Natural living, food forest gardening in New Zealand

Sea Buckthorn / Sea Berry seeds

Botanical name Hippophae rhamnoides

Details Supply update June 2024 - Our plants started producing berries last season so hope to have some available for sale in autumn. Check back in April 2025

Drought tolerance

Edible

Evergreen

Fruit / berries

Nitrogen fixer

Perennial

Tags perennial tree berry health

Price $4.90 20 seeds

Watch Out of stock

Trees, trees, trees...

It's getting late in the planting season but we have finally taken delivery of more trees and after several days of planting have them all safely in the ground. Let the growing begin.

August 08, 2012

trees

olmec

Quince root stock for grafting dwarf pear and loquat

Botanical name Cydonia oblonga

Details Quinces are used as a root stock for producing dwarf pears, loquat and other quinces.

Root stocks can be created from root suckers, stool bed or seeds from overripe fruit planted in late autumn.

Flowers White

Fruit / berries

Tags graft dwarf fruit tree pear

Benefits The primary benefits are smaller trees that fruit sooner

Negatives Many cultivars of pear are not directly compatible with quince and require double grafting with a compatible interstock
Pears grafted on quince have shorter lifespan than on seedling grown root stocks
Quince trees are prone to suckering, sending up growth from around the base of the tree and near damaged roots. These can be used as rootstocks.

Variety compatibility

Pruning fruit and nut trees

Time of year for pruning, and an attempt to improve the shape of the trees for easier picking.

Our orchard has a number of large trees as well as a collection of younger ones, all require attention.

June 16, 2010

Fruit Trees Pruning Almond

olmec

Visit from Tree Crops North Canterbury

Details We enjoyed a hot and sunny afternoon touring 11 people from the North Canterbury Tree Crops group. I think our alternative and rather unorthodox approach and philosophies were quite an eye opener for most of them...

Date November 04, 2017

Tags education trees

Long lasting tree identification labels

While I have a detailed planting map in the computer, it is useful to be able to identify trees out in the real world so I made these metal name tags using sheet aluminium. The names are stamped out using individual letter stamp / punches.

September 09, 2013

tree technology

olmec

Trees for animal fodder

By now it should be obvious that we need more trees in our landscapes, however inconvenient that may seem. The benefits are numerous. Using trees for supplementary animal feed is a smart strategy in drought prone areas. This includes:

Fresh leaves / foliage
Fruits and berries
Nuts and seeds

Once established, trees are long lived with a deep root system capable of funding moisture in dry times. Large volumes of edible material can be produced, along with all the other benefits provided by appropriate species of trees.

September 04, 2018

trees animals

Olmec Sinclair

Osage Orange seeds

Botanical name Maclura pomifera

Details Thorny tree with very hot burning wood, also used for making excellent bows and natural livestock fencing.

Tags perennial tree

Price $4.90 20 seeds

Watch Out of stock

Paulownia Seed

Common name princess tree, empress tree, or foxglove-tree

Botanical name Paulownia tomentosa

Details Deciduous hardwood tree with very large leaves. Fragrant flowers, large and violet-blue in colour are produced before the leaves, in early spring. Native to central and western China. Extremely fast-growing in the right conditions reaching a height of 10 - 25m

Perennial

Tags deciduous flowers pink tree

Price $4.90 20 seeds

Watch Learn More Only 3 in stock Order

More Trees

This weekend I planted a number of crop trees. For the most part it was seedling walnuts collected from under my grandmothers tree but also included 5 grafted fruit trees I purchased.

2 x apricot
2 x nectarine
1 x almond

July 25, 2010

trees planting walnut apricot nectarine almond

olmec

The myth about tree & pasture incompatibility - photographic evidence

I am passionate about trees and their numerous benefits so I frequently encounter this commonly held misconception when I try and encourage grass growers to consider incorporating trees on their farms. The argument goes something like this: "I can't plant trees in or around my pasture because they compete with grass for light, water and minerals, grass production would suffer".

This photo, taken a few hundred meters from my home on a conventional sheep and beef farm during the worst drought in decades is evidence that certain tree species can actually improve the performance of grass. If only people were as observant as they are quick to dismiss the value of trees in the landscape.

May 06, 2015

trees grass drought

olmec

Benefits of trees on farms

Another batch of trees in the ground

Winter is a time to purchase and plant trees. This year we have put in 110 new trees which has basically filled up the remaining available space.
Going forward it will mostly be shrubs or replanting specimens that don't survive.

July 30, 2011

trees carbon forestry

olmec

Laburnum

Common name Golden chain or golden rain tree

Details Yellow pea-flowers in pendulous leafless racemes 10–40 cm (4–15.5 in) long in spring, which makes them very popular garden trees.

All parts of the plant are poisonous, although mortality is very rare. Symptoms of laburnum poisoning may include intense sleepiness, vomiting, convulsive movements, coma, slight frothing at the mouth and unequally dilated pupils.

