For the first time since I started writing this blog I got writers block. All week my mind was blank. I didn’t have an exciting garden topic to write about. I had a few unrelated ideas, but not a compelling subject like miniature conifers or tuberous begonias. It didn’t help that I barely set foot in the garden. The most exciting event was checking on my potted-up lettuce seedlings in the glasshouse, picking a few salad greens and composting my kitchen scraps.

I suspect that this is a mid-winter sort of thing. A gloomy malaise which descends upon a person when the beginning and end of winter are equidistant. I stand between the two like a full-stop. Spoiler alert: this is going to be a short blog about not-very-much, with a nice ending.

I’ve had technical difficulties too. I couldn’t open up and edit my blog for several days. And anyone who knows me, knows I struggle with technology. Usually I get my husband or son to help me. This time I was determined to sort the problem out myself.

I logged in and logged out of my account dozens of times, I verified the email address (which Squarespace requested), I checked that I’d paid my annual fee, I scrolled through Squarespace’s never-ending ‘help topics’ and I even filled in one of their longwinded help forms - all to no avail. It’s my experience with tech problems that it’s usually a small, seemingly insignificant, thing that causes something to fail. And it’s young people and people who have minds like flow-charts who solve these small things effortlessly.

My husband (seeing me in the depths of tech despair - yet again) suggested (kindly) that I change my web browser. Would it surprise you know that I forgot what a web browser was? Probably not. And so, I changed from one web browser to another and my blog loaded!

On Monday night I stayed the night at a friends house in Wellington. Her husband, who is big into pest-trapping, was constructing a bird-feeder. He was going to hang it in the forest that borders their property. He said there was a shortage of winter food for birds (Wellington has a hugely increasing bird population thanks to all of this pest trapping). It got me thinking about the birds and other animals who live and visit my garden. Do I have any flowering plants for them?

There are so few flowering trees and shrubs at this time of year. Back in my Wellington garden I planted lots of abutilon bushes. These flower all year round and provided lots of food for small birds and bees. I don’t have a single one in my Kapiti garden.

I had a quick walk around the property yesterday to see if there was anything flowering. There was more than I thought.

The first flowering tree I came across isn’t technically mine. It’s in my neighbours garden but it overhangs my shed. It’s a brush wattle and is considered by Wellington Regional Council to be an invasive weed. I’ve come to believe that some of the plants that end up on the naughty list aren’t so bad. Some of them, in the right situation, do more good than harm. I think bush wattle is one of them.

Two years ago we rented a holiday house in Waikanae Beach. There was a wide overgrown verge beside the house where dozens of bush wattles grew. From sunrise to sunset the flowers on these trees were swarming with birds, bees and monarch butterflies. It seemed to me that these bush wattles were providing a community service, keeping a lot of high value animals fed and sheltered.

A lot of invasive weeds are found in these marginal areas, verges, empty sections and old industrial sites. These are unloved areas that have been cleared years ago of all native plants. These are forgotten places that nature has re-wilded with its most robust plants. Not only do these plants sequester carbon, stabilise banks and help with water runoff, they also provide wonderful wild habitats for animals.

Monarch butterfly in a bush wattle at Waikanae Beach 2020.

Two tree lucernes growing at the side of the house.

I discovered that I had 2 Tree lucernes growing along the side of the house.

I did a bit of research and found some interesting stuff. These are definitely good trees for small gardens. They’re also called tagasaste, Chamaecytisus palmensis, and belong to the Fabaceae family (the legume family). They have pretty white flowers (shaped like sweet peas) in winter, which are loved by birds and bees. They’re fast growing and short lived. They can grow up to 4 metres tall and have a tendency to get a bit leggy. It’s best to prune them back by a metre when get to 2 metres in height, that way you’ll get a sturdy tree. According to a dog walker I was bumped into yesterday tree lucernes make a great shelter belt. She said they don’t block out the sun. They’re commonly grown by fruit growers (they bring in the bees) and farmers (great food for stock). They also make excellent firewood and burn hot. They hate having wet feet so my sandy soil is perfect.

I found a lot of cape ivy growing along the side of the house too. I moaned about this pernicious weed in another blog, and I still don’t like it. It arrived in New Zealand in the 40s as a garden plant and escaped. It’s rampant on the Kapiti Coast. However, it flowers in winter and the flowers are pretty and I’m sure there are some animals out there that love it, which is probably why it was a popular garden plant to begin with.

Here are a few plants that are flowering in my garden.

This variety of lavender flowers all year round, Lavandula denata VAR. Candicans.

Back in autumn I planted some seedlings from the garden centre called ‘perpetual spinach’. I cut a bunch for an egg dish and wondered why it didn’t taste like spinach. That was because it wasn’t spinach. It was silver beet, also known as chard. It was a leatherette and Claytons moment. Perpetual spinach is a dirty little imposter.

I have a very ugly area in the back garden behind the greenhouse. It’s an old rubbish dump, full of old bricks, wood off-cuts, tins, broken pipes and anything else that previous householders didn’t want. It gets some sun but not a lot.

I’ve started turning it into a beautiful garden. It’s early days. I’ve collected cardboard, paper and even a bit of old carpet and last weekend I spread it all out and put old bricks and things on it so it didn’t blow away. This week I’ll buy some mulch and maybe even paint the fence. Then I’ll order some raised beds and soil and start growing plants.

The path to the ugly area behind the greenhouse.

Here we are at the end. And just as I promised I have something pretty. My neighbour popped over for a cuppa last week and brought me the sweetest posy of flowers from her garden. Wallflowers, my favourite! Thank you Dayll.

The tree of the week is a bush wattle.

See you next Sunday.