Southland
Writing about gardening can make it seem as though it is a measured, well-organised pastime with tasks ticked off as they are completed.
The best laid plans don’t always work to plan, Robert Guyton says.
Gardeners though, know that gardening isn’t so carefully compartmentalised. We do things as and when and where they are needed. We zigzag from one task to another, driven by the seasons, the weather and the demands of our plants. I have my green fingers in many pies and pokers in several fires all at the same time. Mostly, I oscillate from one nearly finished task to another as my fancy takes me or my attention drifts.
I’m sure this resonates with others who know about the nature of gardening and who, like me, love the organic way that garden tasks present and evolve. With that in mind, I offer now a column rounding up the activities I’ve been engaged in over the past while.
I’m establishing a rooftop garden on our concrete water tank.
It’s a difficult environment for any plant – exposed, disconnected from the ground and cooler than the surrounding garden.
But I have a plan. I’m using plants that do well in thin soils and dry conditions: bachelor’s buttons, heaths and heathers, iceplants and chamomiles. I’ve observed these plants surviving in places that leave others withered and bleached.
I’ll endeavour to keep water to the plants over their first summer and add compost regularly in case the rains do wash away what they were planted in, but aside from that, it’ll be an experiment.
A suggestion from a fellow columnist got me all excited about my giant Himalayan lilies ( Cardiocrinum giganteum).
Feed them potash, I read, to boost the size and vigour of the pups that form at the base of the mature lilies, and so I did. Now, I’m waiting to see if I’ve increased the rate at which my population of giants will expand (I’m confident they will and am very grateful for the advice).
My Bambusa multiplex don’t need dividing, but I’m doing it anyway, as I’m keen to populate not only my own garden with their handsome and useful stems, but also the community gardens and orchards I’m helping to develop. I’ve learned not to chop off single canes even if they are well-supplied with roots – they don’t like starting off alone and do much better in a small group; four or five together works well, I’ve discovered. This bamboo is tall, so I plant them near a tree or structure that I can lash them to, at least for a few months, until they get a good grip on the soil and can stand alone. Wind rock slows the rate at which they establish and can even cause the transplanted clumps to fail. My rate of success to date is high, but not 100 per cent. We gardeners learn by experience.
Now that I’ve been bitten by the hosta bug, I see them everywhere. I’m mainly fascinated by the large-leafed, glaucous variety that loves it here under the trees, but I’m open to suggestions. Here, they’re trouble-free as we have no snails.
The hops I planted at the foot of each of the supports in my tunnelhouse are winding their way toward the plastic roof. I’m hoping they’ll arch down gracefully once they get there, as they do outdoors, but who knows. If they do cascade once they reach the top, they’ll look wonderful and my plan to disguise the metal poles will have worked. I’ll leave the spent vines there and we can use those to twine up next year.
I’ve planted a tecomanthe vine as well. If that’s vigorous enough, it will compete with the hop that’s sharing its pole.
I’ve also planted Pinus radiata in the hen run. I never thought I would grow the common pine, but having been gifted a brace of them, I decided to grow them on for a year and sell them as Christmas trees. Pinus radiata are much maligned at present, but having planted thousands of them when I was a young man working for a forestry company in the steep and rocky hills near Nelson, I have a soft spot for them, love their fragrance and the feel of their needles when they are young.
I’m thinking about retirement, four or five years in the future.
While I’m sure I’ll find myself even busier than I am now, I’d like to focus on growing trees, running a small nursery and providing food foresters and forest gardeners with the sorts of trees I’ve tried here at Riverton. So I’m building up my stock of useful trees, planting them now so they’re of sale-able size when I begin to draw my pension.
I’ve begun with sweet chestnuts and fortune has sent me a supply of self-sown saplings that are responding well to being dug up and replanted in compost-filled pots. I don’t know yet what their roots might do, restricted by plastic for that long, but I’ll find out as time goes by. Other trees on my to-grow list: tree fuchsia, cork oaks, Cornelian cherry, and Chinese hawthorn.
I’m sure I’m not alone in having a wide range of interests and ambitions, and an ongoing desire to try almost everything in the garden. The activities here are just the tip of the iceberg, and are always subject to change and expansion. ✤