The first blog post. The first page in my garden diary is dated 20/04/2016. It details the requirements of an imaginary future ‘quiet rectangle’;
- A Cabin or Sleep-out
- Shed
- Vegetable Garden
- Fruit Trees
- Elements of wilderness eg native bush.
My diary then details a small rectangle of land in the middle of nowhere that I must have been contemplating buying at the time.
Fast forward a year, my gardens were had expanded from pots on the front patio of a rental house. There are sketches in the diary for a chicken coop. I’d put in a hugelkulture garden on the lawn and planted broad beans. There were not one, but two compost bins.
There are other diary entries, with details of other properties out of Auckland. But moving away from work would mean we likely couldn’t afford any of them.
Finally an entry from 29/01/2018. “Put in a raised garden at The New House.” I think this is where the real Quiet Rectangle finally began. The diary continues with notes of plantings, ideas, chicken acquisitions, the exciting day of the first eggs…
Maybe one day I’ll find time to go through and extract the good bits from that diary, but meanwhile starting afresh.
