Good on ya, Mitre 10

 I don't normally endorse big businesses but this one just might be the saviour (of not just me, but gardens all across New Zealand). I am blessed to live in walking distance of a Kings Plant Barn, a Mitre 10, and a Warehouse (or a short drive). They all have plants. There's also a Morrisons Florist, and well, the entire stretch of Lincoln Road used to be vineyards and orchards. 

There's a Bible college, two retirement villages, a wananga, two intermediate schools, several churches, a pub and hotel, a hospital, cafes, yum cha restaurants, pizza outlets, dentist, beauty parlours, tattooists, a Bird Barn (that's always been there) gas stations, McDonalds, three supermarkets, a pet store, a sports stadium, actually almost everything I need is right up the road. 

The only thing I'm really hanging out for is an independent bookshop, though the Warehouse has a book department. Although its not really the same, getting your books off a pallet in the Warehouse. Though I'm not fussed about shopping from a forklift in Pak n' Save. I just wish they'd continue to offer their old cardboard boxes like they USED to. And their stray shopping trolleys are a menace. 

Anyhow. I am such an old timer I remember when Palmers had a garden centre at the end of Lincoln Road where the EuroDell is. Mitre 10 was only a small hardware store in Henderson Square, selling hammers and duct tape. It expanded a bit when it moved further up Sel Peacock Drive (where there aren't any peacocks) and then when Universal Homes shifted, a huge orange giant MEGA Mitre 10 was built right next to the biggest supermarket in New Zealand. We Westies are a hungry bunch. We're also mostly DIYers. 

Now everyone in West Auckland knows, when you buy a new house (if you can afford one) the landscaping is not done for you. It's mostly bare ground and all the top soil has been scraped away to be sold somewhere else. I know. Why do they do that? 

So if you want to have a garden - it's on you. If you don't have one, you could possibly use any flat land to build a car park and charge people to park there. It's not unknown for that to happen in Auckland. But there are a few homeowners who want to put food on the table and don't really want to have to shop at Pak n Save more than they have to. Renters too, at least want a little outdoor space so they can get out of the house for a bit for some fresh air. 

Mitre 10 to the rescue. They have plants plants plants galore. In fact their Garden Centre section is threatening to overtake their indoor section. And now with the trend of houseplants, (instead of HVACS) to use as air conditioners, it's actually happening. At first it was just fake plants, but people really wanted the real thing. No longer just a decor item, the houseplant is the next essential ingredient for a healthy, happy home. 

I am happy to report that Mitre 10 has practically everything you need, even a gift section and cafe, she sheds and mens sheds, baskets, pots, power tools, hand tools, fountains, compost, wheelbarrows, arches, benches, raised beds, that it's really giving Kings and the Warehouse a run for their money. The quality is good and the prices are fair. And they don't look down on you like Bunnings does! See previous blog posts about run ins with Bunnings staff. 

Rain garden

 Note - Aucklanders do live in former rainforest and must expect a certain amount of dampness and humidity during our wet summers. This is nothing out of the ordinary, but when you cut down most of the trees, drain wetlands, divert rivers, pave areas for roads and footpaths and build houses in low lying areas sometimes it can be  recipe for disaster. 

As the people living in Clover Drive found out yesterday. But thankfully their houses were just drowned/baptised a little and didn't collapse off the side of a cliff like ones in Titirangi and Herne Bay. 

I was making my way to Woodside, the rain had held off for a bit and I was determined to grab the last of the potatoes in the shed that were crying out for someone to eat them. I was thankful for the rain for that meant I could skip my Monday watering duty. Everything was looking lush. 

Further down the creek at the bottom of Don Buck Road near the bridge was the debris that had been washed out in the downpour - mops, baby toys, plastic tubs, fences, twigs, prunings, sponges, plastic bags and the contents of all that people stuff into their garages. 

Some people were looking for their cars and trailers that had washed down from the Massey Pony Club. A car was tipped up on its hind wheels and had crashed into the fence. Others had simply floated away. The only way across the blocked drains and lakes was by dinghy, kayak or jet ski. Though not many had those who lived in the State Houses along the way. 

