2014 Fruit & Spring 2015

Haven't posted here in a while - most of the last few months of summer and autumn were full of changes in the garden, and I just gave up on posting about it until it all settled down a bit. I bought a lot more plants, put in some new beds, and have a bunch sitting around in pots waiting for further planting space.

Thinking about the garden meant I either went straight out and started weeding or digging or wandering around planning, or I was sad because I could do anything.

And then of course, there were the many foot problems, which didn't clear up until winter made it too dark and wet to go outside. And then I sprained an ankle again! So all in all, the last few months have been a bit patchy garden-wise.

But this year, I get to see what survived, what's looking sad, and what might actually start fruiting. I also have four rain barrels set up, to help avoid the nasty drought conditions I ran into last year, and cut down on the amount of water hauling I had to do.


Summary of 2014 Summer/Autumn Fruit:


Stonefruit

Apples

Golden Russet apple in organza
jewelry bag against bugs

I got to eat 3-4 apples last year; from one of the Columnar apples (the Polka), the Blush Babe and the Golden Russet. All were a bit sharp, and ripened very late, probably because I shouldn't have let them fruit (I picked most of them off, but I couldn't resist leaving the odd one... ). I chopped them up and popped them into the microwave for five minutes to get individual apple-sized bowls of stewed apple.


I now have five or six apple trees - two local red delicious type dwarf varieties (Blush Babe and Little Rascal), two columnars tucked in up the end, one semi-dwarf Golden Russet in a pot, and one Early Strawberry (to go in the ground). I bought the first four because they were columnar or convenient (sold locally), then realised they all ripened around the same time and were fairly similar apples, so I had to get a couple more. The Early Strawberry is, well, early, and the Golden Russet is supposed to be a very different flavour of apple (and not much of a fruiter, so it's sort of experimental). I'm not a fan of the sharp granny smith types.



Peaches

Honey Babe Blossom
 from 17th August

Bang on schedule, the Honey Babe burst into blossom a couple of weeks ago, and the Kotare Honey is just starting to follow.

I actually got fruit off these last year! The Kotare Honey peaches were prolific, tiny and sad, the Bonanza ones were few, huge and delicious and the Honey Babe were in the middle. I'll see how they go this year, but if the Kotare Honey doesn't improve, I'll get rid of it. The Honey Babe needed more water.

They all got a bit of leaf curl, but I picked the worst of it off, and then they were fine.


Other

The Cherry and the Almond are still in their first couple of years, so I might see flowers this spring. The Cherry is schedule for a transplant from pot to ground at some point; it dried out far too much last year.

The pears and quinces are holding on, and not doing much. They need time and/ repotting, mostly.

I actually found a dwarf plum! It's just poking out a few buds right now, and I just have to cross my fingers that it will be pollinated, but at least I have one.

I got a couple of feijoas off the Unique, but the Bambini didn't get fertilised at all. I've moved Unique's pot round the back next to the Bambini to try and improve that this year. I did get about five little Red Guavas, which were nice, and this year should be a lot better, as the plant is bushing out nicely.


Berries

White Alpine Strawberries

The Pepino bush and the little Blueberry Muffin have been devoured by slugs, and also not very happy in the winter cold. I'll see if they get their leaves back with spring, and try moving them.

The other blueberries have been sporadically flowering and fruiting since I planted them. Once mostly died, but has new growth from the base, the others just keep popping out random flowers. I didn't pull a lot off because I didn't expect them to keep flowering. I'm tempted to indulge in some rabbiteyes, but I know they'll probably go wild, and I still don't have acidic enough soil. And I just need to give my current plants enough time to settle in before I can judge properly.

The strawberries have been doing okay - some died off, others flourished, and some of the day neutrals actually fruited all winter. The Alpines did amazingly, and I was getting a few berries a day right into winter (then the taste declined, as the period between ripeness and mush shortened to about a day or less. The big plants are still fruiting).

The raspberries got the mould, so they were out.

The blackberry and currants are all still growing into things, so I'll see if they start doing anything this year.

