Rural lingo

Hello all lifestyle blockers

Have 3 ha in the Wairarapa - running Arapawa sheep and English Leicesters and a couple of steers. Plenty of feed this year. Have planted 20 trees in orchard in the best drained part of the property. Keen to know about ornamental trees that can cope with clay pan - alders are doing very well, but tulip tree gave up the ghost after 5 inches of rain in 5 days. There is about a foot of very good topsoil but drainage, we can see, is to be a problem for us in the garden with that clay pan. Using raised vegetable gardens.

Cheers

There are several natives that don't mind wet feet, I asked my nearby friendly garden centre owner Russell Fransham, he has trees growing in water! I have a clay pan to deal with too......but the climate here is different to yours. Flax, willow, Kahikatea....look thru Russells plants he has many bog plants www.subtropical.co.nz/ many of them will grow down south. He has attractive bark tree...one of the Melaleucas..growing in water......mine has done fine in wet and drought.
Good gardening []

Hi and welcome to lsb there seems to be getting a lot more of us from this neck of the woods on here:) Can't help with planting as we live on rocks:D

We have Kakatea, Kanuka, Manuka, Flax, Cabbage, Tetoki all growing well in our gullies, both have streams running through them and the more heavily treed one gets very wet and marshy at times.

We have a very large bright pink Manuka in the driveway, looks like a giant raspberry when in flower.

I have just bought a Dogwood that I have high hopes for, and the Crabapples do really well.

Silver birch also does well around here but it is such a messy tree and its pollen is reputably toxic and a health hazard to those with asthma, so I don't recommend those.

Hope that helps.

Many thanks for those suggestions, all. Will be contacting you at Ahiaruhe for some chickens soon.

Cheers

Better hurry, they are selling fast LOL, the rooster guys came today and took 30 odd cockerels of various ages. Just a few left of those[] YEAH!