MCC Potting up events
21 Motueka Valley landowners and restoration enthusiasts attended potting up events run by the Biodiversity and Restoration (B&R) thematic group of the Motueka Catchment Collective (MCC) on the 27th November at the Motueka DOC nursery, and 1 December at the Tapawera propogation group nursery. These are two of four community nurseries in the catchment.
Roger Gaskell explains pricking out technique at the DOC nursery
Participants reside in the Upper Motueka, Tadmor, Otuwhero, Lower Motueka, Parklands, Dove, Matariki, Tapawera, and Riwaka catchments. People learnt correct pricking out technique, which natives best suited their land, caring for seedlings and much more from restoration experts Roger Gaskell and Helen Lindsay. And best of all, they got to take home their own free seedlings to raise up and plant out for their own restoration projects, aswell as share a cuppa and a bikkie together.
Event organiser and Biodiversity and Restoration (B&R) thematic group lead Kate Radloff thought the events were a success:
“Everyone had space to pot up, there was a calm buzz of activity, with lots of lovely conversations going on. We wanted to enable landowners to pick out a range of young natives to suit their restoration projects. We also wanted to create connections between people across the catchment. These events achieved that.”
Lisa, who attended the DOC nursery event has around 11 hectares of land in Lower Motueka. She’s planted hundreds of natives on her property, and will create a small nursery to look after the 100 seedlings she took home, which included Manuka, Red beech, ribbon wood, toi toi, carex, and kahikatea. She plans to set up a small nursery area. She said:
“It’s rewarding to see plantings supporting the bird life and seeing the gorse begin to die off. This event was a great opportunity to come and meet other landowners, access free seedlings, and get some excellent advice from experts. I’m feeling motivated to keep going!”
Nicola who came along to the Tapawera event, lives in Brooklyn and is a kiwifruit grower. She has planted around 300 natives on her property but lost around 40 of these to slips caused by storms including Gita. Despite this, she’s back replanting and has 250 natives waiting in her nursery to be planted in the gully to restabilise the slip areas, where she is also working on establishing a native wetland.
In total, approximately 3500 seedlings were taken to be grown on by landowners in their own personal nurseries, to be planted out on their land in about 1 – 2 years time.
There will be multiple events in 2024 to be hosted in the MCC. Look out in future newsletters or check out our facebook page.