I also splurged on four Haskap plants, as a less-acidic-soil alternative to my blueberries (my soil is a little too neutral for me to get my hopes up over those). I thought they all died off last autumn, which was depressing, but it appeared to be a combination of transplant shock from the heat of later summer (they all came from the far end of the New Zealand, as there aren't any local sellers yet), and the onset of autumn. They all have tiny leaves starting to bud out, showing that a plant can look dead for 5 months and still be okay.

My grapes are both alive too - the one in the ground (Niagara) always looked pretty happy, but the Canadice Seedless Grape in the pot was a bit more delicate and got nasty sunburn (or a fungus) towards the end of summer and all its leaves went brown and dropped off. I left it in the hope that it would magically come back to life, and I just noticed some new leaf buds, so that's wonderful.

The Myrtus ugni were... random. They clearly hate wind and getting too dry, and the various bushes around my garden are all reacting differently. One's died off entirely, others are incredibly healthy (some practically next to the dead one). I noticed a sort of greyish pallor to the leaves in summer, which seems to be a sign that they're too hot or dry. I didn't get many berries, which may just be because they were settling in.

Citrus

These are doing... variously. Most look pretty healthy, but aren't really fruiting yet, and a few are clearly not enjoying winter. I got a handful of delicious tiny mandarins off the one round the back, and three lemons off the Meyer, as well as one absolutely fantastic and very tiny orange. The Lime has taken off and is actually growing now, it's double the size, so I won't be removing any fruit this year. I also have a few new dwarf citrus to round out the harvest seasons, a Buddha's hand because I can (it's covered in buds right now) and a Kumquat Meiwa.

Peach Flowers and Spring Growth

I planted out a lot of my seedlings and the results have been mixed; either the slugs ate them instantly, or they took off. I'm waiting to see how many survive...

But in the meantime, spring is officially here! I've been noticing new growth all around the garden, a couple of weeks before I noticed the weather warming up myself. There's been quite a bit of change in the garden over the last few weeks, and I may address more of them in a future update (I certainly got plenty of photographs!).

About a month ago, at the start of August, the bees discovered the Borage. I've since seen on other plants, but at the end of winter it was the only plant they went near.

I saw three different species within five minutes; a large bumblebee, the smaller honeybee and an intermediate bumble of some kind (Which I managed to take a photo of).





So far we have:

New leaves on the feijoa

New growth on the feijoa sellowiana out the front. It's an unnamed variety, which probably means it was a seedling rather than a graft (it was a birthday present).

It hadn't moved a bit since I planted it, which I think means that it was establishing its roots during autumn, then it went dormant for the winter. The other young trees that I planted around the same time mostly managed to start growing just before winter arrived.

My alpine strawberries and Yakon root arrived from Koanga Gardens. They will look very healthy, and it will be nice to see what happens with them. I'm hoping that the Yakon might become a good potato substitute, as I don't get on very well with potato. Either way, it's apparently easy to grow and I can stick in some horrible ground in the corner of the garden.

The alpine strawberries (three of each kind, red and white), all look very healthy and I've left them sitting in a container of water to perk up before I decide where to plant them. Some of them have flowers already. Interestingly the flowers seem to be a lot smaller than the ones I have on other plants.

This was the original Colander strawberry.As you can see,
it's doing very well and has a nice handful of fruit on it.

Nearly ready to eat I hope!

Most of my of alpine strawberries are doing really well, both in the ground and in pots. The big ones in the colanders are doing fantastically well and seem to have doubled in size. They all have at least a dozen flowers or fruit on. I tucked a few little plants in around the garden as well, and it will be nice to see how they do.

I had one small plant that I kept inside for awhile, and I managed to eat a couple of strawberries off it as they ripened over the winter.

It was one of the yellow/white strawberries, and I can confirm the pineapple taste. They were actually quite sharp - I'm going to try leaving others to ripen a bit longer once I have the patience! Although I'm pretty sensitive to sharp tastes, so I'm sure somebody else wouldn't even have noticed. From what I remember of the original fruit that were on the plants that arrived first, I think I prefer the red ones.

