I’ve only ever seen a handful of Wellington mornings with frosted rooftops and icy fields. Inevitably, today was one of them, a few days after planting tiny new trees. Hopefully they’ll make it through.
With the first stretch of agapanthus defeated, the dog came for a trolley ride around the garden centre. To start off the bare bank, we selected a pair of “Dragon’s Gold” kōwhai, some pratia pedunculata “Alba” for ground cover, and a couple of blechnum fluviatile ferns. I dug some compost into the leaden clay soil. The bank didn’t collapse, but perhaps a half-arsed line of rocks isn’t a good way to retain it.
The next strip of path-side agapanthus is proving formidable. Their sliced roots look like halved coconuts. We have a couple of mānuka ready to go in when I’m finished, but to get to that point, the trench spade might need to be swapped for an axe or a flamethrower.
Two trees and a dog, please 
Sophora molloyi (kōwhai) ready to plant
kōwhai 