Family Fabaceae

Flowers Yellow

Diameter 6.00

Height (m) 6

Drought tolerance

Nitrogen fixer

Perennial

Shade / Sun Full sun / part shade

Soil type Most

Wind tolerance Good

Tags perennial tree legume hardy

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Japanese Raisin Tree seeds

Botanical name Hovenia dulcis

Edible

Perennial

Tags perennial tree

Price $4.90 20 seeds

Watch Out of stock

Purple Akeake Seeds

Colour Purple

Flowers Pink

Wind tolerance Excellent

Botanical name Dodonea viscosa

Details A reasonably fast growing NZ native bushy shrub or small tree with purple leaves. Good for creating shelter and controlling erosion. The timber from akeake is one of the hardest native woods. It was traditionally used for paddles, weapons, digging sticks and spade blades.

Drought tolerance

Evergreen

Perennial

Tags evergreen flowers native purple tree

Price $3.90 20 seeds

Watch Learn More Only 2 in stock Order

Red cherry guava seeds

Common name Strawberry guava

Botanical name Psidium cattleianum

Details Small evergreen tree or shrub slowly growing to 6 meters. Native to Brazil. Red fruit, up to 3cm in diameter, with numerous hard small seeds. Rich in vitamin C

Edible

Evergreen

Frost sensitive

Fruit / berries

Perennial

Tags edible evergreen fruit perennial red tender tree

Price $3.90 20 seeds

Watch Learn More Only 8 in stock Order

Buy organic plant seeds - grow your own fruit, vegetables, berries and more

Browse our selection of organically grown vegetable, flower and tree seeds. Hand harvested in Autumn from healthy plants growing in the blockhill forest garden.

Our collection sometimes includes imported seeds from popular permaculture shrubs and trees that are difficult to source locally.

seeds vegetables trees flowers shrubs

Seeds

Thornless Honey Locust Seed

Botanical name Gleditsia triacanthos f.inermis

Details Excellent shade and autumn colour tree. Produces very large pods with sticky sweet pulp, valued for stock fodder. Thrives in the heat and dry.

Drought tolerance

Jugulone tolerance

Nitrogen fixer

Tags deciduous N fixer tree

Price $4.90 20 seeds

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Spring grafting season for fruit and nut trees August - October

Wood is cut and graded in June for dispatch in July – August. On receipt, scion wood will need to be stored refrigerated until the appropriate local grafting time.

Length: 150 – 170mm with 3 - 4 buds

Diameter: 5 – 12mm

Grafting is the process of adding part of a known, desirable tree onto existing, growing roots of a similar species. This process offers many benefits such as having many types of apple on a single tree or influencing the characteristics of the tree such as size, soil requirements and disease resistance.

May June July August September October

graft fruit trees

Scion / bud wood for grafting All about Fruit Tree Grafting

Tree growth on terraces

Details 6 years of growth from 2014 - 2020
As part of our water wise landshaping, we spent considerable effort creating a number of hand dug terraces as well as having a mini digger create an access track on a sloping amphitheater.
Terraces allow for improved rainwater infiltration, reducing runoff and erosion while also making it easier to work and harvest from the trees.
This particular area is a nice sun trap and has excellent cold air drainage. The biggest challenge is the dry and, in some places, the blackberry. Here we grow a number of fruit tree types with a focus on apricot.

Date April 28, 2020

Tags terrace trees progress zone3

Planting shelves

I grow a lot of plants and trees from seeds. One space saving way that I have come up with is to use the vertical wall space at the back of the house where my nursery is located. Adding these metal 'gutters' as plant growing shelves has given plenty more growing area situated at perfect working height.

March 23, 2019

tree seedling planting zone1

Olmec Sinclair

Learn to graft fruit trees (seasonal)

Grow your knowledge of fruit tree cloning through the ancient art of grafting. Learn by seeing and doing with hands on examples and one on one tuition and explanation:

Collecting and storing grafting (scion) wood from desired trees
Understanding and propagating rootstocks
Grafting tools and techniques
View many examples of grafted trees of various types, complexity and age
Graft your own apple tree to take home

July August September

grafting education trees propagation

$80.00 2 hours

View 4 photos

Tagasaste (tree lucerne) seeds

Botanical name Chamaecytisus palmensis

Details Fast growing, drought resistant nitrogen fixer (legume). This small tree has white flowers which are loved by bees, bumblebees and native pigeon. Grown as a nurse or support tree during the establishment of more long term tree plantings. Useful as a quick canopy / umbrella over citrus, avocados etc. or used as physical scaffold for climbers such as grape, kiwifruit etc. Good firewood from mature trees. Pour hot water over the seeds and soak for 24 hours before planting into course sand.

Drought tolerance

Evergreen

Nitrogen fixer

Perennial

Tags evergreen flowers N fixer tender tree white

Price $1.90 20 seeds

Watch Learn More Only 2 in stock Order

Senna Seeds

Common name glandular senna, downy senna, buttercup bush

Botanical name Senna multiglandulosa

Details A fast growing evergreen shrub which become treelike. The leaves are each made up of several pairs of thick, hairy, oval-shaped leaflets each measuring up to about 4 centimetres long. The leaves are studded with visible resin glands between the leaflets.

Evergreen

Frost sensitive

Nitrogen fixer

Perennial

Tags evergreen flowers N fixer tender tree yellow

Price $3.90 20 seeds

Watch Learn More Only 6 in stock Order

Blockhill

Found 24 results tagged with 'tree'

Sea Buckthorn / Sea Berry seeds

Trees, trees, trees...