58: Four Seasons in One Year
What if we made more of seasonal change in Auckland?
Auckland does not, despite what many of us say, have a tropical, or sub-tropical climate, but a temperate maritime one. All the palm trees in the world could not fool permanent residents of Auckland that this city is winterless. We may have four seasons in one day, but we also have four seasons in one year. It is just that you wouldn’t often know it as you watch our gardens, parks, streets, and cityscape through the seasons.
The largely evergreen-ness of Auckland reflects our native flora and that is an important defining characteristic of the New Zealand landscape. But at a finer grain, in our city parks, residential streets, and private gardens, we are sometimes missing out on some of the small delights of life with an insistence on nothing but greenery all year round.
Current dogma dictates that is pretty much impossible for the public sector to plant exotic flowering trees and plants in Auckland. So perhaps it is up to residents, in front and back gardens and balconies everywhere, to embrace a new blossoming of Auckland life?! We often hear calls for more colour in Auckland, more flowering plants would go a long way to answering that call.
Stuart Houghton 2014
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We could plant pohutukawa trees beside our roads… oh wait…
Urban trees are amazing things, and soak up our pollution while filtering water and stabilising local climates. They make people happier. We could do with a lot more, and a lot more flowering vegetation.
As for deciduous trees, Auckland hardly justifies them. They’re the cause of endless fouling of drains and gutters, and cost us substantially.
Can’t agree with your rather extreme botanical correctness there George. Do agree that we need more indigenous flora throughout the city, but that’s in the context of needing more foliage in total, and there’s plenty of room for both kinds. Especially as deciduousness is such a fantastic trick for city trees: sun in winter when we need it, and shade in summer when that’s just right too. Also the theatre of change that deciduous trees bring to a street is glorious, just as the seasonal crimson gift of the Pohutukawa is too. Picking up leaves isn’t the hardest thing in the world, and evergreens drop stuff too, just more regularly.
I vote for both, each where they are best suited; the London Plane avenues, for example, are truly irreplaceable.
Upper Queen St has an avenue of what I believe are London Planes. It’s perfect, lush green shade in the summertime, extra light through in the wintertime. perfect for what is actually a residential street.
“evergreens drop stuff too, just more regularly.”
As my garden full of native (all non-deciduous) trees attests – I reckon they drop the same amount of leaves each year as the deciduous ones do, they just do it **all the sodding time**, instead of once a year, makes for a continuous clean up of the leaves operation rather than a once year clean up.
But your trees do have continous mulch under their canopy to keep the weeds down so there is some consolation.
Its easier for AC to pick up all the leaves in one go than do it every other week for the whole year.
In any case when the drains flood is often all the other junk (man made) and general litter in the gutters that causes the flooding than the leaves in the gutters.
Eh….As a Cantabrian I find all the dedicious trees a big bore since we have them everywhere here. Every winter I long to see the green again, sure cherries and jacarandas would be nice. But the bare trees bothers me far more than the constant green.
One place I really want to see an native specimen returned however is at the top of Ponsonby Rd, where it meets K and GNR. That place was known to Maori as Te Rimutahi; the Rimu that stands alone, or the lone Rimu. Let’s get the biggest Rimu we can find and is practical to move and return this living image of the area’s pre-urban nature to this currently sad and vehicle swamped point. What a fantastic way to kick off the hinge of P and K Rds.
Also it would be a growing echo of the Lone Kauri that stood between Karekare and Piha immortalised not only in the road there but also in the poem by Allen Curnow; The Loop in Lone Kauri Road.
+ 1
I have a story about that- Four or five years or so ago when I found out about Ponsonby Rd’s original name (the Tahi Rimu track) I called up the then ACC and explained that the whole ridge was named after the sole rimu that grew up by the K Rd, GunsNRoses intersection.
Sweet as, says the ACC, we’ll sort it out.
I forgot about it, and a couple of months later a contractor rings me up and says “I’m at the corner, where do you want your rimu?” Living only a few blocks down the road I wandered along and found a lady with a rimu on the back of her ute asking where the old one used to be and who knocked it down.
