Malcolm chopping wood on his 84th birthday

And his blood pressure is 120/60.

Rock rose is out

Kids in twisty willow tree

Three of the older boys came with Alistair and had a ball up the tree.

Rupert and Malcolm clean up silver birch wood

Another month another lot of cleaning up felled trees. We seem to have killed a lot of grass but Malcolm will get the stuff off this week he says. I am not allowed to do it because he says it is his job!

The big log with red on it is for Simcha Delft, an instrument makeer. She will keep it five years to dry and then use it for mending instruments.

An Alistair will bring some pallets soon to sit the wood on. We already have heaps and have had to buy another tarpaulin.

An early view of the vege garden

The colour is a bit artificial but it shows the eight plots. Potatoes are now coming up in the far two beds, all Maori pototoes. The next one awaits kumera later and is being fed with all sorts of goodies. The nearest plot has both garlic and red onions and some of it is surrounded by strawberries, though this experiment is not altogether successful as the birds scratched out quite a few. I transplanted the strawberries nearest the garlic because I read a book on companion planting which recommended against them together. Anyway I have broad beans in one bed and peas in the next one together with some healthy looking beetroot. I noticed the peas didn't like horse manure and burnt up (so I took the manure away, as well as it was possible). I planted some snow peas yesterday but avoided too rich soil. Hope they grow well.

In the back garden we have two thornless blackberries and a good looking tamarillo. The passion fruit is near the compost heap. Then silver beet and curly kale, celery, parsley, great coriander find their homes among the lavendar. I planted six small cabbage there too, though I put toilet rolls round them to protect from slugs.

The little garden outside the kitchen is being saved for tomatoes, I have grown Russian silvery fir tomatoes (NICHE seeds) very carefully and lovingly inside. So I will have to put some ash and urine on the tomato bed, as well as dig in bokashi and the new compost before planting out the tomatoes. I have Alderman climbing peas about to go up the post and need to put netting round it soon. But the soil there was a bit stony.

And nearby the roses are underplanted with chives and parsley. I empty washed milk cartons on them and give them some worm wee. It goes almost everywhere actually.

More on tree felling silver birches gone now

So it was only the silver birches to go now. Alistair downed them very quickly last weekend and Malcolm has spent hours trimming them and sorting them on the front lawn. It enabled the planting of two citrus but I had to plant the damson plum in the vege garden meanwhile. Hopefully the larger trunks will be sawn up soon. We had a big rain so bought a tarpaulin and tied it down for the last storm.

A friend who is an instrument maker has marked some of the birch and will keep it for five years before using it to mend instruments.

End of planting season nearly now

Well lots have happened since I posted last in mid July. The cheesy photo of Malcolm is to show off the Pyroclassic woodburner a great replacement for the old burner which chewed up the wood. From Napier it is a great addition to our warm home.

And the sawdust photo is more recent.

Planted recently are figs, grapefruit and lemon, and today it was two Hayward kiwifruit, one male and one female.

Lots of good compost has been made as the bought stuff is nearly all used up.