Category: New Zealand Aotearoa

Autumn garden activities

A to-the-point list of activities to prepare your garden for winter and the plants for spring. We're talking about pruning, feeding and general care. Plant, sow, reproduce covers planting.
Remember Wild about Weeds can help you with any of these tasks.

Prune and trim
Prune shrubs that have finished flowering. Eg hebes, rosemary, manuka, grapes, hydrangeas, lavender, grevilleas, fuchsia. Many of these grow leggy and the lower leaves die. Pruning encourages new growth.
Give hedges a final trim before winter. Remember to leave the bottom wider than the top to prevent bottom branches dying off.
Cut perennials, eg herbs, back to encourage new growth. Poke a few short cuttings in the soil to grow new ones.

Photinia Red Robin hedge.

Griselinia hedge with a shorter box (buxus) hedge below.

Feed your hard working plants
Spread a quality general organic fertiliser around plants’ dripline as per packet instructions. Water it in before mulching. No need to fertilise plants that don’t like fertiliser. Eg proteas, leucadendron.

Care
Spray plants with neem or other organic pesticide. For deciduous plants after leaves drop is a good time to fully spray plants to deal to any overwintering fungi and other pests lurking in nooks and crannies.
Mulch or compost plants inc shrubs and trees. This will reduce weeds, improve soil structure and break down into nutrients for the plants. Sow green manure seeds in bare areas.
Don’t waste fallen leaves and prunings. If they’re not diseased use as mulch or put them in your compost. It's all goodness for the soil.
Keep weeding. If you don’t have much time, at least remove flowers and seed heads to reduce spread.
Cooler wet weather brings slugs and snails to deal with.

Behind the fence

My house backs on to a large sports park that slopes down to the road below. The large area between the road and the playing field is wildlands. Lots of rubbish. Lots of pest plants. Some natives.
Just through my back gate are several pine trees from which I gather cones and firewood.

Wildland behind my place. Firewood foraging. Removing pest plants.

A box of assorted kindling.

Natives coming through
As for native plants, are self seeded pseudopanax, Coprosma robusta and repens, renga renga (probably from nearby gardens).

Pseudopanax, five finger, is one of the first natives to grow in bare areas under a canopy.

Coprosma repens, taupata is common esp around the coast. There's a row of them behind my fence that the birds enjoy the berries. This particular seedling has extra large (XL) leaves.

The baddies
Of course there are way more pest plants than natives. I pull out the small ones, if they're too big I break the tops off so they don't seed or spread seed as far.
The menu comprises bear's breeches/Acanthus mollis, German ivy ( I saw only one plant), ivy, prunus, cotoneaster, broom/Cytisus scoparius and some Norfolk Island pines.
Weedbusters has info on how to control pest pants.

Wild cherry or some sort of prunus. There's a group of these and many dotted around. Pull them out while they are small.

Wild cherry or some sort of prunus from below

German ivy. Just this so far. I will properly remove it tomorrow

Karo, Pittosporum crassifolium. A native but not native to the Wellington region and it takes over

Cotoneaster glaucophyllus

Mulch
Such a pity I can't use the abundant pine needles for mulch or compost in my garden. There's tradescantia and many other weeds among them and I daren't risk them taking a liking to my garden.

While I'm scrambling around, I lay branches horizontally between trees to create a bit of a shelf. Over time, this reduces soil and water running down the hill and creates a shelf for seeds to settle and grow.

Local natives and weeds

First day beating the feet during the rahui to save lives and eliminate Covid-19.
I explored part of Sinclair Park, discovering natives and exotic weeds mixed together. And a lovely wildness in the margins.

Some of the natives
Hover over the photo for more information.

Puriri aka Vitex lucens. The berries are important bird food

ngaio aka Myoporum laetum

Ngaio berries

Mahoe aka whiteywood aka Melicytus ramiflorus

Some of the pest plants I spotted are below.

Wattle or acacia tree

Sycamore aka Acer pseudoplatanus Remember those helicopters as a kid?, Well they help disperse the seeds over large areas.

Life in the margins

Fennel has been left to grow in the margins which is great to attract beneficial insects and pollinators. The seeds are delicious too

A closer photo of the fennel stalks.

There's a variety of native trees and shrubs along the path. The edges are left to go wild creating an ecosystem of their own.

A wider view, showing a combination of mowed and wildness.

Lockinge Garden

Lockinge is a peaceful garden tucked away in a valley with a lake at its centre.

Kingfisher Cottage, Taranaki

In the country 15 mins from Hawera, this garden borders a river. During the festival they catered food on the deck, from where we enjoyed a stunning view. You can rent the cottage too www.kingfishercottage.co.nz/

Te Popo Gardens, Stratford

Lovely woodland gardens, with a stream and a fairy forest. Te Popo Gardens website

Te Kainga Marire, New Plymouth

An absolutely stunning garden, awarded the status of Garden of International Significance. Read more on Te Kainga Marire's website.

Magnolia Garden, Waitara

I spent three days in Taranaki last weekend, exploring the gorgeous gardens at the Powerco Taranaki Garden Spectacular. What a feast for the senses! I'll share some photos of the gardens in this blog, starting with Magnolia Grove.