I've since moved it outside, because my room was so dry that I was having to constantly water it. The other plants all started flowering over the last few weeks, so I'm looking forward having more than one strawberry at a time!

Flowers and the delicate spiderweb on my Bonanza Peach

My peach trees also arrived about two months ago. They are all dwarf varieties as usual, one Bonanza, one Kotare Honey, and one Honey Babe.

The Bonanza went straight into the ground, at the end of the Apple row. It looked pretty dead when it arrived, but it started to put out flower buds about a month ago. The other two went into pots, with chamomile and alpine strawberries around the base. The poor Honey Babe, which was covered in leaves when it arrived, had all stripped off in a big storm.

I figured that the alpine strawberries might make good ground cover around the base and it would keep them contained, while also providing something similar to their normal woodland environment. The little plant poking out of the mulch on the right is actually a pea plant, growing out of the pea straw.

The Bonanza Peachtree starting to show flower buds at the beginning of August.

The Bonanza is the smallest one by far, and it's also the first to flower. It's currently covered in pink blossoms, where as the Kotare Honey has just put out its first. The Honey Babe hasn't flowered at all yet. I know that the Bonanza is supposed to be one of the earliest, but I'm not sure whether it's because it's also in a more sheltered spot.

The Bonanza a couple weeks later. The lovely flowers has been joined by the first few leaves.

It is notable that all the peach trees are flowering before they put leaves out.

The Kotare Honey starting to flower.

The Bonanza flowers after the petals dropped.

I also now own a Whitecurrant, and an additional redcurrant and blackcurrant. The blackcurrants are both in pots because they tend to spread. The redcurrants and whitecurrant started leafing out with new growth for spring.


I also ordered some blueberries, which were being sold off in the South Island where they didn't really belong (they Southern Highbush; as they're from the northern hemisphere, Southern means warmer). The varieties I got were O'Neil and Petite Blue (which I think is also known as Summer Blue).

Flowers on my Petite Blue Blueberry in the pot.

 I've planted one of each in a big pot each, and the other pair will go in the ground next to each other where they can pollinate each other. This way I should be covered against issues with soil pH in either location, as well as being able to fit more bushes in!

It was interesting to see the "two zones colder" effect of putting something in pots, as the potted bushes leaves promptly turned reddish from the cold, while the ones still sitting in a bucket of water stayed bright and green.

We've also eaten pretty much all the broccoli there was a moment, although we've got some more coming along. I have been planting out some of the potted plants, as they hit the limits of their containers and stopped growing again.

Strawberries. Strawberries Everywhere.

I now have 40-50 strawberry plants in pots, hanging baskets and random containers. The varieties are Chandler, Camarosa and Red Gauntlet (though I've already started to lose track of which is which). They aren't going into the garden, because strawberries tend to take over and I haven't got the space for that. I should get a good couple of years of fruit, and then I can just repot a bunch of runners.

I've also got a handful of random ones that sadly turned up with some sort of scorch fungus disease on. I planted them anyway, away from the others (apparently it travels through splashing water).

WALL OF STRAWBERRIES
This is the northern end of the house which gets
the most sun. So that's where all the strawberries are.

Camarosa Strawberries in cheap planters from
nice TradeMe people
(A really nice lady gave me the wooden one
 along with a raised bed!)

I also started buying alpine strawberries (which are really hard to find! The odd seller on TradeMe and a couple of tiny nurseries around New Zealand). They're much less invasive, fruit all year round, and should do well tucked under the borage and the various bushes and trees, as they're much happier with shade than the bigger version. So far, I only have an unknown variety of yellow ones, but I have a mixed handful of colours on the way (nobody in NZ seems to know what variety they have!). They're also apparently easy to grow from seed, so I should be able to grow plenty more.

From left: The Kotare Honey peach waiting to be planted
Alpine strawberries in a colander container
Broccoli plants in a big pot
Chilean Guava and a spreading manuka spp. that are being grown up to a better size
The raspberry pot (I may need to separate the two varieties for easier pruning)
A grape and a fig (both tiny little stubs right now).

