factor we’re choosing the weather-based option. You see, yesterday – for the first time…
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Maintaining the Lifestyle
This last week has been all about maintenance. The Farmer finished demolishing the deck while The Renovator finished sanding, filling and repainting stage one. It’s going to be a while (and no doubt a great deal of plan revision) before the new deck is assembled, but for now we’re happy 95% of the homestead is…
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Thanks, Opa!
Don’t you love it when a plan comes together? In actuality, that may be overstating it just a smidge but we thought it a snappy opening line and, having fluked it once, we’ll definitely plan for it to come together in the future. You see, way back in April as we racketed around the greater city…
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Awaiting Starter’s Orders
It’s here again, all oated up and quivering with post-race anxiety (Danke for excusing the equine theme, a nod to a recent triumph for the racy set of Homestead relatives): the new school term. And we’re not happy. Yes, alright, We’re being a tad dramatic as one of us is quite excited about catching up with their school friends…
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Battling Bugs and Batting Through
This week has been a bit of a mixed bag on the Homestead. While 50% of our number have been laid low by one of those annoying viruses that has you sweltering one moment, shivering the next and generally feeling like a jelly-limbed, discombobulated dishcloth. those remaining on deck have managed to cross a couple…
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Making Every Bit Count
Apparently the purchase price of the average house section in Christchurch is currently $150.00 per square metre. Actually, this may or may not be true as half-hearted attempts to reference this claim on the internet turned up nothing and, when questioned on their source of this “intristing fact”, each of us cited a fellow Homesteader. Whether…
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A Couple of Monster Tasks
It seems that everywhere we look on the Homestead at the moment there’s something in need of more attention than we have time available. This has made work on our current perpetual garden clock orbit rather halting to say the least as we juggle time invested in run-of-the-mill weed pulling and garden titillation with monster…
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Acting All Autumnal
As we’ve already mentioned (should that be whinged), autumn has arrived at Union Homestead. The nights are cooler, the mornings darker and the produce is slowing down. Where we were harvesting armfuls of courgettes-come-marrows to steam and slather with homegrown basil pesto just a few measly weeks ago, now we’re watching the pumpkins inflate and…
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Growing…and Crowing.
Monday morning, we were feeling a tad despondent about life on the Homestead. The courgettes are past their prime, the beans verging on too stringy, the remaining lettuces have bolted, and our beloved Homestead staple, the New Zealand spinach, is starting to sport the Keith Richards look. Oh woe, the end of summer’s bounty is…
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Back Stepping
Having knocked the Clothes Line Garden and the goat paddock off our continuous garden crawl (which we unfortunately described as clockwise only to realise, in one of those lucid moments-before-sleep, that it is in fact the polar opposite) we now have a paltry 10 or so minutes remaining until another garden hour elapses. Tempering our excitement, however, are…
