This week, it would seem that my activities
out with the gardens as well as in have transpired to be worthy of recount.
Once again, a large portion of my time was given over to aiding the ongoing
task of salvaging plants the site of the gardens’ new propagation unit. There
was a particular air of urgency to this week’s proceedings, as after next
Tuesday the site will no longer belong to the botanic gardens and any plants
that are left behind will be lost. Fortunately, we managed to remove a majority
of the specimens that had been earmarked for saving along with a few extra ones
for good measure.
Azalea Lawn
Though not yet in full bloom, the first
signs of life have started to appear in the Azalea lawn, which is located just
next to my house. Set against a wonderful backdrop of vibrant green leaved
Japanese Maples, a handful of azaleas have started to come into flower. I will
keep posting photos as more appear, but just to get the ball rolling.
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| Azalea Lawn (6/10/2013) |
Tannock House Vegetable Garden
One section of the gardens that is doing
particularly well, if I do say so myself, is the vegetable patch in the garden
of Tannock House. A couple of weeks ago, I began making the preparations
necessary to cultivate an array of culinary delights. I was very keen to put my
newfound knowledge in the field of vegetable gardening, garnered from my time
spent tending to my plot at the Edinburgh botanic gardens, into practice. This week I dug over and weeded the area that I wished to plant in and sowed two rows of
peas to get things going. My previous attempt at growing peas had been rather
unsuccessful so I was determined to make a better effort of it this time
around. In addition to this I also sowed kale, lettuce, courgettes, broad
beans, pak-choi, broccoli and beetroot with all but the latter going into seed
trays to bring them on before they are to be planted out. I also have some potatoes on the way that
should hopefully be just about ready for Christmas time. Hopefully, come autumn
time I will have no shortage of bang tidy, delicious vegetables to munch on!
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| Germinated peas. Success at last! (5/10/2013) |
Hort. Talk
Once a month on a Friday afternoon an event
is held in the gardens featuring a guest
speaker delivering an hour-long talk on a horticultural topic of their
choosing. These so called ‘Hort. Talks’ are open to the public along with all
of the gardens’ apprentices and student trainees. This month’s speaker was a
particularly interesting and prolific chap by the name of Bart Acres. Acres is
responsible for establishing the ‘Otepoti Urban Organics’ network (Otepoti is
Maori for Dunedin in case you were wondering) which connects gardeners,
community groups and non-profit businesses interested in promoting organic food
production in the Dunedin area. Through this organisation, Acres has also helped
to develop the ‘Symbiosis Seed Exchange’, which gathers and sells seed from
heirloom vegetable varieties that are specifically suited to growing in the
local climate. The seed exchange also encourages growers to save seed from
their vegetables as a means of preserving these varieties for future
generations. All seeds are sold for only $2 a packet with gathered seed able to
be exchanged for another variety if so desired*. However, Acres visit to the
gardens had nothing to do with any of these endeavours. Instead he was there to
talk about something completely different... mushrooms.
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| Morel Mushrooms (Morchella angusticeps) |
In recent years, there has been a number of
potentially revolutionary developments in the applications and uses of the
natural properties of fungi as a means of undoing damage to our environment.
Mycologists (mushroom scholars) have been able to use mycelium to break down
and remove damaging synthetic compounds such as oil and heavy metals from
delicate ecosystems using a process known as Mycoremedation. Acres talk
explained in much more detail than I will go into here the potential
applications of this biotechnology and how it can one day hopefully be used on
an industrial scale as an organic and effective way of regenerating our ailing
world. For those of you wishing to research this area further, an informative
video can be found here. This is a topic
that I have a particular interest in and would encourage anybody who needs an
injection of optimism regarding our world’s future to have a good look into.
* A link to the ‘Symbiosis Seed Exchange’
2013 Seed List can be found here.
Van
In other non-garden related news, I managed
to wangle myself some wheels to roll around on. No more hitchhiking for Craig!
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| My new/old van! |
