Muddy good fun to be had at community plantings

Winter is the best time for planting, and all over the Hibiscus Coast, environmental groups are leading community volunteers as they put native trees and shrubs into the ground.

At Shakespear Regional Park, this year’s effort will go into planting the hill above Waterfall Gully carpark, which Open Sanctuary senior ranger Matt Maitland says will provide a native bush link between the gully and regenerating sites on the neighbouring Defence Force land.

There are a total of 14,000 young plants to go in, most of which were grown at the Open Sanctuary nursery at Shakespear – the rest come from Auckland Botanic Gardens.

The dates for the Shakespear Regional Park community plantings are June 18 and July 16 with more to be done on August 20 if needed. The planting starts at 10am (follow the flags onsite). Volunteers are asked to pre-register at Eventbrite – Matt says this is so that they have an idea of how many sausages to put on at the free sizzle which happens after every planting.

Community planting events are also being run by Restore Hibiscus & Bays. The first is on June 18 at Ōtanerua Reserve, Hatfields Beach.

Deborah Colson, Restore Hibiscus & Bays Ecological Restoration advisor says last winter, volunteers planted 250 native trees in the grassy area at the front of this reserve to extend the bush while retaining a small grassed area for picnics. 

Auckland Council has designated the reserve as a Significant Ecological Area and it features diverse native plant species, along with birds that include tūi, fantails (pīwakawaka), grey warblers and ruru (morepork).

“This year, we will be infilling last year’s planting site with around 50 more trees, plus planting around 500 native grasses alongside the stream which borders much of the reserve,” Deborah says. “This streamside/riparian planting will help to stabilise the bank while providing more native habitat, including for native fish.”

On June 25, Restore Hibiscus & Bays turns its attention to plantings in Amorino Park, in Red Beach.

Last winter the community planted about 600 native trees in the park, gradually replacing grass with an extension to native bush. This year there are another 60 plants to go in.

Deborah says a year of wet soil proved too much for some plants, so these are to infill gaps and replace those that died.

Maygrove Esplanade Reserve, in Ōrewa, is the site of the other local Restore Hibiscus & Bays community planting day, on July 1.

Last year more than 1000 native plants went in alongside the estuary and volunteers will be adding a further 600 low-growing riparian (water’s edge) native plants to create more native habitat.

Riparian planting also helps to stabilise banks and prevent sediment run-off into the estuary.

This planting site is looked after on a regular basis by the U3A Hibiscus Coast Eco Volunteers group and other keen locals.

Details on all these community plantings are in What’s On.