Weather
By Susan Gifford
Changeable and destructive, with winds reaching the highest ever recorded. Multiple trees toppled, broken canopies, limbs off – one resulting in loss of life. Not only ground-drying wind but then too hot, too cold, and too much rain. Altogether too much. This was the Spring that was.
Dr Jim Salinger put it clearly on RNZ’s afternoon programme with Jesse Mulligan, on an October day while a storm was ripping through the South Island and lower North Island. This is climate change he said, no doubt about the science. Seasonal unpredictability is now officially predictable.
This makes gardening (widely recognised as a healing activity) very challenging. We are supposed to be enjoying mindlessness when we pull, rake, dig, plant and occasionally sit to admire. It’s fair to say that right now, gardening (like much of what is going on in the world) is a little bit fraught.
However, gardeners do not give up easily. Take Penny Zino as an example. Her NZGT Six Star Garden ‘Flaxmere’ in North Canterbury, was ravaged by wind during those recent storms. The grit and determination she needed to make good the incredible damage to her beautiful garden exemplifies this ‘fact’.
With just six days to go before the Hurunui Garden Festival she had to ‘fix’ the unimaginable damage with 20 enormous trees toppled, root balls in the air and large holes in the ground. The canopies beneath were crushed. Among trees lost was the biggest of English Oaks, four Pin Oaks, three Silver Birch and a Lime. Four trees are still on a lean and might be saved but that decision will wait for an Autumn assessment.
It was the hardest time for Penny, but family, friends and the community rallied. Penny says she was overwhelmed with the response and notes that “none of the clearances would have happened without a 22-tonne digger and the expertise of son Mark. I was amazed how cleverly he negotiated heavy logs into place to be picked up with minimal damage in the dragging canopy onto the lawns before cutting up”.
Son Sam had his own toppled tree issues on his nearby deer farm, but he was also a considerable help, as were a team from Christchurch including her 84-year-old lifetime friend and ‘best man’ at their wedding, who arrived with a chainsaw. Her godson also appeared with 7 students from the Canterbury ski club. They brought muscles, willingness and lunch!
Penny says it didn’t cross her mind that she wouldn’t carry on with the festival. I’m reliably told that the last of the clearing was completed at 8.30am, just before the first group came through at 10am. It’s testament to the esteem in which Penny and her garden are held, that the cleanup was possible and could be managed in such a short time.
So what now? Penny says she’s thinking ‘low’ (think grasses!) She and her late husband have been on the property coming up 60 years. While tree roots might not be firmly rooted to the ground, Penny is. She’ll transform the garden in the coming years. The wise old saying that out of disaster comes opportunity is played out at Flaxmere and her attitude and hard work are an inspiration.
Penny says this is the third major wind event in her time at Flaxmere, the last two events having occurred within the last 5 years. There’s no doubt we have to take the changes in our climate seriously and work with not against. For gardeners like those who were impacted this spring, and like most of us I suspect, it’s now about acceptance, mitigation, adaptation and just ‘getting on with it’.
