Gardens free-for-all over
Visitors to one of the nation’s top gardens will have to fork out, with a $10 entry fee to Hamilton Gardens.
Non-Hamiltonians will soon have to pay $10 each to enter the exotic environs of the themed gardens at the Hamilton Gardens – but they will remain free for city dwellers.
The entry fee plan is part of a suite of ongoing spending decisions made by the Hamilton City Council as part of the organisation’s Long Term Plan deliberations. It effectively replaces an earlier – and profoundly unpopular – proposal to introduce a
$5 fee to park at the gardens.
The entry charge will be introduced from January 1, 2023, and is expected to generate about
$10 million in revenue for the city over 10 years. Hamilton residents will, eventually, be issued ‘‘Hamilton Cards’’ – which will utilise technology currently used by the city’s library cards – to gain ongoing free access.
There could also be concession arrangements for people living near the city, in the Waipa and Waikato districts.
It was one of many decisions made by councillors as they got stuck into the process of whittling down what projects to leave in and leave out of the Long Term Plan, which sets out the budget and the rates increase for next year and the following nine years.
More than 4300 submissions were made on the council’s proposal to charge visitors $5 to park at the Hamilton Gardens, with 64 per cent
(3171 submissions) opposing the idea. The entry fee proposal was moved by councillor Maxine van Oosten, who had worked with community general manager Lance Vervoort to devise ‘‘a strong alternative’’ to the parking fee proposal. ‘‘Our gardens hold celebrity status. They are known nationally and internationally,’’ van Oosten said.
The council will go to the public for their feedback later this year on the proposal, and the results of that consultation will be included in the draft 2022/23 annual plan.
Van Oosten’s motion won unanimous support from her council colleagues, including Ryan Hamilton.
‘‘This is the start of a commercial revolution for the gardens,’’ he said.
Councillor Angela O’Leary, while supporting the plan, said she had ‘‘some massive reservations’’, particularly over whether tour groups and others would be deterred from visiting the gardens because of the fee. Meanwhile, people who park their cars on the outer fringes of Hamilton’s central business district will not have to worry about paying for their parking for the foreseeable future. In abandoning a plan to introduce paid commuter parking, the council has turned its back on an estimated $1.6 million in estimated revenue a year – money which would have been spent on public transport and ‘‘mode-shift initiatives’’ around the city.
Council staff had identified 2000 parking spaces around the central city fringe that could have formed part of the new regime, with charges ranging from $5 to $8 a day. It was a proposal that fell flat with a majority of submitters to the plan, with 63 per cent opposed to it.
It was, said deputy mayor Geoff Taylor who moved for the abandonment of the plan, ‘‘an overwhelming message from residents – leave our parking alone’’.
‘‘It’s a classic case of Nana Council trying to badger people out of cars, trying to tell them what they should be doing, and people are responding by saying, well, bugger off.’’
Other council spending decisions included the green light for $55 million over 10 years on safer cycle, scooter and pedestrian routes.
A bid by mayor Paula Southgate and Taylor to spend just $15m of that money in the first five years of the plan was lost by eight votes to four.
The council also approved a spend of $29m over 10 years for gully restoration in the city; $500,000 on ‘‘river infrastructure’’; and $50,000 towards the $50m Aranui sports club development on the banks of the Waikato River, which will also be reviewed as part of a future annual plan process.
The council also made amendments to its development contributions policy. These include the introduction of a 100 per cent remission for buildings six storeys or higher in the central city, and a 50 per cent remission for developments in the central city – down from 66 per cent – until mid-2024.
The council will also introduce a
100 per cent remission on development contributions for registered providers and charitable trusts wanting to build social housing in the city.
All the decisions will be ratified and the rates increase struck at a council meeting on June 24.
‘‘Our gardens hold celebrity status. They are known nationally and internationally.’’
‘‘It’s a classic case of Nana Council trying to badger people out of cars.’’
One sticking point for me, as I ventured into growing a seasonal flower garden, was what did gardening books actually mean when they talked about ‘‘putting the garden to bed for winter’’? It sure had a delicious, cosy ring to it, but beyond weeding, preparing the garden for the cold months was a bit of a mysterious concept.
