Glasshouse, Garden and Growing Stuff

Yesterday we went and talked to a marriage celebrant who, unbeknownst to us when we organised it, is the head of the board of the place Mum works. Fancy that. She was nice, and had a funny little, fluffy, enthusiastic dog. It was actually cute, despite being small. She gave us a folder of stuff to take away to look at. We don't really have any ideas for the ceremony and stuff, but when we look at examples I'm sure we'll find stuff we like and don't like. It is hard to think of things in isolation or to start from nothing.
We also had a birthday dinner for Dad, so I didn't get to do anything else except write a little bit more on the Christmas Eve dinner blog-entry-in-progress. I didn't think I would get it finished and to bed in any reasonable time - and I am very tired the last two days - so I wrote this instead at the last. However, I think it is nearly finished, so maybe tomorrow.

Oh yeah, glasshouse, I promised yesterday I would put a picture.

Well, here is the "lawn" as it leads up to the glasshouse.
When I clear away the pile of sticks in THIS bit of lawn, I shall shorten the grass somewhat. Hidden in there is also where I am growing yams and garlic. If you want to grow either of these items, what you do is:

1. wait till they start growing by themselves in your kitchen cupboard, or wherever you keep them.
2. plant them in dirt.
3. dig them up when the tops start dying or when it starts getting to winter and you really think they should be grown by now. They probably aren't, but you're too impatient to care.

Note well here that the "yams" are not the yams you may find in the US, Africa, Australia, Europe or whatever. They are however found in Samoa and Peru, where they come from originally. The original ones were somewhat poisonous and had to be specially prepared, but modern ones we eat aren't, luckily. See here for a bit more info, including more on how to grow (but seriously, if you can't be bothered, my instructions work fine). Also has pics. Or search google for "New Zealand yam".

This is my montage effort of the inside of the glasshouse. I didn't really think much about how it would work when I took the pictures, so some areas are lacking.
On the right at the bottom is my biggest tomato so far. This was two weeks ago so it is bigger now aand so are the others, and more are strung up now. Along the right edge are the onions, a silly thing to grow, and a couple of radishes and a beetroot. Retarded to only grow a small amount but all the radishes grew at different times and only one beetroot germinated. The buckets at the back are tomatoes, and over to the left the buckets are zucchini and cucumber. The big leavese on the left are also zucchini. Then in the bottom left corner are the peppers (capsicum). In the tray in the plastic bag are the seeds for the butternut pumpkins and corn. They have germinated now. There are now beans planted up in the back right corner where the yellow bucket is too.

Here is more of a view from the back, where you can see all the ferns and stuff that have taken advantage of the warm environment and the water that must come in under the side of the glasshouse from the outside.
Except for there and where the window in the roof is open, if I don't water it it is literally dust. I poured litres of water over the bit for the onions and it was still dry. I water, but under the surface it is still almost completely dry. When you first put the water on the dust, it just pools, and then you mix it in and it disappears and it is still dust. Then it gradually turns into a bizzare kind of dust-mud. After a lot of water and some time, it starts to act merely like dry dirt and not so strangely.

And this is a picture of my zucchini flower I took a while ago.
It is very large, palm-of-hand size. And a great colour. And so surprising to suddenly see there. Mum and I are not sure what the deal is with the zucchinis. They keep getting flowers which then die, and the stalks die back, and no fruit grows. But now, a couple of stalks look like they might have fruits growing below the flowers. One is a bud which has a thickening below it which isn't there on the other ones. And one open flower, like this one, has a thick stalk below it with a kind of courgette like texture. (I am sick of the other name, I don't know how to spell it, so I exercise it my right to call it something different.) In case you don't realise, courgettes/zu........s grow into marrows if you don't pick them. So anyway, hopefully I can actually grow some after all. It is maybe a pollination issue - but then what about the bud and the still flowering flower developing fruit? I thought maybe they did not feel inspired as there was not enough water so I started watering them more.

And that is all for now :).