Orwell's Roses

 I'm reading Orwell's Roses. It's a book of essays about George Orwell, who aside from writing polemic, prophetic dystopias, and the brilliant Animal Farm, was also an avid gardener. When he wasn't battling totalitarianism, he was whacking weeds and nurturing rose bushes. 

I always knew that about him though, that heart was in the bucolic English countryside of meadow and dale rather than the trenches of revolutionary class war. Sadly he did die young of TB which might have been from the infections he picked up in the damp muddy battlefields. Every gardener longs to have an ideal spot where they can garden, and over and over and over it's always stated most plants don't like wet feet, they must have good drainage, and air circulation. 

Rebecca Solnit writes that she visits Orwell's former garden out of curiosity and the Albertine roses he planted are still there. It's hard to kill a rose once its found it's sweet spot though, as I found with the flower carpet roses my brothers planted in the buxus beds. The buxus may be getting blight, so I've decided I must trim it right back and give it a chance to grow again. I can't face digging the whole lot out. 

I'll have to do the whole row on a dry day so it doesn't look like a toothless smile with plants missing here and there. Tip, don't plant buxus hedges in Auckland. The humidity will not be it's friend. I'd go for corokia, or manuka or totara or pittorsporum going for a fine leaved hedge that will hold up. Or if you like wavy forms with little effort, muehlenbeckia or low hummocks of coprosma. I've seen attempts at griselenia fail big time and gardenias don't like to be hedged either, they'll be attacked with thrips. 

It's just the low buxus though that needs to go and I wonder if I will get away with leaving a  very minimal ankle high hedge just enough to define a border. 

The other thing I've done is harvest the yacon, by digging it out  as the leaves are turning. It's now 2:50 in the afternoon and the sky has turned so dark that it almost feels like it's night time. I may have never entered the military but I too engage in battle right in my own backyard defining territory and crossing borders, martialling my army of worms and sharpening my swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks, marching in my gardening boots for bread and roses, digging for victory. 

Eavesdropping

 I came home one day to find that Dad had cut down the cabbage tree, and the silver fern had been lopped. Of course mum must have put him up to it as she'd been complaining for a while. It's likely that they will both grow back in a determined effort to survive though. 

The cabbage tree had chosen to root itself next to the house and was brushing up against the eaves, with the silver fern at it's feet, which was threatening to extend over the driveway. I was hoping it would grow taller than the car and not get in the way but tree ferns and cabbage trees have a way of ignoring straight lines as they are not block shaped or minecraft creations. Have you ever played minecraft? Your eyes will go square, and there is foliage in it apparently but that is all square and blocks as well. So yes to buxus, no to anything that grows that you cannot clip to shape. 

Now some Maori might be appalled that our native plants are shunned in favour of English exports. But I can't do anything about it. As I've said before, this is suburbia and we have been sectioned. It doesn't matter, this 636 sq metre plot is all we have. 

By the law of diminishing returns though, and the exponential growth of human reproduction, and taking into account of natural attrition its likely that Auckland eventually will collapse under its own weight  because each section is going to be carved up into smaller and smaller plots if the Council has their way until we are all living in skyscrapers aka Hong Kong 2. I can just picture it now. The rivers and creeks will be paved over like Queen Street and shops all put on them. 

Apparently we can never have enough shops and cafes. Years ago, I over heard that the Council were planning to make Auckland into a 'World Class City' or the 'World's most Livable City' which naturally meant the entire world was going to come here and live which I didn't think was feasible. So now when you walk along you can see trees chopped down and  houses going up but they are not really houses, more like boxes and my most frustrating thing is to see them being built with roofs that have NO EAVES. Now with canopy cover completely gone, and no tree roots to suck up water, and all the 'rain events' we are having, guess what? 

In about 5 years time those new buildings will all have to be pulled down because the rain will be getting in the walls and they will be leaky and mouldy and damp, they don't even have any window sills or flashings, and there is no green belt or rain garden to absorb the water and the excess storm water is all going to rush like a torrent into the harbour and destroy our marine environment - and we won' be able to swim or go fishing. 

