WILD GARDENING 101
• Ferns: The versatile fragrant fern ( Microsorum scandens) copes with sun or shade, and both climbs and travels across the ground. So does leather leaf fern ( Pyrrosia eleagnifolia) which offers the design benefit of making a garden look mature (akin to ivy on a stone wall).
• Divaricating shrubs: The small fruits of coprosmas, matagouri, myrsine and such are loved by lizards and small birds. “In the wild, you often find them laced with climbers and scramblers such as clematis, New Zealand jasmine, bush lawyer or pohuehue,”¯ Isobel Gabites says. She is a fan of New Zealand jasmine (Parsonsia), and is especially fond of the fine-leaved Parsonsia capsularis.
“It’s such a graceful plant, forming veils of foliage, and releasing its fairy-down seeds from scimitar pods. In the wild, the jasmines do a sterling job of sealing off the forest edges from wind.”
• Herbs and woody herbs are often overshadowed by flowering shrubs. Lately, Isobel has become enamoured by Scandia rosifolia, a North Island cliff-face woody herb, largely eaten out from its natural habitat. ”It looks like angelica, with shiny deep green leaves and is smothered with white umbels in summer. Easy to raise and responsive to pruning, it thrives where the only animals eating it are humans”
• Colour: A “green” garden can be uplifting and inspiring if the greens chosen are both deep green and fresh yellow-green. Teamed with yellow or creamy white flowers, the overall effect can be quite enlivening. Shades of olive and “browner” greens can come alive if balanced up with silvery foliage and red blooms.
Speaking of red blooms, ka¯ka¯beak now relies on gardens for its survival, partly because it is so susceptible to slug, snail and leaf miner damage that being nurtured in a garden likely offers it the best possible future.
• Native fauna: Isobel mourns the disappearance of the native butterflies. “I assume that wasps are largely to blame. Take action against wasps, plant the po¯huehue (muehlenbeckia) that copper butterfly caterpillars need and the nettles ( Urtica spp.) that admirals require, and hope for the best.”