This site was typical of Wellington, with a sloping bank above the house. The clients wanted to build a garage and we were there to build walls, fences, gates, steps, pathways, and gardens.

There were numerous holdups including getting the digout done, issues with boundaries and neighbours and revised plans via council – all to do with the garage position.

A big thanks to Three Trees Landscapes for an excellent job, and the guys from Quadrille who built the garage were excellent. The clients were also very patient and understanding. If all three parties can work together you can achieve great results.

I designed this front entrance, and the clients managed the build based on the plan & specs. The entrance is now clearer and secure, and looks very smart.

This is a garden we planted three years ago in a coastal area in Mana. Note the Echium candicans with blue spike like flowers is looking spectacular, as are the Ligularia, tractor seat plants with the large glossy leaves to the left. Once the echium flowered they needed replacing, as even though a perennial ( grows for more than 2 years), they have their own timeline. The two palms were there originally.

Using well constructed coloured aluminium planters made by Ulrich Aluminium with matching pots. Hrdy natives have been used eg Hebe, Grisleinia, Lobelia, Xeronema, Senecio.

Automatic irrigation has been used and spike lighting in the pots.

Spring Newsletter: Attracting Birds in the garden

Since we have been locked down recently and last year a common comment is the bird life seems to be more active. It may be because there is less background noise or the birds feel freer to move about.

A lot of my clients ask how can I attract more birds in their garden.

Having just walked down my path, there are some birds that I would prefer weren’t in my garden. They are the ones that spread mulch and soil all over the path in their search for food. They are usually English imports such as blackbirds and thrushes. It is their nature to do this as they are foragers, pecking and scratching for food like worms. It is hard to change old habits! The best thing you can do about this is to get a dense cover of plants, and if needed cover your vegetables with netting.

The other more desirable type of feathered friend are our native birds, such as the tui, wood pigeon or bellbird. Bellbirds and tuis feed on nectar, fruit and insects high up the tree. They both have beautiful sounds, although it can be hard to distinguish the two, especially as the tui is a mimicker. They are known as honey feeders, as they can insert their toothbrush like tongue into flowers to get the nectar. They also help to spread the pollen from one tree to another, which in turn helps these plants to seed.

Another native bird which is very important to the spread of our native plants is the wood pigeon or kereru.  You know when this large bird is around as its wings make a racket as they go pass. They can eat the large seeds of plants like karaka, taraire, tawa and miro. These are then expelled in their faeces, which means they spread to other places. If the kereru goes, so do these plants eventually.

Kaka are more frequent now -these noisy birds can strip bark off large trees, as has happened in the Wellington Botanic Garden.

I have noticed that the number of tui, kaka and wood pigeon have increased locally over the years. This is no doubt due to the help from the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary ( Zealandia). If you haven’t already been, you should check this predator-free facility out, as it a number of other native birds such as takahe.

What can you do to attract our native birds?

One thing is keep predators at bay. Opossums, stoats, and rats all compete for food or attack young birds, so controlling them is start. You can use Tim traps for opossums, especially as they are so destructive on our native plants. Likewise, your moggie likes birds too, so put a bell on its collar to give the bird a chance before your cat pounces.

To attract honey feeders, you can use a nectar feeder, such as a metal channel with sugary water in it, hanging from a tree. Once they come to feed, you could kindly persuade them to hang around and even breed.

The main way to get these desirable birds into your garden is with appropriate planting. I have listed below some native plants attractive to the birds mentioned, with flowering or fruiting at different times of the year.

Spring:  flax, kowhai, rewarewa, tree fuchsia

Summer:  rata, pohutukawa

Autumn: totara, kahikatea, kapuka

Winter: puriri, tree fuchsia , coprosma, wineberry, titoki, hinau, fivefinger, pittosporum, mahoe.    

Coprosma spp.

Metrosideros robusta, rata

Phormium cookianum, flax

While the exotic tree lucerne is attractive to kereru, it is considered a little too rampant as a nurse crop plant.

SUCCULENTS

Fashions for plants come and go. At one stage, cottage garden plants were all the rage. Native plants have become more popular recently, as have succulent plants.

Succulent plants are a group of plants known as xerophytes, or “dry plants”. Succulents store water in their stems or leaves, and can therefore tolerate very dry conditions. You will find these plants naturally growing in the deserts, such as in Central America, which has very low rainfall, and suffers extremes of heat as well as cold. By day it is very hot, but by night temperatures drop rapidly.

One of the more popular succulents is Agave attenuata, fromcentral America. It has grey leaves up to 1 metre across, without the spines that Agave americana has. This latter plant is sometimes called century plant, because it takes not a hundred but ten to fifteen years to flower. Like other agaves, once it flowers, the central part of the plant dies out and new plants arise from the base. This flowering condition is known as monocarpy. Another example of a plant that dies back after flowering is Aeonium arboreum, which has attractive yellow flowers in late spring. A colourful example of this plant is Aeonium ‘Schwarzkopf’ ( “ black head’), with its narrow purple leaves.

