Guerilla gardener Mark van Kaathoven

Compost your garden organic matter on site as a mulch to suppress weeds and the recycled nutrients will feed your plants & soil micro organisms.

Mark van Kaathoven is promoting what a lot of us have been quietly and intuitively doing for years in our gardens. Good on him! It’s time to reduce the recyclable compostable waste stream going to the landfill!

He’s brings his distinct spirited style to his environmentally sustainable methods of recycling. He’s also community minded and takes action in his local public park.

He explains his practices in this video.

This practice can be as simple as raking the leaves off your hard surfaces and spreading them as a mulch around your plants, instead of paying to dispose off site.

My only concern is if the loads of garden material being spread in parks is not closely managed there is the potential for spreading weeds such as Tradescantia fluminensis, Wild ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum), Woolly nightshade (Solanum mauritianum), and Palms including Chinese windmill palm (Trachycarpus fortune), Phoenix palm (Phoenix canariensis) and Bangalow palm (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana).

I’m noticing a number of weeds surreptitiously sprouting in some Auckland gardens and parks often amongst native plants such as Nīkau palms, where weed palms are difficult to differentiate.

We need more environmentally aware action takers like this guy!

Thanks for your work Mark van Kaathoven.

His website is https://www.urbanjungles.nz/

The best Citrus varieties NZ.

So what are the best Citrus varieties to grow in New Zealand?

Many of us look forward to winter because we like harvesting our citrus to ward off the dreaded winter lurgy. It’s also a good time to buy and plant citrus. So which citrus should you buy?

Depending on how much space you have available and what your personal preferences are you won’t go wrong choosing from the following.

Numerical order of preference:

1. Clementine mandarin – My top two favorite flavoured Mandrin’s are Clemantine & Thorny.

Ripens in mid season with excellent flavour. It’s not as easy to peel as other varieties though, but the flavour makes up for that!

Clementine Mandarin can get pips from cross pollination with other citrus.

Approximate Height & width in 7 to 10 years = 2m x 2m

2. Lime Bearss-

A hardier variety of Tahitian lime with a vigorous growth habit. Has thin skin which turns yellow at maturity. Ripens over an extended period. An essential citrus for cooks. Can be used on seafood, salads and in cooking.

Bearss Lime gives your food that delicious lime flavour.

Approximate Height & width in 7 to 10 years = 3m x 2.5m

3. Thorny mandarin –

Has one of the best flavours and peels easily. Does have some thorns though. Ripens mid season.

Approximate Height & width in 7 to 10 years = 2.5m x 1.5m

4. Burgess Scarlet mandarin –

Ripens mid season with easy peel skin and high fruit flavour on a vigorous tree.

Approximate Height & width in 7 to 10 years = 2m x 2m

5. Encore –

Ripens late season so you can extend your harvesting. Reasonably easily peeled.

Approximate Height & width in 7 to 10 years = 3m x 2m

Encore Mandarin is one of the last to ripen so extends the picking season

6. Miho –

Is cold hardy with heavy crops. Ripens early season (June and July) with easy peel skin and high sugar levels. Popular as an export fruit.

Approximate Height & width in 7 to 10 years = 2m x 2m

Miho Mandarin delicious & easy peel

7. Lemonade –

Try something a bit different. Is juicy with a mild grapefruit flavour. Can be eaten fresh or juiced. Crops heavily.

Approximate Height & width in 7 to 10 years = 3m x 2.5m

8. Tangor Ugli – Ugli fruit –

Is larger than mandarins with a thick bright orange skin that’s easily peeled. Has good flavour. It’s name Tangor is from a combination of TANG-erine and OR-ange. The ‘Ugli’ is from it’s quite rough skin texture.

Approximate Height & width in 7 to 10 years = 2m x 2m

Ugli fruit is a good alternative to Oranges if you want fruit larger than Mandarin

9. Tangelo Seminole –

Is very juicy with excellent flavour. But is hard to peel without squeezing the juice every where. To avoid this problem either cut into quarters and bite out centre or cut in half and juice it.

Approximate Height & width in 7 to 10 years = 2.5m x 2m

10. Meyer lemon –

Is a handy year-round producer of large fruit and is cold hardy. It’s probably and hybrid between a lemon and orange so has a milder flavour than a true lemon. Is popular with home gardeners because it’s a heavy cropper and can produce a year round crop in ideal circumstances.

Approximate Height & width in 7 to 10 years = 2m x 2m

11. Yen Ben lemon –

If you want the real sourness of a “true” lemon for culinary purposes this lemon is a good choice because it’s got a thin smooth skin that you can  use is ‘zest’ (grated skin) in recipes.

