the red delicious journey: getting my gardening on

It's been a while since I last posted I'm sad to say...life happened and got ridiculous...went on my first ever overseas trip to the US of A and it was awesome, mind blowing, inspiring and eye opening. Then seven weeks after getting home my family and I made a big move from Christchurch, where we had been doing life for the last three years, back to our home town of Hamilton. So as you can imagine it's been a fairly exhausting few months for me.

Let me just say of my trip...I LOVE NEW YORK!!! I am going back again one day because that is not the end for me and my New York, oh no! I felt alive standing as one small human in amongst thousands of strangers all going about their journeys, the different languages and cultures buzzing around me, the buildings, the subway, the lights...I am in love!! Enough said...

So the move went well and me, the hubby, the three kids, two cats, a trailer full of stuff, a moving truck full of more stuff and my Dad got that business done. We've been back now for a month and it's a great feeling to be home. The girls are thriving in their schools, I feel more peaceful than I have in a long while, we have had an abundance of time with family and friends and even the cats are happy and slightly crazy playful. And there is only about 15 boxes left to unpack in the garage...*sigh*...one day...

For quite a few years I've wanted to have a go at growing my own veggies and herbs. Now when we were in Christchurch we lived in a house that had considerable liquifaction so I didn't feel comfortable planting and growing food we were going to eat in that so I held off. I could have planted in pots but there just never seemed to be the cash to put towards that (always other things on the list more important) and to be fair I was doing a great deal of surviving not thriving for the last three years.

Anyway within a week at our new place in Hamilton, with guidance from my sister in law, I had my first ever veggie garden planted. And now three weeks on and we are eating from it! Planted in my veggie patches is spinach, lettuce, spring onions, radishes, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary and mint. I don't need to buy spinach or lettuce anymore as we have plenty from the garden and the feeling is just really quite hard to describe. To put it simply I feel connected and satisfied. I find myself a little addicted to my little garden, checking it two or three times a day and feeling such immense joy at the sight of my little veggie babies growing and flourishing. I even have my first flower buds on my tomato plants and I am so excited at the thought of one day be eating tomatoes from my garden. I now have some understanding for all you crazy gardening people!

I got out a gardening book from the library last week to see if I could learn some things but that was a mistake for this beginner as it completely overwhelmed me with information and I wondered how I was ever going to be any good at this gardening business. So before long I put that book down and decided to learn on the journey instead. I really appreciate the family and friends that have given me little nuggets of advice and tips and tricks for my garden.

The bugs....I started with slug and snail bait but it just didn't sit well with me so I am at the moment exploring and experimenting with organic alternatives. I now have crushed eggshells around my lettuce's and spinach plants, and marigolds standing guard around my patches. I am planning on getting more marigold plants as I'm not too sure how many is enough but the yellow ones are little flowers of happiness in my garden so I think there's nothing wrong with more of them! I am having a 'my cats are digging up my patch' problem and have tried the eucalyptus oil on rocks around the garden to deter them as cats can't stand that smell but the Waikato is quite a wet place in spring and that mixed with regularly watering the garden means the rocks are useless. So I'm thinking I may need some netting to deter those little beasts...I will work on that. In the meantime when I am out there watering my babies and one of the little rascals comes to pay a visit I have lightly squirted him with the hose to make that area undesirable...not sure on my logic but giving it a go anyway and it makes me giggle just a little!

Who knew gardening was such fun!