A State of Emergency was declared (thanks Mayor Wayne Brown for finally getting on to it - that's what you're meant to do as Mayor, sir) and the new Prime Minister put in a few words of solace. We had a big clean up job to do. Most of the Clover Drive residents were waiting for the rain to ease and the insurance people to come around to assess the damage. Neighbours had set up a coffee station to have a break and the Ranui Baptist Church was housing evacuees. People were doing washing and pulling up damp carpets. 

The water had risen so high that a tide line had appeared on the houses and there were several unlucky houses sited near culverts and had driveways that sloped downward the internal garages that lead towards their house. As I crossed the bridge across the creek I saw the water rushing past still draining and heading out toward the sea. Had it washed all the shopping trolleys away too? Some of the sewage man holes had burst and overflowed, so some were without water and some without power. 

A lake had appeared around the corner of Riverpark thanks to two blocked drains and there was a sudden Facebook frenzy and several calls and txts to check that I was ok. Dad was very happy. He had broken his weather records for this month and sent everyone updates. The dams were 100% full to overflowing. He had to empty his rain gauge and let it fill up twice. 

There wasn't really much I could do about the rain or to help others except wait for the sun to shine again to dry everything out. This is the Auckland Summer. We don't ever get the snow, so the rain makes up for it by putting on a show(er).  I think Auckland should have a fleet of Noahs' Arks lined up in the harbour, just for emergencies like this so we can escape for a while because the roads up North are blocked. 

Raincheck

 It seems churlish to make another blog post that it's raining but..what else can you do when it's bucketing down outside? We had a few nice days and then WHAM. Summer over. Back to school everyone. Except for me of course. 

This is alright. I am having a welcome reprieve from the demands of school life. It's just if I don't go back to school whether for work or for study, what am I going to do, stay home? You know how mum feels about that. I will never hear the end of it. Plus, there is not much more space left that I can garden, after having squeezed in some pots of basil that Jacqui has given me. I will have to expand out into the reserve. 

Nobody wants to hear from another rambling garden blogger - there are too many of us. On Tuesday my garden club met again at Karen's house for a catch up. What are you going to do? asked one of the old-timers. I think she was hoping I would say 'I'm going to give up being a librarian and work for an old lady who can't garden anymore and be paid peanuts'. But I just said when she hinted at it that I had been there, done that, and been treated poorly so it was not something I would ever do again. Besides, I would rather do my own garden than somebody else's. Why do somebody else's and then not have any creative control or input over the garden? I didn't want to spray poison just because an old lady didn't want to do it but wanted the weeds gone instantly.

The old-timer shut up after that. Then the talk turned to Jacinda Ardern's resignation. Oh we know HER background and agenda, she scoffed. Really, what do you mean? I and others asked. For some, Jacinda had saved New Zealand, if not the planet. 

The old-timer said she's a Commie. 

I was like, that's nothing new - the entire Labour Party is. Tell us something we don't know. 

I remember when John Key resigned. He also needed time off from the demands of being PM. I had thought he might want to do some gardening, but he sold his Parnell mansion and word on the street is that it has fallen into rack and ruin, and weeds are growing everywhere. 

Nevermind. I didn't really want to garden John Key's mansion grounds anyway. It's not like he would make a good boss or knew much about gardening. His former estate was a typical clipped hedge and topiary mini palazzo anyway. Not my style of gardening. 

I wondered what Jacinda would do now she was free. Perhaps she would join the PTA or at least be invited to Neve's BOT at her new school? Though she might find that they no longer have a library or a librarian. I had warned her about this but she never replied to my email. 

Year of the Bunny Rabbits

 Gong Hei Fat Choi! 

Happy Chinese New Year...will this be the year, that my garden will be over run by rabbits? Not likely, it seems we are pet-free at the moment. Cousin Winnie, on the other hand, has two who have a house all to themselves. Bun and Jammy. And she's growing weeds for them, while cutting and removing all flowers because of her allergies. Burma the elephant at Auckland zoo will be the lucky recipient of feijoa and banana leaves, she's got a huge taro patch the previous tenants had left her, and many gardenia and hibiscus bushes. 

She has offered me the begonias that have sprouted by the path, all the astromerias (pink and white), hibiscus, and any other plant in her backyard. So I may not need to go to Rogers at all. Although I still need some more lady's mantle as I'm hoping to make a border of perennial edging - the rabbits can have all the applemint. Swap? They eat dandelions too.

