Garden restoration projects – North Shore Wilds

June 12, 2025June 15, 2025

New life every autumn, including Kauri seedlings

Autumn and winter are my favourite times for restoration work. Everywhere native tree seedlings are popping up and, if recognised and protected, extend the wild habitats they spring from.

Manuka seedlings arise in bare sun-exposed clay, or as below, in manuka leaf litter on the outer edge of manuka “scrub”:

Karamu are abundant anywhere blackbirds visit

Totara, houpara and mapou appear under trees and among tall leafy plants (including weeds). These two mapou are under a mahoe tree

and occasionally, even in highly landscaped gardens within bird-reach of a forest fragment, we find the fern-like tanekaha seedling.

The tanekaha below is probably 2 or 3 years old, (with two little karamu seedlings above it).

On the edges of kauri forest fragments, kauri seedlings are scattered wherever the surface layer of humus (rotted leaf litter) has lain undisturbed for several months.

This one is no surprise – in a deep bed of leaf litter beneath a kauri and a tanekaha. You can see the smooth shallow hollows in the scales of fallen kauri cones that fell here, (as well as the frilly-edged stem-tips of tanekaha – which we usually refer to as leaves, though they are technically not leaves but stem-tips) (For extra points, spot the two tiny green kawakawa seedlings:)

But kauri can germinate in many types of surface, even bare clay after construction, esecially if there is a bit of organic debris to feed and shelter them.

It’s hard to believe that each giant kauri tree in our remaining forest fragments grew from simple and unassuming seedlings like these.

Even more gratifying to see a kauri seedling appear this autumn in the space between rotting wild ginger tubers! (No chemicals used, no digging or yanking, just our fold-down technique that rots the whole clump out over a few years).

Kauri seed (lower) with karamu seedling (upper)

I have seen dozens of kauri seedlings appear each year in a few metres of partly shaded lawn in a garden bordering a kauri forest reserve…. to be either mown to maintain a lawn, or weeded carefully and supported with other native regeneration, to begin a new little patch of forest.

In Gahnia Grove in Eskdale Reserve, a single kauri seedling appeared in 2020 under a small shrub (a planted Cook Island Flax) only 2 metres from the mown playing field on Glenfield Rd.

The nearest kauri old enough to bear cones is about 100m away from this seedling.

Weeding continues to protect this kauri seedling, and the native plants that nursed it while it germinated are pruned to give this enterprising kauri seedling ongoing space, shelter, light and protection from human activity.

Book a private or group assessment if you would like the hidden or unrecognised native plants revealed and identified in your garden or Reserve.

For neighbourhood groups restoring their local Reserve, it is essential to do this assessment both before and throughout planning or undertaking weed control, because without thorough knowledge of the existing habitat, more wild native vegetation is likely to be lost during weeding and planting than can be successfully established by planting.

The same applies to home gardens, where free native plants can save a lot of money!

June 7, 2025June 8, 2025

Collecting questions at the Plant Stand

At our winter plant stands on Glenfield Rd last year we enjoyed answering many questions about how we restore wild native plant communities (eg Gahnia Grove in Eskdale Reserve, where we hold the plant stands).

It takes more than a few minutes to answer such questions fully enough for people to be able to manage their own weed control using this method of plant identification and hand weeding.

To help meet the demand for more teaching and demonstration of the techniques and strategies we use, we have asked a friend to collect your questions and areas of interest, so we can answer your questions through demonstration and illustration in a co-ordinated way.

We will both be at the Plant Stand (opposite the petrol station on Glenfield Rd) from 11.00 am to 12.30pm this Sunday.

Meanwhile, our usual small range of locally ecosourced native plants will be on sale until about 3pm, weather permitting.

More about chemical-free weed control and habitat restoration at northshorewilds.co.nz

Kaipatiki Stream during chemical-free restoration by the North Shore Wilds method

May 10, 2025May 26, 2025

Native plant sale and gift cards

At last autumn rains have saturated the soil, loosening weeds and opening the soil for planting.

