on-line gardener

For another gardening view, this time on-line, try this link.

I'm writing for the South Coast Environment Society Inc's website, especially for south coaster's who garden.

Bumble bee nest

This morning I moved a bumble bee nest from a place where it wasn't wanted (beside a children's play area) to a place where it was (my garden). It was an easier-than-expected job. Bumble bees have small colonies, there were about 100 in this one, and their 'nest' is a simple one. They had made three shallow depressions in the ground, where they had placed their 'cells' and very little else. I scooped them up and put them into a large bucket with a lid, drove them home, up-ended the bucket and the job was done. Tomorrow I'll know if they have accepted their new home. Bumble bees are valuable assistants in the garden. They pollinate like crazy!

In print!

If you are a gardener and a southerner to boot, you might enjoy my regular column in the New Zealand Gardener magazine. The first "46 Below" feature has been in the bookstores since late January (though it sold out very quickly in Riverton!) and the next edition is due shortly. There has been a very positive response to 'a southerner's perspective on growing and managing a garden' and I have a lot of what I hope will be interesting stories to tell. My own gardens are providing more than enough material to write about, what with the abundance of fruit we are enjoying this season and the experimental approach we are taking with weed management, pest control and a whole lot of other things. My son's cutting edge ideas are fertile ground too for inspiration for the column as are the community and highschool garden/orchards that I am managing. Happy reading.

Rename the rivers!

This letter to the Southland Times from Riverton woman Yvonne Sharp caused some mirth and an immediate response from concerned river users with stories of poor practice on our once great rivers.
'To save ourselves the worry and effort of cleaning up our Southland rivers, we just need to think about them in a new way.
Let's call them drains - the Aparima drain, the Oreti drain, the Mataura drain.
Problem solved. No more polluted rivers in our region.'