Couple adding to heirloom apple collection
| Author | Janine Baalbergen |
| Published date | 20 January 2023 |
| Publication title | Horowhenua Chronicle |
“We decided to put in the hard yards first,” said Linda, who is involved in organising this year’s Tree Cropper Conference, to be held in Ōtaki, March 24-26.
On their modest hectare, on the top of a hill in Ōhau, they have planted scores of fruit trees, from almonds to elderflower, olives, to figs, apricots, to pears, and peaches. They have been collecting heirloom trees for years and decided to make apples a priority.
They already have 22 varieties of apples, including old varieties that came to Aotearoa 150 years or more ago and somehow survived, somewhere in the country.
“We have some cider apples, as well as baking apples. I took a list of what I wanted to Watson’s Garden Centre in Ōtaki and they managed to get most of them.”
A lot of their other heirloom trees come from specialist nurseries, some through mail order, some by them travelling around the country visiting growers and nurseries.
“Other tree croppers have given us cuttings too.”
They have a few fruit bananas, chermoyas, avocados, tropical apricots, almonds, hazel, hops and sugarcane.
“Sugar canes are doing okay here, so far.
“When we bought this property there were four trees, three plane trees and a willow. There was no shelter, nor any shade 8 years ago.”
Four years ago they made plans for building a house, but since the pandemic the cost of building has gone up by quite a bit, so they stuck with their garage with sleepout.
“We needed a water source, so the garage roof brings water into the water tank and the plumbing is in.”
They still live and work in Wellington, on the south coast, where gardening is a really hard slog.
“It is really harsh on the south coast. Scrubs grow will but there is the southerly and a lot of salt in the air.
“The soil in Horowhenua is so beautiful and the climate so much better, making it much easier to grow things,” said Linda.
Initially, they were looking much further north for a lifestyle property, as far north as the Coromandel, but thanks to a visit to Kath Irvine’s property on Florida Rd, they discovered Horowhenua had so much potential, after searching high and low for near on two years and just driving through.
“And it is so much closer to home.”
Ray works in procurement while Linda is a librarian. Both have lived in Wellington for a few decades. Together with their two retired racing greyhounds Dora and Sophie, 10, they are very much enjoying Horowhenua soil...
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