Author Archives: Abbie Jury

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About Abbie Jury

jury.co.nz Tikorangi The Jury Garden Taranaki NZ

Letter to Elton

Dear Elton,

We were very disappointed that your recent trip to New Plymouth was so fleeting that you did not have time to visit our garden. Maybe next time, you will manage more than an eight hour stopover which really only left time for your concert.

We know that you are keen on gardening. In fact we know quite a bit about your garden. So we left word with Somebody We Know in Town who was involved with hosting you, that should you have a bit of spare time, we would love to show you around our place. But it was not to be on this visit.

We know your tastes are quite particular. That there are various plants and flowers you hate. Gladiolus feature high on the hate list. That is fine. We don’t grow the Dame Edna type of gladdies. All we have are a few tasteful and understated species and only one of those is in flower at this time of the year. It could have been like a little test to see if you spotted it in the rockery. It is a curious beige colour with burgundy spotting so it may have attracted your attention, but unless you know gladiolus species you may not have picked what it is.

We agree with you that marigolds are common. Nor are we fans of carnations. When somebody gives you carnations, there is always the suspicion that they buy their flowers from the supermarket or the petrol station, don’t you think? Big blowsy dahlias are so vulgar and OTT really, without even the bonus of fragrance. At the risk of alienating every Dutch reader, I must admit that I am not a fan of tulips either. The weird colour mixes and frilly ones just don’t do it for me though a sea of pure perfection in a single colour is not so bad.

We would have been so tactful had you found the time to visit us. We would not have mentioned your major aberration in Good Taste. We refer to the ever so slightly tacky dinosaur that you have in your garden (a gift from George Harrison, we understand. How polite of you to keep it.) I don’t think you would have found any such lapses in decorum in our garden, at least not of that magnitude.

We know about your garden and your dinosaur because we watched Rosemary Verey walking around yours with your head gardener. Sure Mrs Verey died some years ago (maybe you have had second thoughts about Dino since that footage was shot?) but the Living Channel is not always up to the moment with its garden programmes.

Mrs Verey was such a quintessentially English gardener, wasn’t she? Highly skilled, clearly of good stock and well mannered but such a fine plantswoman. We did try growing her Lavatera Barnsley but it wasn’t quite the stop you in your tracks performer here that it is in the UK. In fact it staged a bit of a takeover bid here and while it flowered well, as it grew ever larger it tended to become increasingly scruffy and to fall apart. We cut it out after a season or two.

But we have a profound respect for Mrs Verey and what we saw of her garden and you must have too, as she was closely involved in the development of yours. It may even have been her who placed Dino in your garden after you had accepted him as a gift. Rather than making him a major focal point, Dino appeared to have been tucked discreetly amongst the undergrowth and the overgrowth. We watched her walking your garden and pausing by Dino, commenting that he seemed to have settled in rather well now. At the time we both burst out laughing because we interpreted that comment as a veiled reference to a hope that in another year or two the foliage around would have grown sufficiently to block out all sight of Dino, but we wouldn’t have told you that had you come to our place to visit.

And yes we do know that you call George’s gift Daisy, not Dino. But really, how can anyone take seriously a fibreglass tyrannosaurus rex of such magnitude that it requires a helicopter to move it and with glow in the dark red eyes, when it is called Daisy?

Nor would we mention the figure of Aphrodite inside a red British Telecom box residing in your woodland area. But we do notice that you lean towards tasteful terracotta pots rather than the garish glazed ones more popular here. Same with us, but alas the distance is rather too great for us to manage those charming Cretan olive oil jars which you have flanking your potager.

We would have been curious to hear why you replaced Mrs Verey’s pride and joy, the white garden (well, whitish really, when you read the list of plants ) which your bedroom overlooks. It sounded so lovely when she wrote about it, but apparently you have replaced it with an Italian garden. She seemed ever so slightly miffed that you chose to go with statuary and vistas instead. In the nicest possible way, she made it pretty clear that this seemed a very odd choice to complement your English regency residence and rococo garden.

To be honest, we are not really rococo here but we are deeply envious of your nineteen acre woodland, all maintained and underplanted in a woodland-y sort of way (as opposed to an herbaceous border sort of way). It makes our woodland gardens feel very small and paltry.

But a couple of weeks ago you would have caught the tail end of the nuttallii rhododendrons which are always some of the last to flower for us. I am sure you would have liked these, though I doubt you can grow them in the UK with your harsh winters. They are all class, the nuttalliis. Big, reasonably spectacular (in a refined sort of way) with divine fragrance in most of them. Long white trumpets and big, textured foliage. They can be a bit open in their growth but the peeling cinnamon bark is such a reward for the open habit. I think you would have been moderately impressed by them.

