Author Archives: Abbie Jury

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About Abbie Jury

jury.co.nz Tikorangi The Jury Garden Taranaki NZ

The Easy Fruit Garden by Clare Matthews

The Easy Fruit GardenI do not understand why New Holland wanted to release this book in New Zealand. It is a nice enough book but of precious little relevance to New Zealand growing conditions. It is just so very English – in fact so English that it refers to John Innes number two and John Innes number three with the assumption that the reader will know that these pertain to potting mixes. Jostaberries, sloes, hoverflies and hazels – it is just so redolent of English gardening.

There is little of relevance for New Zealand gardeners. The cultivars they grow are different. Pests and diseases are often different. There is no information to guide NZ gardeners on the climatic ranges of plants. I don’t think citrus are even mentioned, yet they are one of the mainstays for many of us. Yes some of the techniques are transferable but in a colder climate with slower rates of growth, they just garden differently from us.

You would probably only want this book if you are a nostalgic Brit or you are planning on moving to rural Britain.

The Easy Fruit Garden by Clare Matthews (New Holland; ISBN: 978 1 84773 858 5) reviewed by Abbie Jury.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

The music of Mongolia

Anda Union in the garden

Anda Union in the garden

The unusual experience, highly likely to be unique in New Zealand, of hosting Anda Union, playing the bygone music of ancient Mongolian tribes in the garden at Tikorangi. For more on this event, please go to our Tikorangi Diary.

Tikorangi Diary: Friday March 16, 2012

What can I say? One of life's more unusual experiences this week. Anda Union.

What can I say? One of life's more unusual experiences this week. Anda Union.

Is that a Mongolian by my washing line? Why yes, actually, he is.

Is that a Mongolian by my washing line? Why yes, actually, he is.

Latest Posts:

1) Araucaria heterophylla commonly known as Norfolk Island Pine. All I want to do is to put a Christmas star on top each time I see one of these handsome landscape trees.

2) Grow it Yourself Fruit and Nuts by Andrew Steens – the latest offering in the New Zealand garden books market.

3) It’s a plant product so it must be natural and safe, right? Think again. Maybe natural, hardly safe Abbie’s column.

4) Onions. Are they worth the effort to grow?

Tikorangi Notes: Friday March 16, 2012

Each year at this time, New Plymouth hosts Womad, a remarkable event which brings a host of interesting world music performers and musicians to the area. This week we had the delight of hosting Anda Union in the garden giving a special performance for Tikorangi locals, including the two senior classes from the local primary school. These Mongolian performers keep the ancient music of their tribal homelands alive and this includes fascinating throat singing. It is like nothing else, really.

The whole experience was made more memorable because as soon as the musicians arrived, it was clear they wanted to see the garden. I took them on the short tour of the top garden (lunch, hosted by Todd Energy was awaiting them, to be followed by the performance). Their pleasure in seeing the garden was a delight, even if there were some language barriers.

The school children arrived a little early, while the adults were still eating. One of their teachers asked if they could also have a look in the garden so I headed off with them. They were entranced by the magical feel under the rimus (and some of the kids could even identify the trees). When we came to the path down to the park, these bright buttons of 8 to 10 year olds shrieked with delight and sprinted down the hill to play jumping games across the stream. We could have spent a great deal longer looking at different things. Glenys the Gecko was sunbathing on her tree and while it was possible to show her to a few children, pressures of time meant we had to head back to the marquee for Anda Union’s performance.

All this, and it was my birthday too. Mark, naturally, took credit for organising it all for my birthday, even down to the delicious lunch.

Anda Union - bringing the music of bygone Mongolia to Tikorangi.

Anda Union - bringing the music of bygone Mongolia to Tikorangi.

Plant Collector: Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla)

The urge is to put a Christmas star on top - Araucaria heterophylla

The urge is to put a Christmas star on top - Araucaria heterophylla

I am very fond of Norfolk Island pines in the landscape though they should come with a warning not to ever, under any circumstances, plant them in a suburban setting. We once owned a house where the neighbour’s Norfolk Island Pine robbed us of several hours of sunshine a day.

These are not actually members of the pine tree family. They are araucarias and this one is A. heterophylla. That name is used synonymously with its earlier name of A. excelsa but heterophylla is the correct one these days. The best known araucaria is the monkey puzzle tree (A. araucana) and it hails from Chile. At least these are true to their name in that they come from Norfolk Island which gives a hint to ideal conditions – mild and coastal. Last time I was in Napier, I thought their seafront avenue specimens looked a bit scruffy but any tree that can survive and grow in the full blast of salt spray and wind is a bit of a wonder. The tough, tightly whorled leaves encircling the branches will have evolved to cope with salt spray. Even so, any tree is going to look lusher with a smidgeon more shelter or planted a little further back from the seashore than those Napier specimens.

It is that perfect, open pyramid shape that makes it such a fantastic landscape tree where space allows. You just want to put a Christmas star on top every time you look at one. Potentially they can grow huge, up to fifty or sixty metres over time and that is massive. This is not a tree that will look attractive if you try and top it to keep it lower. Its application is probably limited to public plantings and farms but viewed from afar, they make a great visual contribution.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

Grow it Yourself Fruit and Nuts by Andrew Steen

There is a clear gap in the market for an authoritative modern reference book on growing fruits and nuts in this country, so does this new book fill the niche? Hmm. It is like the curate’s egg – good in parts. It is worth buying for the fertiliser chart on page 111 – the best representation of this information we have seen. The chart on common pesticides is also very good as is the attention to pest and disease management, giving different approaches and addressing the issues. At last we are not seeing everything dumbed down and made simple when it is not, based on the assumption that the average home gardener has a mental age of about eight. If you want to be successful at growing these plants, you do need to get to grips with some of the details regarding pests and diseases. The range of fruits covered is appropriate and the information on recommended varieties is up to date, appears to be comprehensive and very useful. The author is credible. You may know his name from the Weekend Gardener – he is a keen gardener, backed up with professional qualifications and experience.

So what lets it down? The photography is not good enough. Amateur photography is not a suitable replacement for good diagrams when it comes to pruning and shaping and too many of the photographs fail to tell any story at all, let alone save words. The text is too wordy and would have benefited from tighter editing. Magazine writing is different to books. It is much more transient by nature and a looser organisation of ideas is acceptable because it’s all in shorter pieces. Much of the information is here but it is a little too loose and wordy, ranging rather too freely at times without a clear sequence. A greater use of tables and charts would have helped reduce the verbiage. Peer review prior to publication might have plugged a few of the gaps where the author was beyond his own areas of expertise.

For all its faults, it is a better reference than other recent offerings on the topic.

Grow it Yourself Fruit and Nuts by Andrew Steen (David Bateman; ISBN: 978 1 86953 789 0) reviewed by Abbie Jury.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.