LizzW

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Regeneration: Update

Planting eventually got under way in July, and will happen again next year :)

We have kaka-beak already established and anchoring what will be a very colourful part of the garden. Four kowhai nearby.

Plus several hardy hebe. They'll have to be; it's mostly clay and exposed to all the elements!

The plan here is to be eye-catching, as well as attractive to insects and smallish native birds :)

So, two red-flowering manuka mark our boundary line - most of that carpet is in the neighbours' place.

Pinker variety in the foreground is inclined to spread densely sideways as much as up; should be fantastic!

And then there are a couple of colour themes; tending purple...

(amazing the varieties of that useful colonizer, coprosma)

And bronze.

Korokia,

native iris, and matipo

In the green corner... with tui in mind and on the advice of Oratia Native Plants, some hardy individuals from the Poor Knights.

Yet another Pittosporum; never seen one with leaves this large and luscious though, and...

Bushy mapou.

These northern imports are planted near some harakeke, guaranteed to attract nectar-feeders. The flax was transplanted from self-sown seedlings elsewhere on the property. One just survived the gorse-cutting exercise!

I'll be doing more transplantation next year, and plan to raise rengarenga seedlings to fill up quite a lot of space. It's all patchwork at the moment, but in a few years... just wait and see!

Saturday, August 6, 2011

He tama iti, he tama nui

Whanau time at Titirangi. Nice.

Miro (5 mths) happy with Papa

et Maman

Tahi gets acquainted with Leander (aka Bugs)

and discovers a Lego buddy

Tama iti, tama nui (& a dinosaur)

Uncle Andrew's even taller than Papa;
useful on the bars :)

Meanwhile, the hunter dissects dinner

Miro and Granny

Sunny Interlude

Andrew, Viv and I had a warm laid-back week in Rarotonga a while back. Seems like a good day today - chilly, winterish - for some memories.

There were blue skies...

and a little red convertible one day, to circumnavigate the 35km island.

An alternative to catching the Clockwise or Anticlockwise bus :)

There was companionship... island dogs are very sociable

and exotica - tangy, juicy starshaped fruit

Mad moment at the beach - what you don't see is the washed out sand bridge!

But there was quietitude as well.

We shared round our novels, and there was always the cloud-gazing

All in all, just what a holiday should be, say I (except not long enough!)

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Regeneration

A corner of our 0.3 hectare bush section has always been more or less cleared. Glen and I grew veges there for a while, and spent a lot of hours up there. But it's a bit far from the house, and too easily accessible from the school grounds. Lost a whole crop of sugar-snap peas once!

I decided a few years ago the best thing to do was to encourage the bush back, but in Auckland that means a battle with weeds, and I haven't been winning lately. Time for action!

Step One: Deal to encroaching gorse. Yaay for power tools! And a son to wield them...

Step Two: Scavenge carpet pieces from the inorganic collection piles left in someone else's street(!). Lay carpet over ground for ongoing weed control. Revised plan is to grow the bush in from the edges, and plant strategically in the middle.

Step Three: Keep on spreading berries and seeds close to mothering bush. Nature is so profligate, there are heaps all over the property, and seedlings too!

Step Four: Buy in some hardy colonisers as well...

Step Five: Planting, transplanting and more planting. I expected to have started in May, but it hasn't been wet or cool enough. Update will follow when there's more to see!