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Garden chair mode

by shiny,

Is this idea useful? It would be to me.

Every warm day, where the weather tolerates it, I go to the garden and sit in a chair and observe. From there I make my todo list which might involve source something (pony pooy), weeding something, spraying something, harvesting something, adding support…

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New feature: test if your climate suits a plant's optimal and survivable climate

by shiny,

New chart on planting pages compares past/expect temperatures against the optimal and survivable ranges for the crop, according to UN's crop data

[https://www.growstuff.org/plantings/shiny-big-main-bed-potato](https://w…

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but did you even plant it?

by shiny,

Untitled

I have bigger dreams than time or garden space. I buy interesting heritage seeds, then their seasonal window flies by, and I don't plant them.

This week I added "Not Planted Yet" to the seed library filters. This mean i can find the seeds i never did r…

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Gardening still illegal in NZ

by shiny,

"Gardening is illegal in New Zealand, so why on earth are you doing it?”

Fair question. I’m not the first to ask, and I still have no good answer.

E…

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gosh it's warm......

by shiny,

El Niño has already arrived. Earth Sciences NZ (formerly NIWA) declared it on 2 July, and it has strengthened fast since. By mid-August the central Pacific reading was 2.48°C above average, and the event has a good chance of becoming the strongest on record. Earth Sciences NZ puts the chance of i…

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Dead Hedges: breaking wellington's wind

by shiny,

Wellington wind doesn’t care about your seedlings. After the last few storms, I had a pile of branches scavenged from the street and neighbourhood, dropped by gales, and a garden that needed protection. The answer turned out to be very old: the [dead hedge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_hedg…

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new feature: rain and temperature data on your plantings

by shiny,

If you have a location set for the garden, the plantings will show historical rain and temperature data

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plantings emails fixed

by shiny,

a bug in the sending of plantings reminders has been fixed, so some users will be getting their first reminder email after a long pause

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Today's book from the garden reading chair

by shiny,

The oats, peas, beans, & barley cookbook

oat, pea green bean barley

IMG_20261025_091654(1)

I have so many grains growing in the garden; it's time to learn the old recipes for cooking them. This…

oat oats barley barley green bean green beans peas
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Ode to the bunnings sausage

by shiny,

Glorious reward for gardening chores.

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Tonic wines - reading in the garden.

by shiny,

Found this old book in a back country second hand store. It was published in 1960, it was part of a series of "know how" books.

inside is every kind of wine. I think the author was in the UK, and many of the plants are the same ones introduced here and thrive in our New Zealand climate…

elderberries rhubarb lemons
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best gadget this year

by shiny,

Last year I got a chainsaw for Christmas, and it was the best gadget - I cut back trees; I cut down trees. I let the light into the garden. I found my own firewood for use in the pizza oven, the smoker, the outdoor bathtub heater, and the fire pit.

But all those branches had to go somewhere. So …

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