Oh dear

We have had two interesting jobs come our way this week, and both are going to be…fun.

One has a guy in Kingston who had neighbours plant star jasmine all down the fenceline. Then a big tree on his property fell, shining a great deal of sunlight all over the bank which the tree used to shade.

It is now a sea of densely growing, rooted-everywhere jasmine.

Similarly in Wadestown, the jasmine got away on the property, we have three properties beside each other who can’t manage it. It is up 3m in the trees, it is teaming up with other plants…

Here is a delightful bounty- a rambling rose, growing higher and higher because the jasmine keeps choking out the lower levels. Behind, a powerline covered in boston ivy and the native climber whose name I always forget because we absolutely refuse to ever plant it.

What I am obsessed with this week

Types of jasmine.

You will be pleased to hear that Bunnings thinks star jasmine is the bee’s knees, teaching us all how to grow more of it- no thankyou, it travels along the ground at lightning speed and causes so much damage!

Here’s your star jasmine- please don’t plant this

There are some lovely native Parsonsias, which, look- just call them jasmines (parsonsia heterophylla and praeruptis are great options). I like one of them so much it’s tattooed all over my leg. The little flowers smell sweetly and it is very well behaved-

Parsonsia heterophylla- I’m an absolute sucker for the rounded flowers

But the one which is easy to convince people of is trachelospermum jasminum- the leaves are nicer than star jasmine, and it is nice and viney but not invasive as heck-

Your mileage may vary depending on region, but in Wellington I can say for sure that as long as it isn’t Star Jasmine, you will be making a good choice with any other available jasmine.

Tasks this week

We’ve all started the clean ups- the big thing staff are doing this week is cutting all of the dead bits off everything.

As hydrangeas finish flowering, we prune them completely- don’t wait for winter, but you might want to hold off on giving them a big haircut until all of the flowers are spent.

Pick up your leaves and put them in bags (open top) and leave them somewhere out of the way to break down. Don’t leave them on your garden beds just yet, because all of the unwanted bugs are looking for somewhere to overwinter and we want a few cold snaps before putting down any bug bedding!

Please try to ignore the wasps. They are killing all sorts of bugs for you. They’re grumpy because they are about to die, let ‘em die!

Ivy needs constant cutbacks at this time of year, not least because English Ivy is flowering, and if you let it seed you will have a weeding disaster on your hands.

We are weeding like crazy- usually the weeding has died down a little by now but the warm weather and the rain have just egged the weeds on. However, make sure you know what you’re weeding- if you have left something to self seed, and there are all sorts of unknown little plants everywhere, are they the plants you desire?

Have a great weekend everyone!