Gardening

It seems in the telling of my story, that two things that have been an integral part of my life, from beginning to end, have been largely taken for granted: my church life and my gardening.  My early days in the church were mentioned, but I also took all my children to church for as long as they lived at home (and I don’t remember any objections).  Each one, when their turn came, expected their wedding to be sanctified and blessed there.  Each one has taken Christian principles for their way of life and for their families, but only three have kept up their association with the church.  For many years I taught Sunday School and Bible in Schools, and went to Presbyterial APW and home study groups. 

I wasn’t very old before I knew all the names of the plants in my mother’s garden and the apples in the orchard, but it was not until I was in college that I had my own garden.  It was the schedule of the Waikato Winter Show that enthused me to dig and plant my own piece of land in vegetables.  The gardens were assessed at various times during the season (as, of course, by winter most crops had been harvested), and I gained a prize for mine.  Our first year in Whangarata we grew tomatoes- lots of them- and several varieties.  How proud we were of them, and how we enjoyed them!  Thus it was that Dad, like his Father, took to gardening, and rejoiced in being able to supply the vegetables his family needed.  My interest was mainly in flowers, but also in fruit trees.  Having enjoyed a plentiful supply of fruit in my early days, I did try to delight my family with plums, peaches and apples, kiwifruit, tamarillo, loquats, passion fruit and citrus, until we sold that half of the section in 1980.  It was a very long time till I could bear to peel a bought apple for cooking- there had always been bird pecked ones for that. 

When Dad built a new shed on the smaller property, he included a small green house in which I grew many beautiful begonias, and also a bush house that the boys stocked with ferns brought back from camps and bush walks. Then I acquired some orchids- not the large hybrids that are grown today, but species I think originally from England, and we joined the Bay of Plenty Orchid Society, which met in Te Puke.  Very soon after the Tauranga branch was formed and we went to that instead.  In the years that followed I went on many orchid trips to various places, other growers orchid houses, and to orchid shows, usually coming home with small plants to grow myself.   

In Ohauiti, with plenty of room for bigger trees and shrubs, we had a beautiful red gum, a Kermadec pohutukawa, lasiandra, rhododendron and even a tree dahlia, but when we built the new house I had roses and camellias.  Not being able to take them with me when I went to Hillstone Ave I had to be content with smaller growing plants, but filled my area to capacity, still some begonia, orchids (and still the first ones) and alstromaria, salvia, daphne, sweet William, bulbs of various sorts, polyanthus and pansies, with succulents the latest addition, though I had some bromeliads for many years.