Dahlia Orders
Hello friends,
My dahlia orders from Garden Post and Bulbs Direct arrived a couple of weeks ago, and they had to go into the ground immediately. Thanks to the back garden makeover, there was space for lots of pretty dahlias, and I was able to purchase some of the dahlias that have been on my wish list for a while.
My new dahlia varieties that have arrived so far are:
- Anemone Dahlias: Fenna Baij, Totally Tangarine, Mambo, and The Phantom
- Decorative Dahlias: Dutch Pearl, Creme De Cassis, Missis Miley, Silver Years, Lady Liberty
- Ball Dahlias: Brown Sugar, Wizard of Oz
- Dinner Plate Dahlias: Cafe Au Lait Royal, Pinkie Swear
They arrived on a snow day, so I had to plant the dahlias between snow showers, while the sun was out. Some of the dahlias were already showing decent growth in new sprouts.
Luckily, Patches, the neighbour's cat was there to keep me company during the whole process. They love hanging out in our back garden, and often follow me around to see what I'm up to.
I had so many dahlias arriving that I had to make a list of current varieties, and those arriving, along with other details, so I could plan a good mix of colours throughout our garden.
There's still a dahlia order from Mount Mera to arrive, and once that's done, all my dahlias will be in place for the summer. I can't wait for them to start coming up in November, and to start photographing and enjoying them over summer.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon.
Our New Backyard Garden Plan and Buying All the Plants
Hello friends,
Six week's after the garden consultant came to our home, we received the garden plan back for our backyard. Overall I was pretty happy with it, but the garden consultant had forgotten some of the shrubs he said to remove, and I was a bit overzealous about which shrubs were to go.
This is the garden plan and plant list I was given, and in the following pictures I'll show the tweaks I've made to the plan so far, as I had time to think about what else I wanted to do with the space. The thing to note about this plan, was that the garden consultant hadn't included the dahlia plants already in the garden, or the small pond we have, so I had to tweak it for those as well. In this plan all the plants and shrubs and trees marked in black were pre-existing plants, and those coloured were suggestions for which ones to put in.
I traced out the plan given so I could have a clean slate, and I've coloured in the plants that we already had, and those I bought and then planted in the garden.
Starting at the bottom left corner of the back garden, I finally purchased a Little Miss Perfect rose bush for my own from Wals Plant Land. Back when I lived in Wellington I bought this rose bush variety for a friend who is also a crafter and gardener, and she sends me pictures of the floribunda flowers. It's a stunning bush with salmon petals, and many flowers. It's also a small bush rose at only 60 cm tall
Next up is space set aside for 3 dahlia tubers coming this spring. Above them is an unknown peony plant that was planted underneath the unknown magnolia further along the garden, that I transplanted.
Above the peony is the Daphne Perfumed Princess in white, that I bought from Nichols when I met with the garden consultant. I have really bad experiences with daphnes, they never seem to grow well for me, even when I treat them with kid gloves. I hope it does well as it flowers over winter which is great for bees.
Next to the daphne is an existing unknown hydrangea bush that produces lovely flowers in summer. Even though it's not in the garden consultant's plan, I wanted to keep one hydrangea in the garden. Beside the hydrangea is an unknown deciduous magnolia tree that is well established in the garden. It's flowers are white and pink.
Next to the magnolia is a space set aside for a hosta plant that is part of the garden consultant's plan. It's a dark shady and wet spot next to the viburnum beside it, but I'll have to wait until spring before shops start have them in store.
Along the left side fence line is an unknown grape vine which produces delicious dark purple grapes. Underneath the grapevine is 4 empty spots to be filled in in spring, along with another unknown peony I had to transplant from elsewhere in the garden.
In the back left corner was where one of the rhododendrons was. As I had taken that out, I decided to fill that space with one of my wish list plants, which was an evergreen evergreen blush Fairy Magnolia.
Beside the fairy magnolia tree in the back corner, is space for two columnar apple ballerina trees. They only grow 30 cm wide, but they grow 3 meters tall. They were supposed to go into the back right part of the garden, but I decided to put them in full sun. The two ballerina apple varieties I chose were Waltz and Flamenco, one is a eating and dessert apple, and the other is a cooking and preserving and dehydrating apple. Between the two of them we should have all the apples we need. The Flamenco variety is already in the ground, but I'm waiting for the Waltz variety to arrive from Mosgiel Garden Place.
