Nau mai, haere mai,
Whoop whoop – Ann became a pensioner this month! She’s never understood the fuss or dread of people reaching one of the so-called ‘milestone’ ages, or becoming eligible to receive their pension. She’s been telling everyone (even the cashier in the supermarket) that she’s now getting her pension!
For her birthday she received 10 books and a beautiful pure silk scarf with a pohutukawa design …
……. as well as dinner at Fahrenheit.
We have had the grass border at the top of the garden dug out.
A job expected to take 2 days which actually took 4 hours – then the cleanup and dumping of all the grasses began.
A full day trimming large grasses and potting up bunches of smaller ones to give to one of our farmer friends Christine and Neil, in Te Kauwhata (a day trip to deliver) for them to use in riparian planting. Tidying up the rest of one pile of grasses, pruning the berberis hedge and laying weed mat to stop the girls lying on the sandy soil took the next two weeks, Moving the second large pile of grasses is still ongoing with more grasses trimmed for our farmer friends and the rest being loaded into the trailer for dumping elsewhere.
Once Peter has finished getting rid of all the grasses he needs to repair the wood archway across the double gate which had to be partially demolished to make way for the mini digger.
Honey is not at all happy about the removal of the grasses – she now doesn’t have her little hidey-hole to chill in anymore.
We’ve not had any substantial rain this yet so far – we’re at 25% of the normal rainfall for this time of year and the long range forecast for April is dry….
…… so guess what Ann had to organise by the middle of the month …..
The March bonsai club meeting was led by Ann. It was about how to style trees using Clip and Grow. The following week was the start of the Autumn beginners classes with Peter running weeks 1 and 3.
All the Hamilton Gardens volunteers had a training day and Peter gave a talk on the Roaming Role he has helped develop.
Peter has started on the demolition of the old railway to make room for the new one. He has salvaged all the buildings, electrics, track and rock formations for use on the new layout.
He has also acquired a second hand 3D printer to make spare parts and new scenic items.
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