Although Brian and I were away much of May the Nursery Vollies lead by Linda and Ray, did a great job continuing the regular Volunteer Fridays. Work being done was continued seed cleaning, weeding, potting into small pots and sending plants out of the Nursery. One major planting project that occurred while we were away was the Kowhai Reach planting, where we have been supplying plants for the last few years. Its always great to see plants we have grown go into the ground on good projects and the Limehills School students, under the guidance of QEII Rep Jesse Bythell, did a great job by all accounts – link to article here https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360682104/schoolchildren-plant-450-trees-kowhai-reach
As well as a lot of plants going out to projects we are also into planting right here. Just prior to going away we had a new pond excavated and have begun planting already – especially on the island, before the pond started filling with water! A big thanks to Kata who helped me plant the island, before the water seeped in and to Derek who planted the Carex secta while we were away and thanks to Jason for the drone photo!
Highlights of our trip away were meeting some awesome QEII Covenant holders, and their interesting properties and meeting the Reps who are supporting them, seeing new landscapes and plants, catching up with lots of friends along the way and some excellent fungi observations including the gorgeous sky blue Entoloma! (see pics).
For the remainder of May at the Nursery we have encountered some interesting weather, including last Fridays hail storms and wind! But despite the weather hardy volunteers came, including new people and we also did some apple pressing with Bronwyn and Russels apple press. The next few weeks will involve seed sowing and propagation for cuttings. We will close for winter on Friday 27th June and on that day will draw the Jo Ogier Kaka painting raffle (there is still time for tickets!).
Finally, someone left this nice black jacket at the Nursery and we would like to reunite it with its owner!
Chris
Posted: 1 June 2025
Ōtātara Community Connections Alive and Well
Term 1 2025 has seen the connections between Ōtātara School, the Southland Community Nursery and the Otatara Landcare Group continue to grow. The beginning of March I started as kaiako (teacher) 3 days a week at Ōtātara School continuing my association with the school, from our children’s school days and working as an environmental educator with the Southland Community Nursery.
Later in March it was great to have the Southland Community Nursery open once again for Ōtātara School. Bug building, seed and leaf identifying, who lives where? nature art, nature wondering and learning about animal pests were the activities that a group of year 3 and 4 students from Ōtātara School experienced, spending a morning of their outdoor week at the Southland Community Nursery. Viewing the pond, exploring the restored forest and estimating how many plants the nursery produces in a year rounded off the visit. The looking, noticing, wondering, and investigation nature of the visit highlighted the connection between the school and this local place in our wider community. See News and Events • Southland Community Nursery for more news. The school and the Landcare group are in discussions. See News & Events • Otatara Landcare Group for more information.
The enthusiasm and the mahi that the school, Landcare Group and the Southland Community Nursery groups do in and for the environment is evidence of how wonderful these communities are. Along with tree removal and fencing work last year and over the summer at the school, the Bushy Point restoration planting site turning 25 this year, and the amazing place that is Ōtātara, the possible projects because of these community connections makes for an exciting year – watch this space!
Bronwyn Graham
Teacher – Environmental Education Specialist
Ōtātara School
Posted: 1 June 2025
The Community Nursery will be running on self-guided activities for some of April/May including this Friday. We will be closed for Good Friday (18 April), Anzac Day (25 April). On other Fridays jobs will be mainly weeding, seed collecting and cleaning, track clearing, Education Centre cleaning. We wont be doing any potting up into PB3’s for the rest of the season. Rationale below.
As the season progresses into Autumn and Winter we will be doing less work in the Nursery. People are planting out their natives in Autumn and the Nursery beds are emptying. Potting jobs are targeted at preparing plants for sitting outside over winter, only potting into small pots ready for their re-potting in spring. Weeds, thankfully slow down their growth but weeding still required and watering is no longer necessary. We are still in the middle of seed collecting and cleaning and will sow all our seeds in June. They will sit out over winter, getting the “cold chilling” or stratifying that books tell us we should do by putting seeds in the fridge. It has generally not been a good seed collecting year with a scarcity of many of the usually reliable seed species. We will also do some cuttings workshops for those who wish to learn or re-learn this technique for propagating plants. We also hope the new pond will be created in this period, before the water table rises again. And so a new project will begin for us.