And a couple of weeks ago, we could have shown you our baby kereru which has now flown the nest and our little family of five moreporks which have since dispersed. A visit could have been such fun.

Do feel free to call if you are passing this way again.

Sincerely,

Abbie

December 21, 2007 Weekly Garden Guide

If you have left your run this late preparing the outdoors for impending visits by sometimes critical relatives, at least mow the lawns. If you can manage more, then remember that first impressions count so tidying the stretch from the letter box to the door is a start. Neat edges and swept paths have more immediate impact than a weed free garden. You have left it too late to spray weeds with glyphosate (Round Up) before Christmas (it takes from 10 days to three weeks to work) but boiling water will instantly kill pesky weeds in paved areas.

  • If you are not a tidy or enthusiastic gardener, do not apologise to visitors. Practice throwing away airy comments such as, “We think matrix planting is the way to go, don’t you?” “We are trying a more natural way to manage our garden, organic almost.” “A weed is just a plant in the wrong place.” “We are working on a meadow garden.”
  • Heed the rumblings about rubbish, burning and the environment. If you have never had a compost heap, it might be timely to suggest that a compost bin would make an acceptable last minute gift.
  • There may not be a great deal of intensive gardening going on over the next week but if you want some quiet time, deadheading and weeding are never ending tasks.

December 14, 2007 Weekly Garden Guide

Ornithological update at the Jury Garden: the kereru bebe is now flying and no longer needs its protective ring fencing. The morepork family of five are still in residence despite the best efforts of the tuis. Mongrel Mob vs Black Power has little on this territorial battle. The Californian Quail have hatched out fourteen babies of very tiny stature which Mama Quail is leading around the garden. We have our ginger cat under house arrest to protect the quail family though the trick is keeping her confined without her realising she is a prisoner. The quail have added greatly to the stress in Mark’s life as Mama is inclined to leave the slowest behind and he tries to reunite the family. We had the first fatality of the slowest, weakest and coldest fledgling despite his best efforts.

  • In New Zealand, cabbage trees or cordylines get attacked by a native caterpillar. It is absent overseas which is why our cordylines can look so splendid over there. Running your hands up and squeezing the middle core of the leaves at this time can effect a reasonable kill rate on the offending caterpillar. The caterpillars hang out in between the leaves at the centre.
  • With the Elton John rains having hit last weekend and intermittent showers since, you can lay mulch on the garden though we recommend getting the hose out for another soak before you do it. We may be in for a dry summer so get onto mulching immediately.
  • The first crop of monarch caterpillars is steadily munching through the swan plants. There will be a second wave and it is these later ones which are likely to winter over in your garden. A bit of planning ahead can ensure that you have feed for the second coming. Start seed now and keep it protected from eggs while the plants get established.

  • If you want decent sized leeks this winter, do not delay on getting seedlings planted. You will still get a crop from seed but they are likely to be smaller. It is also time to plant celery and brussel sprouts. Continue to sow corn, peas and salad vegetables all of which will mature before winter. Don’t delay on getting plants of capsicums, pumpkins, tomatoes and the like into the garden.

  • Now that citrus has generally finished flowering, a spray of copper and summer oil is important to stop all sorts of nasties.

Of owls, pigeons and glow in the dark piggies

After my tongue in cheek column about glow in the dark plants, scientist daughter has been emailing me information about the fluorescent protein. Bottom line is, dear Reader, the technology is here and is already routine in genetics. Not perhaps for a low tech plant breeder in Tikorangi, but the fluoro green pigs in Taiwan were pretty amazing. Green all through too, even to their internal organs. Zebra fish are now available overseas in genetically modified, iridescent pink, glow in the dark stripes. All from a gene isolated from jellyfish which converts to a protein and allows the development of a range of different colours. I mention this in case you don’t like green.

Before you throw your hands in the air in horror, the advantage of a fluoro green pig is in tracking the development of new cells (medical research of huge potential for many people) without having to resort to invasive techniques on live pigs. So there are pros and cons of glow in the dark piggies though I suspect a glow in the dark zebra fish is solely of novelty value, just as a glow plant would be.

But back to nature in our own garden. Some years ago, I landed the task of writing garden descriptions for nigh on seventy different gardens which stretched my vocabulary somewhat. Leaving aside the plethora of tranquil havens and peaceful retreats, a very large number of gardens wanted to highlight their birdsong. I recall having a discussion as to whose gardens in particular we would allow to include birdsong as a special feature, given that it did not seem to be unique at all. When Mark read of a garden proudly proclaiming over 30 different bird songs, he spent some time listing all the ones we have and came up well short, even when he cheated and included birds that do not sing.

