Planting days for 2014

 

STOP PRESS:  one more day to go, 17th August

Thanks  to the hard work of the teams at the SOSSI nursery and Botanic Gardens, we have about 19,000 plants to go in this year.  This is about twice as many as last year so we need lots more volunteers to help to plant them.

Scouts helping out
Scouts helping out

The public planting days will be Sundays, June 15 & 22 and July 20, and they will go ahead whatever the weather.  Please put these dates in your diaries and come along with your friends, family and spades (if you have them).  Wear strong shoes and dress for the weather.  A BBQ lunch will be supplied.

The start times are all 10am.  Please follow signs to the planting site.

Similar Posts

  • | |

    Woolly Nightshade

    ByPeter Jackson

    This month’s pest plant is Woolly Nightshade, also known as tobacco plant or flannel plant because its leaves have a velvety texture .  It has dense clusters of purple flowers, green or yellow berries about 1cm in size and oval, grey-green leaves. It is a major problem because its seeds are spread by birds, it colonises readily and it…

  • |

    No more moth plants

    ByPeter Jackson

    So far we’ve done well at keeping pest animals out of the sanctuary, but unfortunately the pest weeds are not so easily deterred. So this year we’re asking you to help manage the most invasive weeds along the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. With the assistance of Hibiscus Matters and Auckland Council Biosecurity we’ll be highlighting a different…

  • |

    Robins are here

    ByPeter Jackson

    We now have North Island Robins at Shakespear Open Sanctuary. Many happy volunteers and Sossi members watched 20 robins released on Friday 8th April. This represented the end of the first stage of the translocation of North Island Robins to Shakespear Open Sanctuary. These robins were translocated from Mangatutu in the central North Island.  This …

  • | |

    Pampas Grass

    ByPeter Jackson

    Pampas grass is our featured pest plant this month, because right now its seed heads are evident everywhere in our district.   The plants form large grassy clumps with a dead leaf base. Its erect and bushy flower heads are quite attractive and easily recognised, emerging  January to March, but unfortunately they are prolific producers of seeds which then blow…

  • |

    What’s that bird?

    ByPeter Jackson

    A comprehensive digital encyclopedia of NZ birds is now available online. To quote Graeme Taylor, DOC Principal Science Advisor: This new website has an excellent function that can be used to identify birds where the people concerned know very little about birds in general. It uses a system of habitat groups or broad plumage patterns…