
Our amazing volunteers have planted thousands of native trees and sown cover crops across the Te Hōnonga a Iwi Restoring Rosedale Park project site this month, ensuring our Spring planting programme finished on time.
Project co-ordinator Nicky Shave says it was essential to get the plants and seeds in the ground before the weather gets too hot and dry.
The planting programme kicked off at the start of the month with a big effort in Conservation Week - North Shore businesses, school students, community groups and residents came together to plant 2,500 native trees.
Two further community planting days in September boosted tree numbers at the site – students from Rangitoto College, Long Bay College, local Girl Guide groups and representatives from the Natural Environment Defence Foundation (NEDF) joined local residents and other project volunteers to get this mammoth job done.

Students from Wairau Valley Special School lead the work to sow cover crops at the site, with support from volunteers at each of the planting days. The cover crop has a variety of jobs – it will cover and stabilise the soil, form a low canopy for moisture retention over summer, hinder kikuyu and weed regrowth, provide organic matter (photosynthates) and break up compaction. We are very grateful to Davenports Law for sponsoring the seeds sown this year.
Pesky pukekos pulled out about 420 trees across the site but volunteers spent hours replanting across the month and managed to save 400. The remaining 20 were too damaged to replant.
About 110 seedlings were left when the planting was completed and Jan Knight and her team of green-thumbed residents from Metlifecare village Greenwich Gardens have repotted those in larger containers and will care for them during the next 12 months to provide replacements for any trees that don’t survive the first year.

Rotary has also agreed to gift trees through the Trees For Survival programme to replace any plants lost at the site.
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