Aloe vera from Southern Africa is well known for its medicinal and cosmetic purposes, as it is used topically for skin conditions and internally as a cleanser. Aloe arborescens is more commonly grown ornamentally, with its yellow or red flowers.

All these three succulents grow in a rosette, with the leaves arising from a central axis. A succulent with smaller rosettes is Echeveria secunda, with its blue leaves and red flowers.

As well as rosette succulents, there are many groundcovers. We have a good example with the native iceplant, Disphyma australe, which grows near the beach. Another iceplant is Carpobrotus edulis, which is also known as the Hottentot fig. With a name like that it has to come from South Africa! It has yellow flowers followed by fig-like fruit, hence the name edulis, although I can’t vouchsafe for the taste of the fruit!

If you prefer blue, try Senecio serpens, or blue chalktsicks with its blue leaves, and white flowers in summer. If you like bright colour, try the Livingstone daisy with its dazzling mixed flower colours. Like the senecio, it comes from South Africa.

One other native plant that has a semi succulent habit is Xeronema callistemon. It has fleshy leaves, and requires similar growing conditions. Succulents are ideal in hot, dry conditions such as near the beach. The are excellent on sunny banks. Most of them are frost tender, so you should avoid frosty areas. They can also be used in pots, especially the larger ones. A good-sized Aloe attenuata or Aloe thraskii in a large glazed pot looks great, but will set you back a few dollars!

Succulents have few problems other than rotting due to poor drainage. Keep them in a free-draining growing medium, and avoid using too much nitrogen. It is better to use a slow release fertiliser such as Osmocote. They can get slugs and snails, so keep an eye out for them.

Enjoy the warm Autumn weather.

Regards

Jon

Senecio serpens

Aeonium ‘Scharzkopf’

Agave attentuata

Echeveria

Xeronema callistemon

Deciduous Trees and Shrubs:

At this time of year, those deciduous trees and shrubs that lose all their leaves at once are most noticeable. For example, liquidamber has leaves that are very intense red in late autumn. It forms a strong contrast to the greens of the native trees, and provides a focal point of the garden.

Most of our natives are evergreen, apart from some exceptions such as ribbonwood.

Deciduous trees come from the colder climates of the northern hemisphere. They form the intense reds, yellows, oranges and purples as the green chlorophyll in the leaves breaks down prior to leaf drop. These other bright pigments then become obvious. The colour intensity is heightened where there is a big difference between day and night temperatures. This is why you can see more intense leaf colour in places like Upper Hutt, than say Wellington central.

I don’t recommend using deciduous trees to clients who live in very windy sites, or where they are near the coast. The strong winds tend to damage the leaves, especially in the early spring as the leaves emerge. Coastal winds commonly cause leaf scorch. You may however create a sheltered environment on an exposed site where you can grow these trees. Choose hardy shelter plants like natives trees to create shelter.

One of the more hardy deciduous trees is silver birch. This tree has white bark with black markings, and a graceful, weeping habit. The leaves go yellow in autumn. It will tolerate a reasonably strong non-coastal wind.

Two deciduous trees you are likely to see as street trees in Lower Hutt are liquidamber and golden elm. Liquidamber has maple-like leaves which turn red as mentioned above.  The golden elm has rich golden-yellow leaves from spring to autumn. You need to be careful to choose non-suckering elms. Some of the elms such as the English elm produce a mass of suckers throughout your garden. In one large garden in the Wairarapa that I visited recently, it was a major problem.

One of my favourite trees is the copper beech, with its copper-red leaves. These trees need adequate room to grow, so are more appropriate for parks

Deciduous magnolias do not produce autumn leaf colour, but produce showy flowers in late winter to early spring on bare branches. Magnolia campbellii requires a lot of room to grow, while Magnolia stellata is ideal for smaller gardens.

Flowering varieties of fruiting plants include flowering cherries, the weeping silver pear and flowering crab trees. It is better to plant flowering cherries in more sheltered spots, otherwise strong winds remove most of the spectacular blooms in spring.   

Deciduous shrubs such as hydrangeas produce blooms over summer, but hold their blooms until autumn. The flowers turn blue in acid soils, and pink in alkaline soils. You can turn your hydrangeas blue by adding aluminium sulphate, and pink by adding lime. I have just pruned my hydrangeas back, by pruning back flowering stems to a lower bud. I prefer to prune hydrangeas lightly.  

Other deciduous shrubs suitable for sheltered gardens are spiraea, and the scented lilacs.

Mix you deciduous plants with evergreen ones, so that your garden isn’t too bare in winter. This also applies to deciduous plants like bulbs or hostas. While the leaves all dropping at once can be a nuisance, use these leaves in your compost heap, or leave them to contribute to the formation of humus in your soil.     

Enjoy natures seasons!

  Liquidamber

Golden elm

Copper beech

Magnolia stellata

Hydrangea Limelight