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Nursery activities
Treemendous news!
Northland Field Days
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Nursery activities
Things got quite busy in the nursery in the lead-up to Christmas and early in the New Year too. I guess it underlines the importance of getting the timing right with sending our seeds off to Nga Rakau to get them propagated. A lesson for next time. I think each year we are learning to do it a bit better, such that this year we now have just under 20,000 plants which should be ready to start planting at the end of May. There is still a bit more repotting to do, but those plants won’t be ready until next year. I guess the picture tells the story.
And of course we have another story to tell – follow this link to find out more about our 91-year-old inspiration in the nursery: https://www.kaiparalifestyler.co.nz/news/4904-otamatea-harbourcares-hero.html
Treemendous news!
Following on from the story last time about the awesome grant from Foundation North to meet nursery costs, the committee has now decided how best to benefit landowners who want to plant trees. So, if:
- The site is within the HarbourCare area of activity (Maungaturoto free-calling area)
- The planting is to be alongside a waterway or be erosion-prone land and not required to satisfy resource consent conditions
- It involves a minimum of 300 plants
- The landowner collects them from the nursery
Then they will be FREE! Preference will be given to those who have already started a planting programme with us. The planting fee would remain at 60c regardless of who plants them – commercial or community groups. They are not available to people who want to do some landscape planting – we’d much rather you support your local commercial nurseries for that.
I will be putting more emphasis on encouraging better site preparation this year, and post-planting care. I intend to obtain a bulk supply of bamboo stakes to be able to on-sell at cost. Their purpose is not to support the plants, but rather help locate them once the grass grows up.
With next planting season in mind I approached Te Radar to be our celebrity guest, but unfortunately he is just too busy over that period. Such a shame, I still think he’s a top bloke. Maybe next year, eh Radar? Watch this space for news on who we get.
Northland Field Days
I will be present at the Northland Field Days on the Friday afternoon as part of the “Love Kaipara” stand, if you’d like to catch up there.