Artist Kyla Cresswell will be holding a one day art workshop, here at the Community Nursery Education Centre on Saturday 2 March 2024. All the details here
Please email Chris at [Enable JavaScript to view protected content] to book your place, and when your place is confirmed, you will need to pay in advance.
There will be a “reserves” list if demand is such that you dont get on first time.
Chris
Posted: 4 February 2024
We hope everyone has had a relaxing and enjoyable end of year and beginning of 2024!
The Nursery will be open for volunteers Friday 19 January and we hope you are all champing at the bit! The Nursery work hasn’t stopped over the holidays of course, plants and weeds have kept growing and watering has been an ongoing job. There will be plenty to do including potting, weeding, watering, moving plants, track clearing, seed collecting (yes it has started already!).
We have had quite a few forays away during the holidays and the odd few native plants have caught our eye on the way, as well as producing some impressive fruit and veggie crops – see photos below.
See you on the 19th January.
Chris and Brian
Posted: 11 January 2024
In the final few weeks we have been busy with volunteer Fridays, Bronwyn’s litter intelligence group and a few end of year functions. The Nursery Break -up for the year on Friday 15 December was well attended and some work was even done!! Congratulations everyone on a great spread of food and for your support during the year. Honorlea brought her Kakariki natural beauty products, which were a great hit – great Christmas pressies!
Drum Roll…….. For those waiting with bated breath, the Jo Ogier print raffle was won by Rachel Baxter, from the Haehaeata Trust Nursery at Clyde – so the wonderful shag will be winging its way to Clyde very soon! The raffle made over $300 so thanks Jo for your generous gift to the Nursery.
A rather smaller group attended Environment Southlands Pesties Christmas get-together on Sunday 17th but we enjoyed good weather and catch-ups and look forward to all continuing our pest control efforts next year.
In the previous 10 days Chris and Brian skived off to Northland leaving a posse of “waterers” at the ready. While C&B were enjoying 23 degree days it appears that Southland did have some rain and the “hand watering” wasn’t as onerous as anticipated. However, strong winds have kept the ground, and pots drier than we would like! Attached a few photos of the magnificent pohutukawa flowering up north – NZ’s Christmas Tree did us proud. And just to skite a little bit the veggie gardens are looking great and my top crops so far are a magnificent crop of strawberries and the Broccoflower – my only successful attempt to grow it so far.
Happy Christmas everyone, see you in the New Year.
The weekly Nursery Volunteer morning will re-open on Friday 19 January 2024, but feel free to call in socially anytime over the holidays.
Chris and Brian
Posted: 18 December 2023
The end of the year is coming up quickly! Since the Jo Ogier workshop we have been busy on Nursery Volunteer Fridays, producing plants for Autumn. See the article First Responders for the plants we recommend planting first in your project. We also supplied lots of plants for Kowhai Reach for a community planting at the end of October – and attended the Southland Ecological Restoration Network (www.sern.org.nz), Bus Trip in November. Read all about it at https://qeiinationaltrust.org.nz/sern-field-trip-explores-restoration-in-southland/
On 18 November we hosted a meeting of Restoration Groups that run Community Nurseries in Southland and Central Otago. People came from as far away as Ohau, Cromwell, Clyde, Wanaka and Queenstown and networked about the challenges of running community nurseries, from fundraising, to working with volunteers, to propagating native plants, to growing Threatened Plants. The group also visited Bushy Point Restoration Project https://www.otataralandcare.org.nz/bushy-point-restoration/
to see the intensive planting project there and next day to the Oreti Totara Dune Forest - https://www.nfrt.org.nz/reserves/oreti-totara-dune-forest/
For 15 December, bring your best baking and we will wrap up for the year, returning on Friday 19 January 23.
Posted: 28 November 2023
Our own property and Bushy Point is a good place to see native plant restoration in action. The aim is to turn paddock into bush and the best way to do that, in our experience, is to use the species that nature would choose to do that job, naturally. “First Responders” or “Nursery Species” have a role, and that is to prepare the way for the dominant species that will eventually grow in that site – ie the totara, rimu, kahikatea, miro, matai that in hundreds of years will be the forest of the future. In essence that means planting first the native species that grow fast, tolerate full sun, wind and frost, shade out the grass, and produce flowers and seed that bring in the insects and birds to spread more seed into the gaps that have been formed. That can be done without even planting any of the canopy species with the expectation that those species will come in eventually. Also, when the ground has been prepared like this, ferns and a wider variety of species will also come in, with birds assistance.
The first responders we use most in Otatara (and Southland generally) are – harakeke (flax, Phormium tenax), manuka (Leptospermum scoparium), broadleaf (Griselinia littoralis), mingimingi (Coprosma propinqua), cabbage tree (Cordyline australis), kotukutuku (tree fuchsia, Fuchsia excorticata), makomako (wineberry, Aristotelia serrata) Kohuhu (black mapou, Pittosporum tenuifolium), tarata (lemonwood, Pittosporum eugenioides), Koromiko (Hebe salicifolia), shining karamu (Coprosma lucida). You might think these are “boring” common species to use but they stand the test of time and almost guarantee success, if you use them in the right place. Most have very attractive flowers, often scented, or full of nectar to attract native birds to your area. See over for photos of the flowers and fruit of the above species.
Right plant right place
You will probably notice that the seedlings that land in your garden often seem to do better than those that you plant in a certain place. Different plants have different ground requirements. All of the above species will tolerate sun, wind and frost but whether the ground is “wet” or “dry” will determine success to a large extent. Bushy Point has two distinct forest types – dry totara forest on sand dunes (summer dry/drought prone), and kahikatea swamp forest on seasonally wet peaty soils. You will notice that in wetter areas we have planted flax, toetoe, mingimingi, manuka, and cabbage tree and the drier areas broadleaf, kohuhu, lemonwood, koromiko and karamu. Fuchsia and wineberry like a mixture. We do plant some totara in dry places, and kahikatea in wet places but we largely expect that the birds do that job for us, dropping seeds into both areas and the trees suited to those areas will thrive. It is also worth noting that a very wet area can be “dried out” by planting wet tolerant plants, making the ground more suitable for a wider range of species over time. It is also expected that when the trees grow high enough to shade the flax, the flax will die out as they are not shade tolerant, creating gaps for other species to establish. These gaps provide sites for plants such as pate (seven finger, Shefflera digitata) and other shade tolerant plants and ferns will form in the understory – without us having to plant them. There is lots of advice including plant lists and plant tolerances on the Community Nursery website at https://www.southlandcommunitynursery.org.nz/restoring-your-patch/.
Additionally, as well as using the best species, it is always good to prepare the site pre-planting (spray or mulch the planting spots) and protect the plants from wind and browsing by using combi-guards of varying sorts.
We are also happy to talk to you about your particular site and visit to give advice if needed. Remember that locally sourced plants are best adapted to the local environment. Restoring new areas of native forest gives a great sense of satisfaction and in some ways helps amend for past forest clearance, but protecting older growth forest first is always the top priority.
Chris and Brian Rance
Example table below from the Community Nursery website - https://www.southlandcommunitynursery.org.nz/restoring-your-patch/planning-your-project/attracting-birds/
Posted: 28 November 2023