The Garden Archway

One of the things I always wanted in my garden was an archway. There's something romantic about archways that creates a beautiful ambience in a garden. Besides, my father had an archway in our family garden years ago. I just loved it – it had grapes growing all over it and it was my favourite place in his garden. The archway brings back some happy childhood memories for me, working with my father in the garden. If there's one thing he passed on to me it was his love of gardening.

So I managed to acquire an archway a few years ago and it's been a feature in my garden for some time now. This year I decided to grow passionfruit over it.

I've attached a couple of old bed frames to it. On the one in the foreground I'm growing cucumbers.

The passionfruit flower is spectacular, unlike any other flower I know.

I'm looking forward to tasting the first fruits... that's if I can get to them before my wife and daughter do.

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October 2019

A few years ago I decided to focus more on growing flowering plants than on vegetables. That's when I decided to try growing a creeping rose over the archway. I under-estimated how big this would get and it's now completely taken over this part of the garden.

I'm not sure if I particularly like it, as it creates a lot of shade, although it does create a cottage-y atmosphere which is kinda nice and it has also created a clear division between two quite different parts of the garden which I like. On reflection, part of the appeal of an archway in the garden is creating an entranceway between different spaces.

I made the mistake of threading some of the stems through the diamond wire on the archway. I can see that's going to be a problem before too long as the stems are thickening up and threatening to pull it all out of shape.

I've yet to decide whether it will continue to be a permanent feature in the garden. I'm not sure what else I could grow on it without it blocking too much light.

The Garden's calling me...

I haven't written anything on here for almost a year!

It's been just over a year now since Izumi died and I haven't lived in my house for several months. Needless to say the Garden has been the last thing on my mind for quite a while so it's still looking rather neglected. I have many fond memories of the garden and I often find myself thinking about it. I miss it. Especially do I enjoy the pleasantness of a nice cold beer in the garden over the summer months.

With the arrival of Spring and a brief visit to the garden recently I am starting to feel like the garden's calling me, not only because there's so much work that needs doing, but there's a few encouraging signs  of growth that have recaptured my interest.

About this time last year I planted a miniature climbing rose and have been gradually training it to grow over my galvanised iron archway. I've tried growing several things over the archway in the past but this is the first time I've tried growing a plant whose sole purpose is to produce flowers.

It's just starting to flower for the first time and will be part of an interesting new direction I intend to take for the garden, with more attention given to flowering plants than previously.

As you can see in the background, the garden is still a jungle of weeds. By the way, that's a Feijoa tree I've planted on the back boundary by the fence, which I planted in about March/April earlier this year. I'm still keen to have lots of fruit growing in the garden.

So you can imagine my delight when I discovered I've got a new peach tree growing, which self-seeded next to the compost bin without me noticing and is now taller than me and currently in blossom.

It's a completely different variety from my other peach tree with large pink blossoms so I'll be interested to see what (if any) fruit grows on it this year. It's not growing where I would've thought to grow it as it's not in full light, but it seems to like it there so I'm just going to leave it. At least it won't be in the way as it's right on the edge of the bush.

I'm planning to return to the house at the end of the year. Hopefully by then I'll be ready to roll up my sleeves and get stuck in.

Alphabetical Index to Articles

This is my 100th blog post.

With that many articles it is difficult even for me to keep track of everything I’ve written. And also because I sometimes like to go back and update articles I’ve written, I decided to create a detailed index with links to various subjects to help make finding stuff easier. I hope you find this helpful, although it is by no means complete and will likely be updated frequently.

Birds:
Chickens
Kakas
Rosella
Silver Eye (or Wax Eye)
Tiger Finch
Tui
Wood Pigeon

DIY:
Building a BBQ
Building a Rockery Garden
Building a Sleepout (8)
Mantlepiece 1
Mantlepiece 2
Recycling Old Decking
Retaining Walls

Flowering Plants:
Clivia
Bougainvillea
Frangipani
Hydrangeas
Lillies
Potted Colour
Roses

Other Plants:
Bromiliads

Garden Layout:
How it all started
Planter Boxes
Pots
Raised Gardens
Retaining Walls
The Archway
The Rockery
The Pergola

Garden Essentials:
Composting
Economics
Worm Farming

Garden Inspiration:
Auckland Botanic Gardens
Auckland Winter Gardens
A Visit to Kenrokuen Garden in Japan
The 'Back to Eden' Gardening method
The Great Greenhithe Garden Tour
The Great Greenhithe Garden Tour (intro)

Trees (fruiting):
Apples
Avocados
Feijoas
Figs
Grapes
Guavas
Mandarins
Oranges
Peaches
Plums
Plums (Blossoms)
Plums (Pollenation)

Trees (other):
Palms
Tree Maintenance (2)

Unusual Plants:
Florence Fennel
Myoga Ginger

Vegetables:
Beetroot
Brassicas
Broccoli
Cabbage
Capsicums (Red)
Capsicums (Green)
Cauliflower
Kumara
Potatoes – Crop failure
Potatoes – 2nd attempt
Pumpkins
Tomatoes – Growing
Tomatoes – Harvesting
Winter Crops – Harvesting
Winter Crops – New Garden