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.

Get Fresh

Author: Dennis Greville
Publisher: New Holland, $34.99

Subtitled “How to grow delicious vegetables and herbs in New Zealand”, this new publication by Christchurch writer Dennis Greville is a large format, colourful and appealing guide for the beginner vegetable gardener. Home grown produce is probably the single biggest gardening craze at the moment and while there is a wealth of information around, it is not always easy to know where to start. You could do worse than starting with this book.

The first 40 pages have basic information – soil preparation, sowing seed, organic spray recipes and the like, followed by 90 pages of alphabeticised listings of most popular vegetables and herbs and then a short month by month guide. So it is the one to two page spread on each of 60 crops which is the bulk of the book. It is not without fault or omission – how far apart to place the plants is not always included (and that is really basic info), nor is the length of growing season always given. There is little detail on successional plantings. But that said, it is a practical, hands-on book with mouthwatering photography written for New Zealand conditions. Despite the publisher’s hype, I would call it a book for the learner or the beginner. Once you have been motivated to master the basics and enjoyed the initial harvests, you probably move on to the less pictorial but more comprehensive Yates Guide.

Yates Garden Guide 77th edition

Publisher: Harper Collins, $39.95

There are reasons why Yates Garden Guide is still being updated and is into its 112th year (since 1895, in fact) boasting over one million sales.

It remains one of the most comprehensive gardening books for New Zealand conditions and sits alongside the Edmonds Cookbook as a basic resource for bookshelves in most homes. We have several editions of it sitting around our house and Mark still refers to it on occasion as a technical reference. So it will meet the needs of the beginner gardener right through to the very experienced. It is not so much a glossy motivational book, though it is constantly adapting to new directions in gardening with new sections on organic gardening and permaculture as well as container gardening.

It is a practical guide. The modern editions are somewhat more upmarket than the early version we have, with boxed garden hints by celebs and experts and colour photos which makes for interesting browsing.

If you are only going to have one garden reference book, this is probably the best one to have. It is not necessary to buy each new edition, but if you are still using a version which was printed in the middle of last century, you might like to suggest that Santa could bring you the update. And gardening parents could make sure that their adult children have a copy on their bookshelves too. You won’t go wrong with a Yates Garden Guide.