Yvonne Nikolaison's Blog (22)

December Garden

The garden is doing well despite the lack of attention. Potatoes are flowering but only the last lot that we planted not the earlly ones. Snap peas are flowering, one gerkhins and cucumber plant has survived. The courgettes and sweetcorn have decided to live after our late spring snow fall (November). Tomatoes are starting to flower and the fennel plants are doing well. what I have planted straight into the garden from seed hasn't been as successful.

Due to surgery I am unable to do… Continue

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on December 4, 2011 at 12:27pm — No Comments

Its Easter Time

The weeks have slipped by and while I read about what everyone else is up to in their garden, I haven't been near mine except to pick a few things.

I picked my first and only gerkhins, I added it to a salad. The cheery tomatoes are nearly finished, I have picked 3 small handfuls of green beans that were planted in late January in the hope that we would have a long autumn. We had already had our first snow fall of the year. Carrots haven't been too bad.

We got out into the… Continue

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on April 23, 2011 at 4:59pm — No Comments

Disappointment

I had great hopes for the garden this year and well I seem to be able to grow weeds well, but everything else is very slow. On the good side, meslun is growing well, along with the beetroot, the last of the winter cauliflowers have been picked. broad beans were patchy and snap peas died off as fast as it was growing. The tomatoes in the glass house are starting to flower. I still can't get lettuce to germinate. The sweetcorn is growing well and the beans seem to be happy, with pumpkins… Continue

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on December 30, 2010 at 5:41pm — 1 Comment

November Gardening

Thankfully the gerkhins and courgettes are looking brighter, I thought I was going to lose them all. Basil is still sulking, the tomatoes in the glasshouse are taking off. I brought a chilli and pepper plant which are also in the gHouse.

I have been busy making kefir water and the milk culture. The yoghurt is a little sour, but is good in cooking. the kefir drink is doing wonders for my system and keeping me regular. Have lots of extra grains,will need to start another one I… Continue

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on December 1, 2010 at 5:31pm — No Comments

Chia Seeds

I have been using Chia Seeds for the last 18 months now. They came to my attention after being told about the Salba seeds in the Yarrow bread, then I find out that New World, Hastings are stocking them. This was around the time that the Government was threatening to put Foliate in bread and when I started to make my own bread. So I duly read up of these wonderful seeds and start using them in place of oil in my bread. Vogels are now advertising that some of their bread contain these lovely…

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Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on November 4, 2010 at 5:45pm — 13 Comments

Solar Power

The recent earthquake in Christchurch has got us thinking, how would we cope and the answer was not very well, especially without power. which has got us thinking about converting to solar power. On looking on the Internet there are plenty of articles, but very few places that stock the items you need to get started. While we have every intention of going completely solar powered that day is still a long way off.

So for those of you who read my ramblings, thank you and if you know of… Continue

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on September 8, 2010 at 3:02pm — 1 Comment

Spring has Sprung

I took advantage of the sunny weather on Wednesday to start on the Spring seeds. so now I have all these containers scattered around the lounge waiting for the seeds to germinate, not as much room as I had in the old house.

So I have planted peppers, chilli, courgettes, tomatoes, I know I have some heirloom seeds somewhere, but can I find them? NO. beetroot, lemon bergamot, echinacea, gerkhins, Tansy, marigolds, nastrituims, basil a few weeks ago.

In the glasshouse has… Continue

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on September 3, 2010 at 4:52pm — 1 Comment

Fruit Trees

We have planted a Liberty apple and a Feoja tree in pots today. Started planting the strawberries, but have run out of containers so need to get some more. Pick the first broccilli today, with another 2 getting ready and a cauliflower as well. Hoping for broad beans soon, lots of flowers. Next weekend we are going to get a cider apple tree. Then its the long wait before the trees bear any fruit. Things are looking good in the garden

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on July 25, 2010 at 4:57pm — No Comments

Gardening in July

Well sadly I am at the end of my holiday and school starts again on Monday. The last two days I have been making maralade, kiwifruit, organe & Lemon maralade, lime maralade, Orange and carrot maralade and basic maralade. The kiwifruit maralade is really nice. Hopefully that will keep my man going for the coming 12 months. I miss the cheap/free grapefruit, lemons and oranges, they are a price down here. Still I have had fun making maralade and need now to find space to store lol, there is…

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Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on July 9, 2010 at 11:50am — No Comments

June in Dunedin

My poor garden is looking rather neglected. It has been so long since I have been able to get in the garden. I really need to get a support fence up for the broad beans as some of them are now flat on the ground. Brussels sprouts need to go into the outside garden, they are still in their little pots. The vegetables in the glasshouse are growing well and the sugar snap peas are flowering, so it will be interesting to see when they produce peas.

