rus in urbe

Marlborough Rock Daisy

2008-12-17T23:36:00.013+13:00

Every day I'm at home, I look at my Marlborough Rock Daisy (Pachystegia insignis) at least twice, as I go by. Of course it never seems to be changing much or getting any bigger.

But its stunning flowers have just burst and I had to capture it.

I just love the look of this plant. And I like the contrasting form with the colourful pointy leaves of the Libertia peregrinans.

And comparing its size with the last time I posted here, it's doing just fine.

House n garden

2007-12-26T21:58:00.000+13:00

I'm quite proud of this.
When we moved in in November 05 this was just bare earth, with only cat-scratch heaps for interest.
I wanted it to be natural looking with native tussocks and low shrubs. I'm quite ignorant about ornamental gardening, but I don't like the way NZ natives are everywhere seen in artificial geometric plantings, isolated in a desert of bark chips or gravel.
This has been evolving slowly, and it's not there yet. The taller plants here are: Libertia peregrinans, Pachystegia insignis, Carex testacea, Uncinia uncinata, Aristotelia fruticosa and Carex astonii. The groundcovers are: Leptinella calcarea, Acaena microphylla, Epilobium melanocaulon and Leptinella squallida 'Platt's Black'.

Bexley Wetland

2007-08-28T21:50:00.000+12:00

It looks natural but it's not. It was a dumping ground for industrial filth. PURE NEW ZEALAND's toxic industrial filth, dumped in a wetland.
But the polluters moved on. The worst of the polluted land has been dug out and trucked off somewhere else. Houses have been built up to the edge of the big hole. The big hole has filled with water and the waterfowl have moved in.
It's now the Bexley Wetland, and it's one of my favourite short walks after work.
It's not perfect. The roar of the traffic always dominates. And there's still a lot of rubbish to remind of what it was before. But the few minutes walking the path through the middle of the wetland is pure tranqulity.

Beginning again

2007-08-26T00:22:00.000+12:00

New leaves are beginning to burst from the leaf buds on the ribbonwood.
The excitement of spring is building in everything living, including me.
Sometimes there can be false starts. The arum lillies were cut down by a harsh late winter frost only a few weeks ago. They're still struggling to get moving again.
I think I've recovered enough from my own winter to move again.

The Ribbonwood is bare

2006-07-22T16:16:00.002+12:00

We moved into our place in November when the Ribbonwood was looking close to its best. But it's hard to pin down a moment when it was actually at its best as the tree kept changing right through the summer as it moved through flowering to fruiting. It was great watching the changes.
A well-meaning neighbour commiserated on the nuisance of clearing the fallen flower panicles from the lawn. I didn't mention that I didn't mind at all.
As the summer progressed I tried imagining our ribbonwood bare of leaves.
Now only a handful of leaves are left. The weak winter sun filters through the twiggy branches. The sun's low angle in the sky to the north makes me squint when I look up into it. The sun warms and brightens our kitchen now. Some of our neighbours properties are visible.
The ribbonwood is quiet now but before long its buds will be bursting. I'm looking forward to that.

[1] Ribbonwood - also known as Lowland Ribbonwood, Riverbank Ribbonwood or Manatu - Plagianthus regius

Trees for Canterbury

2006-06-28T22:04:00.000+12:00

There was a bare patch of ground in front of the native landscaping on our street frontage. We put a bit of time into studying what would best go there.
After we'd made up our minds and went looking to buy we found Trees for Canterbury had by far the best stock. And their prices were half that of anywhere else.
The plants in the pic are, from left rear, Libertia grandiflora (NZ Iris), Hebe anomala and Carmichaelia stevensonii (Weeping Broom).
I planted a group of the Libertias and also put in some Arthropodiam cirratum (Rengaranga - rock lily) .
The established native landscaping was a big attraction for us when we bought the place last November. We're really going to enjoy developing it further where we can.

Public parks - or theme malls

2006-06-18T19:30:00.000+12:00

On Sunday afternoon we took a walk in the Botanic Gardens. The weather was miserable, cold and wet. But we weren't the only ones enjoying the park regardless. There were even people out on the river.
We mainly went to look at plants in the New Zealand native section. We're gathering ideas on what will go best in our own small garden.
Later on we came upon a large new shop which has been built right in the middle of the park. It sells books, calendars, souvenir tea towels and coasters, etc.
There were two staff but they had no customers. I wondered why they were there. I thought if people wanted to buy things they would prefer to go to a mall - warm and dry in winter, air conditioned in summer and trollies to carry things to their car.
I don't know how a shop like that in the gardens could pay for itself. Maybe they're not paying the full price for the ground rental.
Sometimes public property is rated by the accountants as worthless rather than priceless.
I saw this article by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian with much more eloquent comment on the commercialising of public parks.

Oh, and yes, wandering around the gardens was a great way to spend the afternoon. Only I didn't take my camera with me so I've nothing to show for it.

Snow in Christchurch!

2006-06-12T19:00:00.000+12:00

It was strangely quiet at 7.00 am - it sounded more like Sunday than Monday morning. Even the birds were silent.
Biking to work was more than the usual adventure. Traffic was light but I was wary of being sprayed by snowy slush from passing cars. In the residential streets I could see many cars hadn't ventured out. But one street had three sets of cycle tracks ahead of mine. We're a hardy breed.
More flurries of snow continued through the day but temperatures were just above zero so it didn't settle on the ground.
I love it when nature comes to town.