It’s not that I hadn’t noticed the beds of tired seed heads and blotchy leaves waving at me, I just felt extremely intimidated at what and when I was meant to do anything about them.
Bearing in mind that different parts of New Zealand stray from temperate to starkly chilly at this time of year, your garden will mostly give you its own signs that bedtime might be close.
In the south, the first frosts really speed up the decline of annuals and perennials. You can tell by their droopy, soggy or blackened foliage and the lack of new flowers.
Equally, even in warmer climates, some flowering plants will naturally start to die and others begin shooting new growth from their base only.
This general bedraggled vibe signals your perennials are preparing for dormancy and your annuals are giving up the ghost.
I have since discovered that pre-winter prep essentially covers a checklist of autumn planting and dividing, snipping, weeding, feeding, and mulching.
It’s the big effort before a somewhat chilled out few months. It also isn’t an exact science and, I have found, in my lack of experience, that chopping back ‘‘too hard’’, ‘‘too early’’ or ‘‘too late’’ hasn’t resulted in any dire consequences.
Lucky for all of us, our gardens want to go to bed and are keen to get up again in springtime, even if we get the following jobs a little wrong.
Scoot around and do a solid weed, giving your topiary or evergreen shrubs a wee haircut at the same time to get them tidy for winter when they’ll produce little growth.
Armed with secateurs, snip decaying stalks from perennials that are looking sad, rather than architectural.
This means chopping them right back to their root clump, where you may notice some short fresh growth preparing itself for spring.
Some perennials display this, others will go on to recede completely out of sight, underground.
If in doubt, a quick search online will give you the specific care information for your individual plant species. Better yet, plunge a stick in the ground nearby so that you remember what lives there, even when you can’t see them.
You might also choose to leave the strong sculptural frames of some flowering plants and grasses to provide snacks for birds, chopping back to new low growth, or about 20cm, in mid-to-late winter.
I often leave phlomis, perennial grasses, verbena bonariensis, and rudbeckia seed heads on the plant for longer, as they do offer some visual interest.
Limp-looking annuals can be pulled out, or left a little longer if you are keen for their ripe seeds to drop freely to encourage a fresh crop next year –
that one is up to you. The same could be said for your enthusiastic perennials that you know will take over if their seeds reach the ground.
Now would be the time to snip those stalks off in avoidance.
This is also a great time to dig up the clumps of your perennials. Drive a sharp spade through them and divide to replant as multiple, new plants.
It’s a favourite activity of mine for the abundant rewards in the following growing season.
Next, you need to ‘‘pull the blanket up’’ – so to speak – by feeding your soil and adding a layer of mulch to insulate over winter, keeping plants, worms and their microbe friends happy.
This also helps to suppress eager weeds. Compost can be homemade, bought in bags, or by the trailer load, whatever you can afford or have the time and means to get.
Aged horse manure, sheep or chicken pellets, blood and bone, or all-in-one, locally produced bagged products will all benefit the continued health of your garden.
There is no need to get too physical here, just gently fork in approximately a 5cm layer to the top of the soil, leaving some breathing room around the base of stems or trunks to avoid any chance of rotting. This will be naturally absorbed over the winter months, leaving your garden beds refreshed.
Equally, if you are transplanting divided perennials, or popping in bulbs, drop some compost into the hole at the same time to give them, and the surrounding earth, a boost.
Finally, an overall topping of mulch will seal in all your good work. Natural, organic matter is best – pea or linseed straw or grass clippings, and my favourite, shredded leaves.
If you don’t have a leaf blower (I know the strong opinions on that word) that can suck up and shred leaves, you can spread them across the lawn and mow over the top, raking up the remains.
A nice chunky layer will slowly be absorbed into your garden over time, acting as a conditioner and helping loosen up soil.
I think this ‘‘putting to bed’’ business is the ‘‘work’’ that non-gardeners fear in creating a seasonal garden. But a few sessions of huffing and puffing in the crisp autumn air, combined with the deep satisfaction of a tidied-up plot, is honestly worth it. Even better are the months of results to be enjoyed over spring, summer and the following autumn. The work truly doesn’t outweigh the reward.
A few sessions of huffing and puffing in the crisp autumn air, combined with the deep satisfaction of a tidiedup plot, quite honestly is worth it.