Friday, October 16, 2015
The Red Zone
Not inspiring. It's being mown by the Council. The remaining trees are orphans. Near the beach, there are remnants and because of their resilience, useful to the resilience-minded gardener that I am. There's a perennial beet there that "people" should transplant to their own gardens, if they have a mind for the future. Star of the Earth too, surprisingly. I brought some home. If the Council continues to mow, there will be little expansion. The Council will continue to mow. We visited a Dutch couple who grow apples organically. They were delightful. Somewhere in Christchurch, they have an orchard that produces organic, heritage apples for whomsoever wants to buy them. The Red Zone is "subdued" somehow (well, there was this series of earthquakes...) and abandoned. Someone might be able to breath life back into it. I hope they do. Sadly, the base for regrowth is suburban gardens. Not so much in the way of food in the traditional suburban garden. Still, it's a canvas...
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4 comments:
When I saw it (and I saw it a fair bit), it seemed to be a swamp with people living in it. The people wanted very much for it to not be so swamp-like, but there was nothing they could do to change it.
Sometimes it seems like we spend too much time pretending things are something apart from what they really are. The red zone is not suitable to be inhabited by people. Nor is it, in my opinion, suitable as a garden of either the forest or traditional variety, not in the long term.
Instead we should help it to return to its natural state.
I agree. It yearns to be a wetland, squirming with eels and alive with fernbird and bittern. Southland is much the same :-)
I wonder if it was 'The Council' that mowed or more likely those doing mowing?
We had a similar issue in Lautoka where a reserve was planted with trees only to have it all mown. On investigation, it wasn't the council as such, but the workers who couldn't be bothered mowing around the trees.
Protocols aren't always followed. The mowing is of what were lawns, so there's no great anguish there, but any spread of non-grasses will be hampered by the on-going mowing. Kereru might reintroduce natives overtime, so long as the mowing ceases, though there's be a leguminous period to contend with :-)
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