Great Winter Tucker for Tui

There are three houses around the foot bridge that have Banksia growing in their back yard. On a wet Wednesday when we were planting we could hear the Tui singing in the Banksia trees. Banksia comes into flower in winter when there are few nectar-bearing trees in flower, thus complementing the Kowhai which starts flowering in spring.

On a request for the name of the species observed at the University, the grounds manager said,” The tree you refer to is the Banksia integrifolia, the tuis love this tree and seem to get almost a year round food source. It’s a very fast growing Banksia and one of the hardiest Banksia species”.

We are negotiating with a nursery to get a price and quantity required for a bulk purchase of Banksia. When we get the numbers we will let everyone know and see if we can get the numbers required. We have access to other enviro networks so we will not be only reliant on our group.

Getting Carex secta established in the pond

Carex secta will happily grow in water but getting them established is a bit of a challenge with ducks paddling them into the mud and Pukeko pulling them out just for fun. We first tried covering them with 16 up-side-down hanging baskets. This stopped the ducks but not the Pukekos and only three have survived. We acquired 6 wire mesh tree guards to use. These look ideal. Once the 6 Carex are established we will plant another 6.

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Winter Planting progress

The winter is a busy time of the year with planting in full swing. The area south of the foot bridge that has had several sprays to get rid of the Glyceria has been planted in Manuka and Carex secta with a few kahikatea. All these should tolerate wet ground.

Eighty seven plants of mixed species have been planted round the pond to fill in the gaps.

Sexton Road end of the gully has had over 500 plants go in at various locations.

That’s a total of 2,350 plants of which 1,450 have been HCC-supplied with the balance having been raised by our group and a few purchased. 

Epiphyte Collospermun hastatum

 We have introduced another epiphyte into the reserve. After installing it we read that the epiphyte should be inserted directly into the sphagnum moss so it is now a little different to the photo.

AGM 2012

The 2012 AGM of Mangaiti Gully Restoration Trust will be held –

on Tuesday 31 July

at 7pm

at 7 Carisbrook Place, Rototuna North, Hamilton, 3210

The agenda will be notified later