With spring fast approaching, the team at Tūpare are wrapping up the last of the big winter jobs in preparation for some exciting days ahead, including our garden market on 28 September.
Magnolia campbellii in the Meadow at Tūpare
The gardens will be in full flow, with food trucks, crafts and house tours led by our wonderful volunteers. I’ll also be leading a garden tour, so come along for a sneak peek of spring at Tūpare.
Despite the cold, we’ve pressed on with several long-term projects. The new hydrangea plantings along the driveway are in and mulched; small for now, but in two or three years they’ll be a real feature. The pond has had a long-overdue deep clean, which revealed an unexpected discovery, half a dozen eels that had somehow navigated across the River Flat and through nine smaller ponds to reach the Top Pond. Sadly for them, their stay was cut short as they were promptly returned to the Waiwhakaiho River in a bucket. No doubt they’ll be back one day, though they may not recognise the gin-clear water after we removed two cubic metres of sludge, dead leaves and even a lucky penny. For the record, that wasn’t our favourite job!
Meanwhile, our crack team of volunteers have pruned all the roses and we’ve cut back the hydrangeas hard. It can look severe, but this method produces strong, stocky plants with excellent flowers later in the season, so be brave!
It’s shaping up to be a brilliant spring. The magnolias have already put on a stunning display, with more blooms still to come and many other trees are showing the first stirrings of new growth. A cold winter pays dividends in the garden, it clears away pests and helps set strong buds, so now we can look forward to the best of the season ahead.