Tomorrow, Sunday 11th May (Mothers’ Day), we will once again hold the North Shore Wilds roadside native plant stand at Gahnia Grove, our restoration site in Eskdale Reserve, (around 230 Glenfield Rd, near the petrol station).

Small Kawakawa from $3 each or 4 for $10, Carex flagellifera from $5, larger kawakawa and Carex $8 and $10, plus Scrambling Fuchsia and a few other bits and pieces.

Also for sale will be our specially printed Gift Cards for a home garden ecology assessment, discovering hidden and unknown native ground covers, grasses and shrubs, identifying the weeds, and suggesting a strategy of natural, low-energy techniques for replacement of weeds by a diverse, healthy native plant community, with specific techniques of manual weed control. for kikuyu, Tradescantia, ginger, privets, weed vines, or whatever you have.

Conditions are now ideal for weeding, so between customers we are likely to be rolling back the kikuyu, or even hidden among the bushes as we discover this year’s new native seedlings as we weed. We keep a fairly close eye onthe stand, but if we don’t see you arrive, just call out or phone 021485994, and we will appear within seconds:)

August 31, 2024May 26, 2025

End-of-winter sale – Native plants half-price tomorrow on Glenfield Rd

Tomorrow, Sunday 1st September, we will be selling our remaining large Kawakawa and Carex flagellifera at half-price: $5 for the 12-15cm pots and $4 for the 10cm pots, at our native plant stand on Glenfield Rd opposite the petrol station….while stocks last.

Kawakawa fruit are a big drawcard for kereru. Male and female trees are needed for fruiting, and you can’t tell which is which until they flower at about 4 years of age, so plant half a dozen. They grow in sun or shade but do best in part shade, and need moist soil in summer. The kawakawa left of centre and on the right below are growing wild among Carex and other natives.

Carex flagellifera self-seed and multiply by division, filling a space to hold the soil and crowd out weeds . They are tolerant of dry or wet soil, in full sun or part shade. These have multiplied in a gap between harakeke on Glenfield Rd, and karamu are growing wild with them:

August 3, 2024May 26, 2025

Plant stand open Sunday 4th August

As usual, from about 10am at Gahnia Grove on Glenfield Rd opposite the petrol station.

About 20 large Carex flagellifera left, still at $8 each, with plenty of small ones now at $5 each. Only a few of the Carex lambertiana left, all small, at $5, and only 36 small kawakawa left till the next lot grow a bit more.

Kawakawa and other small trees are $3 each or 4 for $10.

ripening and unripe kawakawa overhanging Carex outside dining room window

July 27, 2024May 26, 2025

Large Carex flagellifera for $8 at our Glenfield Rd Plant Stand

The North Shore Wilds native plant stand will be open tomorrow Sunday, opposite the petrol station on Glenfield Rd, from about 10am. Our larger plants need to be well rooted in damp ground before summer drought (unless they will be watered), so the largest Carex flagellifera have been reduced from $10-12 to $8.

Carex have long hair-like roots that penetrate and stabilize clay soils. Grown close together, in full sun or shade, they form dense hardy tufts that can be occasionally walked on, preventing soil compaction and erosion in wet weather.

Their seeds are the natural habitat for tiny… and harmless… native Carex beetles, which I have seen only a few times. I was amazed that this species had survived the 20 years since I sourced and planted these in my own garden.

Like most of our other plants, these are grown from seed ecosourced from the Kaipatiki area.

The photo shows three species of wild Kaipatiki-native Carex allowed to grow as they will, spreading to cover previously bare clay under a planted kawakawa and a wild nikau, in an 80cm wide strip of soil outside a dining room window that gives a great view of kereru feeding in the kawakawa in summer. (We still have small kawakawa trees for $3 each or 4 for $10.)

Our spaces are shrinking, but we can still have wild beauty !

November 20, 2023

Free container-grown plants for planting in Autumn

We have re-activated our little cottage nursery that supplied Council restoration projects and home gardens from about 2004-2006. Hundreds of native seeds fall and grow, even in our own little garden and gravel driveway, so we have been potting them up in recycled pots with roughly-composted wood chip mulch so our garden restoration clients can have free plants for planting season (or earlier if they have a loose soil and are prepared to water them…but Autumn is much easier!)

