Re: New Zealand

Gay Klok wrote:
> 
> Hello all,
> I have been almost constantly off air for the last few weeks trying to
> run a > new computer in and also Win98 - ughh!!! - 

> I have lost most past info including e-mails.  I am not sure what this
> thread  is about but if it refers to visiting gardens in NZ, I envy you. I could  do  with a stroll through some of those beautiful Spring gardens.  Twice I  have  enjoyed trips with A Historic Garden Society which were arranged by Mary  Barnard. 
 
Hi to you across the Tasman! 

Mary once lived in Eastbourne, not far from here, where she ran a
gardening club at which I was quite often a  speaker. I have been
promising myself to go and see her present garden, which she opens in
summer, but so far have not managed to make the effort. It may need some
kindly soul to arrange to take a group before I get there !!!

> I am glad to see the old topic of slugs, snails and now slaters too -
> why do  these pest's name all start with s?- resurrected.  It is a particularly  bad  year this year for the first two.  In Tasmania, it has rained for nearly  every  day in October!

Yes, and whenever you can't stand your wet weather any longer you kindly
(??) pass it on to us.
We keep a regular record of our rainfall and had around 290mm ( 11+")
during October (between two and three times the average for the month).

We begin to wonder what summer is going to be like, perhaps similar to
the "no-season" we had for a summer a few years ago. This had one good
result in our patch as it inspired me to put my whole veg garden into
raised beds.

Oddly, we have seldom seen so FEW snails as we have had this spring,
though there are a few more slugs than usual (slugs are usually a rarity
in this garden, while we are often inundated by snails). I have carried
on a very determined winter campaign against the shelly pests for
several years and perhaps this is beginning to bear fruit. I find it
easy to trap them with odd pieces of black plastic casually thrown
around, which they seem to consider ideal sleepouts. They treat the
plastic covers over my compost bins in the same way and a determined
foray from time to time certainly seems to have been pretty effective.

I have also had some quite good results from dusting diatomaceous earth
into my hosta clumps just as the shoots emerge. However, the effect
seems to be gradually wearing off and I shall probably go back to traps
next.

Cheers  
Moira
Ps it is raining again today, though not so hard as last week.

Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand
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