Dear NZ Gardeners – Happy New Year!

It’s now completely official – no matter which way you recognise Matariki, it is officially the New Year! New Zealand gardeners should join with Maori in celebrating this special time of year, because ma’dears – this what Christmas should be for the Southern Hemisphere. A little confused? You don’t recognise the word Matariki, let alone the concepts? And how does the Winter Solstice fit in here? Do I get more presents? What babble is this? What are you talking about woman? Read on… it shall all be explained.

Seedy Sunday Hibernation

Seedy Sundays are taking a winter siesta.When we wake up, we’ll face the new year with a new format. Instead of monthly meetings, we’ll be running these events just a couple of times a year for Kapiti. We may even be doing events in a few other places…

I didn’t imagine when I started this that it would be quite so popular and I’m amazed at how successful it has been over the last year and what we have achieved.But to avoid organiser-fatigue, speaker-overload and winter-withering, Seedy Sunday will be hibernating for a bit. Keep an eye on the Seedy Sunday website for news as it comes to hand.

Thanks to everyone for their phenomenal support! See you in August.

Mange à trois – Praying Mantis Action

You’ve heard the stories now see the photographic evidence right here at LovePlantLife! Female praying mantis rips off and devours the head of not one but two lovers, turning this ménage à trois into a mange à trois. Wild!

Will this deluge ever end?

It’s rained every day since the 18th of May… And it’s pouring again now… Husband’s gone stir-crazy. He can’t deal with all this inside-ness. Just gone out and bought a heavy duty pole pruner with telescopic handle and the shark-toothed equivalent of a pruning flick knife. He’s cut himself already unboxing them. Now using them to clear cobwebs off the ceiling. And now it’s hailing… I don’t know if I’ll ever see my garden again. I wish I’d planted water chestnuts and rice.

Seeds of Delight – Arbor Day Edition

June 5 is Arbor Day. Thousands of trees will be planted worldwide. People will revel in a feel-good moment. And most of those trees won’t make it to maturity because one day simply isn’t enough to ‘appreciate’ trees. We can’t just plant them and forget about them – they need to be cared for, weeded and nurtured.

Arbor Day feels completely wrong to me – like a memorial day for trees. We rely on them every day of our lives for food, air and shelter and in return, we give them one day to tokenisticly stick one in the ground. It should be Arbor Day every day!

Anyway, don’t let my curmudgeonly rant stop you from enjoying this veritable forest of tree-related links. Main image by Godfrey Stephens at Lloyd’s Blog – I want a tree like that!

The aesthetic values of trees alone make them an incredibly valuable asset. Let’s get warmed up with 50 beautiful tree photos. There’s a nice countdown of the 10 most magnificent trees in the world. Or those with melancholic tree leanings can check out the beautiful Lonely Tree blog. Enter the matrix in the Duplicative Forest.

A mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year. They help cleanse the air by intercepting airborne particles, reducing heat and absorbing air pollutants. A healthy acre of trees can store 2.6 tons of carbon a year. If the tree falls – we all fall.

Interesting tree facts: 270000 trees are used each day for toilet paper alone. 90% of a tree’s nutrition comes from the atmosphere and only 10% from the soil. The world’s oldest living tree lives in Sweden and is 9500 years old. Trees don’t die of old age – insects, vandalism, weather

TED conferences turn academics and researchers into global sensations, given a voice to change the world – brought to your computer screen. Nalini Nadkarni spoke about saving the forest canopy, prisoners growing moss and ‘Treetop Barbies’. Richard Preston talked about the enormous trees of the US Pacific Northwest.

New Zealand has over 600 native trees and shrubs. And they’re amazing: the Christmas pohutukawa; the gorgeous kākā beak; the sunshine flowers of the kōwhai; the healing mānuka; the mighty tōtara; resplendent kahikatea; our ancient kauri; and our beloved silver fern.

One of trees greatest gifts to mankind has been housing. But it’s tree houses that truly get me excited. And there are amazing examples all over the place. On your next holiday – consider treehouse accommodation. Three of my favourites: the Minister’s rambling tree house, the tree castle at Alnwick Gardens and the Yellow Treehouse Restaurant.