Oh we chuckled when we realised the job had been logged as a standard replacement rather than a “giant great biggest fucking transferable specimen possible”.
She insisted she needed a place to put it. I suggested it should be maybe ” bigger” and over in the bark encrusted Mobil station corner. “Oh no”, she said, “that’s private land, it has to be on council land”. Eventually we decided on a box in the footpath on Newton Rd just up from the Dogs Bollix.
It may even be there today (if it hasn’t been backed over) a tiny rimu sapling to represent the Mighty Tahi Rimu of old…
Great story, and no, trees don’t last long on the traffic sewer of Newton rd. I reckon an approach to Mobil could work; better than those meaningless palms they have there [to go with their terrible building]. But then I really think it needs to be in the middle of the road; needs a real median for once!
I love this series, but this is perhaps the one post that I don’t agree with. Yes, cherry trees, plane trees etc can be beautiful. But, if you want to see cherries in bloom, go to Kyoto. If you want formal boulevards with planes, go to Paris. Just as we shouldn’t try and mimic the architecture or culture of other cities, so we shouldn’t try to mimic their botanical environment. Instead we should try and create our own unique urban environment that reflects our unique natural environment. I particularly like the planting in the Wynyard Quarter as an example. That doesn’t mean just planting pohutakawa and nikau however – NZ has a vast wealth of indigenous flora. In fact, we have one of the highest number of unique endemic species of any nation in the world, including a number of beautiful flowering plants. We should celebrate this. I also disagree that evergreen equals dull. If their is sufficient variety of planting, evergreens can be magnificent. Having plants that flower at different times of the year can help break up any monotony, as well as work with the natural feeding cycles of native birds. As a kiwi who loves both our cities and our wild places, I want our cities celebrate our environment.
On another note, I would love to see more greenery in our urban environment more generally. And I don’t mean lawns in quarter acre sections. I would love to see more “green walls”, more planting on urban streets (Again – not just Nikaus) and more micro-parks downtown. I would also much prefer to see denser housing types and more parks around Auckland. We are known around the world for the beauty of our natural environment – lets bring some of that downtown!
Well Ian do you then hate The Northern Club? (Vieginia Creeper) Franklin Rd (London Plane)?
The Cherry trees in the Domain? I haven’t yet found the time/money/excuse to go to Kyoto; should I never see a Cherry tree in blossom? The Tuis love the Cherry trees in my neighbourhood, yes they also love Harakehe ( flax) but why shouldn’t they have both?
No, in fact I love some of those examples, just like I love the neo-classical buildings built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, my view is that they are of their time and represent the colonial attitude of trying to create a “better Britain” in New Zealand. The same is true of the formal layout of many of the parks and the architecture of the other public buildings established around that time. However, I think now we are confident enough as a country to celebrate our indigenous environment and culture.
Wouldn’t it be great if crowds of people flocked to Auckland to see the Kowhai in bloom, as they do to see the cherry blossom in Japan or the maples turn in Vermont? Let’s have more of this (http://ketenewplymouth.peoplesnetworknz.info/image_files/0000/0004/0049/Sophora_microphylla__Kowhai-006.JPG)!
By the way, while recognising they are separate issues, I also have this view about planting in rural areas of New Zealand (where centuries old kahikatea were chopped down and replaced with poplars and macrocarpas) and plantation forestry (which has dealt a massive blow to our biodiversity in favor of fast growing radiata).
I agree with both ianauldnz & George D…. 100%…. I am a vivid fan and promoter of NZ native trees.
I am not a huge fan of planting deciduous trees in the road carriageway. Infact, i believe all the existing deciduous trees besides the roads should be cut down and replaced with evergreens, but most importantly NZ natives. There is an abundant variety of native flowering trees to chose from.
As a stormwater engineer, they (deciduous trees) are the bane of my life. The leaves are constantly blocking stormwater drains and causing localised flooding. Believe it or not, but all contaminants (including leaves) that enter the stormwater grates (with the exception of soakage networks), actually discharge to a waterway and ultimately the ocean. Hence, we are actually polluting or waterways with excess nutrients and composting/rotting sediment. These leaves are the reason we are paying through the roof to have our streets sweeped (does anyone have any figures on this?)