Approximate Height & width in 7 to 10 years = 3m x 2.5m

12. Grapefruit ‘Golden Special’-

If you like a jolt of fresh citrus flavour then Golden Special Grapefruit may be to your liking. Golden Special is generally considered the best Grapefruit for New Zealand gardens. Grapefruit is too sour by it’s self for many consumers, but can be used in combination with other citrus such as limes or lemon to make a delicious marmalade or juiced with sweeter citrus such as Tangelo Seminole. ‘Golden Special’ Grapefruit produces large juicy fruit that’s difficult to peel by hand. So is typically cut in half and scooped with a small curved knife or spoon. Or peeled with a knife.

Approximate Height & width in 7 to 10 years = 3m x 3m. So you need to allow that much space to avoid shading smaller plants.

You may notice I haven’t included oranges in this article about Best Citrus varieties NZ because in my experience home gardens are often shaded for part of the day by structures or other trees which tends to make the oranges not as sweet as the commercial oranges and there fore disappointing in flavour. But if you have a sunny north facing area with full sun they may be worth trying.

If you can fit all of the Best Citrus varieties NZ in your home orchard you’ll be set to enjoy them for years ahead.

The 2020 Chelsea Flower Show has gone virtual due to Covid 19. To see the videos visit
https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/virtual-chelsea
My favourite style of garden is the Japanese garden which makes this video interesting for me.

Which video is your favourite?

Dee Pigneguy a well known environmentalist has ruffled feathers in her neighbourhood by planting a garden on the council berm adjacent to her property. Her berm garden appears to be based on permaculture principles. A neighbour has complained to Auckland Council and now a situation is developing between Dee and Auckland Transport who have sent Dee a two page document outlining the rules of what is allowed as a berm planting.

NZ Gardener editor Jo McCarroll has started a petition to allow fruit and vege gardens on Auckland’s berms.

https://www.toko.org.nz/petitions/allow-fruit-and-vege-gardens-on-berms#

A search of Auckland Transport website reveals the following Proposed planting guidelines.

https://at.govt.nz/about-us/street-maintenance/berm-maintenance/

Hopefully common sense will prevail to find a compromise solution.

Some Exotic garden plants a ‘ticking time bomb’ according to Lincoln University’s professor Philip Hulme. He has been awarded the Hutton Medal for his work on how non-native plants, including garden ornamentals, become invasive weeds in New Zealand.

He says more needs to be done to keep track of introduced species before they spread, stifling native species. Listen to the full interview on Radio NZ at the following link.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018720781

If you want more info about which plants are considered weeds you can read The National Pest Plant Accord (NPPA) which is an agreement aimed to stop the sale and/or distribution of the specified pest plants. Both the formal and casual horticultural trade is considered the most significant way of spreading the pest plants in New Zealand. For more info about the specific pest plants that are being targeted there’s a list published at the following link.
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/3664-national-pest-plant-accord-2012-manual

Two species of weeds that I regularly notice in Aucklands North Shore gardens and parks are:

Solanum mauritianum. Common name is woolly nightshade

and Rhamnus alaternus common names are: rhamnus, evergreen buckthorn

So if you’re planning to plant up your garden Weedbusters have published a free “Plant Me Instead” booklet that profiles the environmental weeds of greatest concern in your region. Suggestions are given for alternative locally sold non-weedy species. Here’s a link to the publication.

https://www.weedbusters.org.nz/site/assets/files/1085/plant_me_instead_bop.pdf

Clivia

“Queen of the shade”.

Common name – Kaffir Lily

Here’s a Clivia cultivar more towards the red end of their colour range.

Origin

A native to southern Africa. They are members of the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae
Clivia miniata, is the most commonly cultivated species.

Flowering time –

Varies between species and cultivars. Typically C. miniata, C. nobilis and C. caulescens flower in late winter and spring. C. miniata can have flowers at almost any time. C. robusta and C. gardenii flower in the autumn. Interspecific hybrids and cultivars can flower at any time of the year depending on the local climate and the flowering habit of their parent species.

Uses –

If you’ve got a shady spot such as under trees or the shady side of the house and want a low growing ground cover (about 400mm {16 inches}) with red, orange or yellow flowers. This plant could be the solution for that shady spot under trees where other plants just die! They can also be grown in pots, but they don’t really like full sun though. Full sun will usually cause yellowing and burning of the leaves which then go brown and look unsightly and are a time consuming job to remove. They’re perennials so the clump will gradually get wider. One clump can easily cove more than 600mm (2 feet) in diameter. Either mixed in with other plants or as a stand alone mass planting. There aren’t many low growing hardy plants that will beat Clivia for hardiness.

