terry@localmatters.co.nz
The seven years she spent working for NZ Gardener magazine, fed her habit and increased her desire to learn more. Terry spends as much time as possible in her “eclectic” and “work in progress" garden.
2012
With apologies to English poet Robert Browning, may I just say “Oh to be in the garden, now that April’s here”? Autumn is deservedly a gardener’s favourite time of year. It can be really pleasant to work outside, the soil is still warm and there’s the fun of re-designing the plot, shifting plants and putting in new ones.
The knowledge that Auckland’s urban environment is to feature increasing amounts of high density housing in the next few decades makes good planning vital. The draft Auckland Plan comments that intensive living developments “have had a chequered past in Auckland, and there is some mistrust at community level that Council can deliver desirable intensive urban environments”. I would certainly add myself to that list of doubters.
According to children’s science website (
www.sciencebug.org) it takes 379 litres of water to grow a watermelon, and I can well believe it. I have been trying to grow the delicious-sounding ‘Sugar Baby’ watermelon – a small, sweet variety – for several seasons to no avail and in the past have blamed lack of watering for my failure.
2011
Joy to the world, the trees have come! Just in time for Christmas, Auckland Council has supplied some magnificent young magnolias, which now line my street in Manly and will create a real feature in years to come.
Such an eclectic collection of plants feature in Janice Price’s small Gulf Harbour garden that it makes me think of a horticultural Noah’s Ark. Many specimens have in fact marched into the garden, two by two, direct from Palmers Garden Centre where Janice worked for 15 years.
One job I both look forward to and dread at this time of year is dividing clumps of perennial plants. It’s part of the big spring tidy up, turning a sprawling mass back into a neat clump and providing little plants to fill gaps elsewhere in the garden. While it is satisfying and improves the look of the garden, it is a job that requires lots of sweat and a certain amount of swearing, particularly given my clay soil and wrist issues.
As fruit and vegetable prices go up, and spring is on our doorstep, the time is ripe to take the plunge and try growing your own crops. ‘I don’t have time for that,’ is the common cry, but some of the busiest people I know put in vegie patches and find that tending plants brings welcome respite from the workaday world.
Among the many natives put in the ground at recent community plantings at Sharkespear Regional Park, D’Acre Cottage and Eaves Bush are cabbage trees (Cordyline australis) by the dozen.
The internet provides fertile ground for gardeners and I find online gardening particularly appealing at this time of year when there’s not a lot of actual spadework to be done. Used with care, the web is a wonderful tool for tapping into plant knowledge and advice and discovering an exciting range of mail order nurseries. Of course it also provides a passport to internationally acclaimed gardens, with virtual tours of many gardens and garden shows available.
Conversations over garden fences on the Hibiscus Coast this month have centred on the extraordinarily warm conditions at the start of this winter. Not only is the air temperature warm, but the soil must be as well and there are some pretty confused combinations in my garden as a result.
One of the most prolific fruiting trees in my garden is the cherry, or strawberry guava (
Psidium littorale var. longipes), which started bearing fruit last month and is still going strong.
This is one of the busiest seasons of the gardening year, so by rights this column should be all about the tasks for the month – weeding, trimming, tidying up, mulching and planting. But there’s a problem. Thanks to an injured right hand, I can only watch as autumn takes hold, unable to attend to the 101 jobs that need doing. It’s not the first time I’ve had an injury that affects my gardening, so I’m familiar with the sense of frustration and impairment.
Although the beautiful historic buildings of Christchurch defined its character for many residents, for me, when I lived there for five years, it was all about the gardens.
I have a love-hate relationship with my potted plants. While placing a plant in a pot has the advantage of singling it out, allowing its characteristics to be appreciated in isolation, it also means more work than if you grow the same plant in the ground.
2010
A few weeks ago, rather than a partridge in a pear tree, my Christmas looked likely to feature a kaka in a rewarewa tree. A battle royal was waged for ownership of the mature silver dollar gums in the park near our house. These large trees are populated by tuis, which also visit gardens in the neighbourhood in search of food.
Brian ‘Sarge’ Walden is a force of nature, moving at tornado-like speed as he shows me through his Orewa garden. His garden is not large, but always has something in bloom – a flower-filled mix of rhododendrons, roses, lilliums and bearded irises, including some rarely grown varieties sourced from specialist nurseries.
Roses are bursting into bloom on the Hibiscus Coast this month. In full flower, these plants are the star attraction in many gardens, with the power to turn heads and elicit ‘oohs and aahs’ from all who see them.
Nothing is easier than spring cleaning the garden and outdoor areas – the only difficulty is deciding which job to tackle first.
Daffodil Day was August 27 and this year, my daffodils were out in time to celebrate. They have waited until early September to appear for the last few years, so it was good to see them in full flower in mid-August. It feels as though spring has come early this year.
Raw sewage running down the path is not a great look for any garden, but when this happened to me last month, I decided there could be a silver lining. During heavy rain we followed our noses to discover a trickle of raw sewage making its way down our back garden. The trickle soon became a torrent.
Silence fell in the studio as Who Wants to be a Millionaire contestant David Edwards contemplated the $1 million pound question. I could see the light in his eyes as the question was read, and recognised a fellow gardener.
In winter, a display of massed Icelandic poppies (Papaver nudicaule) often appears up at Manly Village or in other garden beds planted by Council. The poppies’ warm, bright colours and crinkled petals make them my favourite bedding plants, and I can never resist buying bunches, still in bud, from florists.
Hands up if you have more than enough feijoas! There’s a lovely feijoa tree in my garden, which, despite draught and only intermittent care, produces a generous crop every year without fail. This year, the fruit are small but super sweet, and we have enough to feed the entire neighbourhood.
Normally at this time of year I get pretty excited, thinking about all the gardening I have to do. Autumn is prime planting time and so I spend a lot of time nosing around nurseries, checking out plant catalogues and assessing what needs improvement in my patch.
Whether you are on tank or town water, how you use this precious liquid in your garden is vitally important. Plants, like people, are largely made of water but that doesn’t mean we have to spend summer hanging about at the end of a hose; in fact, this can be counter-productive.
Whether you are on tank or town water, how you use this precious liquid in your garden is vitally important. Plants, like people, are largely made of water but that doesn’t mean we have to spend summer hanging about at the end of a hose; in fact, this can be counter-productive.
