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Batch tree planting 2013

Batch tree planting 2013

Details   It's tree planting time again and as in previous years, we have once again received an order of 130 trees and shrubs. Carefully selected to fill specific niches, these plants will, as they mature, flesh out the natural forest we are attempting to coax into existence.
3 types of flowering native broom handle strong winds and dry soils while fixing nitorgen in the soil and providing a valuable nectar source for bees and other insects and birds.
Hazels, butter nuts, and several berry shrubs will feed us and the wildlife as well as adding an asthetic and natural mixing of scale in the forest.
Date   September 06, 2013
Tags      
Sector analysis for optimal land use

Sector analysis for optimal land use

One of the fundamental aspects to designing a sensible landscape for habitation and production is the consideration of the various external energies, forces and factors that can impact the site. These commonly include sunlight, wind, visibility, water flow, wildfire and wildlife.

Mapping the 'sectors' where these threats or energies originate you can help determine the placement of elements (plantings, buildings, earthworks) that benefit from or lessen the impact of these forces.

Most of these sectors are easy to identify with on the ground observation or inspection of detailed maps while seasonal sun angles are available for a known latitude.

Local conditions such as hills, valleys and large trees modify wind directions and intensity, cast shade and impact fire rick and behavior. These site specific characteristics may be evident to a well trained eye or can be learnt over an extended period of time spent on site or in discussion with previous occupants or neighbors.

Exclusion / Restrict flow
Generally it is desirable to exclude strong winds by planting fast growing shelter trees suitable for the site and of appropriate heights. This may be combines with fire 'proofing' by selecting naturally lass flammable species.
Roads and other thoroughfares are a source of noise, possible pollution and fire risk and the curious eyes of passers. For privacy and security reasons it may be advisable this with planting or construction.

Inclusion / Aid flow
Sunlight (solar energy) is essential for growth and can assist in many other processes or activities such as drying fruit or washing, heating water etc.
Allowing water to enter the site is usually valuable but too much can cause issues so having suitable drainage is essential.
Cold air naturally flows down slope but can 'pool' or get trapped behind dense plantings. If frosts are a problem, considering cold air flow may help improve growing conditions.
Nourishment for all seasons

Nourishment for all seasons

Do you dream of harvesting your own fresh fruit, berries and vegetables?

I design 'pick any time' forage gardens by including an assortment of location appropriate shrubs, vines and trees that create lush, beautiful landscapes that feed you and your family while providing wildlife habitat and an attractive environment.

Low cost healthy fresh food just out your back door, fantastic!
Ajuga

Ajuga

Details   Ajuga reptans is an evergreen Perennial growing to 0.3m by 0.6m at a slow rate. It is hardy to zone (UK) 6 and is not frost tender. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees, The plant is self-fertile. It is noted for attracting wildlife.
Common name   Bugle, Common Bugelweed, Bugleweed, Carpet Bugleweed, Carpetweed, Carpet Bugle
Botanical name   Ajuga reptans
Family   Lamiaceae
Height (m)   0.3
Evergreen  
Perennial  
Date   October 17, 2014
Shade / Sun   Sun - Full shade
Soil type   Most
Flowers   Purple

Wildflowers of the British Isles

Common name   Wildflowers of the British Isles
Date   July 04, 2013
Details   Contains annual wild flowers that are now rare or declining in the wild, this is a delightful Special Cornfield Mixture, containing such lovely items as Cornflower, Night-flowering Catchfly, Corn Cockle and, no cornfield would be complete without it, the Common Poppy! It is intended to be used to cover just a small patch in an average English garden. General comment: Germination of any wild flower is often slow and unpredictable and, due to the losses that can be expected from direct outdoor sowings, the best way of achieving a "naturalised" area is to sow individual pots of wild flowers with some suitable protection. After germination and hardening off, the young plants can then be planted in their final positions where they are to flower where they will then hopefully naturalise themselves and encourage other wildlife.
Botanical name   Wild Flower 5 - Cornfield Special Mixture
Perennial  
Golden Rain Tree

