Category: NZ Native

Jungle taming

Exploring the site

Behind the cottage is a large section going uphill to a flat space with a brazier. These photos are from my first visit. Hover over the pic to read caption.

Start clearing and discovering

We gathered our tools on site to start clearing and discovering what was coming through under the weeds.
We piled the waste on site to make compost and improve the soil over time. There were so many pest plants that it wouldn't have made enough difference to take the considerable time to remove it all. Worst comes to the worst, we can weedspray the piles later.

New plants

Then we got planting.
Wharangi on the edges. Poa cita grass to hold the bank and for its feathery flower heads. Coprosma kirkii to cover the awkward corner and keep weeds down. Small muehlenbeckia complexa to reduce disturbance to the bank and to cover it. Perennials for colour and to enjoy. Dwarf toe toe to add continuity with existing ones.

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First reccy on a new job

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A very large house with a small garden area, embedded on a densely housed hill in CBD.
The first job was to see what was involved in refreshing the garden area. We took photos of the various areas, cleared the weeds, pruned the very old rose right back and created a large compost pile.
Hover over the photos for explanations.

Weeds in area in front of house. Left of upward path. Not sure if this is client's property

Area between our property and next door. No-one's land?

Still behind the house, looking along the wall

Ivy growing over shed can get into cracks and affect building integrity

View from behind the house. Large dead tree

The very very old climbing rose is now cut back.

Area on rhs facing house. Has an olive tree and rosemary in it. We're considering creating a Mediterranean garden here as it already has suitable plants and is very dry.

The rhs area from the deck. Imagine this with no weeds and some colour

The compost pile we started under the stairs. we're looking at options to contain this.

Looking down to utility area. Weeds to be sprayed

The lhs garden has some natives in it, though they are very leggy as haven't been trimmed for some time.
We'll add to these.

Another view of lhs bed with rengas along the border and a straggly hebe, we cut several dead branches off it.

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Restoring the balance

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This Southgate property has a large bush area where weeds had taken over and karaka had become the dominant species, considerably reducing diversity. Although karaka is a NZ native, it isn't native to Wellington and takes over from our locals. Te Motu Kairangi explains more.
We are gradually managing the herbaceous weeds. With the karaka, we are hand pulling the seedlings and chopping down larger plants then Stump Stopping the cut. This seems to be working though karaka does re-sprout from below the cut, so we have to be more persistent than karaka.
We're careful not to take out too many larger trees at once as the area is on a bank and we don't want to disturb the terrain more than necessary.

Assessing the bush area Aug 2018
Hover over the images to learn about our first visit to this bush area.

Taller mahoe is a great pioneer plant. Loads of karaka seedlings in front

Bold karaka make their way through the tradescantia

Looking down to a large flat area in the bush

Happy to spot a few self-seeded kohekohe plants

We discovered a few other plants such as this japonica, hydrangeas, feijoas and camellia.

Starting work

First task was to dig some rough steps for safe access and to start dealing to the weeds (tradescantia, convolvulus, galinsoga, bay tree, with old man's beard and German ivy on the fringes).

Rough steps from the property to the bush area

Same steps, but looking up to the house area

Mahoe (Melicytus ramiflorus, whitey wood) in front. Karaka ( (Corynocarpus laevigatus, New Zealand laurel) at the back.

Some creature finds the mahoe leaf tasty

Great to see some self-seeded ngaio (Myoporum laetum)

More of the good fellas, ngaio and coprosma repens

And as we clear we discover more self-seeded kawakawa(Macropiper excelsum).

The flat area with the start of our pile of felled karaka

Continuing our mahi
October/November/December 2018. Hover for explanations

Felled karaka trees. We lay them horizontally between trees. This is to help keep water on the property and gradually form a shelf, rather than have water and soil run straight down the hill off the property.

Here's a sawn then Stump Stopped karaka. We leave some of the stumps quite high to put the horizontal branches behind and to hang on to when clambering around the slope.

Steps from next door property. They're random lumps of concrete and we had to move some of them as unstable

Great crop of galinsoga and convolvulus.

Lovely to discover three or four kohekohe on the property.

Gregor in his element, sawing bossy karaka

Summer 2019
Already we've noticed more birds (types and numbers), seen dragonflies and more native seedlings popping up.
Now we've made space, let the light in, and it's planting time, we're hoping to plant some Wellington natives, ideally those that are getting rare in the wild. This will add to the wider ecosystem and increase diversity in this little piece of bush.