Next to the apple trees is a small dahlia I moved from another part of my garden, Keith Hammett Mystic Sparkler. It's a beautifully bright pink and yellow small dahlia that is small in form. I bought this dahlia in Wellington, and before we moved back home to Dunedin I posted this dahlia and others to my sister during winter. She planted them in her garden for me, and then the next autumn once we had a home down here, I dug all my dahlias up, and moved them into our garden.
To the right of the Mystic Sparkler dahlia is another wish list shrub, Mexican Orange Blossom. I've wanted one of these for ages, and I was so pleased when the garden consultant suggested it.
And finally in the middle of our back garden fence, was the space that our maple tree was in. After it was chopped down due to our back fence neighbour on the left blackmailing us, I wanted to replace it with another maple. The garden consultant and I mulled over which variety to get, and he convinced me to invest in an Acer griseum, the paperbark maple. It grows to about 4 metres height eventually, and has bright orange leaves in autumn, and a beautiful cinnamon covered trunk that peels like paper. It's really stunning. I managed to find one out at Trees of the World, and at 2 metres high already, it barely fit in our car on the way home.
On the right center of the back fence we start with the shrub Eriostemon Bournda Beauty. It's a waxy green shrub with thousands of tiny white and pink flowers in winter. This shrub is usually covered in honey bees in late winter and early spring.
Beside it we have the red-stemmed dogwood (Cornus alba Sibirica) that I bought when we first bought our home. It's red stems are stunning in winter when there's nothing much else going on in the garden.
Next door we have a replacement camellia. The previous camellia was an ugly red colour, and it was squishing and blocking out light to my feijoa bushes. I was in Mitre 10 and came across Camellia Avalanche, which is a slim camellia (only 1 m wide) with absolutely beautiful white flowers. It was flowering when I bought it, so there has been some colour in the garden over the last month. As it is slim and tall it won't interfere with my feijoa bushes. I think this camellia would look great in a row as a hedge.
Beside the camellia are my two feijoa bushes, Unique and Kaiteri. Unique has smaller feijoa fruit which are sweet and not grainy, and Kaiteri has huge, sweet feijoa, and it's a very heavy cropper. Whenever I have visitors in the garden in autumn, they are stunned by how big and wonderful the fruit are. They usually go and buy a plant of their own after trying our feijoa.
Next to the feijoa bushes was the space that the two apple trees were supposed to go. When I talked with the garden consultant initially I brought up the idea of getting an pear tree, but it wasn't included in the plan. With this space now free, I decided to go ahead and get a pear tree. After much pondering, I decided to go with the dwarf pear Garden Belle. It only reaches 3 meters in height, but I think I'll keep it trimmed smaller than that. The variety is supposed to be mostly self-fertile, but I know of another pear tree down the street, so it's close enough for bees to cross-pollinate it on their travels.
Next to the pear tree is the stump of a wild elderflower tree. The tree arrived in our backyard from birds eating nearby elderflower berries, and leaving a deposit, and it's so good to have one of our own in our backyard. We had to chop it back hard over summer as it was growing huge, but luckily it survived, and is already budding shoots. From now on I'll take better care of it. It's not in the best spot, but I won't turn down a free tree.
In the back right corner of our backyard is an unknown Robinia tree variety (Black Locust), it's not in the healthiest condition, and it was pollarded by the previous owners. We've never seen it flower, and it causes quite a big mess to clean up in autumn. I'm not sure if I'll keep it, but I'll leave it there for now. Eventually over spring I'll be under planting it with shade plants.
Next to the Robinia is Pseudowintera Red Leopard, which likes light woodland conditions, which is what it gets underneath the Robinia tree. I like the speckled red and green evergreen leaves in the dappled light.
The next shrub along is our Viburnum opulus Sterile shrub aka the Snowball tree. I've always wanted one of my own, and the snowball flowers look wonderful in spring.
Beside the snowball tree is one of my damask roses, Duc De Cambridge, and I bought it for collecting scented flowers, which is used in rose oil and rose water production. Damask roses are hard to get in New Zealand, and it took me two years of searching before I could buy one.
