I have recently returned home from a family holiday to New Zealand. Although hard to leave home and my garden, which I missed being in while we were away, I found myself inspired with seeing different gardens. New Zealand is a beautiful place - we honeymooned in South Island and vowing to return, took a family holiday for 17 days in North Island.This time it was much faster paced, with small children racing us around different sights. The different gardens that we visited, did slow them down and quite flatteringly my boy referred to many gardens as "mummy's garden".
Hamilton Gardens (not surprisingly in Hamilton) was a favourite, in fact we visited there twice. They had many different "garden rooms" in different styles, taking you on an adventure as you wander from space to space, being moved almost in time, place and mood by the different settings before you. Perhaps my most favourite was the "sustainable back yard garden" which gave an example of how a sustainable garden can fit into a small average back yard, complete with chickens and bees. The next would be the kitchen garden run by the tech college students, comprising of 6 garden beds of around 15x15 meters surrounded by more garden beds containing permanent planting and fruits.
We have been discussing having chickens for a while and seeing them both in the sustainable back yard garden and some beautiful Chinese Silkies at the Children's zoo in New Plymouth (a small zoo but FREE!) we have been planning where their enclosure will go and how to design it.
We also visited an amazing park in New Plymouth with huge joining green houses entered through tunnel grottos that was really just like a garden in heaven. The air seemed to invigorate the lungs and spirit. My girl has developed an interest in gardens too, and between exploring the different areas, would stop to say things like "Oh Mummy, this is a lovely flower, it is so pretty".What inspiration - and desire to return to my own garden!
PJG
So, bees next?
ReplyDeleteTempting, bees are great for pollination and the idea of our own honey would be exciting. Getting the honey out of the hive and having a hive of bees with the kids around is a little less exciting. Each honey bee only produces 1/2 teaspoon on honey in its life time so we'd need a lot of bees to harvest honey respectfully.
ReplyDeleteAlso, we are not sure of regulations for bee keeping in the suburbs...
We are planning to make a native bee and insect box though. Some native bees don't even have stings! By providing shelter for native bees and good insects such as lady beetles we have a better chance of them pollinating and protecting our garden.