The borage, by the way, is doing fantastically. It's huge and producing ongoing flower stalks and has been a great groundcover between two of the apples (it's sheltering the curled parsley, and I have chamomile growing under it). The comfrey in the useless soil corner isn't growing much, but you're supposed to give them a year before seriously harvesting anyway. I did scavenge a leaf to make DIY rooting hormone for some of the cuttings (which appear to  be rooting - the Myrtus ugni and the Feijoa Bambina have tiny threads poking out the end now).

Bought three dwarf peach trees; Kotare Honey, Honey Babe and Bonanza. They should all fruit at slightly different times, but we'll see. The Bonanza is in the garden next to the apples, and the Honey Babe is in a big pot. I'm still deciding where to put the Kotare Honey.

Yellowing leaves on the orange. It is almost certainly
due to all the rain leaching out nitrogen from the soil or
cold temperatures "locking up" the magnesium.
It should bounce back again now the rains have moved on.
I gave it a heap of grass cuttings under the mulch, and some
blood and bone to help cheer it up.

I'm not sure how well they'll do, as peaches as notoriously disease and pest prone, but the steady breezes around the house should keep them well free of mildew.

My currant collection is now rather respectable: two blacks (Magnus and Sefton, I think), two reds (Gloria de Versailles and Myra Mckee) and an unknown white. I'm planting the blacks in pots (as they spread) and the others along the fenceline out the back, behind the guava and feijoas and in the shady bits.

One of the grapevines (the seedless Candice) has gone in behind the apples and the peach - it should grow up over the edge of the deck, where it can be easily pruned and kept at a manageable size.

I'm also eyeing blueberry and papaya seeds; both should be easy to grow in containers and produce decent amounts of fruit. I want a Southern highbush variety of blueberry, because they're smaller than the rabbiteye and do well in the Auckland region. I'm looking at seeds because it's a lot cheaper than buying actual plants and it means that I don't need to find space right away (I need to stock up on giant pots as it is!).

The peas are starting to go a  bit weird now. They're still producing, but the pods are usually a bit discoloured. The two weeks of rain probably doesn't help - it's also been pretty bad for the citrus. My Meyer lemon and the orange have been looking a bit yellow around the edges due to the constant watering.

On the citrus front, I also picked up a Sublime lime - a container sized variety of key lime that apparently does very well in pots. The Meyer lemon has started flowering properly.

The tiny Sublime lime in one of the makeshift
air pruning pots (i.e. a metal wastepaper bin and
weed matting liner)

The first Meyer lemon buds have opened
(also note the yellow tinge on the
leaves from the rain)

The heritage raspberries that were produced in late autumn withered away and died over the last month, so I pruned away the rest of the stalk. There's plenty of new growth showing around the roots.
The more sensitive deciduous trees, the pears and the cherry, have all dropped all their leaves now. The little almond has dropped most of them. The others are doing fine; a few yellow leaves on the apples, and nothing else. The banana has just unfolded its eighth big, beautiful leaf.

And the broccoli has started to flower! Tiny little broccoli heads are showing on the ones planted out first into the garden and the ones in the white container (I was a bit worried about them as they need a lot of space, but the three survivors are doing really well).

The first broccoli flower. 

Comparison with Cat for size (I never could quite tell how big the
plants were going to get from the internet)

Three big happy broccoli plants in another makeshift container.
One has a flowerbud. There used to be more, but they crowded out the weaker seedlings,
which is fine as I had too many from the start.

I've started a seedling collection indoors, trying to get some tomatoes, melons and cucumbers started. The beetroot and the stevia have actually sprouted, so I'm crossing my fingers for the rest. I also found some neat carrots - Paris Market carrots - which are basically like orange radishes. They're great for containers and bad soil because they just don't need to grow much.

And I've also torn out that darn spider plant that the previous owners left. It has a massive root mass of weird tubers! It's gone into the drowning bin, where all the invasive weeds go. The bin is now full of dark brown, stinking, liquid and half rotted vegetation, and should be pretty awesome fertiliser. I've been trying to dig out or smother the onion weed that has sprouted all around the garden as well. I'm throwing cardboard down and starting the slow process of creating a new bed in the worst patch (currently it's all being held down by pots. I have some plants to go there eventually, like lavender and thyme, but they're all so tiny right now that they'll be overrun by weeds as soon as I turn my back. I'm growing up a few things in pots and then will see what fits there).