Am a little envious she's got a huge backyard to play in while I am somewhat restricted in mine, because of Dad's weather station. I could never have a banana and taro plantation like she does. Although I possibly could expand out the back to the reserve where the council cannot mow as it's too muddy/swampy.

Otherwise I haven't too much plans to make - I really need a moon calendar for this year but can't find one. I need the round one that tells you what to do each month and you can set it up so you know exactly what day the moon phase is going to be. 

So when I get that I can make a start but otherwise it's just enjoying whatever the weather has been throwing us lately. Mum managed to find a blue gallon tank and set it up by the garage and it is now full of rainwater. 

Vincent is proud of all the hippeastrums that I hinted he buy for his place in Epsom and they are gracing the front entrance. I have two coming up in bud in a pot and just have to make sure they aren't totally being munched by snails.

Blue Plumbago is looking spectacular. Otherwise dad has been taking pics of the apples that he's got his eye on. I didn't think he'd be interested in the fruits of my labour but surprise, he now is, despite never ever eating any since he was kicked out of home for not wanting to help his parents with their fruit shop. I guess this is why we live way out west and not in Mt Eden where they lived above a fruit shop in Dominion Road. But funnily enough there is something always drawing me back there. I guess Maungawhau really is my maunga, and  Riverpark Crescent is my awa. Though I have no idea where my whenua is. Mum possibly chucked it away at  Waitakere Hospital. Or maybe it's at St Helens. Who knows? 

Vincent's hippeastrums

Growing apples...

Kaipara Sculpture Gardens

 Another road trip, this time taking Mum and Karen to the Kaipara Sculpture Gardens, which I had never been to before. Karen had a few times but wanted to look at the new sculptures. It's about an hours drive from Henderson on Highway 16 and takes about an hour to walk around. We had a nice sunny day and it wasn't too crowded. It also has plants for sale and a small cafe. 

I have to say the garden was looking lovely and well tended, it is basically a big loop but with enough twists and turns to look at the sculptures along the way. The sculptures, which constantly change, are not something I would really have in my garden (and too pricy for me anyway) though there were a few favourites - Karen liked the dog cut outs, and the metal giant dandelions, while I liked the sculpture of the plants that weren't for sale - the curving hedges, the whirling junipers, the kauri sapling that was right in the middle of a path that everyone had to swing by...and the little poor knight lilies in hanging baskets balls on top of manuka sticks. They looked like those truffalo plants out of Dr Seuss's The Lorax.

There was a cool boardwalk through a shady fruit tree grove that made sounds as you walked through it. There was also a little clearing with three seats arranged and windchimes hanging from the trees that I thought made a lovely resting space. And there were little arbours with seats that could be decorated however you wanted. 

It made me think of what sculpture I would have in my garden (and ones that wouldn't rust or rot or fall to bits after a while). I don't think I have much of anywhere for any focal points since it's only a rectangular, flat suburban section. The main feature being the clothesline. Which I suppose is a sculpture in itself, if you look at it that way. When I arrange my colourful laundry on the line, it makes a terrific kinetic sculpture, and yes you are allowed to touch it. 

At Kaipara, some artists made 'sculpture' that you wouldn't think qualified as sculpture, such as one being a roll of felt hung off a tree. We were very puzzled about this, as the roll of felt was just a greyish blue colour and didn't have any design, pattern, or pictures on it. 

But then there were others like this pile of wooden logs arranged like a beehive. It could have been just a stack of logs but no they were all cut to fit like a beehive. I thought it looked quite clever. It could have gone with the other sculpture that was wooden bees hanging from a tree with wooden hexagons and spirals (like the kind I made in woodwork in school). I do have three french hens hanging from my olive tree that were old Christmas decorations. 

Many sculptors are now making things out of the popular material of the moment  - corten steel. Its very rustic looking, but it's meant to be rusty. Also it's very very expensive. If you can't have the real thing - fantails, tui, ladybugs, geckos, kiwis, pukeko, ferns, or kotuku, you can just have one made out of corten steel cut out and stick it in your garden.  I think it's like those pink plastic flamingos or garden gnomes. Everyone has to have one because you can't have the real thing. Well I've never seen a real flamingo in a garden or an actual live garden gnome - have you? 