Above the damask rose is our unknown Syringia/lilac tree variety. Lilacs are supposed to be shrubs, but our lilac has turned itself into a tree, and is about 3 metres high. It has beautiful fragrant purple flowers in spring, and I'm very happy with what it's decided to be.
Underneath the lilac tree is our small solar-powered water feature which is enjoyed by both bird and cat life alike. And behind the water feature is our Banksia rose "The Pearl" which runs along the side fence, and you can read more about it in this recent blog post.
Beside the water feature is my other damask rose, Isaphan. I also plan to collect rose petals from this shrub too. As a bonus it'll block out our new neighbour.
Next up is another new plant, Westringia Wynyabbie Gem. It' s a frost hardy evergreen which has beautiful star-shaped blue flowers in spring and summer, and gets to only 1 m tall.
In the bottom right corner of our back garden is our three year old Syrmna quince tree. Last year it produced it's first fruit, and the 5 quince were great poached, and eaten with vanilla ice cream. My plan is to try and keep it to about 3 meters tall so it doesn't get too big.
And finally, next to the quince tree is another plant suggested by the garden consultant. I bought the David Austin rose Gertrude Jekyll, and is tolerant of partial shade conditions, and reaches about 1 m in height with bright pink flowers over spring and summer, which should brighten up that corner of the garden next to the berry cage.
All along this right side of the garden is space for many smaller plants, including dahlias, bulbs, annuals and perennials. I already have 3 dahlias in the ground, which I've had for years: Protegee, Pink Magic, and Arthur Hambley. I've ordered more dahlias for the backyard, but they won't arrive until spring.
I can't wait for spring to arrive, so I can finish planting the back garden. I've already started seed sowing for spring, and it'll continue well into spring. I hope you've enjoyed this rather long blog post, and to see which plants are now in my garden.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky
Backyard Plant Removals and Planting Spring Bulbs
Hello friends,
While the garden consultant was designing a plan for our backyard, it was time to start removing plants, and taking all the resulting green waste to the local rubbish tip.
The first plants to go were the rhododendrons, camellia, and the hydrangea taking up space in the back yard. I don't like rhododendons at all, they are poisonous to native bird life who are sugar feeders. As our local area has numerous tui, bell birds, and wax eyes, I wanted all the rhododendrons gone. The camellia in the backyard also got removed because it was squishing my beloved feijoa bushes. A hydrangea was also removed because our home's previous owners planted it in the wrong place.
We were able to remove half the garden shrubs ourselves, but after my shoulder tendonitis flared up from removing shrubs and then digging up their root systems, we ended up getting our local garden contractor (who trims all our hedges) to help remove the remaining shrubs and their green waste.
He also helped us remove an old coal storage concrete bin from our back path, so we had enough space to fit in all the new council rubbish and recycling bins that had just been delivered.
I bought clearance daffodils and tulips from an online store to help fill in the spaces where the rhododendrons and other shrubs had stood. It was late in the season to buy them, so I got them on sale. It didn't take long to plant them into the ground on a warm sunny day.
After all that, the back garden was mostly a blank space, and it was just a matter of waiting for the garden plan to be ready. The garden consultant said it would be done in 2 - 3 weeks, but it ended up taking 6 weeks...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky.
A Birch Tree, Severe Allergies, and a Maple Tree
Hello friends,
I've always had moderate allergies—when I was tested as a teenager they found I was allergic to dust mites, grasses, and mold. In my early twenties I was treated for my dust mite allergy with allergen immunotherapy, but as I'm allergic to multiple things, I've always had to take antihistamines and allergy sprays daily. But over time my allergies have gotten worse and worse, and over the years my allergen immunotherapy treatment for dust mites wore off.
My sinuses, which are under attack constantly from my allergies, also got worse and worse, and I ended up having sinus infections 3 - 4 times a year. Last year I had sinus surgery to improve drainage, but unfortunately it made my situation worse. I'm still getting sinus infections multiple times a year, and my allergies have gotten worse too.
