Hester Female Napier New Zealand: Share on Facebook MySpace Tweet

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Hester

Mar 18

Hester posted a status

"We were affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Our ground floor was flooded. Most of our garden was safe from the flooding."

Mar 18

0 Comments

Hester and Nelson Wong are now friends

Oct 30, 2020

Carol Magee joined Hester's group

New Zealand Seed and Plant Exchange

Are you looking for a particular plant or seeds ? Do you have spares?Post your notices here.See More

Sep 30, 2020

252 Comments

Meg Mackenzie commented on Hester's group Hawkes Bay NZ

"Wow, Nelson, it sounds like you have the jump on me! I've been rebuilding the garden beds here in my rented place (and discovering the hideous things the previous people dumped in the compost!), moving the silverbeet into the new garden beds,…"

Sep 2, 2019

Nelson Wong commented on Hester's group Hawkes Bay NZ

"Hi everyone in Hawkes Bay.Presently I'm excited about my strawberry plant propagation results from last summer. The young plants are being nurtured in separate containers under plastic, and seem very healthy.Im feeding them home prepared kelp…"

Sep 1, 2019

Meg Mackenzie joined Hester's group

Hawkes Bay NZ

Forum for Hawkes Bay Ooooby members to share news, notices, ideas and information relating to the local area.We have regular gatherings to share produce, seeds, plants and gardening ideas, and get to know other local Oooobiers.See More

Aug 28, 2019

59 Comments

Nelson Wong commented on Hester's group Hawkes Bay NZ

"Can anyone from the Hawkes Bay Ooooby group contact me for gardening fellowship?Nelson Wong"

Aug 10, 2019

Profile Information

Suburb: Bay View

Post / Zip Code: 4104

I am a...: Gardener

I can offer: Gardening advice, to be a gardening buddy, Lead a workshop, Food from my garden

Food Growing Skill Level: Expert

Experience and Qualifications: Lots of years in the garden

I am interested in...: Buying Local Food, Selling Local Grown Food, Bartering Local Food, WWOOFA Hosting, Seed Savers

Tell us about your garden and what you're growing: We have a Kiwi Classic quarter acre section in an area with a mild coastal Mediterranean type climate.
The garden has been in existence for nearly 50 years so there were a lot of established plantings when I bought the property 15 years ago. There are many older varieties of flowers and long established fruit trees.
My husband and I love growing food so we have added many more food producing plants, and are gradually replacing the lawn with gardens.
I have gardened organically for more than 30 years and the current garden is now 15 years organic.
I like the garden to be beautiful as well as productive. I combine plantings of food bearing plants with flowers and herbs. I'm mindful of companion planting and growing plants for benefical insects.
We are growing:
Asparagus, Garlic, Elephant Garlic, Florence Fennel, Tomatoes, Chillies, Lettuce, Fat Hen, N.Z. Spinach, broccoli, beetroot, carrots, turnips, spring onions, celery, silver beet, cauliflower, broad beans, peas.

Strawberries, Blueberries,Blackberries, Cape Gooseberries,
Avocados, Rainbow Valley Pawpaw, Persimmon, Figs, Feijoas, Grapes, Apples, Apricots, Peaches, Yakon, Bananas, Cherimoya, Casimiroa, Olives-Manzanilla , Almonds, Hazelnuts,
Lemons, Tahitian Limes,Tangelos, Uglifruit, Mandarins, Navel Oranges, Grapefruit.

French Tarragon, Marjoram, Oregano, Spearmint, Japanese Mint, peppermint, sorrel, Rocket, Garlic chives, Chives, Parsley, Sage, Purple Sage, Rosemary, Sweet Marjoram, Thyme, lemon grass, licorice, gotu kola.
Plantain, Comfrey, Calendula, Borage, Nasturtiums, Dandelion, Chicory, Viola, Violets, Lavender, Dock, fat hen.

Roses, Dahlias, Lilac, Wisteria, Camelias, Daffodils, Freesias, Jonquils, Bluebells,
Pelagoniums, Fuschias, Lilies........

We have a natural pond with frogs and goldfish.

We also have 3 chickens- 2 Shavers and 1 OrpingtonXFaverolle.
And a cat.

About Me

I’ve been gardening as an adult for more than 30 years.
My parents were keen gardeners and descendents of generations of farmers. They grew vegeables, fruit and flowers, and kept chooks, ducks, a goat and, occasionally, sheep, on our three quarter acre section. We always had fresh or home -preserved fruit, vegetables and eggs. I really just assimilated gardening as a child. Becoming a gardener myself was probably inevitable.

I love gardening.
I have a strong interest in herbs and have been growing and learning about them all my adult life. For years I read every book I could find about herbs (bedtime reading material) and I use herbal medicine.

In the 1990’s I was very interested in cottage gardening and grew lots of old fashioned flowers as well as herbs and vegetables.
I had a small home business propagating and selling,medicinal and culinary herbs and perennial flowers.
I was a member of Hawkes Bay Green Dollars.
I have always been mindful of caring for the Earth and have tried to live in a way that 'steps lightly'. For many years this was seen as wierd, and I was beginning to become disheartened. Through being a member of Ooooby Ive been excited to experience the strong surge of interest and support worldwide for Green Living. I enjoy helping others share the joy of gardening.

