A Christmas Gift . . . . . . . . To Me - From Me

Greetings lovely friends & readers

(apologies in advance - VeRy long & photo heavy post)

I bought myself a Christmas gift, something I have always wanted & - of course - second hand/preloved  😉

Photos taken at my eldest sons house

 I'm unsure if I've said this already on my blog, but back in September my eldest Grandson Alec & his family moved down to Taupo to live.  When I went to help them with a carload I noticed this mobile Greenhouse/hothouse that my daughter-in-law had purchased secondhand.    Sarah never found the time to utilise it & had just sat it on their concrete driveway with a few plants in that she wished to take to Taupo.  When my son Aaron said she was going to sell it my radar immediately went up 🠉🠝

I have always wanted some sort of hothouse/potting shed to work in ... truth be told I would LoVe an Edwardian Greenhouse but I've long given up on that ship ever coming in.      I was able to buy it from Sarah & then, there it sat until The Mr was able to find time to bring it home here.

It was right at the end of November when he finally hired a car trailer & bought it home.  One wheel axle broke getting it off the trailer but thankfully he was able to weld this back together & we wheeled it over to where I had visualised it in my mind's eye - right by my veggie gardens.  You can see above right the messy area I had here, where it had become a bit of a dumping ground.  

I did not want the hothouse to look like it had just been wheeled into place & left there - which was exactly what it did currently look like!  

Firstly I dug up the lawn to lay some brick edging - I had a fairly good stash of red bricks so I laid these in a curve, sprayed the grass, then began laying mulch of which I once again, had a very good stash.  

This is the back area of the hothouse, again I curved the edging around to meet up with my raised veggie garden. I had some old carpet which I laid under this to help kill the grass before applying the mulch.

I'd decided that inside I wanted a no-dig garden along one side.  I googled no-dig gardens & found out what to do, building my layers up with paper, cardboard, grass clippings, pea straw & compost until I was happy with it. The macrocarpa sleeper along one side was purchased from my local Hardware Store (bought home sticking out my car window & nearly giving The Mr a seizure when he saw me !!!)

For the main "floor area" I lay more cardboard, old carpet & then a thick layer of mulch.  I planted my no-dig garden immediately & am currently growing cherry tomatoes, basil, parsley, chillis, teddy-bear sunflowers & one spinach plant all in that small area.

I scrubbed all the lower walls inside the hothouse where it was turning green & it came up beautifully.

Everything is growing so well being so sheltered inside the hothouse.

It was around this same time that I received a wonderful surprise early-christmas-gift from my sweet, kind & generous friend Sandy.  She mailed me this stunning Gardeners Journal/Planner ... so I immediately sat & drew up a sort-of-plan for my hothouse & the surrounding area.

Here is the back of the hothouse which faces onto the paddocks - along the side I planted a trough of snow peas & was able to use this old bedhead which I'd purchased from an op-shop over a year ago now & never done anything with it. 

I purchased a half-round wine barrel planter & dug all my herbs out of the veggie beds as they were taking over & becoming quite invasive.  I wanted to contain them more so cut them all back & planted them in some old pots I had along with the wine barrel.  Already the area was taking shape . . . .

I fed both my raised gardens with sheep manure, compost & garden mix & also used some lawn clippings to top them up.  Currently I am growing lettuces, spinach, silverbeet, 2 varieties of cucumbers, chillies & courgettes which I am picking every day.  My sweet peas are growing at the end up a trellis & I'm picking these most days too.  

I have some gaps as yesterday I harvested two punnets of beetroot & cooked them up, so I'll replant these areas again soon.

I wanted something eye catching to sit outside the front of the hothouse ... I found this old concrete urn of Mums in the garden undergrowth.  I scrubbed it well & then used the Resene Faux Rust FX treatment on it that I've previously used on plastic pots.  

It turned out wonderfully & I planted it with a native box shrub & sat it on a tree stump.

I dug some wood rings into the mulch as stepping stones.  The Mr made me oil these several coats first as he is fussy boring particular like that  😉

I have a large selection of old wire baskets under my house so I purchased 2 new liners & filled them with petunias & Lobelia.  Although I only planted these under 3 weeks ago they are flowering away so happily in there & I love the pops of colour  💗

The interior has solid metal shelves all along one wall which are going to be ideal for growing & potting up seedlings when I get organised.  I've styled a few cloches & things in there as I always believe that functional spaces can also be beautiful.  But I have a lot more to do here yet.

It also has 4 misters along the roof so I only have to plug the hose in & shut the door & everything gets finely misted for however long I wish.  Some hot days I am very tempted to stand in there myself with the misters going!

I ordered myself a lovely new sign from Temu & they even spelled my name right (!!) 😉

And I have finally found a home for all the bags of potting mix & seed raising mix that used to sit alongside my deck area.  Every single day a small cream cat (Little One) comes to check out what I am doing in the hothouse. 

Finally dear friends, if you are not all asleep by now ... this is the view of it from the bottom of my deck steps ... I just love how it kind of peeks through the trees & I'm so pleased with where I positioned it.  The green mesh curtain can roll down when the door is open - I am guessing it's to keep the white butterfly out once they are on the wing, which will be very soon.  

If you've made it to the end - well done!

Thank you so much dear friends, for your ever welcome visits here today,

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year - I shall probably be in bed by 9.30 with at least one cat 😉

With so much love & friendship to you all,