In September of 2024 I had another complication, when I developed asthma during peak pollen season. I couldn't go outside without needing to wear a mask, and sometimes had to wear it inside the house also. I couldn't catch my breath, was coughing and wheezing, and had to keep taking breaths between talking in sentences. My GP prescribed asthma medication, and got me fast tracked to see an allergist. My allergist checked me over, gave me extra asthma medication, and had me retested for allergies. It turns out that in addition to having allergies to dust mites, grasses, and mold, I now also had a severe allergy to birch.
She advised a 3 year long allergen immunotherapy treatment for birch, grasses, and dust mites (which they can now do in one injection once a month), but it couldn't start until the end of birch season in March 2024. All parts of the birch tree including pollen, seeds, leaves, and stems contain the birch allergen, and can cause allergies and asthma, and unfortunately my symptoms were severe because outside our house on council land was a giant birch tree.
And because of wind patterns, and it being very close to our house, our home and garden was constantly inundated with leaves and branches and pollen and seeds. I couldn't escape the birch allergen at all, and had to dry our washing inside the house (so not to bring the birch allergen inside), and keep all the windows closed permanently. Over spring and summer until allergen immunotherapy therapy treatment could begin, I had to wear a mask both inside and outside the house to keep my symptoms under control. By February I was over it, and I contacted the council about the birch tree, and my allergist sent them proof of my severe allergy. The council agreed to removing the birch tree, but only if I could get consent from all neighbours within a 50 metre radius of the tree.
Over a period of a couple of months I contacted all 23 of my neighbours, and over time I got consent from every neighbour, except one. The problem was the neighbour over our back fence,who refused to sign the consent unless I chopped down the maple tree in our backyard. They said they hated trees, and wanted ours gone. We tried comprising with them, and other neighbours tried talking with them, but they were nothing but rude and horrible to us. No matter what we suggested in terms of compromising, they refused, saying that they were blackmailing us.
After talking with other neighbours we found out that this was a known thing they did, and the neighbours had had problems with them reaching over other their fences to attack their trees and plants if they thought the plant was annoying them. The non-consenting neighbours had even battled with the DCC for years about a council owned tree outside their property, and it mysteriously ended up dying under suspicious circumstances...
I was angry and heart broken. Our stunning Japanese maple tree, Acer palmatum, was one of the reasons why we bought our home. After much convincing, my husband said that I couldn't keep living this way with severe allergies and asthma while the birch tree was still outside our home. He said that while the non-consenting neighbour's condition was that the maple tree would come down before they gave consent, they did not make any other conditions regarding what happened afterward. He said we could replant another maple tree, and as many other trees that we wanted too.
We gave the non-consenting neighbours our agreement that the maple tree would come down, and they handed over the consent. I sent all the consents to the DCC, and they approved the removal of the birch tree. Within weeks, they had organised a contractor, and they came in early May to remove it.
The removal of the birch tree made such a big difference to my health, and my asthma symptoms decreased to a tolerable level. And as a bonus our home now had more light now that the tree wasn't shading our property. Other nearby neighbours were also happy that their homes had more light.
The non-consenting neighbours started hassling us about getting the maple tree removed, even though we told them that we had contacted an arborist, and that the wait would be approximately a month. They didn't believe us, and kept on complaining, even though we showed them proof of the quote from the arborist.
Well even as the non-consenting neighbours were still complaining, the arborist called, and they arrived early. Within hours they had chopped down my beloved maple tree. I'm not ashamed to say this, but I cried and cried. I was inconsolable for about a week, I couldn't even face looking out our windows without crying, let alone go outside into our garden.
In the mean time the non-consenting neighbours discovered something they hadn't thought about, they no longer had any privacy in their backyard. Our home is two storied, along with other neighbours in our street, and they all look out over the non-consenting neighbour's backyard, and lounge and kitchen. They no longer have any privacy at all thanks to multiple neighbours looking out of their windows over the course of a day, and of course they started complaining about that too—which fell on deaf ears because their other neighbours were over their complaining.
Hubby gave me a budget for replacing our maple tree, and then suggested it might be worth redesigning our back garden while we had the chance. Our backyard was a mix of rhododendrons and a mishmash of other random plants and trees that at the least were boring, and at the worst were weeds. After much thinking, I contacted a garden consultant to come over and give me some ideas about what to do with the space. The consultant went away to work on coming up with a plan, and I got to work with removing shrubs and plants we definitely wanted removed...
