On the weekend of 25/26 February Jo Ogier came down from Christchurch to teach a workshop on “Keeping a Botanical Sketchbook” – which involved looking closely at plants, connecting with the natural world, field sketching and experimenting with different paper, mediums, tone and shading and colour and did you know there were 5 different ways of mixing blacks! It all looked very intense from an out-siders point of view (me), but people clearly enjoyed the experience and some amazing work was created but more important the camaraderie and passion and shared joy of being part of the workshop. We have come to know Jo very well and one of the best quotes I can remember from her workshops was “we would have paid just to watch Jo draw – it all looks so effortless!”. Jo is working on some amazing works that will be displayed in the South so watch this space over the next year or so. You can see some of Jo’s work here - https://joogier.co.nz/artwork/
We were also lucky to have another artist, Kyla Cresswell, visit on the Sunday. Kyla is one of the artists in residence in Invercargill at the moment and we look forward to seeing her work linked to the CBD. Also at the moment she, with others, has an exhibition at the Eastern Southland Gallery until 26 March 23 - https://www.esgallery.co.nz/southern-mother - don’t miss it!
February has been busy already with Volunteer Fridays, constant watering of the Nursery, workshops and Garden Group visits.
On Saturday 11 February 23 Geoff Dembo held a Permaculture for the home garden workshop which as well received, on Tuesday 14th February Mark Oster held a workshop for Kindergarten teachers and who should make a guest appearance our Patron Ruud Kleinpaste! On Saturday 25th Jo Ogier will be here for a weekend art workshop which is eagerly anticipated and fully booked.
Nursery Fridays have been very busy with up to 19 people attending. Now that it is seed collecting time there is plenty of activity out around the bush collecting and then cleaning seeds.
We have also been observing lots of birds at our place – flocks of 40-50 white faced herons in the early morning and evening, a flock of 20-30 kereru over many days, a kingfisher and a rarity for us a female tomtit in our bush. The scaup have also had a late brood of ducklings and there are always lots of tui and bellbirds (including juveniles) and regular fernbirds around our ponds.
February has come around quickly and we are already into seed collecting at the Nursery – with toe toe, red tussock, clematis, salt-marsh ribbonwood, tree Fuchsia already collected and other seeds coming on quickly in this heat. We will do that Friday mornings as well as seed cleaning amongst other Nursery jobs like potting, weeding and watering etc.
Two workshops are happening in February – “Permaculture in the Home Garden” with Geoff Dembo 11 February 23 and “Keeping a Botanical Sketchbook” art workshop with Jo Ogier 25/26 February 2023. These workshops are largely booked up already but there is always the possibility of people dropping out at short notice so if you are interested in being put on the list email Chris at
There is also the opportunity to run other courses if we have a list of interested people. Foraging was another popular workshop in spring so we may also run another foraging workshop in autumn. It will be weather dependent so if we already have a list of names of those interested, then organising at short notice is easier.
We are also looking into having a “growing your own edible mushrooms” workshop with Oli Cameron, so if you are interested please email and we will keep you up to date.
Wow, the New Year is already upon us!! Hope you have had a restful holiday. The Nursery will be open for volunteers next week on Friday 13 January 23. This week we are preparing for Brian’s month-long botanical trip to the Sub-antarctic Islands! Thanks to everyone who helped last year, we hope to see you again in 2023 and for newcomers, come join the party!
I hear rain outside – a very welcome relief from the watering we seem to have been doing all holidays – thanks to those who also helped out during this time. Things are growing prolifically – produce from the garden, with the odd attempt at pest control, weeds certainly! Seed collecting has already begun with fluffy Olearia and Clematis seed being collected at the moment.
Below are a few photos of spectacular places and plants seen over the last month. Note the magnificent beech mistletoes flowering at the moment.
Its been another challenging, but good year, for the Community Nursery and we will be celebrating its conclusion on Friday. So…. bring yourselves, some nice food and enjoy the festive atmosphere. There will also be some work as the Nursery never stops! On that note, and due to the dry spring/early summer if you can spare a few hours over the holidays to help with watering that would be appreciated. Let me know by email or on Friday. If you haven’t been to the Nursery for a while come along and re-connect on Friday – it always amazes me how popular volunteer Fridays remain after doing it for over 25 years! Last week I mentioned “living Christmas Trees” so give that some thought and take away a totara (which you can then plant out – Bushy Point or the Oreti Dune forest are a couple of locations if you haven’t got an area yourself). We are also reprinting the Community Nursery recipe book which makes a good stocking filler ($20) and includes sections on foraging etc which has become very popular. In the New Year Geoff Dembo will be running some full day “Permaculture Workshops” so if you are interested in these let me know and we will have a list of people to contact once we have decided on a date. Similarly for Foraging workshops. Come and get native plants for planting out over the holidays or seedlings to pot on – we have an abundance. There will also be an abundance of fruit and vegetables soon (or now) so bring along any spare plants for swaps on Friday and we will also have Sanguine Peach plants for sale ($5) – about the only peach variety to grow well in Southland and a great bonus for any orchard (see photos of the flowers and fruit).
If you are out and about in Nature over the holidays look out for orchids and other special native plants and birds nesting (I found my first tui nest with 2 fledglings only a few weeks ago after looking on our property for 25 years! and saw two tui juveniles this week). Check out seed collecting sites – seed is likely to be early this year due to the spring weather.
Thanks to all the volunteers who have helped out this year, we couldn’t do it without you!
See you Friday or if not have a happy and safe Christmas and see you in the New Year.