But how many gardens have a family of resident moreporks? We have been delighted this week to have a family of five take up residence in one of our trees. Momma, poppa and the three young ones hang out together during the day in the castanospermum (commonly referred to as the Moreton Bay chestnut). While the parents sleep, the young ones are wide eyed and nervous, watching us watching them. Moreporks are as cute as any owl with their great big eyes giving them a perpetually startled appearance and their round, fluffy bodies. We are entranced. In the evening they fly around catching moths and if you watch a lighted window long enough, you may see the flash of wings as they swoop in to catch the fluttering prey. In the day they just hang about, their mere presence upsetting the tuis and other birds which fly under their roosting tree. You can hear their agitated chatter.

In our park, Mark is keeping a watchful eye on a nesting kereru. These clumsy big birds appear to have small brain power (dinosaurs of the ornithological world?) and are remarkably useless at building secure nests and raising young successfully. For years, Mark has been attempting to gently protect nesting wood pigeons and this year’s family is no exception. They have a flimsy nest built at eye level in a large holly bush and as it is highly likely that the baby will fall out and land on the ground sooner, rather than later, Mark has constructed a fence to protect it from predators. Festoons of bird netting a safe distance out, supported by poles and pegged to the ground will be sufficient, he hopes, to keep out rats, our lethargic ginger cat, wild cats and other predators for long enough to enable him to carry out a rescue should it be necessary.

This security netting took him the better part of half a day to install. As it is white bird netting, he came up feeling rather pleased that he had created something that reminded him a fairy castle. I went to have a look and it reminded me more of a shroud. Garden visitors assumed it was something to do with gathering the seed of the plant it surrounded. Baby kereru is now on the move. It can’t fly yet but it hops around the tree so is highly likely to end up on the ground soon. Maybe the combined efforts of its parents and Mark will keep it alive long enough to achieve independence.

We have yet to find where the quail are nesting but Mark is worried because they make nests on the ground and he envisages a distressing flurry of loose feathers should we get them with the weed eater. Commonly referred to as Californian quail, we have welcomed a resident pair into our garden. Not only are they endearingly attractive but their sounds of communication are gentle on the ear. We would be delighted if the population increased. We haven’t had resident quail in the garden for many years so the continued survival of this pair is a hopeful sign that the predator population is not too bad.

The rosellas may have signed their death warrants. Bright and attractive they may be with their jewel like plumage as they flash through the trees, but the news from a colleague that they ate every single bud of his Magnolia Vulcan this year did not endear them to us at all. New Zealand may rue the day that these Aussie imports were allowed to get well established in the wild here. And while their death warrants may be signed, how to carry out the executions is a different matter altogether. They are very quick birds.

While we would love to have a resident kaka, our friend and colleague at Oakura is rueing the presence of one in his garden. This particular visitor clearly disapproves of the introduction of exotic species. It has inflicted considerable damage ripping off large chunks of bark from rare conifers. We think we could forgive it, should it decide to move to our garden. These very rare birds have an amazing call but are seldom seen on the lowlands.

If you want to read a little more about the glow in the dark pigs, go to:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4605202.stm

December 7, 2007 Weekly Garden Guide

While we are hardly in the drought territory of Australia, the current dry season is certainly having an impact. Suspend planting ornamentals and trees until the rains return. Don’t lay mulch on dry gardens (the mulch will keep the gardens dry) but with the possibility of a dry summer continuing, be prepared with the mulch to lay after the next decent rain. Water container plants daily. If you spread fertiliser, water it in. At least the dry is keeping mildew problems at bay and the roses are loving the conditions with fewer fungal problems.

  • Conditions are ideal for weeding generally and for push hoeing in particular. While you need to gather up weeds which have formed seed heads (even when pulled out, some will continue to ripen their seeds in the sun) you can just leave other weeds sitting on the surface and the sun will shrivel them to a cinder in a short space of time.
  • Pruning is also a pleasant occupation in the dry weather and now is still the time to prune most plants except flowering cherries.
  • Any planting in the dry vegetable garden involves thorough cultivation of the ground. Compacted soil dries out faster. By aerating the soil and tilling it, you increase its water holding capacity. As you prepare for planting, dig a trench, cultivate it well, fill the trench with water and compost and then cover it all lightly with soil. Leave the top dry so that it acts as a barrier to water loss. Done this way, you should not need to water again on a regular basis unless we get very dry in mid summer. Don’t delay on getting pumpkins in.
  • Wisterias are making a bid for world domination. You can resort to hedge clippers for their summer prune if you wish because you don’t need to be too precise. If you are more particular, take off all their wild waving new growths and prune back to about four leaf buds from the main stems. Keep an eye open for borer holes. Oil (even cooking oil or CRC) or fly spray down the hole will work.
  • Deal to convolvulus and wandering jew now. If you are not organic, Woody Weedkiller or Banvine is an effective option for the former and Shortcut, Amitrol or Grazon for the latter.