Kia Ora from New Zealand

[Briztank]

Gidday from over the ditch. Been following Marky Mark since the beginning of his YouTube channel and with my ever expanding gardens I thought why not mix in with folks who are as keen as I. Currently all my garden chat is with my local mate but why not expand the convo to others!

A bit about me:
33 year old teacher from Whanganui, New Zealand. I call myself a closet gardening nerd but proud of all I grow. I live on an acre and a half and have all kinds of gardens from food forest to raised beds to indoor plants. Few sheep graze the paddocks and love hunting, fishing and diving. Used to be a butcher so that skill comes in handy plus always fertilising gardens with all my animal waste from hunting and fishing adventures to minimise waste.

Really keen to chat with anyone but if you’re a kiwi gardener then let’s catch up and help each other out.

Cheers,
Brad.

p.s attached a pic from instagram of my starting berry garden a few years back of a hot tip for mulch with excess wool from sheering sheep, worked a real treat!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

G'day, welcome to the forum @Briztank !

Yeah! We love meeting new people and learning new things! The sheep wool as garden mulch was new to me - how innovative

Sounds like you got a real hand on self sufficiency. What animals are available for hunting in your region? Over here it's mostly wild pigs. From what I hear they also fetch a pretty penny when sold.

What is your favourite plant in your garden?

 

[Briztank]

Mate the worms go nuts in the wool too and keeping the weeds out is a huge bonus.

I mainly hunt deer and ducks but come across too many goats, the odd poaka (pig) or pheasants.

Hard to say the favourite plant because I had several Roma tomato plants that self seeded, I’ve never grown this variety before and they were VERY random, and were growing deep into our autumn randomly when all other tomatoes had died off, so probably these! Otherwise one I’ve planted myself would probably be the thornless blackberry since it’s provided a dozen odd kilo of fruit over the past couple years after surviving being pulled out a few times by the neighbours cattle when they were on our section.

What would be your favourite thing to grow @Mandy Onderwater ?

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

For real? That's awesome. I imagine it provides a good insulative layer too, both from heat and cold.

Ahh yeah, that's fair. Do you have a big freezer to store in, or do you sell parts to friends/family?

Haha I hear you. I love most of my plants, except the few that give me grief, haha. Well, one that gives me grief, but that I absolutely love is my lemon balm. I grew it from seeds I got as a reward from our local supermarket and I absolutely love the sweet scent it has. When I head into the garden I love rolling a leaf between my fingers, crushing it. Such a pleasant scent. Too bad it always gets disease... though it's never fully died on me so...
I've got the random cherry tomatoes popping up everywhere and to be frank, I hate them. I can't stand their taste, haha. And they just won't die (I've tried), so now I leave them to live and die for the birds, provided they grow somewhere out of my way.
I'd even feed some of my plants to our cows if they weren't so dang picky, haha. I've thrown them lettuce, tomatoes, beans, peas, carrots and what not. The only thing they like are hay, molasses and very sometimes some sugarcane. Oh and they go nuts for Guinea grass, which grows all over our properties as it's a horrible weed that just won't die. We've cut, burnt and poisoned patches, but they keep coming back. I wish the cows behaved well enough to let roam free around the property, but they are very mischievous and only semi-tame.

 

[Briztank]

I would definitely recommend the wool blanket trick, then cover with wood chip/mulch and your garden will absorb all it needs from the wool overtime and it will become one with the soil

We do have a very full chest freezer but may need to invest in a second for killing time I think!

Do you have any recommendations for a thread to jump on in the forums for a good full blown garden nerd chat before I start sifting? And how regular is king mark in the forums he's an absolute legend. Sort of thinking about creating some content for the class if I get to change to enviro science one year where I would make 20 odd videos to boost the lessons up a bit!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Yeah it sounds amazing! I would do it if wool was accessible around here. But seeing as it's the (sub) tropics... no bueno. But if I were back in The Netherlands (where I come from) I would definitely give it a shot. I'd say it'd be great for overwintering some plants as well.

It's always surprising how quickly a large chest freezer can fill up.

Aahh, there's not quite a thread for this yet, though I am fully intending on creating one over time. As such I have started a thread called [WiP] Tips & Tricks guide to container gardening, but it's nowhere near finished and is requiring many, many more updates. Progress on it is slow, but steady. And anyone with knowledge is more than welcome to join in and help out, of course. The only reason progress is as slow as it is, is because I am still learning too. I'm in my second year of gardening, and often try to test thing out before I publish it to ensure it is indeed beginner friendly. The internet is amazing, but I'm trying to weed out what works and what doesn't, haha.
Another thread, which I daresay is my favourite, is Aussie Bush Tucker - An Introduction to Common Native Foods of Australia. I imagine similar plants being available in New Zealand.
And there's this response by @Darrieb with lots of information, that'd serve new gardeners well.

Mark used to be a more frequent visitor, but with the renovations and such going on currently he's a little more absent. He does pop in every once in a while still, thankfully. And in the future, when the mess of renovating is finished, he may be more active again. As with most likely anywhere in the world, it's been slow getting parts and the weather he's had likely also slowed progress. Fingers crossed he's finished soon though