Over the next wee while, I'll be sharing the garden plan the garden consultant came up with, my tweaks to it, and then the work being done in our back garden.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky.
Growing and Harvesting European Linen for the 2023-2024 Season
Hello friends,
As a crafter and a gardener, I like to combine my hobbies in interesting ways. In this case it was growing and harvesting European flax (Linum usitatissimum) in order to prepare some linen for spinning and weaving.
Back when we lived in Wellington I bought some Essene European flax seed (Linum usitatissimum) from Koanga Gardens. In the first year I sowed half the seed packet into a 1 m x 2 m space, and grew the linen plants mainly for producing seeds, so in years afterward I could grow even more flax for linen. My linen harvests thereafter would be self-sustaining. I now grow linen every couple of years for collecting seeds, and stockpiling flax stalks for making linen.
This blog post is showing the process of growing linen from seed sowing to harvesting. In later blog posts I'll share as I go through the flax processing and then spinning and weaving it.
The first thing I did was buy the book "Homegrown Linen: Transforming flax seed into Fiber." by Raven Ranson. This book is very detailed, and shows all the necessary steps in growing homegrown flax for linen. I then used it to calculate how to grow it in New Zealand seasons.
The first step in growing flax seed is deciding when to sow the seed. Flax seed is sown in spring when oats and barley are sown, and in our case it was in mid-October. If flax is grown for linen then the seeds are grown very close together so that long tall stalks are produced, but if flax are grown for seeds, they are planted further apart to allow for branching and more flower production.
After weeding the patch of ground it was to go into in spring last year, I fertilized it with a high nitrogen fertilizer in the form of sheep pellets, and then prepared the soil to a fine tilth. I then sowed the flax seed in a broadcast fashion very close together, so that the linen plants would grow very tall, with little to no branching. After covering the seeds over with a fine layer of soil using a rake, I watered the seeds in, and then covered the crop with bird netting to protect the seeds from the local very hungry avians. It takes approximately 100 days from seed sowing until plant harvest, so this was classed as day 0.
Within a few days of watering each day, the flax seedlings began to appear. It is always very exciting to see them come up.
And within a week, the seedlings were actively reaching for the sky. In the photo below I was growing the linen plants for seed, but as you can see, I spread them a little too far apart.
Once the flax starts growing, it basically fends for itself. If sown very close together no weeds will grow, making it an easy crop to take care of, as long as it gets enough water. And once the flax reaches about 50 cm tall, it begins flowering at around day 60. The beautiful blue flowers open during the day, and close again at night. And now that the plants are tall, they sway very prettily in the breeze.
Flowering and setting seed boils takes around a month. One of our neighbourhood cats, who we call Patches, decided to make their snoozing spot inside the linen crop. No matter how many times I tried to shoo them away, they kept coming back, so I let them be. It's a good thing they're cute because they ended up squishing a bunch of linen...
Once the seed heads (boils) have set, now is the time to think about when to harvest. It's a good idea to set aside a section of your crop to let the boils (seed heads) mature and turn brown, which means they are then ready to harvest for next years seeds. Their plant parts will be dry and thick and yellow, and they won't make good linen.
The rest of your crop will be used for producing linen. When the bottom half the plant has turned golden, it is time to harvest the plants. The seed heads will not usually be viable for collecting seed, but I've found in the past that some of them can be.
The best way to harvest linen is to pull them out by hand in clumps. Lay the harvested linen plants out on the grass, all facing the same way, with the roots at one end, and the boils at the other. Once you've harvested all the linen plants, it's time to stook the plants, which means creating bunches of sheafs, and then tying them in the middle like the poles of a teepee. You want air to get up into the middle of the sheaf to dry it out. Place the sheafs upright with the roots at the bottom and let them dry in the sun on sunny days.
Once the linen plant sheafs are dry you can store them until you want to begin processing your linen. The next step is processing my current linen crop, and this will occur in a couple of weeks after autumn starts...
Have you ever tried experimental gardening? I've done this in the past with growing wheat, and it's very interesting to see how food and fibers are processed. It makes you appreciate how complicated food and textile production is.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky
Social Media
Archives