Fruit!

Easy Peasy variety all over the quince sapling.

I've planted plenty more things since the first post, and have a lot of photos to do something with at some point.

But I just wanted to note that all my pea plants started flowering (except the ones that are too small) over the last couple of weeks, and peas have been appearing this week.

There's a definite difference between the two varieties:

- the dwarf plants are bushy, have white flowers, more peas in the pod and taste more bitter.
- the climbers are more fragile and rambling, have purple and white flowers, inconsistent numbers of peas and taste much sweeter. They're similar to sugar snap peas.

Dwarf pea flower

I have also been getting a raspberry every day or two off my raspberry plant (I bought two and planted them together in a giant pot, so that they won't take over. One came with tiny green raspberries on it). As it's only a single stalk/branch, I'm quite impressed at how many I've been able to eat. Some of them were rotten, and one had a little worm in, but the others are lovely.

Delicious Heritage raspberries

The Meyer, as well as plenty of dwarf peas.

I have a second lemon, a Meyer, which is now planted in a DIY pot made out of a laundry basket lined with weed mat. I'm hoping for the same 'air pruning' effect. It seems pretty healthy, and has a single lemon on.


The lemon withered and dropped off the Yen Ben, which was good as I probably needed to pull it off anyway. It's in a horrible spot, and all the plants around it (marigolds and peas) are doing badly, but it looks pretty healthy. Lemons are tough, so once it is established, it should do well (it gets a lot of wind and the soil is dry and hard).

I've had to pull about fifteen flowers off the tiny lime bush. It finally got the hint and started growing instead.

Sometime in the last month, most of my first plantings seem to have finally gotten their roots established and started growing; the lime and guava have doubled in size - along with everything else in the garden! Weeds, compost, disturbance and watering are not a good combination. I almost lost some plants completely, but luckily I remembered their approximate location and was able to uncover them.

New growth around the Nootka and the
Heritage raspberries, as well as a
 few peas and a weed.

I have been steadily working on weeding and mulching around everything. It's half done. My chamomile seedlings are all ready to plant, and I planted out half my broccoli seedlings about three or fours weeks ago - which are now five times the size of the unplanted ones. I planted a lot of chamomile seedlings, because I had so many that I ran out of room for them. A lot of them got eaten by something, but it meant I could thin out the rest, so those are all really big now. I bought a few full size chamomile plants, just to get the lawn going a bit, but it's going to need a lot more work.

Oh, yes, fruit update; looking forward to the pea harvest. Noticed a tiny green blackcurrant on the blackcurrant bush, and saw a little green orange on the orange tree in a pot. And I got to eat the feijoa off my feijoa bambina. It was a really good one, with thin skin and a lovely flavour, so I'm looking forward to next year.

Even if only half my trees produce decent fruit, I'm going to be swimming in produce. I think I've managed to plan it out so I get a harvest distributed throughout the year, so it may not be too overwhelming. It's really nice to go outside and find something to eat off a bush.

Hebe "Heebie Jeebies"

I now have three apple trees, and another on its way. All of them are dwarf or columnar varieties, I'm just trying to decide where to plant the second dwarf (it's a teeny little thing in a pot). The best place for it is unfortunately the spot I'm saving for one of my peach trees (arriving in July).

I also bought some small native bushes to go along the exposed fence line with bad soil and too much pine tree. Natives are tough, and I can't plant fruit trees there. In order, I have a dwarf kowhai, a type of rata, a divaricating bush with a latin name (fantastic windbreak, apparently), and a lovely hebe with blue flowers all over it (most of them have pink flowers it seems). I'll look up the actual names for another post. But they should all attract birds, bees and miscellaneous insects, and three out of four have fantastic flowers. I'm also planning on getting some dwarf manukas and planting them around between things.

