GARDEN

"Morning Chorus"

" Mother"
Rosa Joyce
23 Sept 1918 ~ 11 Oct 1994

OUR COUNTRY Gilbert country, George Wentworth and Mary Dinsmore Gilbert newlyweds settled on this site the family homestead on Pinfold Rd. Woodville Hawkes Bay in 1903, they remained here before shifting to the village in 1953 (fifty years) devoted to farming the land and raising 2 girls, mother was the second of the 2 girls born in 1918 on this site. The last time I visited this site was 1995 when these pictures were taken and mothers urn was scattered across the forground of this panoramic view of the family farm. Mother loved the land and what she reaped from it the land sure loved her, she could grow anything.

These two pictures were just Mother on the left she always had her animals with her and always found room for a few fowls. Remember her last shift she told us she was shifting and all that sold the place for the real estate agent was the new place had a great fowl house this was after she was 70. Did not mater what the animals were the animal loved Mother as she loved them. Incidently the cats in picture are our cats as you see later in the page. If it wasn't her own grandchildren in the garden with her it was "Nana" to someone else's children and the things that come from her gardens was unbelievable. Below is mother taking a few hints from her Dad at 78 years and still going strong in the garden.

"GRAHAM THOMAS"

This garden page is not exclusively to our garden but of rememberance to my mum, her garden which we all remember her for and how she helped so many with what come from it be it vegetables or flowers, my five daughters who were all named from the garden not that they all liked the flower names but was their mother and fathers choice , Rosemary, Daphne, Heather, Jasmine and Erica, Physically the garden is close to 3/4 of an acre of grass and beds and we are still just adding bits of anything although the area is in the main mature. The ground takes a lot of watering especially in late spring and summer as it is very light and an old river bed full of stones, however it is a never ending job building up the soil.

Put something here for browsers that don't use Java.
The giants of the lilies the Himalayan Lily which grows in shelter of the trees for shade and protection of breakage by wind grow to 8-12 feet in height. They have a creamy white trumpet type flower of 12 - 20 in number per stem, flower in our country summer around Christmas and have a very strongly scented fragrance not really suited to indoor display. The flower shape is displayed in the background of this page. They take 7 years from seed to flower. The flowerstork grows at a rate of some 30 cm (1ft.) a week sending out masive heart shaped leaves 45 cm (18") across.