Lest We Forget

 ANZAC Day was spent in the garden. I wasn't particularly up at dawn that day, and there were no poppies, just some fighter jets zooming overhead but I did have a field day planting and planting and planting.  I did it especially because if I don't do it I will forget and the plants from Rogers will languish in their pots. I can't be one of those gardeners that just buys plants all the time and leaves them in pots all over the place with the tags still on them and not actually create a garden with them. A certain brother does this...I'm not mentioning any names of course. 

So almost all the plants have found homes though I had to do a lot of rearranging - just like in a library, and some weeding, so the weed pile is quite high but I made sure it was behind the garage where nobody can see and so dad doesn't come and chuck all weeds in the reserve in his attempt at 'keeping the lawn swept' and get in trouble with my neighbour, David, who is planting natives in the reserve.

Three penstemons are left to find homes and I can't decide where they ought to go. I'm kind of wanting to remove the cream dietes that have attracted those sticky brown moths  when they flower but I know it will be a HUGE job to remove them. Removing clumps of aristea was bad enough even though they actually have a better flower, to make room for bearded iris under the Cleopatra magnolia. Watsonia I've flung to the back of the borders because it really does flower extremely tall. 

Blue Pansies I won from raffle are now by the driveway, along with more gazania clumps, and the lambs ears I have totally spread all over Snowy's bed. All along underneath the apple trees I have planted ajuga after clearing most of the creeping buttercup (big job) as it seems to do well there. Blue pratia is now in Fat Lady Sings bed, polyanthus has moved to by the house, gasterias potted up, rain lillies now by the azalea. Lavender Sidonie is now by the olive and with lambs ears. Mondo grass has been removed and am considering planting it under the Japanese maple, and removing those spider plants. Granny bonnet is now by the other baby grannies. Spider plant removal seems a thing now - no rafters to have hanging baskets!

 I wish I didn't have a dead flat site with buxus hedges because its all very mathematical and boring and 'edgy' but I can't do anything about that unless..I start removing all the buxus, by cutting them all down to stumps and just leave the tall ones by the fence and making the corner ones into topiary instead of big boring box rectangles. Here's a big plant in the shape of a box! I'm like I really have enough of Minecraft obsessed boys at school I don't want to make my eyes any squarer. We already live in a brick house why do the plants have to be shaped like bricks as well? 

That is all, and in case I forgot anything, I'll just have to post about it tomorrow. I was trying to fit it all in today because tomorrow is the first day back of Term 2 and after that I won't have much time for gardening - the cold snap is already on its way...

 

Roger's Garden Centre

 I finally made the trip to Rogers, thanks to Bev, who knew the way and was happy to take me. So Thursday morning we set off and entered the plant lovers paradise that was Rogers personal domain and business. It was a clear day, no rain, and I had a list of plants I was hoping to buy. We wandered around for a bit and then snagged a pink wheelbarrow to put our purchases in. There is barely enough room to walk for the wheelbarrows so its easier to look first and then carry your plants to a wheelbarrow which won't block anyone else. This is why everyone recommends to NEVER go in the weekend. 

This is not your average garden centre. Its more of a wholesaler, or maybe the plant lovers equivalent of Cost-Co. There are no fancy signs or changing displays or deals - what you see is what you get. But you will get it at least half the price that you'd pay for at a regular garden centre. It's absolutely crammed with plants.

Roger was at the till with a helper calling out the prices so he could enter them in. No barcodes at this garden centre. Thankfully he DID have an eftpos machine. 

Unfortunately, I am not allowed any shrubs or trees and Rogers has more of those than the annuals and perennials I am after, though he still had plenty of what was there. 

I managed to purchase -

3 penstemons

3 blue pratias

lavender 'sidonie'

punnet of mixed polyanthus

variegated oregano

blue salvia

Roger told me that lavender 'sidonie' was Australian and smells more like sage. It stinks he said, bluntly. I took a sniffle, the label said 'highly fragrant' but he was right it didn't smell lavendery but more herby. However I didn't take it back because I was more attracted to its unusual feathery leaves than its scent. That was the only advice he gave me - his cat wasn't there this time guarding the money.

Then he had a long chat with Bev who was next in line. Bev had once managed a garden centre that got taken over by Bunnings. So they talked shop and old colleagues. Bev said Roger once worked at the Wholesale Tree Company before he set up his own business, and he kept his overheads low because he ran it all without any extra full time staff (though he had someone call out the prices) and sold just plants, while other garden centres had teams at the checkout, giftware, cafes, compost and garden tools.

