I had a nice easy day of pre-visits after two garden installs were not able to be done. Unfortunately I had purchased the seedlings ready so fingers crossed they will still be OK for next visit.
First call was Carissa. She is delightful as well as a tad overly ambitious. After watching something on-line from Yotam of Pakaraka…she had grand plans of starting her own market garden in her backyard. She has a good sized space, maybe 1/8th of an acre? It was mostly bare space but with a row down one boundary of around 50 banana palms in various stages. She said they had turned into a nuisance as didn’t fruit. I explained how banana palms grew and pointed out about 6 hands of bananas. I am a tad jealous….
I have to give her credit for her dream but she has lots of learning to do first. I told her what we will bring in and while I admire her quest, I suggested she should spend this season getting to know how a garden works and increase the commitment over time, so she does a small amount well. She’s excited to get started. She just needs some guidance and to take one step at a time. I might look at some simple planning with her when I go in with her seedlings talking about what is doable. A bit of a timeline putting things into perspective for her.
My second visit was to Candace. What a beautiful garden of Eden she has created in the tiniest of spaces. She would love to have a couple of hens as pets for her children, as well as being productive, utilising her front yard. I think while this space is on the smaller side, it’s doable. My only concern would be the fence height but they are happy to rig something up if necessary.
My third visit was to Margaret. She’s actually one of four little flats with quite a lot of space at the side of her front door. The lawn there is mowed and edges sprayed, which is not ideal in case of spray drift, so we’ll ask Whenua Warrior to place the bed at the back edge. That leaves about a 2 foot clearance to lawn edge. Not really anywhere else it can go. Margaret is very keen to get this in and excited at the prospect of growing her own.
I headed home in thunder storms and heavy rain. Got pretty wet but luckily I had a warm top and a vest in the back seat, so was able to change. It was a very slow bumper to bumper drive home but a good day with some excited peeps to get started on their new journey.
Rākau Tautoko 