Category: Planting and management

I was really happy to help develop the Gardens for Wildlife brand for Forest & Bird.

For the launch Jett and I helped about 100 volunteers plant 4,000 trees on millions of dollars of prime real estate in Orakei. Ngati Whatua o Orakei are awesome!

Whilst trapping is still fun I find the data entry boring and unrewarding. So I have started designing an app for that. I have learnt heaps from talking about it with lots of great people. But I am still trying to understand the whole bio-security business.

Whilst planting about 500 trees and plants at Johnstons Reserve this morning we kept finding these very green earthworms. They bunched up instead of wriggling around like regular earthworms. I hope to get a good ID on NatureWatch

Fist tree out of my Nursary is a Karaka that accidentally sprouted in my Garden a few years ago. I planted it on this little ‘Island’ near Wai o Taiki Bay. Hopefully it helps hold it together.

After being trained to do pest control for Auckland Council. I have joined the Selwyn Bush roster (only 14 traps sites). The people at Conservation Volunteers seem to do a lot to help but I should help them make a web app as the data entry is pretty painful. 

READY TO PLANT
1 Karaka Trees (grown from urban seed)

GROWING
2 Karaka Trees (grown from urban seed)
3 Locquet Trees (grown from urban seed)
10 Carex Lessoniana (bought – will divide)
8 Passionfruit plants (grown from stray seedlings)
1000 Pohutakawa seeds (grown from local seeds)

CLONING
16 Pear Trees (cloned from urban source)
6 Pohutakawa Trees (cloned from urban source)

GERMINATING
10 Puriri Trees (Wai O Taki Bay seed)
30 Cabage Trees (urban seed)
10 Nikau Trees (Maungatapere seeds)
10 xxx? Trees (Maungatapere seeds)
12 Karaka Trees (Mt Wellington seed)

I spent the morning removing Asparagus Weed from the Kepa Bush reserve in Kohimarama as part of the Forest & Bird Pourewa Restoration Project. I have a lot more work to do!

I have tried to find out who planted these trees but no one seems to know. Many are completely dead – it has been a very dry summer. I am trying to revive the rest with local creek water (only when the tide is going out) but I am worried about the salt content. I tasted it once and it was a lot less salty than the sea but I will not again, not since I smelt the waste water being pumped into the creek upstream!

UPDATE: It’s officially a drought. I have been giving each tree approx. 4L of creek water once a week. There is no noticeable return of any green leaves. Tho one of the Rewarewa with a tiny amount of green has not lost it. The creek water is getting smellier I am not sure how good it is for the trees. I am bringing my house water down for the only Kauri.

UPDATE: They all died. The drought was bad, but I don’t know why Auckland Council plants trees and does not look after them.