New Zealand Life

Green-Thumb?

May-July

When we first got the 120 Webber House, there was a garden full of weeds, dead tomato plants, and a couple chive plants. The day we moved in, I decided to get some of the weeds out so I could maybe see how many chive plants were there. I weeded the small section for about an hour and it turned out that I had six chive plants and three lettuce plants growing!
Pleasantly surprised by my last findings, a week or two later I weeded the rest of the garden and ripped out the tomato plants (and the wood poles they were wrapped around). This work resulted in the findings of seven silver-beet plants.
Over the course of a few weeks, I pulled all the lettuce and silver-beet plants out so Mom could use them. Richard then offered to put compost in my garden, so Dad bought some wood so we could make the garden deeper. I dug out my chives and then replanted them into my garden once the compost was put it. They are now growing very well.

In early June, Dad had bought me some vegetable seeds so I could plant things in my garden. I got red onions, peas, baby carrots, and beetroots. On the 19, I decided to try my hand at germinating them, and placed the seeds in pots so they could begin to grow before I transplanted them into my garden. I also planted peas, beetroot, and carrots into my garden. My peas germinated first and have grown large already. I’m going to put them into my garden soon. My onions and carrots also germinated though my beetroot did not. Luckily, it seems like my beetroot might have germinated recently. On the 28, Mom suggested I try to plant some seeds and try to grow them in the house for experimentation’s sake. I jumped at the chance and planted 24 pea seeds, 8 baby carrot seeds, 8 onion seeds, and 8 beetroot seeds. Nine of the pea plants have grown, 2 baby carrots have sprouted, and one beetroot has germinated so far.

A few other plants I’ve lately tried to grow are casimiroas and pumpkins. We bought casimiroas from and honesty box* and then I planted three seeds in a bag with dirt and a little water. I then put four other seeds into a pot and put it outside because Mom didn’t want it in the house. About four or five seem to have germinated as of yet. The pumpkins were seeds from a squash/pumpkin we got from the grocery store. I dried them out and tried to plant them. None of the plants have been successful, but it is not really the time to plant pumpkins anyway.

The only other plants we harvest are Mom’s herb plants & catnip. I transplanted one of her catnip plants and it is doing well other than having been somewhat eaten by bugs. She is also growing cilantro, coriander, thyme, and basil.

~ Julia ~

* Honesty Boxes are wooden stands/boxes on the side of the road. People put out harvests of various fruits or vegetables. They put a price up and then rely on you to pay them.