Planting Tulips
Hello friends,
A little while ago I did an online order for garlic bulbs to plant this autumn, and while I was on the Bulbs Direct website buying those, I had a chance to peruse their other spring bulb collections. I've already completely filled our garden with daffodil bulbs, but other spring bulb plants are few and far between.
A couple of weeks later a package arrived from Bulbs Direct, and I had four new varieties of tulips to plant, including Katinka, Kickstart, Marvel Parrot, and Purple Sky. In shades of purples and pinks, these tulips will brighten up my front garden in spring.
The day the Bulbs Direct package arrived, I pulled out my trusty bulb planter, and got to work in the front garden.
I decided to plant each bulb variety in a clump together to really give a big floral punch of colour in various part of the front garden. The tulips will greet us every time we enter or exit our property, and they'll look great from the street too.
Now there is nothing to do but wait over winter and into spring for my new tulip bulbs to make their way above ground. It'll be something to look forward to over the coming dark and cold winter months.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Autumn Harvests
Hello friends,
Autumn is well and truly upon us, and the harvests are coming in thick and fast.
My grapes have already been harvested.
And my mandarins are now being harvested too.
I also managed to harvest my pumpkins before our first frost on the 24th of April.
And it's now peak feijoa season, which means picking up feijoas off the ground before the birds get to them, and them giving them away to anyone who wants them because there's a glut.
I love the bounty of fruit and vegetables this time of the year, the challenge is to process them as they come in so that the food doesn't gooff while sitting in our fridge.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Sowing Ranunuculus Seeds
Hello friends,
Three weeks ago I finally got around to sowing the ranunculus seeds I bought from Bud & Bloom back in January. The seeds don't germinate in hot weather, so I had to wait until late March when we start to get cooler mornings.
I pulled out my new seed sowing tray protector and got to work. I'm so pleased that I invested in buying it earlier this year, as it cuts down on mess big time, and it's so much easier to sow seeds.
I sowed one seed per cell, and gently covered each ranunculus seed with vermiculite as suggested in the instructions that came with the seeds. I gave them a good watering and stored all the seed trays undercover in the woodshed where it is cool for most of the day.
Now came the patiently waiting part, as ranunculus are notoriously slow at germinating, usually taking 2 - 3 weeks to germinate. Each day I checked on the seed trays and kept the vermiculite damp.
Two weeks after seed sowing, a single ranunculus seedling popped it's head above the vermiculite, and then another and another over the next few weeks.
Quite a few seedlings have come up now, and they are slowly growing in their seed sowing cells. Over the coming weeks they'll grow their underground root systems, and then as the weather gets even cooler, the plants will grow more leaves. I can't want to see lots of ranunculus plants flowering in spring this year.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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The Artsy Housewife's Abalonia's Apple Tree Cross Stitch Project
Hello friends,
I hinted in a blog post a little while ago that I had started a second cross stitch project for stitching over the autumn season. Back in November for my birthday we visited Art and Frame in Christchurch, a picture framer, who also specialises in cross stitch supplies and patterns.
Since it was a significant birthday, and my family had given me money to celebrate it, I splurged and bought a cross stitch pattern, Abalonia's Apple Tree by The Artsy Housewife. I also bought most of the specialty threads needed for the project from Art and Frame as well.
Some of the specialty threads and the fabric weren't available in New Zealand, so I ordered them from 123 Stitch in the USA, and waited for them to slowly arrive by mail. I ordered a fat quarter of Fiber on a Whim 18 count Aida in the colour Old Gold, which was the smallest size available, and when it arrived I cut the fabric in half, as I only needed half of the fabric for the project. The other half of the fabric will be used in another project later this year.
As you can see from the floss toss on the fabric, the colours used in the project are very autumnal.
And I've already started cross stitching Abalonia's Apple Tree...
I'm really loving stitching with the specialty threads from Classic Colorworks and Weeks Dye Works, and Sampler Threads, and the colours go great with the Old Gold aida from Fiber on a Whim. I'm about half way through the project now, and hope to have the project finished this autumn.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Our First Apple Harvest
Hello friends,
Back in the winter of 2024 I planted two apple trees, Ballerina Waltz, and Ballerina Flamenco. I chose those two apple trees after a garden consultant suggested the Ballerina apple varieties, as they grow narrow and tall, and have an abundance of fruit, which make them perfect for smaller gardens.
Ballerina Waltz is a tart eating, cooking, and dehydrating apple, and Ballerina Flamenco is a sweet eating apple. Between both trees, we would have enough apples for hubby and I to eat fresh, and we could also use them for cooking and dehydrating when we have excess produce.
In spring they both flowered for the first time, but only Ballerina Waltz set fruit, and we've been impatiently waiting for them to ripen ever since.
By the time we got to March, only two apples remained. They slowly turned red, and over the last couple of weeks I periodically tested them to see if they were ripe.
And finally, the first apple was ready. When I tilted the apple upward, and it snapped off the tree.
I very excitedly took our first apple inside and showed it to hubby. We cut it open, and the seeds inside were a nice brown colour, showing that the apple was ripe via a another method.
The Ballerina Waltz apple was indeed sweet but tart, but it was also nice and crunchy and juicy. It also wasn't so tart that hubby refused to eat it. A couple of days later the second apple was ready to eat, and we once again cut it in half so that we could share it.
We are very happy with our purchase, and over the coming years when we'll get bigger and bigger harvests. If you are wanting an apple tree, but just don't have the space in your backyard for a full sized apple tree, I really do recommend the Ballerina apple varieties. They now have a bigger selection of varieties, so you can choose one (or more) depending on the type of apple you are interested in.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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