Am I being a Cassandra about this and everyone shrugging and going well she's all doom and gloom. Think of all the world class shops and tourists we can attract when we host all the World Cups. Because we are a World City now. Well I'm sorry I just don't care what the world thinks this will be the ruin of Auckland. Yes Rome wasn't built in a day but they don't have rain like we do in Auckland. 

A teacher once lent me A History of Rome because I was interested in the rise and fall of a civilisation. Well I think A History of Auckland would tell a much more dramatic tale of hubris. 

Planting Day

 It seemed a bit early to be planting the reserve as usually happens in July but this Sunday was designated Riverpark Reserve native tree planting day and David had emailed me saying my Dad must do penance for chucking weeds in the reserve. Well since Dad was at MOTAT driving trams for Live Day it was down to me to atone for the sins of my father. 

I asked Mum to come along and we got into our gumboots. I didn't expect her to do any planting since digging is a bit beyond her but she did help pick up pots. However she did a tiger mum thing which was not so much directing my planting but growled at me for not walking all the way back to find her after I had finished. I am an adult and so is she and both of us can make our own way back home but when I got back she threw a big fit and said she could have died out there and I didn't care about her.

Honestly. There were not wild tigers lurking in the reserve out to eat her. Just friendly neighbours! Maybe the reserve grass area WAS a bit muddy but Mum isn't at the walker stage of decrepitude yet. What was she expecting, me to hold her hand? 

Anyway, I couldn't answer all the accusations of being selfish...I WAS tired and hungry by the time we had finished and didn't fancy walking in the opposite direction of home, just so mum could hold my hand. This time the park rangers did not put on a bbq and sausage sizzle for us. But that's ok, we all have our own homes to go back to and it isn't too far. I caught up with a few neighbours and one boy who went to Waitakere Primary who said he was having pizza when he got home. He said they did have a garden at school. I kept remarking every time I dug a hole to plant a tree that maybe this time I would find the gold. (I had to keep him motivated!). There was a small shower at one point but otherwise the weather was fine, warm and not windy. The ground was soft so it was as perfect planting conditions as could be expected. 

We had to keep going and just when we thought we finished a section there would be more to plant. We started from 93 and planted all along the creekside until we reached the field. David had done a great job sourcing and growing all these natives for us. There were titoki, manuka, coprosma, kawakawa, flaxes, nikau, kahikatea, pohutakawa, koromiko...though I noticed tree ferns were missing. On the other side of the creek which was Massey they had ferns but I suspected as that side was South facing they would have got more shade. 

Anyway not liking leaving a job half done we persevered and did our muddy high fives at the end. Every plant planted hooray! So that's three years of planting we've done so far and there's only a bit more to go for next year. Am so happy for our Riverparkers. You guys are great. Let's keep New Zealand Beautiful. ✋😍

Hibernation

 The days are getting shorter and the nights longer, only a couple more weeks and then it will be winter solstice. Already there are plans to bring snow to Massey for children to experience what it's like to freeze - symptoms of 'climate change' perhaps? 

I never really got why it was called climate change since the climate changes all the time in Auckland. You never know from one day to the next what it will be like, sometimes there will be four seasons in one day. Be prepared for anything, wear your shorts AND your puffy jacket, it's advised. 

I haven't been doing any gardening at all and should probably even be off to Fiji now, enjoying my extended holidays. But then I wonder if I'll be doing anything different in Fiji to what I would do at home, laze around and read books. (Fiji is just one of those random places I've never been to that's all). I don't actually know anybody in Fiji, nor have they invited me over. 

Walking around the garden today, I noticed my camellia is flowering pink, the magnolia is budding, and eerlicheer has cropped up, even the gladioli are making a showing. What's going on? Is spring here early? I've still got tulips chilling in the fridge. Maybe I should put them in the ground, though I haven't thought of where yet.  David's organised another planting day for 18 June at Riverpark reserve. So that  at least will be one thing I'll be doing. 

For my birthday Kings gave me $10 to spend and I promptly spent it on gardening gloves. Otherwise, there hasn't been much gardening of late to speak of, everything's awaiting Matariki. This holding pattern is just those barren periods a gardener goes through as birds fly north for winter (if they can get that far) but being terrestrial I don't have that option. Jo from Planet FM contacted me about Garden Planet will we be back on air with fresh programs soon? 

Will I ever make it to Taranaki this year for Garden Festival? 

Watch this space.