Bev said when she had took over for Bunnings they had stripped out the old garden centre from Hardware House that had a beautiful aviary and fountains and big palm trees display and it had to be run as just a hardware store that sold widgets. I said what a shame and she said they didn't care about plants and she was the only staff member who knew anything about them. 

Bev said she was quite a bad gardener in that she was totally obsessed with plants and wanted them all. But they also out grow their allotted space and she needs to edit them quite a bit. I said that she was like a parent who complained about their children having to look after them and then complain they grew too big and had to leave home. Maybe you can love plants TOO much? 

I pondered this but decided that plant love was really part of the human condition for without plants providing us with oxygen maybe we would all die. I never understood the whole 'carbon credit' thing. Since when was carbon emissions in the air now touted as bad? People can't stop breathing or respiring. Why aren't people measuring the amount of oxygen being produced by plants photosynthesising the carbon dioxide and transpiring? Shouldn't there be oxygen credits instead of carbon credits? 

I'll just leave that for the scientists to figure out as its beyond me. 

Sister Act

 Whenever my sister comes over its a whirlwind of family feasting and visits, so garden time takes a back seat. However that didn't mean I couldn't sneak some gardens in my sister's itinerary while she was here. Starting with an easter egg hunt in the garden, to visiting an old whaling museum and garden property with ancient pohutakawa trees, to the old Kemp mission house up North next to the oldest stone store in Kerikeri, to finding a bargain priced hoya in a citrus nursery.. and the arrival of spring bulbs shipment, there was plenty of plant related holiday time fun. Maybe it's to make up for me being away for two weeks from school where my indoor plants may languish in the dark of the library that only has two outside windows - will they still be alive by the time I get back?

I am not sure, whether the dark and lack of florescent light will kill them or maybe they'll just have two weeks hibernation. It's currently feijoa season and we are still picking up feijoas every day from the ground. We laugh whenever we see them for sale at the shops for $8.99 a kilo. But apparently non-Aucklanders are willing to pay that much for our surplus. 

In the Far North (why 'far'? It's not that far...) the main plants I see from the road are toi toi and bamboo thickets, and ugly pinus radiata. I think I saw...ONE kauri tree. Our magnificent Kauri forests are no more, though Transport NZ still insists on naming the region 'Kauri Coast'. What Kauri? The only ones left are chopped up in the Tree Museum or made into chopping boards and wooden spoons and epoxy covered clocks at the Kauri workshop. I am feeling quite dismayed that our national treasure, that had once made fine waka and furniture and houses for Aucklanders has not been replanted and wilding pines have taken over instead, like gnarly overgrown Christmas Trees. But not even NZ Christmas Trees because Pohutakawa COULD grow on those steep hillsides and stop all the landslides but for some strange reason, a fast growing and cheap American import was chosen instead. 

The other native that could grow up North is the lovely and shapely manuka, beloved by our imported honey bees, but it seems unloved in favour of gorse and grass. I managed to pay a visit to the Hundertwasser museum again and got out on to the rooftop, which had been planted up in all manner of native plants, and while more urban spaces are getting the green treatment, it's coming at great expense. I'm beginning to wonder why the Brits thought it was a great idea to turn NZ into a giant dairy/sheep farm especially in places that were so ill-suited for pastoral agriculture. I suppose since all the whales had got killed they just had to try something else. 

So much for my musings. I often try not to care about things too much because it's not as if I am Prime Minister and run the country and can do anything about it. For some strange reason, every time someone sees a sign that says 'volunteer gardener wanted' somewhere they immediately think that I should do the job for nothing as if it would make me the happiest person in the world. Despite the fact I already have my OWN garden to tend to, and I cannot literally be in three places at once at opposite ends of the country. Instead signs like that make me sad that nobody is looking after the garden, maybe the gardener died or moved away or was just told they weren't allowed to garden anymore, or they had bills to pay and volunteer gardening just doesn't pay them. 

I really think the Labour and Green Party, and the National Party should all merge into one and be renamed the National Garden Party. Labour would provide the hands, the Greens, the know-how, and National the funds to show off the gardens. And every year they would have a garden party festival and invite other countries to our gardens and be 'number one' on the 'world stage' of garden parties and win all the medals in the Gardening Olympics for the amazing gardens we have. Could work. 

Oh I forgot I am not the Prime Minister. I do know who is the boss in our family though and whenever she visits I am often reminded of the fact. She's going back soon though because her pilea plant is outgrowing its pot.