Perth is on sand and although at Otaipango it is sand, in fact most of the Te Aupouri penninsula is a huge sand bank, there are great differences in how to garden and plant natives in these 2 sandy areas.
Firstly the sand here repells water - after 2 days of rain when you dig a hole to plant a plant, only about the top 10mm will be wet, the rest is bone dry. Which means that a hole for a 130mm pot needs to be a creater to get the depth as the sand keeps on falling back in from the sides!
At home it is a case of:
- Dig hole
- Put in plant
- Back fill
- Water
However, over here it is a different story.
- Dig hole putting the sand into containers
- Put the container sand and an equal amount of native mix concentrate into a wheel barrow or something similar
- Mix the whole lot thoroughly
- Put in plant
- Back fill half way with the 50:50 sand / native concerntrate mix
- Water
- Back fill the rest of the way
- With ordinary sand build a raised lip around where the mix ends and the ordinary sand begins
- Water making sure there are no leaks through the raised lip
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Lay mulch around the plant
Repeat 104 times for the 104 plants bought
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Lay reticulation using 19mm line to pass each plant
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Put in 4mm feeder lines off the 19mm main line to be positioned over the raised lip of each plant
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Mulch the whole area now
Below are some of the natives we planted, including Knobby Clubrush Ficinia nodosa which is also a native at home and grows wild, easily transplanted following my planting guide above for home (and yes, I bought some of those). Be interesting to see how those grow with so much attention! LOL