Rearranging the South Side Garden
Hello friends,
This summer I wasn't very happy with my south side garden. The blueberry bushes weren't getting enough sun, and didn't produce many blueberries, and the gooseberry bush as always didn't produce very nice fruit for us to eat.
As I was tidying up our blackcurrant bush after we finished harvesting its fruit, the gooseberry bush beside it poked me in the butt for the very last time. I was sick of getting attacked by it, and also since it wasn't producing any good fruit, it was time to pull the whole thing out from the ground. Before you can say "where's my garden fork", I had started cutting the gooseberry bush back so I could access the inner part of the plant.
I did indeed get out my garden fork, and dug out the gooseberry bush within in a matter of minutes. The hardest part was shoving all the gooseberry bush cuttings into a green waste bag without getting stabbed by it as I did so.
With the gooseberry plant out of the ground, I turned my attention to the blueberry bushes. I dug them out and transplanted them into large orange pots which recently held dahlia seedlings (before I made the decision that I didn't want to keep them in my breeding program). After filling up the pots with potting mix, planting the two blueberry bushes, and giving them an appropriate blueberry fertiliser (acid based), I moved the pots into their final positions on the patio.
Now the blueberry plants get all day sun, and they are much happier, even putting on new growth within their first week. Their small amount of fruit from this season have finally started changing colour, after staying green all summer long. I now just have to keep remembering to water them regularly so they don't dry out.
As for the empty spaces in the south side garden, I used some of my flower farming earnings to invest in two hydrangea bushes. The south side garden gets more shade than anywhere else in the garden, and also we need some privacy on that side of the house due to a nosy neighbour. I chose the paniculata hydrangea, Limelight, for the gooseberry spot, and it has conical shaped lime green/cream flowers which are popular in the floristry industry, and as a bonus it also reaches up to a height of 2 m tall.
In the blueberry bushes position, I planted the paniculata hydrangea Sundae Fraise, which has creamy flowers which transition to strawberry pink flowers in autumn. It is a stunning hydrangea which reaches 1.5 m tall, making it perfect for giving us some more privacy on that side of the garden.
This wasn't a planned gardening project when I started out pruning the blackcurrant bush, but I'm very pleased with how it has turned out. Hopefully in the future I will get bigger blueberry harvests, and the hydrangea plants will provide us both privacy and flower farming income in the years to come.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Unwind Fibrecraft Retreat 2026 Haul
Hello friends,
On the weekend of Friday the 6th of March I excitedly went along to the 2026 Unwind Fibrecraft Retreat, a three day biennial fibre festival held in my hometown of Dunedin, New Zealand.
It's a chance to catch up with fibre friends from all around New Zealand, and to also attend talks and workshops, along with some shopping from local New Zealand indie dyers and yarn sellers. And after saving up my crafting pocket money for 6 months, it was time for me to buy a bunch of fibre and yarn to keep me all stocked up for a year at least.
First up, was doing a quick reconnoiter of all the traders to see what was for sale, and to start planning what I wanted to purchase...
Then it was shopping time, and luckily as part of the Unwind Retreat you're given a bag for carrying all your pretty new yarn, fibre, and accessories.
First up I bought two autumnal shades of 100 gram skeins of fingering weight merino dyed yarn by Dark Harbour Yarns. I have no idea what I'll do with them, but for now I'm happy to pat them periodically.
Next we have three 100 gram fingering weight skeins of merino/nylon sock yarns from Purple Sprouting, with the one on the left even containing sparkles. I plan to make two pairs of socks with the left and middle yarns for myself, and the skein on the right is to make a pair of socks for my sister for her birthday.
I also bought 400 grams of fingering weight merino/silk singles for a light weight jersey project for myself for this winter.
Next up is 20 grams of Corriedale fiber in the shade Tequila Sunrise from a new NZ fiber seller, Deep Creek Woolworks.
I also bought two fiber batts from Dark Harbor Yarns, in green and blue shades made from corriedale/merino/silk. My plan is to spin them separately and then ply them together.
I bought the book "Maths for Knitters" by Kate Atherley from Holland Road Yarn Company, and I can't wait to dive in and see all the knitting information inside.