The weather has turned very rainy, but there is still a lot of sunshine - perfect growing weather, really, and plants are growing like crazy after the dead heat of summer. One mostly dead, dry patch (with weird powdery soil, probably from building waste) has been smothered in plants after I mixed in some decent compost, planted a satsuma and some herbs and actually watered it.

The banana tree is doing well in its makeshift pot, and is just putting out its seventh leaf (seems like one leaf a month). The nasty moth vine is regrowing over the fence, so I'll be cutting that back again, and the catnip has turned into a bush! The Italian parsley by the lime tree is bigger than the lime (I grab handfuls to eat when I go past), and the marigolds have all shown a lovely range of flowers. The tarragon is a bit smothered under the lime and the parsley and the marigolds, but it's still there. One dill plant has vanished, but the other is going strong. Overall, everything is healthy and alive, I just need to weed a lot more around some of the plants.

Weeds and First Plantings

This is a garden diary of sorts, of my new house and garden (otherwise I'll never remember what I planted, when I should prune it and where I put it). I also found the few New Zealand gardening blogs very helpful when trying to decide what plants to buy, as most advice is US based. At some point, I'll dig up all the links I came across and add them to the blog.

As you can probably tell from the blog title, I'm most excited about planting a dozen tiny fruit trees into my "manageably sized" garden.

I moved into my new home in February, autumn in New Zealand. As I am in warm-temperate Auckland, this meant that I could plant a) almost anything I wanted and b) that it was the best time to be transplanting trees and seedlings. I've discovered an entire pent up rush of gardening interest, frustrated by years of crappy rental gardening. I have been extremely lucky in my timing, and have been planting fairly steadily for a full couple of weeks, so I'm starting to have an actual garden.

The garden is small, and fairly empty. "Bare" is a good term, though the soil appears to be quite good. There's a whopping great Norfolk Pine out the front, shading the lawn and sucking the life out of it (the line at which the branches stopped is marked by a sudden burst of healthy grass), and one random little camellia bush that is covered in buds and sending out suckers into the lawn.

The cat approves of the dusty soil out the front.

The back is a long strip of grass, with some creeping Tradescantia (Wandering Jew) and a Moth Vine from the neighbours, as well as one random tree that I don't recognise. There are small areas of grass each side of the house, which I will have to be careful about, because they're the access ways and washing line areas.

Pictures from before moving in:

The front of the house. Note the tiny Camellia and the massive amount of shade from the tree

The side of the house. The healthiest bit of garden, but sadly needed for clothes drying and access to the compost bin

The back of the house. Wide enough to plant trees down one side and still have a slight pathway. Also, all the bedroom windows can then look out at fruit and flowers, instead of the neighbours. Important not to get trees so large that they blocked the light to the windows. Also, random annoying tree that casts shade and blocks the gutter.

I spend today gleefully pulling the seedpods off the moth vine (an extremely invasive and nasty weed) and chopping all the invading strands with kitchen scissors (I have an extreme shortage of garden tools at the moment). It leaks an incredibly runny white sap, dripping like blood or milk from every injury. It's supposed to be toxic, and I did seem to get a temporary itchy/sore red patch on my cheek, where I got the largest splash. Unfortunately, it's rooted in the next garden, so I'm not sure what more I can do to it. I've put all the pods in a black plastic bag, and will see if they rot down. If not, I'll have to stick them in a bucket and drown them.

I've been steadily hunting out the little Tradescantia tendrils, all along under the fence and in the grass, to clear safe spaces for planting and to place the compost bin. It's a horrible, horrible plant, and nothing will kill it (it's immune to most herbicides), and it regrows from the tiniest tendrils. I'm having to collect all the scraps and bits in a large plastic bag as I don't dare introduce it to the compost. It has been steadily filling up for over a week and the plants in there are still alive. Apparently they're finally introducing a beetle that will eat it, which I look forward to (hurrah for effective biocontrol methods!). My experience with Wandering Jew is why I avoided the otherwise intriguing Orangeberry plant when picking new plants, as apparently it acts similarly. I'm going to have to patrol that border regularly - but it's a nice quiet activity for when I need a quick break, and it's only one end of the garden. I really, really, don't want it to reach the state of other infestations, with the fence, ground and nearby objects swathed in a green mass of indestructable and rapacious plants.

