8 May 2012

Daltons Plantation

29 March 2012


280 Hinuera Road West
Matamata
07 888 8999


www.daltonplantation.co.nz

Looking good in our 'Hi Vis'!
Making garden products is a dusty, dusty business. We piled into some big wagons and toured the Daltons site in Matamata, learning about the difference between a growing mix and compost. Our executive tour guide, Jeff Fairweather, said the site covered 150 acres – enlarging every time the operation purchased a neighbouring farm. Because the company uses chicken manure for some of its products, the large site offers an environmental buffer.
The placement of the business in Matamata may seem incidental but 400,000 years ago, the Waikato River ran through the Hinuera Valley. Today sand is 10 per cent of the Daltons business. The company mines the valley’s tract of sand to supply brown sand for civil construction, white sand for concrete companies and specialist sands for the golf and turf industries.
Bark products are collected by a team scavenging among the logs at the Port Of Tauranga and Carter Holt Harvey sites. The bark is munched and crunched into various sizes – from “bark” to “mulch”.
Daltons is the largest manufacturer or growing media in New Zealand. Jeff said it exported to the islands and the orchid industries in Japan, Taiwan and California.
During windy weather, a water truck works its way through the moonscape of mounds, wetting the various products to keep them from flying away. There was beige chicken manure, bark fines, sawdust, and waste gib-board. Minerals, such as calcium, ammonium and nitrate, were added to different blends, which were then laid in mounds for 12-14 weeks and turned regularly until they were ready to form the base of potting mixes.
Bark grading
Jeff said all of Daltons’ products were bark-based, rather than soil. One of the advantages of manufactured growing media was that it was not riddled with teeny weed seeds, he said. Fifteen per cent of its bark goes offshore.
Daltons also imported coconut husk blocks from Sri Lanka. It swelled when applied to the garden and exposed to rain. And it had some fairly exotic products, such as Lithuanian peat (rotted foliage). There was pumice and riverstones and a variety of fertilisers and organic products.
Specific fertilizer mixes
Jeff said that all the products in Matamata were available at Daltons’ depot in Hull Rd (Mt). It was a really fascinating insight for those of us who buy “soil” and have wondered what’s in it!
(PS: Jeff’s advice - don’t breathe in the first “puff” of air that comes out of a bag of compost)






And then… 
we went for a wander around the plantation garden, designed by Xanthe White. I was particularly taken with the ballarat apple (strong fruiting, needs sun) and I loved the garden of pinks and purples stretching out from the plantation verandah.

The award-winning water feature garden wasn’t such a thrill for me – it seemed too austere – but I fell in love with her use of ground covers.


The impressive vege garden
The edibles section was a dream. The circular gardens of fruits were joined by a vege patch to envy. The plantation kitchen uses only fruits and veg and herbs found in its own gardens so there is the full range of products and they are used to dramatic effect in the menu.
We had an absolutely exquisite meal. And, at $25 incl a coffee and the Daltons tour, it was very reasonable too.
Always good when you leave with a full puku and a massive plastic bag of fat feijoas!










Most striking: the leptinella rotunda inside the curls in the concrete courtyard, the lonicera ruby honey hedge, the rambling cottage garden, the very impressive leptinella walkways down to the water feature garden and the circular edibles garden.











Tepuke Garden Visit

23 Feburary 2012


On a very wet gloomy day we visited a garden in the hills behind Tepuke. The drive up to the property took you through lovely large established trees, the garden had a large lawn area, with great views (not that we could see it) and a beautiful large formal area, it was just a pitty we had to rush around as the weather was not on our side. But we managed to have a catch up over a drink and tasty treats, discussing up coming garden visits and gardening ideas.

G3 Members Garden Visit

26 January 2012


Donna's and Megan's Places
Tauranga


The first visit was at my place, my garden has been created from what was on the property when we purchased the place. Reusing white stone from a garden bed to make a pathway and straight concrete 1970's pathways broken up and made into crazy paving surrounded by stones. Its still a work in progress but from all the gardens we have visited so far, I can see that I dont ever think you are 'finished' in the garden!
I like recycling in the garden, dividing up plants, composting our house hold paper and green waste and I have just started a worm farm, so fingers crossed my wee worms will supply me with lots of good juice for my veges.  My main focus and time is spent in the vege patch, which manages to feed our house hold all year round.
We then headed of to Megs lovely garden. They havnt been in there property for long so it was nice to wonder around and listen to Meg talk about some of there ideas for the place. Looking forward to revisiting to see the progress. Megan has a lovely big sunny backyard which has lots of potential, large deck areas with areas made into outdoor rooms. Off course we had coffee and tasty treats (wouldnt be G3 without coffee and cake) see our recipe blog for my yummy brownie recipe.
Donna