Nowadays I mostly focus on food growing, although I love old fashioned roses and flowers.
I am lucky enough to have a glasshouse and my own garden shed.
I am now retired and enjoy spending time in the garden, teaching my children and grandchildren garden lore and being creative with the products from our garden.

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Hester's Blog

Saving Tomatoes

I haven't done much propagating in the last 3 years so my collection of saved seeds is getting old.

I have collected quite a lot of varieties of tomato seed and I want to grow them again andsave some fresh seed.

A storage container with many of my seeds in it was accidently moved to our shed. The shed gets warm in Summer, so is not an ideal place for storing seed.

When I finally tracked the container down and rescued it I found that mice had got in and eaten some of my…

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Posted on September 23, 2015 at 3:00pm — 1 Comment

Bees!

Today was a glorious sunny Spring Day, after a few cool grey ones.

We had an extra special occurrence in our garden.

In the early afternoon I looked out of our upstairs window and was amazed to see a cloud of flying insects above the trees.

I called out to Mr Box to come and see. Then I realised I was seeing bees.

A swarm.…

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Posted on October 30, 2011 at 11:00pm — 6 Comments

Blended Families

Day two of Beryl and Ruby’s residence.

I got up before 6.00am this morning, but Beryl and Ruby were already out and about.

They were very settled and roamed about the yard as comfortably as if they’d lived here for weeks.

It was very quiet this morning. I think everyone in the neighbourhood has sold their roosters. Normally they start crowing before the sun is…

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Posted on October 16, 2011 at 7:06am — 2 Comments

Beryl & Ruby

Beryl & Ruby, the Red Shaver hens, arrived on Thursday evening.

I bought them on Trademe earlier in the week but couldn’t pick them up immediately as Mr Box was sick with flu.

The two hens had to sleep in the cardboard box they were transported in as I didn’t have time to arrange anything else that night.

The next morning I got up at daylight to let…

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Posted on October 16, 2011 at 6:58am

Chooky Changes

We have 2 new hens and one less rooster.

We used to have 5 hens and a rooster but 3 of our hens died earlier in the year.

With the advent of Spring it became obvious that 2 wives was nowhere near enough for Vincent the Splash Orpington Rooster.

Violet got badly scratched as a result of excessive mating and was hiding in the hen house.

And Vince was…

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Posted on October 16, 2011 at 6:40am — 1 Comment

Comment Wall (181 comments)

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At 9:23pm on July 27, 2019, Nelson Wong said…: Hello Hester,just skimmed through your profile page(?),and thought I would say hello.I haven't made contact with anyone on Ooooby yet except someone from Central HB and she is yet to respond.I guess joining your HB group is the best way to interact with with Gardeners.You certainly have more gardening experience than me.My idea is to be able to interact with like minded people and hopefully bounce around helpful ideas.I live in Hastings, was born here, and am due to semi retire in less than 2 months.I am married with 3 children(2 girls and a son in their 20's),and we have lived on our 1100sq m property just over 20 years.I tend over about 25 fruit trees and try my hand at growing Veges like kale.I'm wanting to become more sustainable.Nelson Wong.

At 9:34pm on May 20, 2013, Tony Lucas said…: Can't seem to join the seed bank Hester could you please join me up.

At 4:38pm on October 7, 2012, Helen said…: Hi Hester, Are you still there , how are you ? i still have your mini white orchid here smelling sweet and in flower, one day i will remember to take it when i go out that way!! are there any ooooby days coming up around napier? I havent heard of any this year...also just wondering if you have any plant spices....cheers, helen

At 1:39pm on February 17, 2012, Lisa Welbourne said…: Hi Hester, I was wondering if you had any yacon available. My son has a huge list of allergies and I have recently tried him on yacon, which he loved, and luckily didn't have an allergic reaction to. I am now trying hard to get hold of tubers and plants. Some to feed to Oscar and some to plant. Do you think you can help us?

At 8:58pm on December 19, 2011, Sonya said…: Thankyou for your lovely welcome Hester, as you can see it's taken me some time to write you back ... in amongst the craziness of life my daughter had her appendix burst so everything took the backburner for a while, but thankfully she's well and we're all ticking along again ... Am going to start asking questions soon about fruit trees for backyard HB gardens ... maybe you can help me too? :o)

At 11:31am on December 6, 2011, Catherine Orr said…: Hi Hester, how are the cucumbers getting on? I've got one and it looks like its about to get flowers soon. We'd have some great rain here that's got everything growing well. One of the plants you sent it growing well - the catmint I think, but Giorgio couldn't resist the other (catnip?) and pulled the cuttings out and chewed them to bits! Catherine

At 6:04am on December 4, 2011, Matt Moir said…: Thanks Hester I can get those fence posts rite down the street the chickens are settling in fine the black one was pretty loud yesterday hope she settles and it was all stress related from being caught shoved in a cage then out of the cage into a box long ride taken out of box wings clipped back in box another 1 1/2 hour drive before getting to their new home