WINTER.
 
"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home."
--Edith Sitwell
 
Wai Word had a successful writing competition yesterday. Its theme was winter or Matariki. (Matariki is the Māori name for the constellation of stars also known as the Pleiades. It rises in midwinter and for many Māori, it signals the start of a new year.) Wairarapa has been my home province for only four years. I’m a Mainlander from Canterbury then a Jafa from Auckland where I lived for 30 years virtually without a winter.

 A professional florist, a gardener and a writer, I was never cold in Auckland winter and I mostly didn’t need to heat my apartment or wear layers of clothes; almost never thermal underwear, never beanies or gloves - and boots were a fashion statement, not a warmth necessity. I now own all of these in Wairarapa. I wear gummies in all Wai seasons and am accustomed to signs at retailer’s doors asking me to remove my muddy rubber boots. I wore gummies at my Grey Lynn Community Garden and other community gardens where I volunteered but that’s about all.

Deciding to leave my Auckland high-rise for Wairarapa I set my heart on having a small cottage, a garden and a wood burner. I now have all three. I’m hooked on my wood burner and use more firewood than one person could possibly justify.  It’s just as much to do with mental wellbeing as cold temperatures. I’d been in an Aucklaqnd high rise apartment for 13 years. I’m now on terra firma and adore my garden. I’ve had a hothouse built and it houses my subtropicals. But whitefly moved in and wrecked a lot of plants.

Once when I was travelling to Bangkok in Thailand in the afternoon, Grey Lynn had a rare frost so I quickly visited my community   garden to check on my cherished plants. Many were wilting from the frost overnight and many leaves still had traces of sparkly silver on them. In Wairarapa my broad beans sometimes bend their heads to Jack Frost but by the end of that day they are upright again. This week though, many of my plants are burnt by frost and may be dead; it hailed last week on my Carterton garden for a few minutes too.

I loved that Auckland community garden and its sub-tropical plants as well as the many edibles that we could grow. Bananas and Mountain Paw Paw; Rukman a fellow gardener was Sri Lankan and grew those blistered cucumbers called Bitter Melon, and other Asian edibles. In Wairarapa my broad beans sometimes bend their heads to Jack Frost but by the end of that day they are upright again. This week though, many of my plants are burnt by frost and may be dead; it hailed last week on my Carterton garden for a few minutes too.
 
I once took Sierra, a city teenager, to the Greytown  Menz Shed in winter  and lent her my Wai garb - new knitted merino/possum fur hat and gloves. She spent the whole morning jumping onto iced-over puddles in the potholed drive as well as whipping iced puddles with sticks to create shards for an imagined iced chocolate slushy? When we got home Sierra changed into her ‘onesie’ with three layers of clothes underneath.

I bought some frost cloth but left it in the garden shed too long last winter and Jack Frost sampled my salvias, passionfruit and this year I have an expensive grafted avocado to protect. I hear they grow down here and am surprised.

My nephew Mike went on the ‘brass monkey’ motor cycle rally way down south i.e. Otago, almost every year including the recent Queens Birthday one which was sadly the last. The photos are stunning but none of them are without snow too close for comfort. However I’ve seen photos, which don’t make the media, of interior pub shots with roaring fires, super meals, full glasses and glowing bikers.

I love seeing the snow on the Tararuas as I pull out of my drive with my car heater on maximum but I sure as hell do not want to be on those mountains. Next week we have an ice rink coming to Carterton for the festival. Real ice. Are folks mad?  Talking about mad, our Carterton Mayor, Greg Lang is having a dip in the Ruamahunga River near Gladstone pub next weekend as a fundraising stunt for the Carterton Festival. He and others taking part in this folly will receive a Gladstone Pub pizza charged at half price and free mulled wine. All are invited.

As a mainlander with a gardening mother as well as working as a florist in London winters, I have many favourite cool season flowering plants and I have been buying some for my garden – lily of the valley, Solomon’s Seal, Auricular, lilac, peonies, irises, berries, winter jasmine  and more.       
 
A part of Antarctica had 18.3 degrees last week. Not bad eh for a formerly frozen continent but the price might be high? More to do with climate change than seasons? Yesterday a bucket of water I left on the back doorstep outside was covered in a thick dinner plate sized slab of ice as well as the water level of my various watering cans. My car had a glistening coating of frost too. The carport has more firewood in it than car.
​ Fionna.
TBC.

