The Start of Silver Spear

I have decided to name our property after the abundance of the striking and elegantly formed NZ native astelia (silver spear) plants in our garden.  After a full year of watching the seasons change I now truly appreciate the hardiness of the silver spear - to not only survive, but thrive on our exposed hillside plot set around our modern board and batten home in rural Taranaki.  Silver spear are hardy! They tolerate harsh winds, drought conditions in summer and heavy rains over the winter and spring months.

It is true that my initial impression of the silver spear was not a positive one.  Their domination of many pockets of the garden around the house along with a variety of NZ native flaxes was a little overwhelming.  Some mature flax plants grow in excess of 2 metres tall and the more mature silver spears up to 1.5 metres and spread to near the same in diameter as their height.  The plants mature quickly and overshadow neighbouring non-native and slower growing native plants within a couple of years.  Without being kept in check, they take over and that is exactly what was happening in our garden.  So we have a plan to make the most our prolific plantings of silver spear and flax - to spread them out and allow them to penetrate other areas that could use a bit of filling out and densifying.

Our first major area to tackle has been along the front of our house where garden beds were looking rather shabby with a tangled mess of silver spear, flaxes, yukkas and some young self seeded ferns trapped at the back.

I am not a big fan of gardens hard up against the house - the planting damages cladding and holds moisture near the house, so we have recently removed most of the garden bed along the front of the house, while leaving some garden at each end to be planted with ferns, hydrangeas, hostas and flowering perennials (in progress).  The removed portion of garden bed will be replaced with a broken concrete and pebble path to the front entrance and in time I am hoping to purchase some half wine barrels to be placed along the path, which I can plant up, maybe even with some silver spear in combination with some red or bronze toned plants and flowers for contrast.

I'm keen on introducing some farmhouse character with a kiwi spin to our house and garden.   I love living with the conveniences of a modern house, but I have a young family and life is more relaxing in surroundings where things are not too precious and where well worn, secondhand, reclaimed, upcycled and vintage finds all make for a fun, interesting and comfortable family home. This is what I'll be working to create in the coming months.