Golden Rain Tree

Details   China and Korea. Broadly spreading, deciduous. Long pinnate leaves, yellow and orange in autumn. Small yellow flowers in large panicles followed by papery triangular capsules. Both make a good display. Suit hot dry sites.
Common name   Golden Rain Tree
Botanical name   Koelreuteria paniculata
Height (m)   5-10
Diameter   3.00
Edible  
Fruit / berries  
Perennial  
Wind tolerance   Good
Shade / Sun   Full sun
Soil type   Most
Flowers   Yellow
Small Leaved Lime, Littleleaf linden

Small Leaved Lime, Littleleaf linden

Details   Young leaves make an excellent salad or sandwich filling. Coppice or pollard trees to maintain a manageable size
Botanical name   Tilia cordata
Height (m)   30
Diameter   12.00
Edible  
Perennial  
Wind tolerance   Tolerate exposure
Carbon Equivalent   1.00
Asiatic sweetleaf/Sapphire berry

Asiatic sweetleaf/Sapphire berry

Details   China & Japan. Wide spreading deciduous shrub. Panicles of creamy white fragrant flowers in mid summer. Bright blue berries remain after leaf fall, best display where two or more are planted. Fruit - cooked. Used in jams, jellies and sauce
Common name   Asiatic sweetleaf/Sapphire berry
Botanical name   Symplocos paniculata
Family   Symplocaceae
Height (m)   3.0
Edible  
Fruit / berries  
Perennial  
Date   August 11, 2013
Wind tolerance   Good
Shade / Sun   Full sun
Soil type   Moist
Flowers   White
Colour   Purple
Elderberry

Elderberry

Details   Fast growing multi stemmed small tree with flat clusters of small white flowers in late spring.
Common name   Elderberry - European Elder
Botanical name   Sambucus nigra
Family   Caprifoliaceae
Height (m)   6
Diameter   6.00
Edible  
Fruit / berries  
Wind tolerance   Low
Shade / Sun   Full sun - Shade
Soil type   Most
Flowers   White
Pineapple sage

Pineapple sage

Details   Tubular red flowers and an attractive scent to the leaves that is similar to pineapple. It produces numerous erect leafy stems and flowers in the late autumn. Native to highland temperate forest in central Mexico. In cultivation, Pineapple sage grows to 1.2m tall, with the roots extending underground to form a large clump.
Common name   Pineapple sage, tangerine sage
Botanical name   Salvia elegans
Height (m)   1.5
Diameter   1.00
Edible  
Frost sensitive  
Perennial  
Shade / Sun   Full sun
Soil type   Moist
Flowers   Red
Judas Tree

Judas Tree

Details   Hardy to -15C
Common name   Judas Tree, Redbud
Botanical name   Cercis siliquastrum
Family   Leguminosae
Height (m)   12
Diameter   10.00
Seeds / nuts / tubers  
Perennial  
Nitrogen fixer  
Drought tolerance  
Shade / Sun   Full sun
Soil type   Most
Flowers   Pink
False Indigo Seeds

False Indigo Seeds

Botanical name   Amorpha fruticosa
Details   Purple flowering large shrub to small tree growing to 4 meters. Amorphous fruticosa is a deciduous nitrogen fixing shrub in the legume family. Found wild in most of the contiguous United States, southeastern Canada, and northern Mexico and introduced to Europe. Asia and other continents. It is often cultivated as an ornamental plant. It has minor edible use and some additional uses including: Bedding; Dye; Insecticide; Oil; Repellent; Shelterbelt; and Soil stabilization. Common names, including desert false indigo, false indigo-bush, and bastard indigobush.
Nitrogen fixer  
Perennial  
Tags     flowers  N fixer  purple 
Price   $3.90  20 seeds
Tasmanian Blackwood

Tasmanian Blackwood

Botanical name   Acacia melanoxylon
Details   A fast growing nitrogen fixing acacia with valuable ground durable timber. Excellent for firewood and loved by bees. Extensive root system makes it drought proof but can sucker profusely when damaged.
Tags     N fixer  timber 
Price   $3.90  20 seeds
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Female oak leaf papaya cutting

Female oak leaf papaya cutting

Common name   Oak leaf papaya / pawpaw
Botanical name   Carica quercifolia
Details   Grow your own papaya plant from cutting.