Karen took a picture of me and Mum beside the giant red pom pom ball. Now that's something to have in your garden, along with big hedge clipped like a cat. 

I am going to steal borrow this idea, if I can find some old hanging baskets and succulents. 

La Dame aux Camellias

 Yesterday was a fine sunny day and I really wanted to go to the Takapuna markets. But mum was like no, the camellia needs trimming. So I lopped off all the tall growths that were blocking the window until the shrub was about waist high and since there was no longer any shade I pulled out all the spider plants too.

After I had done that THEN I got to get out and about, and the Fat Lady Sings bed looked a bit denuded. I was calling it that because of La Dame aux Camellias. However this camellia doesn't really sing, she looks too fat and any flowers immediately drop off and turn to a brown mush on the ground. You can't use her leaves to make tea because she's strictly ornamental. I wasn't the one who planted her though. She's the only camellia in this bed so it's all about her being front and centre. 

If I could haul her out I would instead plant hibiscus, or frangipani in her place. However we are stuck with her and she now looks like a green blob with a few stray growths where I haven't had a chance to lop off with a pruning saw. 

Now if she was properly trained from young I would have turned her into an elegant tree, and perhaps kept her cloud topiaried but its too late now because she's already been lopped and now has so many shoots that she ended up like a spider plant with more than eight limbs instead of one trunk. 

Camellia makes a great hedge, the leaves are thick and glossy and with the bonus of flowers its really a plant you can't get past. However a camellia hedge needs to be planted in the right place. 

I don't understand gardeners who plant hedges right next to walls. You'd think you'd want to plant a hedge to enclose a space not where there is already a wall. And if there is a wall you want to hide, wouldn't you just plant a climber to climb over it? 

In my opinion and experience of clipping hedges the following make good ones while others are doomed to fail.

Good hedges -

Totara - for a tall thick dense hedge

Corokia - for low hedges, similar to buxus but native

Buxus (though watch out for blight) - the traditional choice for English style gardens

Manuka - actually can make good topiary balls too, great for bees in a hedge row, can withstand wind

Escalonia - when clipped to rounded shape, looks great especially when flowering

Camellia - for secret gardens. Sasanqua is the one for Auckland conditions and the top variety is one called Setsugekka

Maybe more about hedge garden fails in my next post. Sorry Camella but I had to shorten your skirt. 

Kew Garden Girls at War

 I've never been to the Kew Gardens (they are in London) but that doesn't stop me reading books about the place. I imagine it must be a big deal, like a combination of the Auckland Botanic Gardens and the Wintergardens except with Royal British approval. The RHS is the Royal Horticultural Society and, like the Geographic Society it has some serious cachet in the scientific/botanical world. Because it was by Royal decree that plant hunters were sent out all over the British Empire, to obtain plants they could grow, exploit and make money from, and looking at the history of it some of it was not pretty. The Royal appetite for sugar, for example, led to lands being invaded and colonised in the tropics and people enslaved to grow cut and process sugar cane. I am sure India was ruled by the Brits simply because they wanted to control the tea trade. 

But in this novel which I picked up in the library, Kew Gardens Girls at War, none of that is alluded to. It's simply a feel good chick lit focused on the love and lives of three women who apply to be gardeners to help out with the British war effort. They get assigned to make a 'dig for victory' allotment garden and grow their own veg, though in the novel vegetables are hardly mentioned when there's all this drama going on - a husband away enlisting to fight, a surprise pregnancy, a cross-cultural romance, an nurse who wants to be a doctor but her daddy won't let her or see her Jamaican beau, and an accident prone farmer who discovers medicinal plants might help the war effort. It's a nice rainy day read if you want a bit of drama with your cup of tea, Posy Lovell (a pseudonym) knows how to spin a yarn. It's not much practical use though. There aren't any recipes, and there's no mention of starvation and rations during the war. 

Growing vegetables in Kew Gardens would be a piece of cake anyway, much like Michelle Obama ripping up the White House lawn for her kitchen garden. The reality would have been most Londoners would not have even had access to any land or allotment and would either be on a very long waiting list or find the soil so polluted and infertile it would have been unusable. Since when were there any sunny backyards in the city of London anyway? Or when would the councils have let citizens turn any empty land into garden - if you can't grow anything on a road side berm in Auckland how would Londonites, who don't even have berms, been able to grow anything? Especially when the city was being bombed. 

