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MANGAWHAI'S NO.1 NEWSPAPER
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Gardening with Gael - Energy and vitality infectious.jpg "South Island Oct 13 011(copy)") Box and I took a trip recently to Christchurch to visit the youngest of our combined family, Ruby. Christchurch in the spring is worth a visit. The gardens are beautiful. Ruby’s roses were lush and green (no possums in the suburbs there!) and on the neighbours fence line was a lilac in full bloom (see photo). Until last year I had thought it impossible to grow lilacs in the north. I imagined they needed a cold winter and had never considered them for the garden until one day at the market there was Cess with lilac trees.“Of course they will grow,” said Cess. Off to the Block I headed with my lilac tree to plant in the herbaceous border. A hardy deciduous shrub, lilacs tolerate most conditions. A well drained soil and some well rotted organic compost are what they require. They like a bit of lime and prefer their base kept free of weeds. Some are prone to powdery mildew and it is important to provide them with some good air circulation. Mine is at the top of the bank and gets a bit of wind and so far so good. I was worried it may not have survived the drought last year but it did and this spring I have my first lilac flowers. When I read that they belong to the same family as the olive tree and have been grown in Europe since the 16th century I am confident of my lilac’s survival. Ruby and her partner Mark have just bought a sheep station inland from Omarama and Box and I were eager to see it. We headed south via Oamaru and stopped in to visit Riverstone on the way. Riverstone is owned by Dot and Neil Smith, formerly of Wellsford. Dot and her sisters, and I with my sisters, all travelled on the same school bus. Dot’s sister Lyn Parker has a wonderful garden at Kaiwaka and I wanted to grab the opportunity to see the garden Dot has created. Not only does she have an amazing garden but eight shops, an award winning restaurant and is in the process of building a castle, moat and all. I have always felt that energy is a particularly important component of life. The outstanding energy Dot and Neil have created at Riverstone was utterly inspiring. The vegetable gardens have been established in raised beds near the restaurant and provide the kitchen with vegetables, herbs and seasonal produce. Dot now has someone to help her. Glorious rhododendrons in full bloom lining the herbaceous borders and the most lush Chatham Island forget-me-nots I have ever seen. The vitality generated by Dot and Neil is infectious and Box and I came away full of new ideas. The station is enormous. Ruby took Box and I for a drive up through paddocks of tussock and matagouri [discaria Toumatau, a drought tolerant divaricating native shrub], to the back of the property which is almost at the snow line while Mark cleared a paddock of rocks. On our return my eyes lit up. So many beautiful rocks there in the back garden waiting to be used. Within minutes we had begun, what I suspect, will be one of many rock walls. FULL BLOOM: This Christchurch lilac has inspired me to plant my own up at the Block. |
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