October - mid Spring here in Southern Aotearoa
This month saw us reach peak apple blossom season here at Festival Farm. The orchard has transitioned from barren branches to a profusion of pale pink and white petals. We began to mow the orchard path as the grass grows again with abandon.
It's a well-worn track that I trek many times over the course of a day. A connection between our kitchen and rose gardens, a little path which offers me many moments of seasonal connection and reflection.
We said goodbye to the daffodils that danced at the feet of the apples and start to see the coming fullness as the gardens slowly begin to replenish after winter.
Many of the perennials that have been hibernating have woken, reaching to the sky, drinking in the warm spring rays. This October has actually been unseasonably hot.
I can feel the plants rejoice after each cool spring rain we gratefully receive, as do I.
In the cutting gardens…
Tulips always reign supreme mid spring.
I grew a number of new varieties this season but it's always the parrot and peony tulips that have my heart plus a very simple green and cream stripped goody named "Spring Green".
Many of these beauties featured in our first wedding of the season, seen here in the bridal bouquet which also contained ranunculus, anemones, daffodils, stock and Puawhanga - native clematis.
A new addition to the farm that have been shinning wee stars, in both the cutting gardens and our floral studio, are the Icelandic and Colibri poppies. I'm excited to see how long into summer these dreams will keep blooming and if they will come back as a perennial, normally they are grown by flower farmers as annuals - time will tell.
From the kitchen gardens…
We have been eating the last of the brassica, spinach, celery, leeks and herbs planted long before winter while filling the beds with a multitude of seeds and seedlings that before long will fill our plates once more.
Fresh spring stinging nettle has been a staple green in the kitchen bringing much nourishment in every sense. Foraging even just here on the farm is an activity that we really enjoy and look forward too. We find nettles utterly delicious, so much so that I'm currently carefully digging plants out of the dahlia patch, transplanting them to create a row dedicated to it.
This week we are busy planting out our hot season vegetable seedlings and in the coming weeks will be planting pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini, corn, carrots, beetroot, parsnip, potatoes, yams, peas and beans direct where they will grow. We are making the most of the longer sunshine hours, lingering a bit longer each day as we plant, work, eat, cook and of course play out in the gardens.