I am willing to suspend my disbelief when I read stories like these though, because I am a sucker for a happy ending. I thought the title was a misnomer though, the girls were clearly young women, they didn't have to go to school,  and since all the men had gone to war they were around twiddling their thumbs looking for something to do. One of the 'girls' was only picked because she was photogenic and looked good on the newsreel when they did a propaganda piece on it. I already know that ads featuring young women as gardeners do not feature real gardeners getting their hands dirty, but models wearing clothes that are too pretty to get muddy and they all wear high heels and lipstick made from fish scales. Vogue's idea of a garden girl is someone who is dressed in florals. 

I think I could easily write a NZ gardening drama as I had plenty of those at the Waitakere Gardens where the 'old girls' would fight over who could grow what around the village, Johanna could have a starring role as she-who-knows-everything, and my former Boss could be the villain of the piece with his wage slave workers who garden under duress while the life veteran residents look down from their balconies, putting their feet up and happy they don't have to bend down to garden anymore. 

Tightening the rainbelt

 In between bouts of rain I gardened tidying up the dropping daisies, chamomile, watsonia and floppy plants that had been bashed by the wind. It's been a wet week. No need to water Woodside! And our new blue plastic gallon tank is full. Mum cut back the Japanese maple and installed it near the side of the garage drainpipe where water runs straight off the rusty steel roof.

There's been so much rain that all the nitrogen have been leached and the tangelo leaves have turned quite yellow. Or maybe it's lack of magnesium and iron. I'm not sure, but went to Mitre 10 yesterday to find remedies. I decided instead of epsom salts that I have already tried last time I'd go for the steroids - Burnett's Gold fruit and citrus food and Sequestron for yellowing leaves. I forked all around tangelo to under the drip line to get some air into the clay soil. Perhaps it had all been so compacted and heavy that the roots hadn't been able to absorb any nutrients? 

I need to feed Tangelo every six weeks so have marked the dates in my diary. Poor tangelo, your leaves are supposed to be GREEN and your fruits ORANGE not the other way round! 

Garden Club is meeting this month at Karen's place offering afternoon tea instead of the usually evening. Good news is that more garden trips are being planned, as we've listed Kaipara Sculpture Gardens, the new Egyptian Garden and Surrealist garden in Hamilton, and a Lavender Farm in Karaka as road trip candidates.

I planted two hippeastrums in a trough pot and one has already been eaten by slugs! Arrgh. I noticed the annuals I had from Bev and from Kings didn't do well which was rather a waste of time too. However a passionfruit by the fence looks promising and brother Vincent gifted us two jasmines 'Grand Duke Tuscany' which are now planted as well so shall see how they go. 

Unfortunately it looks like Karyn will have a busy year ahead and won't have time to do Garden Planet. I also have as of yet no idea what I will be doing this year (aside from more gardening) on the job front. Taking the census? Working in a rich private school in Epsom as the hired help library assistant (again) ? Roving reporter for Window on Swanson Road? Christian Agony Aunt prayer warrior? Baby-Sitter's Club newest member? Manuscript Assessor?  Mother's maid-of-all-work? Tik Tok star? 

I saw that Mitre 10 was looking for garden centre helpers. Their stock needs constant care and I can imagine what a huge job that is for very little pay, and just as soon as you have everything tidied up customers come and make a mess of it again. I wonder if free plants are included and whether you could just set up a side line boutique out of all the rejected plants, because Mitre 10 is huge and more like Cost Co except more expensive, but less expensive than Kings without the discount. Both Kings and Mitre 10 sell fake plants right alongside real ones and I wonder if some customers can even tell the difference. 

Eden Garden are also looking for a 'Lead Gardener' who can lift heavy weights. But I'm really over carrying every else's burdens. I want my yoke to be easy and light. 

Everyone is saying I need a full time steady job but I am thinking I might just apply for the benefit as this could take a while and I'm not sure I really want to go back to wage slavery again. At least in my own garden I am my own boss. Right mum? 

So much for summer

 ...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.