In the veggie garden the produce has been good this year with very successful onions, zucchini, peas, beans, tomatoes, carrots, celery, chillies, cucumbers. Garlic was a flop for me and brassicas, leeks, beetroot and potatoes a lesser crop than previous years. I did think my giant onions would look good at the Riverton Harvest Festival last weekend but seeing the huge produce table (including Joans massive crops – see pic below) I am pleased I didn’t take mine!!
We have a large variety of apples, mainly heritage varieties, and each year is different. Although not the best year, this year, due to less water availability, the birds were a much bigger problem than previous years and we had to pick many apples earlier than we would have liked. However, friends also picked our cider apples and other apples for juicing and cider vinegar making. There are more to be picked if anyone wants some as we have picked our fill of them.
If you have borrowed books from our Library, please return them so others can enjoy them.
Just a heads up our last day of the season will be 27th June 2025 and we will draw the Jo Ogier Print raffle on that day (there are still tickets left). Then we will be closed for winter.
Posted: 1 April 2025
After a quiet start to the year, we have had lots of volunteers on Fridays and the year seems to be speeding into Autumn. Watering has remained a major job through summer and other major nursery jobs recently have been seed collecting and seed cleaning in preparation for sowing all seeds in June. In general terms it has not been a good year for seeds, they seem to be much less available than previous good years so, vigilance is the key. When you are out and about look at our web guide first to see when seeds are likely to be ready and what they look like when mature for picking - https://www.southlandcommunitynursery.org.nz/restoring-your-patch/get-growing/seeds/
Weeding is of course a major nursery task, so thanks particularly to Geoff Dembo and Ann Irving for keeping up the good work on that front. While keeping the plants alive through summer has been a major task for me, plants are now starting to go out of the Nursery for planting projects in Autumn and we are at last having a few gaps in beds to fill up with small seedlings for next season. Thanks to all our volunteers for great work on Fridays.
We have had a number of visiting groups, from Judys Trefoil, ex-guide leader group, to Rural Womens group to a Spanish tapas night! All while Brian was away to the Subantarctic Islands. Linda Ray and I did however, visit Antarctica (virtually!).
Jo Ogier has made a generous donation of one of her paintings (photo below), proceeds to the Community Nursery. Tickets are $5 each and you can pay cash in the Nursery or internet banking. To be sure the name and bank number match please use the following name STHLD COMMUNITY NURSERY CONSERVATION TRT, and Bank Account Number 031355 0645582 00 and make sure you put your name on the payment so I can allocate a ticket!
A date for your diary – Southland Ecological Restoration Network (www.sern.org.nz) Bus Trip to Waituna Saturday 5 April 2025 – details here, BOOKING ESSENTIAL
https://www.sern.org.nz/events/sern-autumn-field-trip-waituna/
A couple of exciting developments for the future – a new pond will be appearing in our paddock near the education centre (see Jason’s drone photos below) and we welcome Bronwyn back in her new Otatara School role connecting the Nursery and Bushy Point with Otatara School again.
Chris
Posted: 17 March 2025
After a quiet start to 2025, the Nursery is back in full swing on a Friday morning! Today we continued the watering – an almost daily task at the moment. Thanks to those on the watering roster over the holidays, much appreciated. The weather has continued to be sunny, so watering is a big task – we hand water due to being on tank water and it takes about an hour and a half to water the entire nursery. Any willing helpers appreciated.
Other tasks today with our 15 volunteers have been potting, weeding and now seed collecting – starting with red tussocks, toe toe and saltmarsh ribbonwood. We are also preparing for another big project on our property – another pond!!
If you haven’t yet seen the Jo Ogier exhibition at the Eastern Southland Gallery in Gore, there is no time to lose – there will be a Floor talk by Jo on Sunday 16 February at 4pm, so maybe a good day to take in the exhibition and hear Jo. https://www.esgallery.co.nz/joogier
There is a marvellous opportunity to buy a wetland (with house attached!) – friends of ours are relocating to Christchurch and are selling their much loved property at Mabel Bush – see pics below and details here https://www.trademe.co.nz/link.aspx?i=12121&id=5146488854
Chris and Brian
www.southlandcommunitynursery.org.nz
Posted: 7 February 2025
