PLANT A TREE!

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 212, 4 June 1929, Page 15

PLANT A TREE!

BEAUTY OF PLANTATIONS DECORATING THE CITY (By H.P.) This Is the planting season. It is the duty of everyone who has the space, be it a front or side garden, a backyard, or a bit of barren hillside, to plant shrubs and trees at this time, so that in a few years there will be green plumes to wave in the passing breeze, and decorative skylines where all before was flat and featureless. Wellington has suffered grievously for 80 years through the mistake of the pioneers in clearing all the bush from the surrounding hills. It is a commentary on that impulse that the whole circumference of the hills, from Point Halswell (on the northern ledge of Miramar), round to the east, to Kaiwarra and Wadestown in the west, there is not a single natch of native bush, not the tiniest dell in the mountains but has not been cleared by axe and flame.

Secondary Growth. Here and there on the back,,of some ridges, remote from the city, there are areas of secondary growth, but such are a poor apology for the splendid trees and ferns 'which cloaked the hills when Wakefield’s ships came to anchorage in the bay. To get a glimpse of real native bush one has to journey either to Wilton’s Bush (which is hidden from Wellington by the, bald-headed Tinakori range), to Day’s Bay (Williams’ Park), which is picturesque if not of first quality (the bush there is mostly birch) or to Wainui. It is true, however, that each year sees activity on the part of the City Corporation, In an organised effort to clothe the glaring nakedness of the Town Belt, a very fine heritage to the city, but one of which the fullest advantage has never been taken. With judicious planting and tracking, on a definite plan, this magnificent belt could be made a thing of beauty and something that would really be “for the benefit and recreation of the people for all time.’’ Not that planting has been altogether neglected on this area. Sombre Foliage.

Away back in 1909, when the late Dr. Newman was Mayor and “Arbor Day” was celebrated in a practical way, there was a good deal of planting on the Town Belt and in our reserves. Dark splashes, against the paler green of the bare Belt, denote those spots where the trees have flourished. One very fine block of trees is that at Kelburn to the south of Victoria College and directly above the western end of Ghuznee Street. Here the trees are well grown, and richly foliaged, but, being for the most part pinus insignia, the effect of a rather densely-grown area such as this is one of gloom. Some attention should be paid, not only to the time a tree takes to mature, but to the variety of colour its foliage is going to provide. English oaks, chestnut, ash trees, are of a lighter tone, and grow readily in this latitude, while the pinus insignia and macrocarpa, so much favoured, -are quick growers, but sombre in foliage. The pohutukawa is now being favoured a good deal, not before its time, as the New Zealand Christmas tree is a handsome one, and at this time of the year, when it is putting forth new leaves, makes a very < pretty sight with its complete range of greens. Growth at Central Farit. Another plantation which has flourished wonderfully during the past fifteen years is Central Park, where the usual order was varied by the planting of an “Australian section,” wattles and gums, which flourish splendidly in this sheltered corner of the metropolitan area. There are well-grown trees in the Nairn Street Park, but above it and to the southward the hills are garishly bare. Some planting was done in that’district ■ last year,; so that tbere is’ hope’for the future.

Perhaps there is no more striking example of how easy a task it would be to clothe the whole of the hills with trees than is to be seen on the side of the gaunt Tinakori range, below the wireless station. This plantation—a wartime job—is a very healthy one indeed, and shows what can be done. Already a considerable area of naked mountain-side has been toned and softened by the glory of the trees. There is also a flourishing plantation and nursery on the Belt at Kilbirnie, and from there a good many thousands of trcelets have been transplanted to the hill spaces. Another very good example of hillside decoration is to be seen on the Defence and Prison reserve at Miramar North, where a very large area (overlooking Evans Bay) was planted in pinus insignis ’years ago, and la now quite a forest. Clumps on the Belt. From the ridge at the top of this area the new prisoner-made Townsend Road slants down from the Mount Crawford prison to Miramar flat, a new road of good grade that is going to open up all that land between the Vacuum Oil Company’s tanks to the Defence Reserve boundary. Attention is drawn to the luxuriant growth of the trees on the reserve mentioned, as it illustrates admirably what can be accomplished in arboreal decoration in unpromising soils and situations.

There is a .doubt whether the idea of massed planting makes for the picturesque. Trees are eternally beautiful, however disposed, but it- is humbly suggested that little clumps here and there about the Belt would be more pictorially effective than large areas of gloomv-foliaged trees. Just a final reminder—this is June. Good work may be done by individuals as well as the corporation from now to the end of August. Plant a tree!