At my place Working as the leaves turn
Designer’s home and garden, complete with cherry tree, are an inspiring work space.
Kiwi fashion designer Beth Ellery lives and works from what she describes as a sunny rock in Auckland’s leafy suburb of Mt Albert.
Being both the Ellery workroom and her family home, the house can sometimes be ‘‘chaotic’’.
On the day we visited, however, we glimpsed a sleek brick-on-brick arrangement reminiscent of a New York loft, and the satisfying calm between cleaning and children that Ellery so enjoys.
Where is your home and who lives there with you?
I live in Mt Albert with my husband Sam and our two children.
First thing you do when you get home each day?
I work from home, so I am always at home, and also always at work. I suppose I should go for a walk when I stop work, so that I can both ‘‘leave’’ work, and ‘‘arrive’’ home.
Best new buy:
Two Tim Laing bench seats. I met Tim when he dated my sister and had an office job. They don’t see each other anymore, and now Tim is a fantastic furniture designer. He designs very quiet dignified pieces in beautiful materials that I think are timeless.
Proudest DIY moment:
I once sanded back a table and stained it. As that’s my only DIY moment it’s also my proudest by default.
Favourite spot to relax (and what do you do there):
I like to sit and look at the cherry tree that takes up most of the garden.
Sam put a platform in the bough of the branches which the kids sometimes hang out on. Before we moved here I had lived in apartments for a long time so watching the leaves turn and blossoms bloom is a real treat for me.
Best-kept secret about the area you live in:
The Saturday morning markets at Sprout are good. It’s probably not a secret though. And on Friday evenings there are food trucks under the same awning.
Favourite way of entertaining:
My workroom is at home, and so are my kids, so my favourite thing is meeting people out for dinner. No cooking, no dishes and the chance to spend time in a different space. But that isn’t practical very often, and I still enjoy having friends at the house, or going to theirs.
Best kitchen tool and why:
We moved out of town briefly, and we weren’t near any place to buy coffee so we bought a Rancilio machine. It’s the kitchen tool that I use the most.
Favourite piece of furniture:
Our Tim Laing bench seats are my real favourites, but there is another piece we use everyday and has sentimental value.
One thing I’d like to change around my house:
It has a lot of single glazing and no underfloor heating. In a perfect world I would double glaze and insulate, and I would like to own it rather than rent it.
Plant herbs in gravel or stones
I love the look of herbs growing in my stone paths and they smell wonderful when I brush past them. Low-growing herbs stop soil from washing off sloping beds and conceal awkward corners and gaps where retaining walls don’t meet the paths. However, to grow well, thyme, marjoram, sage and rosemary all need good drainage. At my place, the water table is just below the top of the stones for weeks at a time over winter. The herbs survive because each one has a pocket of gravel underneath. If your patch doesn’t have the conditions these Mediterranean herbs prefer you can modify a spot to suit them. Dig a hole four times wider and twice as deep as the rootball of the herb. Put a layer of gravel or crushed scoria in the bottom. Be generous and allow for the size of the full-grown plant – a 2-litre container’s worth for thyme but half a bucket for a large rosemary. Place the plant so that the top of the rootball will be level with the surface of the stones or other mulch. Backfill the planting hole with the original soil mixed with more gravel. Alternatively, grow herbs in pots, raised beds or small mounds to help keep the roots out of cold, water-logged soil over winter.
Prepare a bed for asparagus
If you’ve got space, an asparagus bed will reward you with spring treats for many years. Look out for bare-rooted asparagus crowns appearing at garden centres from the end of July or order from New Zealand’s only asparagus breeder, Dr Peter Fallon, at Aspara Pacific. Keep dormant crowns in a tray of damp potting mix until the soil warms up to about 12 degrees Celsius – mid-September up north but wait until October down south – to avoid the risk of them rotting. An asparagus bed will produce for more than 20 years so it’s worth putting the effort in. Choose a spot in full sun with good drainage where you can keep it watered. Dig it over and incorporate compost, blood and bone, sheep pellets, aged animal manure for added humus and dolomite lime for a slightly alkaline pH (6.0-6.5). Let it settle for a few weeks before planting. When you’re ready to plant, dig a hole 20cm wide and 20cm deep with a flat base for each crown. A staggered double row allows you to pick the spears without walking on the beds, but there’s room for more plants in large rectangular beds and it’s much easier to contain the exuberant but rather messy ferny fronds. Fallon recommends covering asparagus crowns with 5cm of loose soil. This will ensure they get away to a strong start. During the following summer and autumn slowly fill the trench with soil as you hoe any weeds on the sides of the trench. By the following winter, the trench should be filled with soil and the surface should be flat again.
Prepare for spring sowing
If you grow tomatoes, eggplants, and chillies from seed it’s time to get cracking in order to have robust seedlings ready to plant in October or November. Make sure you’ve got everything ready, even if you don’t actually start sowing until August. Sort out your seed stash and buy replacements or try some new varieties. Clean punnets and seed trays. Buy fresh seedraising mix. Make some plant labels. Above all, work out how you are going to keep your seed trays warm and sheltered. Many seeds won’t germinate if the soil is too cold. For example the optimum soil temperature for germinating tomatoes is 20-25C. Heat pads with a thermostat are a bit pricey but last for years and are worth it if you are growing a lot of plants from seed. Homemade heat pads can be made from LED rope lights or recycled waterbed heaters. But be careful! Water and electricity are not a good mix. Be sure they don’t overheat and cook your plants. For smaller batches of seedlings think about the warm spots in your house, like on the top of your fridge. At my place, the underfloor heating works a treat but I imagine this wouldn’t work for households with either pets or toddlers!
Steam mop weed control!
Boiling water is death to weeds but it’s difficult to keep the water hot for long enough if the weedy patch is at the back of the garden. I used to use a long extension cord to boil the jug in situ but now I’ve got a new weapon for the war on weeds. A steam mop keeps my kitchen floor cleaner than ever and also wilts weeds in a jiffy. The detachable hand-held mini steamer is perfect for blitzing the cracks in the drive and the weeds encroaching under the fence. It is great for spot weeding in between other plants and for vertical surfaces too. A cut-down plastic bottle concentrates the steam onto the intended victim and protects nearby precious plants.
– Barbara Smith