This species is dioecious, having separate male and female plants. You will need at least one of each to get fruit.
Handles temperatures down to -5 celcius
Wind tolerance   poor due to big leaves
Frost sensitive  
Edible  
Fruit / berries  
Tags     cutting  subtropical  fruit 
Price   $3.90  15 cm stem cutting
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Thornless Honey Locust Seed

Thornless Honey Locust Seed

Botanical name   Gleditsia triacanthos f.inermis
Details   Excellent shade and autumn colour tree. Produces very large pods with sticky sweet pulp, valued for stock fodder. Thrives in the heat and dry.
Drought tolerance  
Jugulone tolerance  
Nitrogen fixer  
Tags     deciduous  N fixer  tree 
Price   $4.90  20 seeds
Teasel

Teasel

Common name   Teasel, Fuller's teasel
Botanical name   Dipsacus fullonum
Family   Dipsacaceae
Diameter   1.00
Height (m)   1.8
Carbon Equivalent   1.00
Shade / Sun   Full sun - part shade
Soil type   Most
Wind tolerance   Moderate
Piptanthus nepalensis seeds

Piptanthus nepalensis seeds

Flowers   Yellow
Common name   Evergreen Laburnum
Botanical name   Piptanthus nepalensis
Details   This Himalayan shrub grows easily from seed, is evergreen in mild sheltered sites, semi-evergreen elsewhere, losing its leaves in hard frost but soon recovering again in spring. The growth is upright and flexible, allowing plants to be trained on warm walls where they are sheltered and flower more profusely. The blooms are large and bright yellow, like those of laburnum but in short upright clusters. Although good drainage is important, make sure plants are watered in summer to prevent sudden die-back.
Evergreen  
Nitrogen fixer  
Perennial  
Tags     evergreen  flowers  N fixer  shrub  yellow 
Price   $4.50  20 seeds
Tagasaste (tree lucerne) seeds

Tagasaste (tree lucerne) seeds

Botanical name   Chamaecytisus palmensis
Details   Fast growing, drought resistant nitrogen fixer (legume). This small tree has white flowers which are loved by bees, bumblebees and native pigeon. Grown as a nurse or support tree during the establishment of more long term tree plantings. Useful as a quick canopy / umbrella over citrus, avocados etc. or used as physical scaffold for climbers such as grape, kiwifruit etc. Good firewood from mature trees. Pour hot water over the seeds and soak for 24 hours before planting into course sand.
Drought tolerance  
Evergreen  
Nitrogen fixer  
Perennial  
Tags     evergreen  flowers  N fixer  tender  tree  white 
Price   $2.90  20 seeds
Teasel Seeds

Teasel Seeds

Botanical name   Dipsacus fullonum
Details   Fast growing tall short lived perennial flowering plant that needs no care or attention. The distinctive seed heads are popular in floral arrangements. Values include: wind break, shade plant, water holding plant, soil improvement / stabilisation, biomass production, insect habitat, food source for birds, ornamental
Drought tolerance  
Perennial  
Tags     annual 
Price   $3.90  20 seeds
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Senna Seeds

Senna Seeds

Common name   glandular senna, downy senna, buttercup bush
Botanical name   Senna multiglandulosa
Details   A fast growing evergreen shrub which become treelike. The leaves are each made up of several pairs of thick, hairy, oval-shaped leaflets each measuring up to about 4 centimetres long. The leaves are studded with visible resin glands between the leaflets.
Evergreen  
Frost sensitive  
Nitrogen fixer  
Perennial  
Tags     evergreen  flowers  N fixer  tender  tree  yellow 
Price   $3.90  20 seeds
Watch Learn More Only 10 in stock   Order
Service berry seeds

Service berry seeds

Common name   June berry, Saskatoon
Botanical name   Amelanchier alnifolia
Details   Produces flowers and edible fruit after 5 - 6 years. Slow to germinate as seed requires sold stratification
Edible  
Fruit / berries  
Perennial  
Propagate     February   March   April   May  
Tags     berries  perennial 
Price   $4.90  20 seeds
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Large fruited thornless hawthorn seeds

