Forage & Field

03/06/2026

It's tulip planting time here in O'Carroll Road 🌷 and this year we are planting our bulbs into crates. I lined the crates with newspaper and leaves, and used Daltons compost and potting mix to fill them up. I will finish off with a layer of mulch.

We pre-ordered our bulbs through Bulbs Direct, and they arrived today looking fat and full of spring promise! Check out their website as they still have lots of lovely ones to purchase.

The crates are handy for short season crops like tulips, and can be tucked into a sunny sheltered spot in the garden until they flower, then easily stacked away again at the end of the season.

I haven't grown any of these varieties before, so it's quite exciting! Hopefully if I have planned it right we will have a good mixture of early, mid and late flowering beauties.

I'll keep you all posted on their growth, fingers crossed its a great harvest!

🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷

03/06/2026

23/05/2026

21/05/2026

Autumn in O'Carroll Road 🍂

The new tunnel house is pumping! Having never had a plastic house of any sort before, it's been exciting to see how fast everything grows, the brocoli will be ready to eat in the next week I reckon, and we are already eating the spring onions and basil.

The downside is that the green caterpillars also love the ambient temperature in there, and I've found a few thrips on the stock plants. Hopefully they will die off once we hit cooler winter temps.

The watering system is working well, but we've decided to put in an extra soaker hose on each side as I'm having to water the plants on the edge of the bed.

The outside beds are getting a revamp with some flash garden edging. It's quite a boggy spot so hopefully raising the beds will give the plants some drainage, especially the dahlias who hate sitting in wet ground.

Happy days! 💚

07/05/2026

I'm making a bouquet for a friends elderly, much loved mum and have discovered quite a few flowers still blooming in the garden. Enough for two pretty Mother's Day bouquets 👌

Please PM if you would like one.

$30 each

Pick up O'Carroll 😀

🌸🌼💐🌸🌼💐

26/04/2026

I'm trying my hand at cover cropping a new bed with a mixture of oats, mustard and lupin 🌿

That's if the seeds survive a squad of hungry pukeko 😬

I've now covered the bed with shade cloth till they sprout, but not before they ate half!

Once the plants have grown but before they flower, I will dig them into the bed and plant seedlings a few weeks later.

Last winter these beds were under plastic to stop weeds taking hold, but I wanted to try a different approach.

See how it goes! 🤞

25/04/2026

21/04/2026

Well that's a wrap from us at Forage and Field 🌿

We would like to say a huge thank you to Maungakaramea Service Station and their lovely staff for stocking and selling our flowers each week. They have helped us do what we love to do; grow flowers and share them with our local community.🌸

As a thanks to those that have purchased our blooms we have stocked Gas Mgk with complimentary end-of-season posies, please stop in and grab yourself one while they last.🌼

We'll be back in early spring with Tulips! See ya then 💐

18/04/2026

My pretty visitors are out in force on the last dahlia and zinnia blooms. It's so good to see them in such numbers.

08/04/2026

Autumn means saying farewell to a whole lot of summer flowers and always feels a little sad to me. The dahlias whilst still blooming, throw out smaller and smaller blooms, and some of the roses have formed hips. My cosmos were flattened in the last weather system that came through, but the sturdy strong stems of zinnia seem indestructible, and flower on...

Enter Chrysanthemums ❣️

These plants below were just tiny plugs sent via the post sometime in October. I purchased my plugs from Plant for Life Nursery, who have the most amazing range of Chrysanthemums I've ever seen.
These guys will be blooming in the next week or two!