All of the browns,
Well, it’s happened. It’s that time of year that birds stop aggressively tearing up the ground and just walk around, following the gardeners, hoping we will throw them a worm. I wish they would go back to tearing things up, as annoying as it is- we are being dive bombed by fantails, but the rest just seem a little sad at the moment!
Observe this ‘non weedy’ Elderflower plant, whose dirt and mulch has been so torn up by the birds that it needs about 3cm of dirt on it so that its roots are back underground.
What I'm obsessing over this week
I’ve been updating all of my nursery supplier info, and it’s something people are always asking about, so I figure I will include it here-
Porirua City Council Nursery- an absolute fave for native plants, and has quite a few non-natives. They also recommend another nursery just down the road, but I can never remember what it is called! Gah!
Leacroft in Pautatahanui are our old reliable. It is unusual for them to not have anything and their plants are always healthy. I have noticed lately that a lot of their plants are arriving in a slightly larger grade than expected which is a nice boost.
In a pinch, on a budget, Greenmachine do plugs (small pots) of native plants. This is the nursery we use if we are planting in banks or anywhere particularly rocky, as the plants are very well rooted but tiny, and it is hard to source quality small plugs.
Morgan’s Road Nursery is a new favourite for cheap small plants, that we have been buying, growing a bit bigger and then on selling. Worth a look.
Large trees and large plants are hard to source in NZ, so I end up calling the top 5 search results for large plants. Ignore their stock lists and email directly, they never seem to have the plants they say they do!
One I don’t use, that others love- Maryflower have a bit of a cult following and they are local.
I was also knocked down a peg when my new yellow-flower-themed garden was thwarted a bit by the kowhai dragon’s gold being small, and therefore not covering a lot of ground, the lawn beside was more, well, dirt, and our other plantings were bulbs- this resulted in a very brown looking garden until the daffodils come up!
What staff learnt about this week
Our weekly focus was trimming trees to get more light to houses.
Highlights: The trick is to make sure the sun is trying to poke through the trees that you are cutting at the time. It means that you can see exactly what you are up to and how successful you are. The important time to be getting light through is right now, when the sun is at this exact height.
Lowlights: Unfortunately this means we have to a) carefully time our visits with where the sun is, and b) climb and trim trees with the sun in our eyes. No fun.
An interview with a gardening legend
Ryan Fraser is the Vineyard manager at Paritua Vineyards in Bridge Pa (Hawkes Bay). If you have had a plant health problem that I haven’t been able to solve, I have probably run it past Fraser. Paritua Vineyards is an organic Vineyard which makes exceptional wine, and Fraser is in charge of the health of all of those vines.
What are you doing at the moment, day to day?
Pruning started last week and we’ve been swapping around machinery for winter work. We spray tricoderma on pruning wounds to stop wood infection. (Zoe note: tricoderma is a fungi which is used for improving general plant health)
Its not ideal to start this early, better after a few big rains, but if we don't start now we wont finish by spring.
I was told to prune immediately after fruiting, but I was told that by an orchardist who had the same problem as you.
Sounds about right. Most fruiting trees will have a large root flush after fruit fall after that's finished good to go.
What’s going on in your garden at home?
I picked 2 pocketfuls of jalapenos with Goose the dogs’ help. Need to pull the old cucumber plants out and put away the trellis.
As a fellow always-headphoned person, what are you listening to lately that you can recommend?
Thanks everyone! Have a great week.