The spelling … north shore wilds … is easy, but remember, if you have to type it into a search, it’s “wilds”…plural… and why, you ask?
Well, we are not proposing that the entire North Shore should be wild… (living in trees can be inconvenient)… just that our locally native species and the character of our local wild nature are conserved, recognised and enjoyed, and given a place in our gardens where possible.
“Wilds” is a term used informally to cover plants whose ancestry is entirely wild; ie they grew wild from wild parent plants, or were cultivated from seed collected from known wild plants in the ecological area in which they are to be planted…ie they are “ecosourced”.
We have been weeding to release the remnants of wild native plant communities in North Shore reserves and gardens since 1987, and ecosourcing seeds locally since 2003. We also pot up some of the wild native seedlings descended from the ecosourced trees, shrubs and groundcovers planted in our own garden, or brought by birds to our garden, which is on the edge of Eskdale Forest.
So, whether weeding, landscaping or growing plants in pots, we work only with “North Shore wilds”; plants with the genetic characteristics that evolved to make them perfect for their North Shore situation.
Our new landscape gardening business takes its name from the little plant nursery we operated commercially from about 2003 to 2006, ecosourcing only from the North Shore and selling mainly to North Shore City Council for local environmental restoration projects.
The wild native trees, sedges and grasses around the nursery never stopped reproducing, so we pot some up every year, giving them away or planting a few in our Gahnia Grove restoration project.
We are now once again growing a small range of ecosourced native plants for sale to our restoration and landscaping customers.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos on this website were taken by us on the North Shore of Auckland, mostly in the suburbs of Birkenhead/Birkdale/Hillcrest/Glenfield/Northcote, during our volunteer or commercial work or at our home in Glenfield.
Above: This pink flower is kotukutuku / NZ native tree fuchsia /Fuchsia excorticata, on an old tree which has overhung Kaipatiki Stream in Glenfield for several decades, (photo 2018 by Jacqui Geuz, iNaturalist.nz.org).