Propagation –

Warning – Wear gloves when handling clivias, as they contain a small amount of alkaloids that can irritate the human skin.

They can easily be divided by prizing the roots apart with two full size forks inserted back to back and levered against each other. Or chop your way through the roots with a spade being careful to leave as much roots attached to the stem as possible.
The three images show two cultivars and one self seeded un-named cultivar. There are also variegated leaf varieties although they tend to revert to green leaves. There’s potential for enthusiasts to breed their own varieties from seed. The seed is quite large (about the size of a pea) and is produced after flowering inside a fleshy fruit. The fruit can be harvested. To sow scrape off the flesh and sown in the normal fashion in potting mix in a container in a warm shady position keeping the soil moist but not water logged. This will create your own unique un-named variety since with seed propagation you get a recombination of the parent genes! It’s possible to grow 20 or more plants per year from a single parent clump. The flower colour and size and leaf shape can vary between seedlings to add a bit of interest.

Here’s a yellow cultivar of Clivia.

This Clivia is an un-named variety that I bred from a seedling.

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Image courtesy of  Stuff.co.nz  https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/114534612/this-kauri-treestump-has-stunned-the-science-world-because-it-refused-to-die

New Zealand researchers have discovered Kauri trees can have a shared root system. AUT’s Dr Martin Bader and Associate Professor Sebastian Leuzinger were hiking in the bush and stumbled on a Kauri stump that was being kept alive by being connected to neighbouring trees trough it’s root system. This means we may have to consider a forest not as a collection of individual trees, but as a ‘super-organism“. This has implications for both the spread and control of Kauri die back disease. The disease caused by the organism Phytophthora agathidicida could theoretically spread through the roots from tree to tree. Also any control treatments such as injecting with phosphate could spread through a tree community reducing the cost of remedy treatments. Their paper is published in cell.com/iscience

This discovery reinforces what UBC Professor Suzanne Simard explains here –Trees communicate with each other!

Legionnaires Disease Health Warning

New Zealand health authorities are warning gardeners to be aware that potting mix can cause a fatal disease called Legionnaires Disease if handled improperly.

The Legionnaires Disease warning comes after a coroner ruled that a Christchurch woman Margaret Valenski , who died on Boxing Day in 2011, was probably caused by Legionnaires Disease contracted after working with potting mix or compost. Canterbury medical officer of health Ramon Pink says “Enjoy your gardening by all means, but please make sure you avoid inhaling the dust from potting mix or compost as this can be dangerous.”

Legionnaires Disease is a type of pneumonia caused by bacteria. It is a potentially fatal, acute infectious respiratory process caused by any species of the aerobic bacteria belonging to the genus Legionella. It is not transmitted from one person to another person. The common transmission route for the disease is breathing in dust or water aerosols contaminated with the bacteria. Sources where temperatures allow the bacteria to thrive include cooling towers , hot-water tanks, and evaporative condensers of large air-conditioning systems, such as those commonly found in large office buildings and hotels.

The symptoms of Legionnaires Disease are a high fever, chills and a cough which may be dry or produce sputum. Some patients also have headache, muscle aches, tiredness, loss of appetite, loss of coordination (ataxia), and occasionally diarrhoea and vomiting. Impaired cognition and confusion and may also occur. So if you have these symptoms it’s best to go to see your doctor urgently.

In New Zealand in 2010 there were five related deaths and 136 hospitalisations caused by Legionnaires Disease related problems . There have been years where New Zealand has had seven or eight deaths. The death rates are normally higher if there has been no medical intervention.
The best ways to reduce the risk of infection with Legionnaires Disease for gardeners are to follow these steps when handling potting mix or compost:

• Wear a respiratory face mask covering your mouth and nose.

• Open potting bags gently using scissors rather than tearing them open, therefore increasing the air borne dust.

• Work in a well ventilated outside area.

• Dampen compost and soil with water to reduce air borne dust particles.

• Wear gloves and thoroughly was hands after handling potting mix or doing gardening.

So anyone who has the symptoms listed above should see a GP urgently and tell them if they have been handling potting mix or compost recently.

Trees communicate with each other.

Did you know that trees communicate with each other?

UBC Professor Suzanne Simard explains how trees are connected through their roots and can pass on nutrients to other plants of their species that need them. Watch this video for an explanation.