the bumble bee appreciates this artichoke

by shiny,

I left two artichokes, to see how big they'd get. Well, they are enormous. This bumblebee really appreciated them and spent about half an hour feasting on the nectar.  [artichoke](crop)

artichokes

Automating the seedlings

by shiny,

What's better than Brussel sprouts? Home-grown [Brussels Sprouts](crop) grown by robots. The automation (aka Robots) I'm using is an open source app called "Home Assistant". It runs nicely on a raspberry pi, but I'm running it on an old laptop, which is very convenient due to the backup pow...

coriander brussels sprouts lettuces

The year of the potatoes

by shiny,

[Potatoes and taewa](https://flic.kr/p/2ioVEEy)  This year i grew ELEVEN types of potato over summer.. [Waiporoporo Taewa Potato](crop) that were [ready early](/plantings/shiny-front-lawn-pots-and-potato...

purple heart potatoes agria potatoes waiporoporo taewa potatoes urenika taewa potatoes Stewart island potatoes Whataroa taewa potato Robyn Adair potatoes pink fir apple heirloom potatoes moemoe taewa potatoes scots potatoes Te Māori taewa potatoes huakaroro taewa potatoes

setting up the irrigation

by shiny,

better late than never -- i've set up the irrigation to use a raspberry pi, so i can finally adhere to the odds/evens date rules that so much of NZ uses but no automated system sold here can handle. Have to have a whole calendar system in your micro to be able to handle it. the rules are: ...

I made moussaka

by shiny,

First time I've successful grown egg plants and the first time I've made moussaka. It took an hour to make it, and another hour of baking.

overwintering the taewa

by shiny,

I had some [Urenika Taewa Potato](crop) and [Stewart island potato](crop) already sprouting at the end of last summer - and instead of leaving these rare potatoes to rot, I put them into the soil They're both known to grow in the cold south, so they should have been okay in Poneke winter. Th...

Stewart island potatoes urenika taewa potatoes