For planting, I've been trying to create sturdy, low maintenance mixture of useful, delicious, nice smelling and native species (in that order). Due to space constraints, I was forced to choose dwarf varieties from the start, but this has turned out quite well. There are some very miniature trees out there! (I hope that they stay as small as advertised, but I'm probably planting them too closely for them to grow much larger).

So I spent a few days browsing all the nurseries in the area online, and had a look around the local Palmers garden centre (lots of nice herbs, not much in the way of trees). My parents gave me some nice fruit tree seedlings to get me started (a feijoa sellowiana - original feijoa sp., a feijoa bambina - dwarf variety, a tropical (red) guava, and a dwarf Tahitian lime). Also a flowering hibiscus, which I'm not really sure what to do with, as it fails on the practical, edible and nice smelling front. SHH. I LIKE PRACTICAL (my parents are now rolling their eyes, going "we knew you'd be like that about the NICE FLOWER PLANT". It has a regular series of flowers, so will look nice, but I'm worried about how big it might get. So it's being ignored in its pot for now. I may plant it along the side of the deck, where the soil isn't good enough to plant a fruit tree.

From a couple of days ago: the feijoa sellowiana in the foreground, the quince behind it, and the camellia on the left.

CHOP IT TO PIECES.
You can just see the quince tree on the right, in it's patch of mulch (grass clippings and pine "needles"). Also the camellia. It has grown since the last photo.

Norfolk Pines aren't actually true  pines. They're one of those old, primeval-ish species without a proper leaf-branch distinction. The branches just turn into spike needle-leaves which SHOULD NOT BE HANDLED WITHOUT GLOVES OUCH. DAMMIT.

There is also a random feijoa out the front which I am not yet sure whether to leave on its own or to plant round. It will get fairly big. It's needed, to help cross pollinate the dwarf one around the back, but as long as the birds can find it, I'm not too worried. Plus of course a completely random camellia bush that I think I'm going to take out because it's annoying and taking over the lawn.

I've just finished planting my latest batch of plants (I was doing it at night, so that the more delicate ones didn't dry out. I will take a picture in daylight). I now have a sort of native corner next to the pine tree, as they are pretty tough. we managed to take a bunch of branches of the Norfolk Pine yesterday, so the plants in the front garden actually get sunlight now. Currently the native plant corner has three flowering shrubs (climbing rata, red kakabeak, Angelica), two ferns (maidenhair and hen and chickens), and two ground cover plants species. In front of them are a small Chilean guava, and a quince tree with marigold and alyssum around it.

Round the back, I have a row of little fruit trees with herbs and flowers around: dwarf lime, small tropical guava, dwarf feijoa, and another Chilean guava bush. I should have a dwarf lemon and a dwarf apple (60cm tall!) arriving tomorrow which will join them, and the tiny dwarf Manuka and not so tiny dwarf almond which I'm not quite sure where to put yet (I just HAD to have it: Garden Prince variety, self fertile and a dwarf!) I was also given a random comfrey plant for free at East West organics today, which has gone to the corner of the garden to become an immortal fertiliser plant, (they are practically unkillable, but the leaves make fantastic fertiliser/mulch/compost).

I scattered some mustard seed around the grass, to hopefully generate some green manure. I don't really know if it will grow, but every bit helps. Now I want lots of Roman Chamomile to turn into a lawn, and borage to grow around the fruit trees. And I'm getting some tiny dwarf peach trees around midwinter (when they can be moved). There's also an extra quince in a pot that needs a bigger pot (they were both sticks when they arrived, and the one in the garden and now has twice as many leaves). 

The Very Sad Quince Stick and the Shunned Hibiscus

I also need rosemary and lemonbalm! I have catnip growing behind the washing line, and my pathetic old cat now knows to stop there after I drag her outside for her daily walk.

Look at that catnip. So pathetic. Soon it will be bushy and intoxicating and I can drug the cats constantly. Muahaha. I've planted it in between the concrete and the fence (beyond which is more concrete), so it can't go completely wild.