We are now offering 10-20 plants (depending on size), in a limited range of species – this year we concentrated on kawakawa, karamu, nikau and Carex – free with every 10 hours of gardening or habitat restoration, while stocks last.

We will look after the plants till autumn.

Here’s what they look like at present:

North Shore Wilds nursery plants, November 2023

November 16, 2023November 17, 2023

Kawakawa fruit are beginning to ripen

Following the development of the kawakawa fruit observed in earlier posts, I noticed a few ripe fruit on the tree outside this dining room window.

ripening and unripe kawakawa seen through open dining room window

In summer kereru clamber in the taller branches of the tree, alone, in pairs, and one year with a chick, all within a metre of this window.

Fortunately for the kereru, who are far too trusting for their own good, a dog keeps the garden cat-free, and the dog can’t reach this part of the garden.

A low branch outside the window has ripening and unripe fruit overhanging purei (Carex lambertiana)

Above: a fully ripe kawakawa fruit, found half-eaten on the ground, discloses the many seeds within the orange flesh of a single fruit

The wood of the kawakawa is soft, easily pruned to keep this paved path clear.

Wild native sedges and grasses and moss are allowed to cover the earth under the tree, and the smaller plants are allowed to spread to fill the gaps between paving tiles, keeping out most of the dandelions, creeping buttercup and other weeds.

The native kawakawa looper makes holes in the kawakawa leaves.

These holes are said to correspond to the leaves with the strongest medicinal value, perhaps because of substances produced in those leaves in response to the caterpillars eating the leaves.

Another explanation is that the caterpillars know which leaves are the best to eat.

Either way, this 2 square metres of clay is cool and refreshing to look out on through hot summers, hosts a lot of wildlife, lets morning light play on the windows all year round, and, with fallen leaves and twigs mulching the ground naturally, requires almost no attention to stay beautiful and weed-free.

November 6, 2023May 26, 2025

Cool summer evening gardening

One evening last week, putting out the compost turned into an after-dinner garden wander – a weed to pull out here, a “volunteer” tomato seedling to pop in there – and I realized this is how it will be for the rest of the summer, just like every other year; the cool stillness of evening and gentle sounds of roosting birds keeps me outside till dusk.

For this shade-loving gardener, it has already become too hot for work in the afternoons except under or among big trees.

It occurred to me that there may be people who would like an evening garden ecology assessment, learning session or even their weeding done, when they are home and can collaborate or advise.

For morning or evening garden restoration services, or forest restoration anytime, contact us.

October 27, 2023October 27, 2023

Free native plants for your garden’s wild spaces

In the 5 months we have been working with some of our gardening clients, they have learned to recognise and make use of the wild native trees, shrubs and grasses that spontaneously grow all over the North Shore, from the soil’s seedbank from former forest and wetland, or from seed and spores brought by birds or wind.

In this time, even small areas of mown lawn, or gardens containing only the common non-native ornamental species, have produced a few tanekaha, rewarewa and kahikatea seedlings, lots of baby Cabbage trees (Cordyline australis), five-finger (Pseudopanax), Karamu (Coprosma robusta) and mapou, (often referred to as Pittosporum, though it is actually Myrsine australis), and numerous native grasses, sedges and creeping ground covers.

Wild tanekaha seedling hidden among Clivia in a small garden of ornamental shrubs

Of course, those who are lucky enough to have a patch of native bush in or beside their garden, and some undisturbed areas of ground, have seen all kinds of forest species emerge and thrive, including native vines, ferns and orchids, and the less common “forest giants” like tanekaha, kahikatea, rewarewa and kauri.

wild karamu seedlings found among ivy and other weeds in a large weedy garden, a small area of which is now being restored to dense wild native vegetation

wild rewarewa seedling among cut ivy under Norfolk pine

wild rewarewa seedling discovered while weeding under a Norfolk pine, now protected with some cut ivy and uprooted weeds

For new clients, or as a “stand-alone” service, we provide a 1.5 hour assessment of your garden’s potential for visual transformation and the recreation of diverse native pant communities, solely through plant identification, soil protection and chemical-free weed control.