Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Gardening in the City


One of the cool things about living in a small house, with a small outside area is that it forces us out into our community. If we want to rollerskate or skateboard or throw a ball we generally have to go down to the local park. What's nice about this is that we have to walk to the park and when we walk we tend to catch up with other people from the neighbourhood which is really nice.

Last year we got a plot at the local community garden. It's only about ten minutes walk from our place and it is right next door to the dog exercise area. We got the plot original as a place to put our compost, which now sounds awful. But, last year we grew zucchinis and potatoes and pumpkins and cucumbers and kale. Then we went away to America and our plot kind of floundered for a bit. Luckily, no one is too judgemental about a shabby plot. We are by no means the best gardeners, we could never support ourselves, but what is great about community gardening is that there are always people around to ask. We have always tried to garden. Every flat we lived in had pots full of lettuces and spinach and herbs. Firstly, because I love it, but also, so that we can kind of show Toki where food comes from. I am particularly fond of growing herbs. Fresh herbs are really expensive in the shops and there is nothing nicer than popping out to cut some herbs for a salad. Having a plot at the garden has kind of taken us to a slightly new level, and it's been fun. Last Saturday we took the dog up for a walk and checked on our plot. The weekend before we took afternoon tea up and shared it with some friends who also garden up at Tanera.

Tanera is located high above the Wellington CBD which means there are some tremendous views.


A couple of weekends ago Brent and his brother Chris put in a couple of frames for our peas and beans. We've never grown peas or beans before, so we kind of just copied what our friends had done


Toki has a wee corner of the plot which is hers. A couple of weekends ago we planted lettuce, silverbeet and some marigolds. They seemed to be doing okay.


One thing that grows really well at Tanera is Miners Lettuce. It's really yum, Toki pretty much just picks and eats it as she's running round and climbing trees in the garden.



It occurs to me over the last couple of posts there's been a lot of soft-tone filters on photos. Teehee. One things I've realised blogging more about us than I usually do is that it's really easy to idealise a life. To bring some perspective, as I type this Toki is glued to  a tablet playing Minecraft eating Marmite toast, I've just burnt the bejesus out of a pot of lentils because I got tied up reading Facebook and Twitter, and the dog keeps barking when people walk past. The lounge is a mess. The bedrooms are a mess.





2 comments :

  1. I just got 'directed' here from the Wairarapa Eco Farms newsletter. Great post and I particularly loved the last paragraph..cheers for the giggles!!

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    1. Hiya,

      Yes, I was looking at some of the photos I'd taken and thinking, 'I want my life!' Baha.

      Yay. Yay. For the CSA. And those awesome people at WEF.

      Have a good day.

      PipX

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