I like odd numbers better than even numbers. I’d rather have a beach holiday than a lake holiday, I’d rather have a dog than a cat, or a cockroach to a rat. I love oranges and lemons but lemons trump oranges if I had to choose. The best non-alcoholic drink is homemade lemonade made with my grandmother’s lemonade lemons, although my nana’s orangeade (a packet of orange Raro mixed with water) was pretty damn good too. I love the smell of eucalyptus leaves and lavender and frankincense. I hate scrabble but I love bananagrams. I like Bob Dylan better than the Beatles, and Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman is one of my favourite songs (all of his work is the soundtrack to Raymond Carver’s stories). A perfect plum is better than a perfect apple. Raspberries are my second favourite berry. Blackberries (picked from the roadside - a country road in 1972 to be precise) are best. I’d rather go back in time then forwards, and I’d rather eat a bowl of potatoes than a bowl of rice. Potatoes are the most versatile vegetable.

It’s been a slow week in the garden. Slow gardening has its upsides. Here’s what happened.

‘Project Potato’ started. My husband, who isn’t a gardener, planted the first of the potatoes in grow bags. He mixed in some sheep pellets too and moved the bags to the ‘potato area’.

Before Project Potato was ‘Operation Garden Mix and Pea Straw’, I ordered soil and pea straw from a local supplier and had it delivered. It makes sense to buy more than you need. I’d go as far as making it a gardening rule. ‘No matter how much you have, it’s never enough’ (surely that’s a Glen Campbell song). The soil is for the raised beds and grow bags. The pea straw is to mulch the new side garden.

My family are potato lovers. We really appreciate a good potato: boiled, baked, mashed, sliced and baked in a dish, in a salad, soup or casserole, as chips or hash browns. This year we’re growing these varieties: Jersey Benne, Urenika, Ngati Porou, Ruby Gem, Karupaera and Yellow Fir.

I bought some cuttings from the The Moths and Butterflies of New Zealand Trust. As you’d expect they are plants loved by butterflies. This is what I ordered: Tithonia diversifolia, Buddleja madagascariensis, Telanthophora grandifolia, Vitex agnus-castus, Tagetes lemmonii and Buddleja salviifolia. Some of these plants are hard to find. Fingers crossed my gardening skills are up to the task.

I consulted Carol Klein’s ‘Grow Your Own Garden - how to propagate all your own plants’. She puts her hardwood cuttings into a grit filled trench in her garden (True Grit). She waters them and forgets about them. I planted mine in potting mix and put them in the glasshouse. I check them everyday to make sure the soil is still moist. I can’t forget about them or they will dry out.

The side garden is slowly taking shape. I dig in a few plants and have a rest, I dig in a few more plants and have another rest. This is ‘slow gardening’ curtesy of covid.

The dogs are a menace. I’m using bricks and sticks to protect the plants. I’ve collected a lot of boxes to lay on top the soil and around the plants. I’ll cover the cardboard with pea straw. This will stop the weeds and mulch the soil. I was going to mulch with cocoa bean husks, but I changed my mind, I think the wind will blow them about. Pea straw is good on slopes. This garden dips down towards the fence.

You’ll notice the hose lying in a tangle on the ground. I gave up using the hose reel and connected the hose to the tap directly. The hose reel was bloody useless (I’m Not Gonna Miss You). I’m still looking for the perfect hose and hose reel. I’ve never met a single person with either or both. Do perfect hoses and hose reels even exist?

I bought 6 grasses last week. I think they’re Carex testacea, but I’m not sure. I’ve grown it before and its stunning with the light behind it.

There’s progress in the glasshouse. The tall marigolds and eryngium seedlings are ready to be potted on. I’m still waiting for beans, cucumber, coriander and swan plants to show their faces (It’s Just A Matter Of Time).

Here’s what’s happening in the back garden. Plants are starting to wake up. The bees and birds are constant visitors.

Lavandula dentata Var. Candicans, flower all year round. Bees love it.

Pulmonaria under an old fashioned miniature rose.

Who doesn’t like finding a parcel in their letterbox? Especially a parcel like this. It arrived early in the week, just when I needed a pick-me-up. My aunt Lois sent me a garden book, a pair of socks my nana knitted (which fit perfectly, which I’m too scared to wear in case I wear them out, remembering clearly nana’s knitting sessions with her two best friends Rita and Pat) and a card with a Turner print (my dad’s favourite painter). Thank you Lois.

And because it’s been a week of remembering, my tree of the week has to be a remembering sort of tree. It’s a Norfolk Pine, Araucaria heterophylla. It’s a conifer from Norfolk Island in Australia. Back in the 50s and 60s it was the fashionable plant for seaside towns, along with Phoenix palms (By the Time I Get to Phoenix). They’re a terrible tree for a suburban garden but they’re great where there’s space and planted in groups. The one in the photo probably had companions way back when. They would’ve lined the shore. It’s doing very well and is clearly tolerant of salt, sand and wind.

See you next Sunday.