Anyway exams will be over in 10…

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Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on June 6, 2010 at 6:03pm — No Comments

Late March

The broccoli was doing well in the glasshouse until a caterpillar and his family came upon it. The poor plant has nearly been stripped, but I have killed them and a few others from the outside garden. This is the first autumn I have had a garden, so I need to be aware of what to be on the look out for. Obviously neem spray doesn't affect caterpillers.

I think its time to pull the tomato plants out, they really aren't doing much and it will give me some room. I have 3 cauli…

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Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on March 27, 2010 at 2:27pm — 1 Comment

Gardening in Dunedin

Well we are in Dunedin and I have inherited a glass house, so that is good news. We have parsnips and carrots in the garden with peppers and tomatoes in the glass house. The tomatoes were looking rather sad, but I might get something off them.

Last Tuesday before leaving Hastings I picked a large basket of veges, didn't manage to pick all the tomatoes which was a shame, but I guess I had to leave something for the tenant. We are still eating our way through the basket and the…

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Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on February 23, 2010 at 3:37pm — 6 Comments

Packing and Gardening

Packing and gardening do not go together at all. Weeds are piling up and I swear I sprayed weeds 3 weeks ago and they have all flourished, so we are looking very untidy. The move is not going well which is stressing us out. Packing what packing.

On the garden front it is going great guns though I feel guilty as I haven't really done anything in the vegetable garden for weeks now apart from watering. The sweetcorn is ready now so it will be sweetcorn for dinner tonight. I saw a baby… Continue

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on January 25, 2010 at 8:39am — 1 Comment

January 2010

Currently I am trying to balance looking after the garden, working and packing, its not going that well, but never mind we will get there in the end.

The water system that we thought up isn't working that well and there are ares of the garden that needs hand watering. We will need to relook at that problem next summer, but then again it may not be a problem.

I preserved 1 bottle of gherkins last night, too many to eat as cucumbers and only enough for a small jar, as long… Continue

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on January 9, 2010 at 1:25pm — No Comments

We are Moving

The news came just before Christmas that I have secured a place in Dental school, so we are moving to Dunedin mid February. On the one hand it is really exciting and on the other hand I have this lovely big veggie garden and I am not going to be here to harvest alot of what I have planted and that is sad. Also knowing that I won't have much of a garden for awhile in Dunedin. Though I will be taking a container of peppers and Chilli's. so the plans for stocking up the larder for Winter have had… Continue

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on January 2, 2010 at 9:11pm — 2 Comments

Gardening in December

Hubby has been looking after the garden for the last couple of days and doing rather well. I must remind him to water the strawberries otherwise we will lose them.

Gerkhins, cabbage and tomatoes that I planted out the other day are looking good.

I harvested 6 beans from one plant today and 3 from another. A few more snap peas are ready and I got a good harvest of lettuce leaves today, enought to feed 3 adults.

The cherry tomatoes are not looking so good since I… Continue

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on December 14, 2009 at 2:51pm — 1 Comment

A Night of Planting

Finally the sun went down and off the garden last night so I could get out and plant the rest of the seedlings. I got stakes put in before I planted the tomatoes and whoops I miscounted and had 13 tomato plants instead of 10 so had to find somewhere for the extra 3 to go. Ah but I managed. Another 3 peppers were planted along with 1 extra chilli plant and 4 cabbages. I have two peppers and another chilli to plant into a container which I will do tomorrow.

We went to a garden centre… Continue

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on December 11, 2009 at 11:42am — 1 Comment

Planting or not

I am itching to get the rest of my seedlings in the garden, but since I am out the next two nights . Don't want to plant when its still hot. So I will need to wait. I might see what part of the garden is in the shade and see. Went out to the wood pile last night to pick out more stakes for the tomatoes that need to go in.

I fed the tomatoes and courgettes with (I hang my head in shame) tomato feed, liquid stuff. I am still waiting on my comfrey tea to finish its thing. Currently… Continue

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on December 8, 2009 at 3:37pm — No Comments

I have Potatoes!!

I know it may sound stupid but I was getting rather disappointed with the potatoes. I followed instructions and buried potatoes in an old tyre, moulding up the soil and adding another tyre when it was needed. A couple of weeks ago the potatoes plants started to die off, they hadn't flowered and I didn't think I was going to get anything. So this afternoon I thought I would take off the tyres and have a look, at least I would be able to put the soil and tyres to use again. I have used up all my… Continue

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on December 2, 2009 at 4:22pm — No Comments

Mistakes Made

Since it is lovely and overcast today I thought it would be a good time to plant a few more seedlings into the garden. So more beetroot, silverbeet, tomatoes, tansy, marigolds have been added. I then looked at my borage which I planted from seedling a while back, well it is bigger than the poor bean seedling next to it. I now find out that it grows quite big and I probably should have planted it in a section on its own. so now I am wondering whether to move it and fingers crossed it doesn't die… Continue

Added by Yvonne Nikolaison on December 1, 2009 at 2:23pm — 1 Comment