Weekly Newsletter: 2nd July 2024

The red wattlebird arrived on Sunday to take up its annual short-term lease. It’s here to gorge on the nectar supply provided by the Clematis napaulensis which flowers now – the only plant in my garden that actually starts to bloom in June (read more about that here). I was kind of pleased to see it, and was expecting it, but the only pleasure is in the reassurance of nature’s rhythms. For the wattlebird is a bully, and its arrival usually means the enforced exile of any other bird in the vicinity, like the Eastern spinebill that’s otherwise forever feeding in the rosemary right outside the window.

Or so I thought. This morning I’ve watched a New Holland honeyeater dancing around the wattlebird, clearly trying to wind it up and leading it away in a wild and pointless chase, while the Eastern spine bill dashed into the clematis for a quick feed. It’s highly unlikely that it was a team effort, but it’s good to see that the smaller birds can take on the bigger. And now, an hour or so later, it’s as if the wattlebird has tired of sentry duty, and the spinebill is feeding undisturbed (though ever and always on high alert. Anyone who imagines nature as benignant and peaceful only has to watch those small birds – almost any birds – feeding, to see how nervously attentive they are at all times to what’s going on in the skies above them).

What I’m doing this week, and why now?

Looking out those windows, I’m reminded that I have to get on to clipping the box plants that surround the raised veggie beds. There’s a few reasons why it makes sense to do it now, and not leave it any later. Firstly, a tight trimming in late autumn/early winter leads to the longest time that they’ll ever remain crisp, for there won’t be any further growth until spring. Working on this logic alone, it makes most sense to clip them the moment growth stops in autumn. But very few things get done in a home garden when they make the most sense. They happen when you have time.

But the other reason why I need to get around to it sooner rather than later (as they’re not so shaggy as to really demand attention) is that if I trim them in late winter, the regrowth will be very uneven. The reason for that is that the buds in the axils of the leaves, near the tips of last year’s growth, spend all winter swelling and priming for action. As last years growth is never perfectly even, areas that require more trimming will then have more of this primed growth removed, and take longer to recover their growth potential, than those areas that only get a very light trim. Sometimes, as spring kicks in, there’ll be whole patches of perfect new growth where the hedge received only minor trimming and whole areas where there’s no new growth at all, where I had to go hard. The earlier these hedges get their ‘winter’ trim, therefore, the more even will be the bud development over winter, leading to more even regrowth.

When do you give your box hedges their ‘winter’ trim, or their trim for winter, and why then?

(Would love you to reply at the bottom of this post. You’ll just have to sign in to reply).

In November last year I was dashing around Tupare garden in New Plymouth, New Zealand, in absolutely torrential rain. I was thoroughly enjoying myself, as it’s a very dramatically located and well-planted garden, but on a whim – I’m not sure why – headed through a gate at the bottom of the garden that pointed to the river flats.  The rain was so heavy I couldn’t see enough to be visually lured on, but proceeded anyway. That’s when the real magic began, or at least one kind of magic morphed into another. It’s hard to explain, as I’d exited all the detailed and exotic planting of the garden proper, and entered a simple undulating meadow of mown paths through long grass. Admittedly, the undulations were punctuated by these fabulously original picnic structures, but even they couldn’t explain how wildly enchanted I was.

I can’t wait to return there, later this year, and talk through with the tour group these different garden experiences, and see if we can nail what’s going on. Why not come with us? Check out the itinerary here.

Have a great week

Michael