Community Nursery Open after the winter break
The Community Nursery is open again, its spring and seedlings are coming up. The cuttings we took in June are starting to show signs of life.
It’s a great time to look forward to all the good things coming up in summer. It’s also time to look forward to planting your native trees and shrubs, establishing shelterbelts, maybe put in a pond? It’s a good time to get advice on the right plants for your own situation, so come along on a Friday morning.
In the nursery it’s time to spring-clean – weeding out old stock that hasn’t done well over winter and prepare areas for newly propagated plants. The pricking out seedlings, potting up and weeding, weeding and more weeding!
The Education Centre is also open for bookings – school visits, workshops etc, so get in touch if you want to hire the centre.
We also have a new volunteer! Chris’s Mum is over from the UK for a holiday and is the newest member of our workforce!
Posted: 24 September 2015
Another Jo Ogier Art Workshop coming up – “Field Sketching and Nature Journaling” – Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November 2015.
This will be a two day weekend workshop, utilising the Education Centre and the bush, ponds and natural areas. Unlike the previous one day workshops this workshop will be over two days to take advantage of weather and light conditions to combine outside sketching with indoor detailed work in a flexible way.
“Nature Journaling is a wonderful way of making your own study of the Natural World around you. The main emphasis is on YOUR observations of nature - recording and reflecting on what you have seen or discovered. It can be done anywhere: from just looking out your window at home; to what you see on a walk to the park or a field trip into the mountains; it may also be just what is happening in the vegetable garden. Nature is everywhere ready to be explored” – Jo Ogier.
For more details see workshop flyer
Posted: 24 September 2015
The Community Nursery will be closed for winter, reopening on Friday 18th September - see you then. Regards
Chris.
Posted: 11 July 2015
June and July has been a busy time for seed preparation and sowing and for propagating native plants from cuttings. Friday mornings have largely been spent inside the Education Centre (probably just as well given the weather!) with various sorting activities. Sticky kohuhu and lemonwood seeds have been rubbed through sand to remove the stickiness, seeds covered in fruit have had that layer removed, kowhai seeds have been soaked, all in preparation for sowing. Seeds in Southland can be sown and left outside through winter where they get watered and “cold stratification” naturally. Don’t expect to see seedlings until the end of September. For a refresher on what to do with seeds.
The best time to do native cutting is now during the plants dormant period. Like seeds, don’t expect cuttings to make roots until around late September. For a detailed description of what to do and what you’ll need – see cuttings section.
Posted: 7 July 2015
Robert and Robyn Guyton are running this years “Go Organics Course” and on Saturday 4th July the group came to the Community Nursery to learn about native plants. Particularly of interest were the topics of native shelterbelts, creating wetlands, plants to attract birds and propagating plants from seed and cuttings. Time was spent walking around the pond and bush track looking at different aspects of native plants for restoration projects. The day was completed with a brief look at some of Southland’s rarest plants in the Threatened Plant Garden.
Posted: 7 July 2015
