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:
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
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 !
Today at the plant stand on Glenfield Rd we have a “special” – 4 of the $3 kawakawa for $10. Kawakawa enjoy close plant communities and can be seen wild – or planted – in groups, under shade trees, and among other small trees and shrubs.
Having several of them gives you a better chance of having both a male and a female tree. Only the female trees will bear fruit.
Both male and female trees are needed for pollination of the flowers so they produce fruit. I dont know how near they need to be to each other. More info at northshorewilds.co.nz
Tomorrow, Sunday, I will be taking the North Shore Wilds baby plants (still priced from $3) for their weekly outing to Eskdale Reserve:). We will as usual be near the Flame tree opposite the petrol station. I will set up there every Sunday by about 10am, and maybe some Saturdays, through the planting season (or while stocks last).
We have had a lot of discussions there with customers, Reserve visitors and passersby, lately about landslips, natural overland flows, Kaipatiki’s many named and unnamed streams (including those that only flow in winter), and how to deal with seasonal excesses of water in the garden.
Auckland Council has lots of info about “greenfields” stormwater management and the restoration of dense vegetation to absorb water and stabilize soil. Recently I read a study which found that ti kouka (Cordyline australis, cabbage tree) is particularly good at this job. Its roots grow quickly and deep, it doesn’t mind “wet feet”, and it is a fast grower.
It also attracts birds, including kereru, to its huge bunches of glossy black fruit.
You can easily raise as many ti kouka seedlings as you want, merely by refraining from spraying, mowing or disturbing unused ground, identifying everything that comes up, suppressing problematic weeds, and supporting the ti kouka seedlings with a mulch of anything around… which includes most of the weeds you have pulled out or squashed down.
See what a good job the ti kouka and karamu are doing around the plant stand in Gahnia Grove! Road runoff pours down this steep bank, but the trees are absorbing the impact of the raindrops, drawing a lot of the water down into the ground for storage till they need it in summer, and holding the soil together. The dense ground covering vegetation further softens the impact of the rain, preventing loss of surface soil.
Groundcovering plants here still include some of the remaining harmless wildflower weeds, which we maintain for this purpose until they get shaded out as the young trees become dense.
More info about chemical-free weed control and ecological restoration of your garden at northshorewilds.co.nz
The North Shore Wilds native plant stand will be open again tomorrow (Sunday) from about 10am, at the Gahnia Grove restoration project on Glenfield Rd opposite the petrol station (where the strawberry stand is in summer).
We still have kawakawa, karamu, a few other treees and shrubs, Carex (“grasses”) and some groundcovers, small ones for $3, with the larger pots priced accordingly.
All are ecosourced from the Kaipatiki area, and grown in composting twig/leaf mulch and woodchips, without added chemicals. Many pots contain live earthworms, and all contain live soil fungi etc, so they are best suited to planting in the ground.
We also welcome enquiries about our chemical-free weed-control and general landcare. The Gahnia Grove restoration project is handy for showing examples of our weed-control methods and the resulting natural forest regrowth.
We can assess your own site, and show you how to control weeds, improve soil and produce your own locally-wild native plants for free. Or we can do it for you. For large bare areas freed from weeds, we can provide free potted plants to our landcare customers.