​The Carterton Monster Annual Book fair was held last weekend.
I own a high number of books, gave away a lot when I moved out of Auckland and am weak-willed and best to avoid book fairs, especially when the books are $1 and children’s books 50cents. The second day - Sunday’s sales were ‘$5 for a bag of books’. Open slather for me!
I seemed to have a fabric bag in my pocket when I called in to the library to return a book and DVD. The library happens to be in the same building as the events centre. There was a queue at the Book Fair door in waiting for the 10AM opening. Well that made me justify entering ‘in case I missed something’. The hall was heaving and at 5’2” height, and shrinking, I’m at a disadvantage. I headed straight for the gardening books and engaged my elbows. This fair - It’s not like Harrods’s sale but there are determined buyers there who are not to be crossed.
I know who Roy Strong is (now Sir) but have not read any of his garden books and have sadly never been to The Laskett, his garden and creation of his late wife Julia Trevelyan Oman and himself. Roy Strong isthe ex-director of the National Portrait Gallery and Victoria & Albert Museum, and now has a freelance career as writer, consultant and broadcaster and continues an active role in overseeing the gardens.
‘A Small Garden Designer‘s Handbook and ‘Creating Small Gardens’ by Roy Strong were certains. My garden is small and open to Roy’s suggestions, so these two books went straight into my bag.
I have old books ‘Colour In Your Garden’, ‘Flower Gardens’ and ‘The Flower Arrangers Garden’,  by Penelope Hobhouse and Rosemary Verey - they are classics and worth a look by my friend Claire Bennett who is designing a new post-earthquake garden. I visited Barnsley, the Verey garden and was shown around by Rosemary herself, when the laburnum arch was in full bloom). Easy to justify those so into the bag. And how could I resist the cover of ‘The Gardener’s Companion’ with the strange subtitle of ‘A Think Book’?
The floristry book ‘’The Constance Spry Handbook of Floristry’, by Harold Piercy, my principal at the Constance Spry Flower School, London, where I trained, went into my bag. I already have a copy so it’s for old time’s sake. Some of the floristry methods may be dated but my training at this school and employment in their Chelsea and Mayfair shops set me up for a life of skilled floristry. Constance Spry whom I never met – she died before I attended her school - may turn in her grave if she saw some of my creations post her exclusive school but thanks to her I learnt basics I adapt still today.
Peter Dunnachie thinks I have ‘a taste for the absurd’. ‘FOOD’, by Ogden Nash and fabulous illustrations by Etienne Delessert was too good to ignore.
 
The parsnip, children, I repeat
Is simply an anemic beet.
Some people call the parsnip inedible;
Myself, I find this claim incredible.
 
Two Dvd’s, for friend Maggie, on ‘fibre craft’ may or may not hit the mark? Books on herbs will go to the sales table of the Wairarapa Herb Society if they are declined by the society’s library. Bill Bryson’s ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ seems like a good idea for someone like me who’s not great on history unless it’s on specific subjects that I like.
 I bought five books written by myself. I am not keen on seeing my own tomes in bargain bins despite the fact that those I bought are out of print and out of date – except to me of course. Pathetic eh? I used to look in those bins of remaindered but new books on trestles on pavements for my own recent books and was pleased never to find any.
Now, where to put all this treasure?
Fionna Hill

I bought a lucky dip punnet of mixed heirloom tomato seedlings and planted them in the garden. Once fruit developed I noticed that one plant had huge green tomatoes that did not ripen. Then those huge numbers began to rot and liquid dripped out of their bottoms so I took a bit more notice. The non-rotten fruits were on the brink of pulp and only then did it dawn on me that they may be a green tomato variety.

I took a photo and put it on an plant ID page on Face book and someone quickly came back with some photos of toms that looked familiar, plus a name - Aunt Ruby’s German Green Tomato.   It’s one of the largest green beefsteaks; it won 2003 Heirloom Garden Show's taste test. I don’t know where this show is but probably USA. The yanks don’t seem to register that some of the rest of the world’s population look at Face book too.

Kings Seeds, New Zealand say – ‘Botanical Name: Lycopersicon esculentum. In 1997 when Ruby Arnold of Greeneville, Tennessee passed away at the age of 82, a variety of tomato that her grandfather had brought over from the old country was passed on to the Seed Savers Exchange. It is described as a beautiful green beefsteak with lime green gel and Chartreuse gold centres weighing up to 500gms each. The texture is tender and the flavour delicious. The plant is large and prolific.’

I rushed outside and picked both the ripe and the rotten fruit. The rotten ones were already shrivelled and leaking and are now fermenting in a jar of water – a successful method to save tomato seeds.

Thanks to Digby Law, that night I made a dish with olive oil, thick sliced potatoes, salt and pepper, thick Aunt Ruby halves, Mitsuba chopped, more oil and seasoning. Baked 200deg. 30 minutes. 

I am now a convert and Aunt Ruby will be welcome in my garden every summer via my saved seeds.
​

Fionna Hill and Craig Thorburn have Christmas in their blood.
Do you have a copy of ‘The Christmas Book’ published in
1990? That was the work of Fionna and Craig along with Jo
Seagar, Lynn Bryan and photographer John Pettit. It’s a bible
that’s still returned to every year for design ideas and favourite
recipes.
 
That was how Craig and Fionna first met and their paths have
crossed many times since in their work. By chance Craig and
Fionna have now each settled in Greytown and have put their
combined energy behind styling a house for the Hospice
Wairarapa Country Christmas.
 