Large fruited thornless hawthorn seeds

Common name   Chinese Hawthorn
Botanical name   Crataegus pinnatifida
Details   A deciduous tree or shrub that can grow to heights of 5-10meters. Grown widely in China for its edible red fruits, these seed come from a tree planted in 2013. This specimen is thornless and produces large quantities of big dark red fruit after white flowers. This is the only type of hawthorn we grow and there are no wild ones in close proximity (that I am aware of) so seed should be pure.
Tags     berries  deciduous  edible  fruit  perennial 
Price   $4.20  20 seeds
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Red cherry guava seeds

Red cherry guava seeds

Common name   Strawberry guava
Botanical name   Psidium cattleianum
Details   Small evergreen tree or shrub slowly growing to 6 meters. Native to Brazil. Red fruit, up to 3cm in diameter, with numerous hard small seeds. Rich in vitamin C
Edible  
Evergreen  
Frost sensitive  
Fruit / berries  
Perennial  
Tags     edible  evergreen  fruit  perennial  red  tender  tree 
Price   $3.90  20 seeds
Watch Learn More Only 9 in stock   Order
Yellow bush / tree lupine

Yellow bush / tree lupine

Botanical name   Lupinus arboreus
Details   A fast growing woody lupine with yellow flowers and a sweet scent. Grows well in poor quality soil and makes a good source of biomass and quick low growing shelter and habitat. Short lived perennial bush or shrub that grows in poor conditions. Nitrogen fixing
Evergreen  
Nitrogen fixer  
Perennial  
Tags     flowers  N fixer  shrub  yellow 
Price   $3.90  20 seeds
Honesty seeds

Honesty seeds

Common name   Annual honesty
Botanical name   Lunaria annua
Details   Easy to grow from seed and tends to naturalize. An annual or biennial growing to 90 cm with large, coarse, pointed oval leaves. In spring and summer it bears terminal racemes of violet flowers, followed by showy, light brown, translucent, disc-shaped seedpods the skin of which falls off to release the seeds, revealing a central membrane which is white with a silvery sheen, 3 - 8 cm in diameter.
Tags     flowers  pink 
Price   $2.90  20 seeds
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Hopi Black Dye Sunflower

Hopi Black Dye Sunflower

Botanical name   Lunaria annua
Details   Similar to the regular, common sunflower but often having multiple smaller flowers and dark purple / black seed casing that the Hopi people of North America have traditionally used to make a dye for cotton, wool and basketry
Edible  
Seeds / nuts / tubers  
Tags     edible  flowers  yellow 
Price   $4.90  20 seeds
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Siberian Pea Shrub seeds

Siberian Pea Shrub seeds

Botanical name   Caragana arborescens
Details   A genus of shrubs mostly native to Central Asia, some inhabiting dry, half-desert regions with hot summers and bitterly cold winters. They include some of the toughest and most accommodating of all plants, some able to survive temperatures down to -40°C,A genus of shrubs mostly native to Central Asia, some inhabiting dry, half-desert regions with hot summers and bitterly cold winters. They include some of the toughest and most accommodating of all plants, some able to survive temperatures down to -40°C
Nitrogen fixer  
Perennial  
Tags     perennial  shrub  legume 
Price   $5.90  20 seeds
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Aronia Melanocarpa Seeds

Aronia Melanocarpa Seeds

Common name   Black Chokeberry
Botanical name   Aronia Melanocarpa
Details   Most commonly found in wet woods and swamps, however it grows and fruits acceptably in an elevated location in North Canterbury. Seeds from bushes planted in 2016
Edible  
Fruit / berries  
Perennial  
Tags     berries  edible  perennial 
Price   $4.90  20 seeds
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Rosa Rugosa Seeds

Rosa Rugosa Seeds

Botanical name   Rosa Rugosa
Details   Large edible fruits (hips), which resembles cherry tomatoes, 2-3cm diameter, in late summer and early autumn. Plants often bear fruit and flowers at the same time. The leaves typically turn bright yellow before falling in autumn.
Edible  
Fruit / berries  
Perennial  
Tags     berries  edible  flowers  perennial  shrub  white 
Price   $3.90  20 seeds
Flowers   White