Cat getting high on catnip.

My greatest sorrow right now is that there are no dwarf varieties of the amazing Flatto / Yoyo / Doughnut Peach, which I've actually found in Wairere nursery. I recently discovered them in the supermarket, and they're just fantastic. My main gripe with peaches is the mess, but these are small, manageable and delicious. They're known as the Donut Peach Tree or Bagel Peach Tree overseas.

I have quite a lot of deck and patio space, so I'm planning on container planting some more dwarf trees in future, once I've got a handle on the actual garden. Container plants will be inherently size limited, but will be more work. I've got my eye on some adorably tiny peaches and apple trees, and citrus always tends to do fine in pots. Anyway, I've ordered some small Smart Pots, as they have amazingly good reviews for container growing. If they work out well, I'll strongly consider buying some big ones for trees and veges.

I'm also drooling over some columnar ("Ballerina") apple trees, but I need to wait and see if I have room for them. They won't be pot plants!

I'll have to take some more photos once I've got everything in the ground (so hopefully by the weekend). I want to be able to look back at everything in a year or three and see how it all started.

Plant List (everything that I'm adding).

Natives:

I bought my native plants from The Native Plant Centre. They arrived in a big cardboard box, and are all very healthy and green.

From left. Back: Maidenhair fern, Hen & Chickens fern, Climbing/Red Rata, Native Angelica
Front: Scleranthus biflorus, Red Kaka Beak

Currently I have:

• Climbing Rata (Metrosideros carminea) - nice flowers, small, tuis should like it
• Red Kaka Beak (Clianthus puniceus) - lovely flowers, tuis love it
• Native Angelica, koheriki (Scandia rosifolia) - endangered, lovely flowers, bees should like it
• Hen & Chickens fern (Asplenium bulbiferum) - good mid level shade ground cover
• Maidenhair fern (Adiantum cunninghamii) - pretty ground cover on the sunny edge
• Coprosma something (silver variety, bought from Palmers) - tough groundcover on the shaded side
• Scleranthus biflorus- fascinating, tough groundcover on the sunny side. Found a larger one in Palmers and fell in love with the prickly bright green cushion.
• (pending) A dwarf manuka! 

Fruit Trees

Bought from various places, or given, but several came from Wairere Online (where I have my tiny little dwarf peaches on back order, for when they are actually sold in winter).

My tropical guava with two guardian alyssum plants and a dill around the back.

• I have two quince trees, one potted, one planted - variety unknown. These will get a bit bigger than I would like, but they were free and quince is unusual and tasty.
• Two feijoa: Sellowiana and dwarf. I will be swimming in feijoas. Nom nom.
• One Apple Blush Babe (apparently grows to a mere 60cm)
• One dwarf Yen Ben lemon (the more delicate variety than the commoner, rugged, Meyer)
• One red cherry/tropical guava (small and delicious)
• Two Chilean guava/ NZ Cranberry bushes (already ate all the berries off them! Very tough bush and very tasty fruit, grows in the shade)
• One Tahitian lime. The most edible variety, and a steady year round fruiter, apparently.
• One Almond, dwarf Garden Prince variety. Still going to be a bit large, but I really want it, and I think I can fit it in.

Companion Plants:

Alyssum!

I bought a batch of herbs and flowers for companion planting, mostly from Palmers. I want to fill in the bare patches, reduce competition from weeds (and therefore the amount of work I have to do), and create a nice ecosystem of diversity, bee friendly flowers, and bonus beneficial side effects. Sneaking in herbs that I may actually use is also a bonus. I'm planning on adding vegetables between the fruit trees at some point, if everything looks healthy enough.

• Marigold (French Vanilla) (to help protect against diseases/nasty bugs)
• Alyssum (to attract bees)
• Tarrgon, parsley, dill, marjoram (general helpful plants)
• I also have some chives waiting for the apple tree to arrive (scent helps protect the fruit).
• Comfrey - one plant, sequestered on the far side of the pine tree dead zone. Free.
• Catnip. Transplanted out of pots, and very grateful to be free.