I do believe that deciduous trees have there place. No problems with them in a field, park or on private land as long as beneath the tree and its surroundings are maintained and kepted away from stormwater drains. Not necessarily well groomed, just maintained.
As for the prolific pohutukawas,cabbage trees and nikau….i dont mind these. But would be nice to see some other varieties such as titoki, rimu, manuka & kanuka (not just on the side of the motorways), rata, mahoe, ngaio etc.
Hmm… Well as the opening post states “dogma” is alive and well.
Cities are modified environments so why do we have to take this purist attitude to them?Deciduous trees work better in many cases in the urban environment for the reasons already explained around shade.
Also other than the Kowhai and Pohutukawa what proper flowering trees do we have?
There are too many to list. Many of our indigenous trees have small flowers, that often turn to berries that in turn support native bird life.
it seems a little unfair to blame the trees for Auckland’s rubbish plumbing….
Entertaining document , it seems progress is slow…
http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/document/pdf/201419/stormwater.pdf
as a color blind person i couldn’t care less if a tree is green or purple, but the change in texture and volume of deciduous is something i really miss from my northern years.
Also, shop owners could close that f$&%ing door in winter. It’s cold!
I see deciduous, fast growing trees being a fundamental element of urban street design. This is mostly to do with the architectural quality of these trees- both providing vertical structure and the horizontal enclosure of the canopy. (As well as the light and transparency Patrick describes above.)
This is an interesting study on streetscape “appeal.” The study found the influence of street trees (with canopy) had the biggest impact. http://bettercities.net/news-opinion/blogs/laurence-aurbach/21364/computerized-method-judge-streetscape-quality
In general, streetscapes with the greatest enclosure, fostered by substantial tree canopy, many individual buildings, and large cross-sectional proportions, are the most visually appealing. Tree canopy offers the strongest positive effect.
The growing environment, like the built environment, is also a metaphor. And i agree that the city with only exotic plantings was a sign of the near total annihilation of indigenous culture here, and therefore a mistake and the expression of a regrettable triumphalism by the then dominant culture. In the same way that for a long time the only Maori street name in the centre city was Karangahape Rd, and that of course was anglicised to K. However, to swing completely the other way is a an equally damaging form of self-denial, by metaphor, too.
Ngarimu Blair is particularly eloquent here about the case for a systematic return of indigenous flora: http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/planspoliciesprojects/plansstrategies/Councilstrategies/Documents/ponsonbyroadmasterplanmaoriheritagereport.pdf
And i agree, however, lets also keep and reinforce what’s great from our other big wave of importation from other lands. Lets celebrate and honour especially what’s unique to these islands, but lets also enjoy the best from all around the world. This is to move forward in balance.
On the matter of practicality, I’m happy for some of the rates I pay to go to maintaining streets like Franklin Rd; what price beauty?
You’re seriously asking an engineer that!? Lol. They “Know the cost of everything and the value of nothing”
I think we pretty much agree after all!
I’m all for Auckland having a varied and diverse trees-scape in particular because in our street planting and public space planting we have a massive opportunity to bring ecological diversity to the city. It’s true tui’s love Cherry trees but we also have a range of endemic fauna that rely on a range of natives (i.e. puriri moth). Saying that there are some fantastic New Zealand bred exotics (Jury Magnolias) which also could be incorporated into our city, giving seasonality and colour but with a local spin on it.
On another note I love the London plane trees but I know a bunch of people that get serious allergies from them which is a pity…
We have to call the council every few months during winter to stop the street from flooding caused by the drains being blocked with leaves. Costs far more in rates as far as I’m concerned. Huge waste of money. I have no problem with those trees in public parks or on my property, but not on the roadside.
Or you could pop out and clean the gutter occasionally. Stop relying on council to do everything and we may find we get more for our money etc.
So concrete blandness for all then Ari?
Remember how good Queen Street looked when we had flowering cherries in matching pairs on either side of the street- before the arborial ethnic cleansing occurred?
Fashions in tree planting are fine if, like me, you think all trees can have merit. Cutting them down when they are out of fashion is extremely short sighted.