The Dunedin City Council is marking 2010, the United Nations' International Year of Biodiversity, by supporting a series of community events. Gillian Vine talked to Cr Fliss Butcher about the project - and her own garden.
Let's Grow Native is the slogan the Dunedin City Council has chosen to affirm its commitment to stopping the loss of biodiversity worldwide.
"We've used Let's Grow Native to try to grab people's attention to get the message across," Cr Fliss Butcher says.
A strong supporter of the programme, she wants to encourage people to understand what biodiversity means and why it is so important.
The variation in life forms within an area, whether backyard, farm, country or the entire Earth, biodiversity is most threatened by the way humans act, draining wetlands, planting huge areas in single crops (mono-cropping) and applying vast amounts of chemicals to the soil.
Such actions have resulted in six New Zealand plants becoming extinct since European settlement began. A further 184 are now listed as threatened. This has a domino effect, endangering native birds, reptiles and insects.
"Everyone, including non-gardeners, can help stop the loss of diversity and the council, through its Let's Grow Native programme, wants to encourage people to take action," Cr Butcher says.
"Use the programme to attend events, most of them free, and find out what you can do."
Cr Butcher's own tiny city garden is a good example of biodiversity and demonstrates how natives can be used in conjunction with exotic plants. At ground level, for example, creeping bidibidi (Acaena inermis Purpurea) and thyme fill gaps between pavers, so weeding is minimal.
Seven lancewoods (Pseudopanax crassifolius) give height without breadth, making them an ideal native tree for small gardens, as is kowhai.
The Butchers have several 5m trees and the 1.5m shrub, Sophora molloyii Dragons Gold, originally found on Stephens Island.
Another native shrub, purple-leaved Lophomyrtus, has been used as a low hedge - "Why not grow this instead of box?" Cr Butcher says - alongside an exotic deciduous maple whose lovely foliage glows in autumn and when the leaves fall, bare branches let sunlight through in winter.
Designed six years ago by Dunedin landscaper Neville Stewart, the garden "basically looks after itself". Well mulched from the beginning, it needs almost no watering and the mix of plants, including a planter of culinary herbs, is just what Cr Butcher and her architect husband, Ian, asked for.
"We're really happy with it," she says.
• COMING UP
The Let's Grow Native programme for April is:
> April 10: Jewelled gecko workshop, Marine Studies Centre, Portobello, 9.30am-1pm. Hear the latest from researchers and learn how to make your garden gecko-friendly. Contact 477-0677 or email isherwood@doc.govt.nz
> April 24: Waikouaiti Beach planting day, 10am-1pm. Gather at Beach St car park with spade and gardening gloves. A DCC project.
> Winter bedding displays from Anzac Square and the Market Reserve will be biodiversity-themed, with some of New Zealand's most famous plants on show.
> For the full programme and an updated list of events, go to www.dunedin.govt.nz/biodiversity or phone 477-4000. Programme booklets are also available from DCC offices.
• COMPETITION
To encourage gardeners to grow more natives, the Dunedin City Council is holding a Let's Grow Native gardening competition. Judges will be looking for good-looking gardens that support biodiversity.
There will be three categories - school, business and home gardens - and the gardens will be judged in late November by broadcaster Jim Mora (of TVNZ's Mucking In programme), NZ Gardens Trust chairman Mick Reece and Otago Daily Times garden writer Gillian Vine.
Entry is free and there will be a range of prizes in each category. Cr Fliss Butcher is hoping to obtain further sponsorship (email her at fliss.butcher@dcc.govt.nz). Entries close on October 22, "so people have plenty of time to plan what to do", she says.
