It’s all about trial and error

Every year we learn so much about wetland development work. Mainly through trial and error. In 2021 we had a big setback after trialling putting fresh wood chip around all the young natives we had planted. Turns out, that was a big error, it stripped the plants of their nitrogen and we had high losses. On top of that, we lost the battle of the weeds yet again and lost yet more natives.

So this year we have changed our approach. Firstly, we have used mulch around the plants to help retain moisture and surpress weeds, and we trailing guards.

One of our golden rules here at Dayvinleigh is to consider what we can reduce / reuse / repair / recycle / repurpose / rot. So we intercepted from a neighbouring vineyard some grow guards that were destined for landfill and bamboo stakes that were heading for the burn pile and we made ourselves some plant guards. We figured both the guards and the stakes could serve the land one more time before they really did have to be disposed of.

It didn’t take much to get these made up and in the last couple of months that they have been out, they have stood up well to the rain and floods. These guards will make weed control so much easier and will protect the plants from pesky Pukekos and rabbits while they are getting themselves established.

Here’s hoping we have got it right this time.

Corporate Sponsorship for Dayvinleigh Wetland

We were stoked to have our first corporate sponsor on board to aid in the development of the Dayvinleigh Wetland.

TRC Tourism is a leading international tourism, recreation and conservation planning consultancy based in Australia and New Zealand. TRC delivers sustainable solutions for people, places and cultures and is committed to tourism that contributes positively to society.

TRC Tourism New Zealand is proud to be certified Climate Positive Business Operations (120% offset) with Ekos.

As part of their practical commitment to environmental sustainability they chose to contribute funding toward plants, pest and weed control at Dayvinleigh Wetland in 2021.

Several of the team from TRC Australia and New Zealand have visited or stayed at Dayvinleigh since 2017 when Tracy joined the team as a consultant. So when TRC management were looking for initiatives to support, the Dayvinleigh Wetland came to mind for their 2021 sponsorship activity.

We were thrilled to have the support of TRC Tourism through their funding along with their motivation and encouragement for our wetland restoration programme. 

Thank you TRC.

Sanderson Watch

At the point where we were becoming increasingly demoralised with losing the war on weeds in the wetland we received an email from Wendy at New Zealand Landcare Trust. Wendy had visited us a few weeks earlier, encouraging us with great advice and a suggestion that she might be able help with some volunteer labour. And boy did she come up trumps with an invitation for us to host an Outward Bound Service Watch. 'You bet' we said.

It turned into an overnight stay with a cohort of 8, ranging in age from 18-26 hailing from all parts of NZ. We offered up the barn as base camp and together we went down to the wetland with tools and wheelbarrows and showed them our task. We started off in a relatively accessible area, finding the plant (which we are proud to say they can now all identify flax, cabbage, kowhai. kahikatea and kanuka), removing the weeds from around the base then laying mulch. With the boundary line cleared rather swifty we took them into a more weed ravaged area. The weedier it got the more they embraced the challenge, until we were in parts that we had not entered for over a year. We joked, laughed and worked together sharing stories until we reached the end of that patch.

The next morning we tackled the Carex secta we had planted last September along one of the waterways. Once again the team dived in and collectively we made short work of the task all the while learning more about wetlands and growing grapes.

To wrap up their time at Dayvinleigh Wetland we invited them to each plant a Cabbage Tree that we had grown from seed sourced on the property. They chose to plant them in the shape of an O, helping one another to dig, plant, water and mulch their trees. They chose to name their site 'Sanderson 2021' their code name for their watch.

What an amazing group of young people and what an incredible adventure they were on with Outward Bound.

This service watch clocked up 92 hours of work in the wetland taking us to 1007 total volunteer hours help in Dayvinleigh Wetland. Thanks Outward Bound and the crew of Sanderson 2021!

Wetland #655

Taking on a wetland project is not for the faint hearted and there are times where we have felt more than a little overwhelmed and that we were making no progress. Then we get a visit from a couple of the many supporters of Dayvinleigh Wetland and we are reminded just how far we have come.

In June 2019 Mike Aviss Biodiversity Officer for Marlborough District Council and Ecologist Geoff Walls of Taramoa Limited joined us on site. Despite the impending rain we set off through the wetland.

Our objectives for the day were to set up and GPS photo points through the wetland and talk through next steps for planting. Geoff had not been on site since 2014 and could definitely see our progress.

We now have 6 photo points set up so we can regularly take photos from the same spots to compare growth, and a plan for winter 2019 planting and maintenance.

Willing Workers ...

We signed up to the Wwoofing site, (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) to host international visitors who were prepared to do some work in the wetland in exchange for our hospitality. This led to the arrival last week of John, Clara and Kathy from Denver Colorado, such fascinating well traveled people.

