...When I returned the weather had turned so I'm glad I'm not still camping in a tent now the rain has set in and turned everything into a mould-fest. There are now mushrooms growing in my pot plants.
On the way to Marsden Point we did pass Gibbs Farm which has those giant sculptures - of tissue paper and ribs and helixes. There is also the Kaipara Sculpture Gardens which I haven't been to yet, so that is on my bucket hat list, and I met a chap from Hamilton, and he promised to show me round the new Egyptian Garden and other themed gardens they have there this year.
We passed farms lined with agapanthus which makes an excellent road side plant, why they are not just planted as a median barrier on all highways I don't know, surely they could keep cars from crashing into each other and prevent mud slips? They have named one side of the coast the Kauri Coast and the other side the Hibiscus Coast, but I would like to see an Agapanthus Avenue.
The theme for our summer gathering was Aroha Mai, Aroha Atu which translates as love received and love given...and what flower represents this the most but the agapanthus which is latin for agape (love) anthus (flower). At least I think so.
However if you happen to go on any Facebook garden group its one of the plants that everyone asks how to get rid of, along with wisteria, mint, and clovers. Can you have TOO much love? Perhaps some people don't quite understand how plants work.
I have been thinking, if Karyn is up for it, that we start back on Garden Planet this year. After all, I now have time for it. And why should I reinvent the wheel? If Karyn isn't keen I wonder who would want to and have the time to talk plants with me. Planet FM is now on new premises which I haven't even seen yet, and we could make a fresh start. I wondered if I could somehow involved Garden to Table along with it but getting schools involved seems very dependent on Board of Trustees and I have never had much luck with boards of any kind, who don't understand anything about gardening. I remember having run ins with the church board who thought it was ok to decide to weed a garden after six months umming and ahhing, which by that time the weeds had grown to triffid like proportions.
Imagine having to make decisions once a month with a bunch of people who don't know much about the things they are making decisions about. That's how boards seem to work in this country. Those of us who aren't on boards just get decisions made for us, and have to accept whatever has been decided. I just think it's kind of the whole culture of 'passing the buck' that is ingrained in people's brains and never accepting full responsibility for anything. Because it was 'the boards' decision.
Meanwhile we are dealing with the fall out of two centuries of bad decision making...Kauri dieback disease? A tree museum in Dargaville that charges people to see em'? Hundertwasser gets an art museum that has a few trees in it in Whangarei but it comes nowhere near his vision of architecture for everyone. I'd like to see all schools become Hundertwasser designed with their bumpy floors and mosaic tiles and odd shaped windows and trees poking out of the grassy roofs.
Northland showed me a thing or two about what it means to be a guest of nature. It's a narrow strip of land that heads towards the great jumping off point for our souls - Cape Reinga. While some people dream of a White Christmas, I dream of the Winterless North and growing pineapples and lychees, kauri forest and pohutakawa lined beaches, and trails of agapanthus petals, everywhere.
