Well my garden didn't stay bare for long as Rose the school gardener offered me some purple irises which I have now planted in the place where the cabbage and ponga have been cleared. I will be adding more lambs ears and statice if I can source it, and mint. I moved the monstera slightly and tidied up the spider plants who were threatening to over run the place. The carex have been trimmed back to pom poms and their cuttings were used as mulch.
Rose said she has space for a grapevine at her home as the school already have some. So we arranged a swap . I have cut down the gaura and have made cuttings of it so plonked them in the corner bed. Lucky the rain came, and it has now been wet overnight, hooray!
This is just a quick report as I have some research to do on the history of gardening in New Zealand. This is a bit more ambitious than the history of my own garden which is now in it's sixth year so I have to pick my moments. I didn't realise that the Maori and European land wars affected so much of the land we see today but as I am neutral I won't take either side. It got me thinking that maybe God has a purpose and thought New Zealand/Aotearoa just needed more colour apart from green so He got people to live here and to bring all their plants too.
We ought to send more cabbage trees and pongas to other lands in exchange for potatoes and eggplants? I can lay claim to one plant success story from Chinese lands planted here, the humble kiwifruit aka Chinese Gooseberry, which made some kiwis very rich. It is a pity the PSA virus put a stop to much of that now, and what with this Coronavirus going round maybe we've had too much of a good thing. However I am sure the cure is waiting to be discovered, possibly made from all the privet we have, after all, some people have actually found a use for gorse. Makes a great mulch.