Based in Auckland Craig participated in major projects throughout
New Zealand (including Louis Vuitton Cup Promotions, staging for
major functions at Villa Maria Winery, Huka Lodge, Arrowtown
Winter Festival, and Ellerslie Flower Show to name but a few.)
​He has now  opened a wonderful garden and interiors shop in
Greytown called ‘Grand Illusions’ and it’s also a base for his
design services and community work.
 
Fionna decided to leave the hustle and bustle of Auckland,
yearning for her own garden after many years of apartment
living. She chose Greytown for its trees, mountains, foraging,
the seasonal plants that will grow there, friendly rural lifestyle
and a chance to continue her writing in tranquility. Luckily for
us, she still wears her floral design hat. She trained as a
professional florist at the Constance Spry Flower School London.
 
The Christmas book led Fionna to write several more books
which have won international acclaim. They include Country
Style Flowers, and Celebrations, Stylish Food & Decorating
Ideas (this was collaboration with Jo Seagar).
 
Book subjects changed course when Fionna grew edibles -
including microgreens - on her small city balcony. Her popular
book, ‘How to Grow Microgreens, Nature’s Own Superfood,’ is
now in five languages. A Green Granny’s Garden, a Year of the
Good Life in Grey Lynn, is a diary of her first year as a novice
edibles gardener.  
 
Now Fionna is working on her eighth book, this time on
foraging and Wairarapa is the perfect province for inspiration
with its defined seasons and rural roadsides.
 
In Auckland, she ran Fionna Hill, Floral Design in Parnell,
Auckland – a stunning lifestyle shop.
 
 Fionna and Craig are both planning and looking forward
to creating Christmas designs in the interesting home they have
been allocated for Hospice Wairarapa Country Christmas.
​http://www.hospicewairarapa.co.nz/event/hospice-wairarapa-country-christmas/

Back, Craig Thorburn, Jo Seagar, John Pettit. Front, Donna Hoyle, Fionna Hill. 1989.

 
At present I’m focusing on bare branches from deciduous trees which I’m making into round wreaths and tepees to dry and store until Christmas.  Willow, silver birch and grape vine prunings are all good choices.  Branches are supple when picked and provided you don’t pick stems that are too thick are easy to form into circles.  Try to cut as many long stems as possible as these will tangle together more easily than short stems which can spring away from the wreath while you’re trying to bind them into a circle. It’s important to bend them to the shape you want as soon as possible after pruning as they will be brittle and easily snapped after they have dried. Sometimes I mix the types of stems and sometimes I create a wreath of just one kind. These shown in the photos are both and some are still a work in progress in my car-port.

It’s hugely different to forage for your own materials outdoors instead of scrutinizing shop aisles of identical, fake sprigs of materials meant to look real. However there is no reason not to add man-made decorations and ribbons to your designs later.  It’s important to do your homework before heading out with your clippers. Make sure you harvest in areas that are ethical and safe to take from. Keep an eye open too to help clean up after storm damage too.

Creating your own home decorations from objects found in nature is enjoyable too - some of the appeal of gathering natural materials is the outdoor experience plus its low cost and an organic way to decorate.  At this time of year – winter- there are fresh evergreen branches, berries, nuts, bare deciduous branches and twigs to create a pure style of expression right now. 
​

Fionna Hill creates a colourful winter wreath from mostly foraged materials when there are not many garden resources to choose from.
You will need

• Vines - long , supple and freshly cut – basket willow ,periwinkle, grape vine pruning, birch, kiwi fruit are all suitable
• Thin lemon verbena branches or other long supple trails like ivy
• Rose hips on short stems
• Mandarins - the small the  better
• A butchers’ hook or floristry wire
• Ribbon
• Secateurs, scissors

 

1. Cut long, thin, supple basket willow stems. Alternative vines could be periwinkle, grape vine, birch, or  kiwi fruit
2. Begin entwining the willow into a circle. Start with the longest stems and hold onto the circle until it is entwined enough not to spring apart. Leave a few leaves on if you wish and weave in both directions; this is a casual wreath and does not have to look perfect
3. The wreath is now ready for the lemon verbena. Cut the spiky willow bits off later – they can be useful to hook stems into.
4.  Long supple branches of lemon verbena. These leaves will dry and retain their lemony perfume.
5. the wreath entwined  with lemon verbena trails
6. Pruned rose hip branches and tree cut mandarins
7. Rose hip prunings  – these are  Wedding Day; it’s a good choice as the stems are thin and easy to bend.
8. Wreath with added rose hips. The hips have been threaded through the willow and the cut tips hooked in.
9. Tree cut mandarins. Alternatively, use small bought mandarins that have been wired.
10. Wire individual mandarins with long floristry wire pushed through and tightly twisted at the top.
11. Mandarins on long soft stems being placed at intervals. Remove their lower leaves to allow the stems to be pushed in more easily. Leave a few top leaves on.
12. Butchers hook and ribbons are used to tie the wreath up.