greetings....

[greenchi]

Hello all, I'm from the north of NZ. I practice organic growing specifically permaculture and grow vegetable and herbs ( fruit in the long term) to feed my family, sell to neighbours and also at the local Farmers Market. I live rurally on 7 acres with my hubby and sons. .. we have cats, a dog, chickens , a wormery and some borrowed sheep to graze an undeveloped part of the property. I have a acre and a bit in vege/herb/orchard gardens. About 2 acres in 'for fun' gardens and the rest is grazing and future orchard/food forest.... I also have a aching back and little wee worn down weeding fingers

I look forward to getting to know you all

[Andy Hamilton]

Wow, - see that it is me being green with envy. Sounds fantastic. I would be happy with just having room to keep a dog! \

Welcome to the forum, feel free to offer and give any advice you wish. By the sounds of things you are a fountain of knowledge already

[Sue]

Hello there - I'm really interested in the lifestyle NZ
if you want an email penpal let me know - if you get time in between weeding / growing etc
I love how this forum makes the world so small
I'm currently trying to learn alot more about gardens / growing stuff, and we are helping at Darkwood so thanks Lee & Ian for all the advice and patience (Andy when are you visiting?) Has Lee let you know its sort of a tradition to bring a cake?
I was thinking of doing some sort of course in horticulture - which apparently NZ are keen on, but no colleges near me seem to cater for this at all. Not even the Open University do anything in horticulture. Boo
So will continue to pick peoples brains on here - oh by the way I have baby strawberries yippee - isn't nature great
What can be eating my rhubarb? Big holes but no sign of slugs etc
keep in touch - great to chat

[Lyds]

Hi Greenchi, welcome to the forum. Reading your post has made me pea green with envy, all that land Anyway, I am thankful for the garden I have. Our first home had only a back yard so I grew stuff in those big plastic boxes that trawlers use for packing fish (fell off the stern of a trawler). We had to bucket soil from my fathers garden, no money for compost, and walk it home, no transport, and through the house, no rear entrance. It is amazing the things we do because we need to grow things.

[Wombat]

G'Day GreenChi,

Sounds like a great set up..........half your luck! Welcome to the site and we will look forward to reading about what you get up to!

Are you anywhere near Auckland? I used to some work over there in my previous job.

Nev

[greenchi]

wow..... what a lovely lot you all are

I was actually born in England but my family immigrated to NZ in 1974 when countries like NZ and Australia were paying the airfares and giving all sorts of perks to tradesmen and women just to get them here... we were very fortunate.... it can be really hard to get residency here now.

Yes I'm very lucky to have all this space. I just love it. My last garden was a few hundred square metres.... so this feels wonderful if not a liitle overwhelming at times.

Nev, I live about 1 hour north of Auckland. In a place called Waiwera... which means hot water.... as there as lots of naturally heated springs in the area . It has public hot pools.

NZers are garden obsessed. Every 5 years when the census is done gardening always comes up as the favourite pass time for the majority of folk. I think it's because it 's so easy to garden here...... at least where I live. It's mild and wet.....nothing wants to attack, chase, bite or sting you. It is fairly frost free and the summers don't get too silly hot.

Sue I love to ebuddy with other horticulturally mad folk
How can we swap emails? I can put mine up and then edit it out as soon as you have it. Sorry I'm a computer moron
I belong to a email group ( since 1999) that English, Canadian, American and other NZers in it. We mail each other regulary, there's always something in the inbox. One of the Canadians just came and spent a week with me and my family... it was terrific..... isn't the internet just the best!

talk soon..........

[couscous]

Hi greenchi and welcome
It sounds like you have a wonderful place and I can only take solace in the fact that it's winter there at the moment.
Can you 'harness' any of the hot water for growing stuff like they do in Iceland or is there no need?

[shiney]

Welcome Greenchi,

What I would do if I had ONE acre of land! One day, I hope. I think we are all envious of you here.

What kind of fruit do you grow?

[Andy Hamilton]

I'm currently trying to learn alot more about gardens / growing stuff, and we are helping at Darkwood so thanks Lee & Ian for all the advice and patience (Andy when are you visiting?) Has Lee let you know its sort of a tradition to bring a cake?

Should be visiting in September on the bike ride. Not sure how easy it will be to keep a cake as it will possibly be a week into the cycle when we get to lees.

Under everyone name is an option to private message or email if any of you want to talk 'off forum'.

[Magpie]

Aaah, yes, Greenchi, I remember frost-free

We had a -6 C frost the other day, and it is 2 C now, as I write.

Yes, I know frosts are good for killing bugs, breaking up the dirt, blah blah blah, but my fingers are cold!

[shiney]

Oh don't ~ you are giving me goosepimples as I write. We are just coming into our so called 'Summer' time!

Brrrrr! I feel the cold at anytime of the year.

[greenchi]

Hi Magpie......... yes winter certainly has hit now hasn't it. We do get the odd tinge of a frost........ a friend visiting from Christchurch last winter corrected me in saying it was just a cold dewy morning.... he scoffed at my frost. Mind you.... so do the pests and bugs
Your right the cold certainly does clean up the garden doesn't it. I seem to freeze in cold weather and find it hard to get going.... your -6 is mighty cold... what a lovely pest free garden you must have

Shiney... I'm growing in the small family orchard multi grafted apple, Mandarin, orange, grapefruit, lemons, ( Tahitian and kaffa) plums, lime, Macadamia nut, Feijoa ( pineapple Guava), red and yellow guava, gooseberries, figs, tamarillo, blueberries, raspberries, orange berry, loganberries.... and no doubt something I've forgotten.

In the market garden part that I'm developing for a business I'm planting
Figs, Sweet Navel Oranges, Easy Peel Mandarin and Plums.
The aim is to be picking fruit all year round for us to eat and to sell at my local farmers market. Our climate is so mild we can grow fruit from both subtropical and temperate climate... very nice 8)

couscous... no we don't harness any hot water..... you need council permits( revenue collecting) and the like ( to stop people over using the resource I guess)
You have to drill quite deep I hear and it's expensive. It's very mild here and it rains aplenty so we've not looked into it.
Do they garden in Iceland? Very short growing season I bet...... I don't imagine you'd see many fields of corn or the like

[greenchi]

Andy..... thanks for the contact info....

When I first read your post about a bike ride I thought....... but it's 13,000 miles to my place... that's a REALLY long bike ride

Then I thought DUH!!

[couscous]

Hi Greenchi
A friend of mine visited Greenland and said what a marvelous set up they have. Not only does the hot water give central heating to all the homes in the capital but they also have massive greenhouses where they grow all sorts of exotics as well as staples. Presumably they have to have a few grow lights as well.
In my dreams, when I win the lottery, I'll have a big bio-dome over my veg patch and escape our dreary winters.

[Andy Hamilton]

Iceland - Chief products: Agriculture - cattle hay, market gardening, sheep.

seems that Icelandic people do get to grow stuff, we get a few hits from there now and again no one seems to visit the forum though. a 13 000 bike ride, now that would be something. Very sore bum though.