A gardener never quits!

5 Jan '07 2:39 pm

More pics

5 Jan '07 2:44 pm

A few more...

5 Jan '07 3:22 pm

So concludes my Previous garden...yes I have more photos but these were all I scanned into my PC...so until I get another scanner Question

While we were waiting in Morrinsville for this Unit to become available I had to satisfy my gardening wants with pot plants ... we had a small strip out the back but I put veges in there. For some reason Council will not permit gardens to be dug any more and much as our fingers itched to reach for the spade we had to be patient...we were there for just 9 months before we came here to Matamata... here are a couple of pics of my pot plants that saved my sanity during the wait! The Fan Flower had a self sown Zinnia come up and I never get around to transplanting it1

5 Jan '07 6:53 pm

When we arrived here in March of 2005, there were 2 gardens which were "ours" to do with what we wanted. The 3rd was a circular shrub garden that dead and dying Rhododendrons, a very prickly ornamental Citrus, a smothered Dublin Bay rose and some very sickly hebes and a ground cover that was way past it's best
Now here is where we started to get lucky! The Council had earmarked all the garden's contents for removal, which they did a week after we moved in. Unbeknown to us they put a poison on the stumps of the shrubs....sigh... we live and learn!.I got them to leave a big limy green shrub which I like to use in my floral arrangements...it has a pinky flower in mid spring.

This garden had had the usual black plastic and then scoria dumped on top which had to be removed before we could do anything, and that in it's self was a mission.... the more scoria you pick up the more takes it's place. I think a week of hard work saw most of it gone.
Hubby then went to his daughter's farm and got a truckload of good soil... he thought! Well. he had got it from a bonfire area where trees and rubbish had been burned and he put it on the garden raising it by about 12 ".
A photo shows what our place looked like the week we moved in...

5 Jan '07 7:16 pm

We really were desperate to have a rose garden of some sort... I had 8 roses sitting teporarily in my daughter's garden for 9 months, so we asked Council if we could dig one, expecting them to turn us down. Now my husband is a very impatient sort and he wanted to go ahead anyway, but with some difficulty I got him to wait....2 months before they replied... with a written contract for TWO gardens... oh joy!
But... we could not have them where we knew they would be best placed. or curved... they had to be dug EXACTLY to their measurements,one following the carpark curb and the other at the end of the unit. We are also bound by rules that cover the use of sprays, fertiliser etc... any copmplaints and out those beds must come! Oh yes and they had to have mowing strips all round... no sweat..easy peasy..!
So we started digging using a stringline to stay within their measurements etc. I was pleased that we had time to get the ground prepared before planting time, so we added cow manure, stable manure,compost,grass clippings, lots of blood and bone etc and dug it all over 3 times before planting season.
In the meantime we spent hours going online to see what we could get at such a late date, but all that we ordered we got! Perfumed (yeah right!) Itfor hubby and pickability and shape for me! More on the roses later....

The round front garden became mine... I gave Dublin Bay a jolly good prune and ever since it has performed like the survivor it is! No...it's not allowed to be a climber, but still gives us the best display of red in that garden and repeats so well... a deadlooking rose joined it... given by a friend who was chucking it out...she did not know if it was a climber or what.It proved be very much like Compassion... I had 2 of those in my Tarawera garden!

5 Jan '07 9:04 pm

I've been enjoying all your beautiful photos and reading about what you did both in your previous garden and what you're up to now.

Firstly, it just hurts when you know the next owners won't care about your old garden they way you did.
Our last place we were told they had grazing animals on what was supposed to be a lifestyle block. We had hundreds of trees. I wonder how many were eaten...

Though I've seen a photo of the driveway due to it being onsold again just recently I didn't go look at the property while it was on the market, I was too scared of what I might see. And this was only 3 years after we'd left.

*sigh*

And now you're battling the council. I wish you well. Pity that the beds can't be exactly where you'd like but at least you got permission for 2. Yay!
I know this new garden of yours will be gorgeous! Smile

6 Jan '07 12:13 am

Dear friend, right now that I'm writing , I feel a heavy thing on my stomach...I am impressed by this LOVE, DEDICATION! This DETERMINATION! This exceptional BEAUTY! My! How is it possible that this marvel of a garden does not exist any more?? Why, how come, they forced you to leave your Paradise of love and beauty??? I just can't believe this!

Reading your beautiful narrative -- certain of your introduction thoughts sort of ...describe...me --- with huge interest, I waited to see the photos...My! I loved that Pergola photo with the view of the lake!! I adored the photos of Amberlight Rose, Just Joey, and that delicate Orchid Lace Rose in the vase! But all photos are stunning!

Look, dear friend! You are a dreamer gardener with huge discipline, determination ,knowledge, refined gardening taste, immense , spontaneous Love for Mother Nature! I am just waiting here , to see the Tarawera miracle garden re-created 100% (!!) outside your new -- beautiful --house!! I am waiting! I wish you Love and Courage! Never give up!!

6 Jan '07 2:42 am

"but a rose is a tenacious plant and with lots of TLC they all survived"

I have to point out that gardeners are a tenacious species as well. Your story is both heartbreaking and inspiring. What a beautiful garden you created!

My family has moved around quite a lot because of my husband's career, so I too have created many gardens in the various places we have lived. Each time we had to leave one, I carefully took divisions and cuttings to take to my next garden. I also drew very detailed plans of the gardens with names of all the plants to leave with the new owners. In most cases, I know those gardens probably didn't survive. Not everyone is a gardener.

But, as you pointed out a gardener must have that connection with nature and I can't wait to see what wonders your new garden will produce.

Faith

6 Jan '07 2:44 am

Hello Pusslil...and WELCOME!!
Wow! What beauties you've posted! Such lovely scenes of your Tarawera gardens and gorgeous potted plants. As in your previous gardens, your present one will definitely be as beautiful and impressive with your gardening passion, determination and creativity! Thanks for sharing and you're wished all the very best in your endeavours! Smile

6 Jan '07 2:57 am

Pusslil, you are an inspiration to us all (but especially me, as I may need it more! Wink

). I am in awe of your determination and hard work, but also sad that your beautiful garden in Lake Tarawera was not given the love it deserved after you left. I know a little of this feeling too, as I grew up (from the age of 4 to 21) in a wonderful family home whose garden my parents cared for and developed just like you did - and I and my siblings helped (mainly my sister and I - my brothers usually only helped when there were holes to dig or things like that!) and saw the garden transform over the years, with new beds being added and the vegetable garden growing, etc. Once we children had all left home and my grandparents, who lived with us in an annexe on the house, had passed away, my parents decided they should move to a smaller house (although in the end, the house they live in now isn't actually that much smaller, but that's another issue! Rolling Eyes

). Unfortunately the people who bought the house were developers and they knocked it down to put two new homes on the plot (it was about 3/4 of an acre and in a prime building location on the outskirts of quite a popular residential area), so now nothing remains of my childhood home, or the hole in the hedge where my sister and I used to hide, or the huge oak tree to which Dad attached a swing for us, or anything else, but I have my memories and one day I hope to provide such a garden for my own children to grow up in.

Keep up the good work, dear friend, and I hope your new garden gives you many years of joy as you develop it (in spite of the council's efforts to curb your plans!)

A gardener never quits!

And now on to my present garden...

An amazing --heart-breaking-- story and photos...

Roses and Gardeners

Excellent gardening!