From The Yarn Queen I bought a pair of cat knitting needle protectors along with a new KnitPro needle measurer.
And finally, it's not a yarn festival without the traders giving away small goodies. Extra knitting stitch markers, tape measures, buttons, and even small skeins of yarn are always welcome.
Overall it was a great weekend with fiber friends, and doing some shopping, but as always as an introvert, I was pleased to be back home in the peace and quiet with my husband and kitties. And now I'm looking forward to a serene autumn quietly knitting and spinning in my craft room.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Flower Farming This Summer
Hello friends,
One day while I was doom scrolling on Instagram, I came across a reel from a local flower farmer, searching for local flower growers to sell their excess flowers to her for her floristry business. Since I was at the time in the middle of completing Floret Flower Farm's online Flower Farming Workshop, I thought this was a good opportunity to do some practical work for the workshop, by harvesting my flowers and foliage and selling them.
In summer my home garden is full of many flowers including varieties of dahlia, hydrangea, zinnia, scabiosa, cosmos, calendula, as well as many other precious goodies including my grown from seed dahlias. Most of these flowering plants are used in the floral industry for selling as cut flowers, and also many of these plant varieties that I grow do not travel very well over long distances, meaning that local florists need to find local growers to provide them for their floral work.
I contacted the flower farmer, and within a few days she came to my home to look at my garden, and also to pick her first bucket of flowers. She was impressed with my flower varieties, and especially my dahlias and Floret zinnia plants, and she quickly got to work photographing the flowers, and also harvesting them for use in her floristry business.
One of her favorite dahlias to harvest was a Floret Petite seedling dahlia of mine, which is currently named FP6, and it is an unusual anemone dahlia in shades of pink, red and yellow. I'm very happy with this dahlia, and intend to grow this as a second year seedling dahlia next year.
It wasn't long before she contacted me again, with the intention to buy more flowers from me, which I was very happy to do. This time she taught me how to harvest all the various flowers in the garden, so in the future I could harvest flowers for her myself.
This came in handy the next week which was Valentines Day week, the busiest time in a florist's year. For the first time I harvested all the flowers and foliage by myself, and I really enjoyed the process, harvesting the flowers that usually just flowered in my garden, and then processed them ready for her to pick them up.
I had so much fun harvesting zinnias, dahlias, hydrangea, and also filler flowers like calendula, cosmos and coreopsis. I also picked foliage plants like rosemary and dogwood for her. When she came to pick up all the flowers up after they'd been harvested, she asked to pick some more, as she planned to make over 100 bouquets for Valentines Day. By the time she left, my garden had provided her six buckets of flowers and foliage, and I was so pleased to have the experience under my belt.
From here on out, she is happy to buy flowers from me whenever she has the need for flowers, and I'm willing to sell them to her. I'm very pleased with this arrangement because it's a way for me to do some flower farming without committing myself to owning a full on flower farm, and all the commitments that come with it, but it also means that any income I receive from this means I can invest it into more plants for my garden, and most likely more dahlia varieties...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Regent 24 Hour Secondhand Booksale For 2026
Hello friends,
Recently hubby and I went along to the Regent 24 hour secondhand book sale, and I bought a pile of books for around $20, with the proceeds going to the upkeep of the Regent Theatre in Dunedin.
First, I managed to grab a 1960s copy of Pride and Prejudice with some great black and white illustrations of the story. As a Jane Austen fan, I like collecting editions of her work.
Next I picked up a bunch of NZ Gardener, NZ Lifestyle Block, Kiwi Gardener, and Organic NZ magazines that I haven't read before, and they were a great deal at $1 each.
And finally I purchased a number of crafting and gardening related books for $2 each. The copy of Botanica's Roses I picked up was a huge tome weighing in at 3.3 kg with over 700 pages of descriptions and photos. I felt sorry for hubby who lugged it around the book sale for me.
Overall I'm very happy with my haul of books. It was a shame I couldn't find many fiction books I was looking for, but I'm very pleased with all the crafting and gardening books I got. All I have to do now is find the time to read them all...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky, and now also Facebook.
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