They are more agile than you think for a big bird.

The cheeky pukeko who has visited our garden since spring until recently. Having a bit of apple on one of our bird feeders.

Manuka/tea tree plant, great habitat for biodiversity

 

These photos were taken in April whilst I was working in the garden, they were 4 katydids and a couple of stick insects and preying mantis on the plant at the same time as well as lots of bees and wasps. I have a few very small plants from cuttings of another plant if anyone wants one in a deeper shade of pink. I have planted two more at the top of the garden.

 

Where has Donna and Brians lawn gone

The footpaths have been well mulched and the veggies are mixed in with the flowers and fruit trees.

An update on Donnas frogs and their beautiful pad

Tadpole pond

Frog pond

strange vegetable

This random vegetable turned up unplanted in my garden. The leaves are very like the turnips I had planted, but while they are round and red, this awesome root is in a league of it’s own.

Yes, I did eat it. It tasted like a cross between radish and parsnip. Does anyone know what it is?

Seaweek 2nd trip

As you can tell I am going through things we have done since the start of the Greenest street and updating you on what I either forgot to mention or have  done more of.

I did a second collection of rubbish on the beach during seaweek (first week in March) on a lovely sunny day . This time I started out from near the Waterfront Bar end of Raumati Beach and walked the length of Alexander Road northwards.

Here is my rubbish from that walk.

I then moved onto the area I had covered during the 1st seaweek collection from the boating club northwards again.

I had to take a photo of the sock on its own as I found so many and this one looked as if it was now part of the sand! Note the home made net, this was towards the Marine reserve area of our beach but who knows where it came from.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a  photo of the display of seaweek rubbish at the Greenest Street tent at the Sustainable home and garden show.

When I spoke to the seeweek organisers at the Wellington office they were surprised we had much rubbish, so I can only hope it was the storm that delivered it and we really are a  clean green coastal area.

More natives and help for biodiversity in our garden

We have also started to dig up the top end of our front lawn to plant a variety of natives (30 to date) either gifted from the birds, from cuttings taken on my plant propagation course and 3 purchased from Kapiti nursery on Otaihanga Road.

We planted between the natives with lettuce and silverbeet (both in colourful variations)

The ground has been covered with some of the newspapers we have been saving and mulch from the garden.

Left top photo 4th Jan – Right top photo 28th Jan – next photo 19th May

 

As at 20th May with newspaper and mulch

We have used some rocks from a garden in Waikanae on top of the mulch to provide a basking and hiding place for the skinks in our garden and created a rotting log pile for bugs and skinks as well.

Timber

We had a workshop on increasing biodiversity in your garden on the 7th December and since then we have taken a look at our plant diversity. We have 4 flowering cherry trees that the birds kindly disperse the seeds from. Their blossom is beautiful and their autum leaves a delight not only to look at but useful for the compost as well.

The birds also deposit lots of native seedlings in our garden which I have been potting on.

Well now you see it

Now you dont, in its place we have planted another cabbage tree courtesy of the birds and a kowhai again a gift from the birds. We hope they enjoy the blossom and fruit of these trees

You might also notice that we are removing the honeysuckle which also has fruiting berries that the birds could eat.

The cherry tree was mulched with the logs being saved for the fire.

The mulch was stored on the driveway along with our mulched privet hedge and some mulched bamboo.

Sea Week at Kapiti Marine Reserve

Well I turned up despite the wind and rain at 10am at the boating club. Unfortunately I waited at the front for 5 mins and then went into the boating club to be told they knew nothing about the beach clean up.

After checking the local paper I went back onto the beach behind the boat club to find no one there. I hadn’t thought to check if the weather had cancelled the event.

Undetered I set off picking up rubbish (minus the plastic bags and gloves that were going to be issued) I soon ran out of holding capacity and had to walk across the dune walkway to knock on a house door and ask for some plastic bags.

The weather was gusting and raining from behind and I headed up to the next beach access walkway (near 81 Manly Street) before turning to face mother nature.

I think she felt sorry for me and the rain eased, the result of my beach clean up was 4 bulging bags of rubbish. Stand out items were 2.5 toothbrushes, 2 golf balls, numerous socks, beer bottles, cans, hair scrunchies, knicker elastic! assorted clothing fabric and a surf life saver hat.

Some of the seaweed looked very much like plastic so I can now see how easily marine life makes the mistake of eating it.

I will weigh the bags and investigate the contents later and let you know the result.

We have a street meeting this afternoon so perhaps we could do a walk down Raumati Beach during Sea week to pick up some more rubbish.

 

Lindales Butterfly World

John and I spent an hour or so this afternoon helping out at Butterfly World at Lindale.
This will be a great place to take kids once the plants have had chance to establish themselves and a great natural resource for the monarch butterflies.
Check out their website at http://www.butterflyworld.org.nz

This is a photo I took of one of the Monarchs laying her eggs on the swan plants. Unfortunately this is not a good thing at this stage in the program!

We helped create a corner bed and then planted it with Canna lillies.

Followed by a short session squashing caterpillar eggs and baby catterpillars from the young swan plants.

I know it sounds mean but the plants would just get shredded to pieces if they were left.