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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. Natives coming through As for native plants, are self seeded pseudopanax, Coprosma robusta and repens, renga renga (probably from nearby gardens). 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. 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.
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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 local plants. 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 the 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. 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). Continuing our mahi October/November/December 2018. Hover for explanations 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. |
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