It gave us the opportunity to catch up on some well overdue tending to seedlings that will be ready to go out into the wetland in a few months and to set up another 1000 root trainers with flax seed, clocking up another 20 hours of volunteer work on the wetland.

'Forgotten Corners' Winepress Jan 2019

One person's trash is another's treasure, and one person's problematic paddock was Tracy and Kevin Johnston's wetland in waiting...

In 2006, two years after they'd bought their 22 hectare property, including 4ha of grapes, they cast their eyes beyond the vines to the clumpy, soggy pasture beyond. Undaunted by gorse, willows and weed-choked water channels, they decided to create a 4ha habitat in which native fish and bird species could thrive and breed...

Read the full story on page 13 of the January 2019 edition of Winepress

Weeding the water

One of our mad-cap ideas for helping the new plants get established in the wetland is to use the weed growing in the waterways as mulch.

In our minds it has three things going for it:

1. It provides instant water around the base of the plant

2. It dries to create a ring of mulch around the plant to suppress weeds

3. It helps to keep the waterways clear and flowing while we wait for the plants to grow tall enough to provide shade which will then slow down the weed growth.

Sounds great, but MAN is it labour intensive and back-breaking work. So when you have an offer of help from visitors staying at Dayvinleigh it made sense to jump at the chance to capture their enthusiasm.

Before the heat of the day and motivated by freshly baked muffins and coffee to follow we headed out to tackle the first waterway. Kevin went ahead with the weed-eater and the lads got into the waterway to start hauling up weed to Tracy who was wrapping each plant. Despite the incredibly hard work there were a lot of laughs and a few surprises as resident eels were temporarily disturbed.

It was all worth it when we went down the next morning to see the water running clear and the plants looking refreshed.

From seed to seedling

One of our aims for the wetland space is to target a few threatened species and see if we can't provide a safe haven for them. One of these is Teucridium parvifolium. It sits in the Threat Category of At Risk: Declining.

Mike from our local Council popped in one day with some seed he had sourced from a property further up the Wairau Valley. We laid it down and tucked it in to the glass hour over winter and it was soon sprouting.

The tray of seedlings has now been carefully pricked out into root trainers, so now there are about 250 tiny seedlings that will spend the spring summer and autumn building up a good root system. Hopefully next winter we can plant them out in the wetland. We will keep you posted...

Gumboot gadabout with Garden Club

We had the opportunity over Easter 2Having the Garden Club come to visit is like having a chef to dinner. Daunting!

But that wasn't the case when three carloads of ladies from the Wairau Valley Garden Club came to check out the Dayvinleigh Wetland today.

We plied them with muffins still warm from the oven and a round of flat whites while we showed them the master plan and shared the story of our years of dreaming and planning. Then it was off outside to check out the native seedlings we are growing. This led into an inspection of the vege garden and fruit trees. We picked up a few great tips just in time for pruning.

We then headed off down past the vineyard to the wetland, all the way reiterating that we were still at the inception stage, desperately trying to temper their expectations. We showed them the collection of rusty machinery waiting to become wetland art, the old trailer that will become a walking bridge across a stream and the grain silo that will one day be up-cycled into an outdoor bathroom. Then on through the long grass and along a waterway as we followed the path of our first plantings, then on to more unruly spaces that will one day be transformed.

How wonderful for us that they could see the potential and visualise what it will be like when the plants are established. They were all so supportive and excited about our project. There were offers of plants and a promise to schedule in an annual visit to check up on progress, next year with spades in hand for a working bee in return for another round of muffins and coffees.

Turned out to be a wonderful and rewarding morning. Cheers to the Wairau Valley Garden Club.

15 to meet up at with winery with Steve Bird of Bird Wines, the maker of the Big Barrel Pinot Noir, to join him for a tasting of juice from each and every barrel and tank to check out how the fruit was fermenting.

It was 9am, but that didn’t stop Kevin and myself swallowing a mouthful of each sample, until we realised there were over 20 of them. We then took the lead from Steve and the Indevin winemaker who were spitting it out after analysing the colour and taste of each. From this Steve could provide very precise instructions on how the barrels were to be handled in the coming days, everything is monitored and tracked, yet another example of just how much goes into producing great wine. Speaking of which, here are some of Steve’s one-liners from that session.

“She’s a brute”

“This is man wine, it’s big hairy and audacious”

"It’s like the inside of a cow”

“We have got ourselves something very very special this year”

So that is what you have got to look forward to when the 2014 Bird Wines Big Barrel Pinot Noir hits the shelves, in preparation for the big event we suggest you line up some big hairy men and see if you can find out just how dark the inside of a cow really is.

'The Block', Winepress Nov 2017

"Vines are just a fraction of the story at Dayvinleigh in Marlborough's upper Wairau Valley, with native seed propagation, wetland restoration, postural paddocks, a beautiful home and a collection of beloved pets all playing their part..."

Read the full article in the WinePress