Victory Reserves, Parks and green spaces

21/11/2018

Sorry for the lack of posts recently everyone. I've been busy preparing for my move away from Nelson. Are there any members on this page who would like to takeover the running of this page and get involved with organising future planting/w**ding/pest control efforts in the neighbourhood? Please let me know.

11/07/2018

Great news. The former Emano East reserve is now the Te Manu Reserve. Thanks to all the people who took the time to submit to the NCC and made other efforts to make sure this value green space was protected. The official renaming of the reserve should really ensure that it will be under threat again in the future. Would anyone be interested in having another planting session there in the future? The reserve will be pretty wet and slippery at the moment but the next few months are the right time of the year to get new natives into the ground.

The name Emano East Reserve was allocated informally by Parks officers in the 1990s, simply for identification purposes in the Council’s systems. The name was based on the street name, and the fact there was an Emano Reserve across the road (now part of Pipers Reserve).

14/12/2017

Two hours in the Murphy street reserve today, cutting and pasting old man's beard and blackberry. Also knocking off all the small, lower, dried up branches of the older natives which provide ideal climbing purchase for invasive climbers. The ground cover is primarily tradescantia and ivy unfortunately, but some earlier experimental native fern plantings have survived, which is great to see.

For local residents, the sooner you remove old man's beard from your own garden the better. It won't just go away if you ignore it and apart from spoiling your own garden, the seeds get distributed wide and far by the wind and you'll end up with more omb infesting your neighbours property and local parks and bush remnants.

11/12/2017

Despite the very dry weather the plantings in the Murphy street reserve are, for the most part, continuing to flourish. I couldn't really capture it on my phone today, but I'm sure people who regularly use the reserve will agree it's getting increasingly bushy.

There are a few nice native specimen trees (totara, beech, matai and titoki) that we planted a few months ago that will definitely benefit from some extra water, but we're really just hoping for rain for the rest of them.

The old man's beard I'd getting pretty bad at the moment. I'm thinking of tackling some on Thursday evening this week and/or next week. It would be great to get dome extra hands as it does take a bit of effort. I hope to see some of you there.

02/12/2017

Thanks to everyone who turned up for the Team Up To Clean Up event today. We picked up a good amount of rubbish along the pathway, cleared Te Wairepo / York stream of some w**ds and rubbish and made a start of releasing some areas of native trees from their awful cloak of old man's beard and Japanese honeysuckle. Everyone also had the chance to see some of the work that's being done in the culverts to provide shelter for native fish and eels. We're hoping to organize some evening events to continue with freeing up the natives from their w**dy prisons, so hopefully some of you can join us.

01/12/2017

Hoping for a good turnout at the Victory Community Centre at 9am tomorrow for the Team Up To Clean Up event. Here's are example of some of the native tree smothering monsters that we'd like to deal with next to the pathway.

17/11/2017

Here's another reminder to be looking out for old man's beard seedlings, which are popping up in gardens this time of the year. Keep an eye out on open patches of ground. And remember, if you've got larger old man's beard plants in your garden, you might as well deal with them sooner rather than later. They won't go away in their own and if you leave it too late you'll have massive root networks to deal with.

01/11/2017

The recently planted natives in the Murphy street reserve are doing fairly well. I just popped down to clear a bit of the grass around them and give them a bit of water. It actually looks like someone else might have been watering them too.

25/10/2017

Nelson City Council has kindly printed out a load of flyers for us to distribute in letterboxes around Victory. The flyers will help locals recognize Old Man's Beard in their gardens and encourage them to remove them. Sacha Astill, are you still keen to help deliver some? And a couple more people on top of that would be great. Please yell out if you want to help out.

20/10/2017

Remember while you're out in your own garden or in a park somewhere, watch out for this little bu**er. Looks a bit like creeping buttercup but it's old man's beard. They are popping up all over the place at the moment, but it only takes a second to pull out the little ones.

12/10/2017

Did you know Emano Street is actually the wrong spelling of the street's namesake? The street was named after Te Manu, the son of prominent chief Te Puoho ki Te Rangi, and father of Huria Matenga. Huria Matenga is famous for her heroic actions when helping rescue the crew and passengers of the Delaware, a ship that was wrecked north of Nelson in 1863. Huria's father, Te Manu, was apparently given his name by his father due to his beautiful singing voice. Manu is the Maori word for bird.

Anyway, whilst it might take a bit of effort and time to have Emano Street correctly renamed Te Manu street, some of us in the area are certainly very hopeful that we can have the Emano East Reserve officially named Te Manu Reserve - Te Whenua Rahui O Te Manu. It certainly has a nicer sound to it than Emano East Reserve, and is particularly appropriate given the reserve's current and future role as habitat for both exotic and native birds.

05/10/2017

Thanks to everyone who helped out with yesterday's planting on the Murphy street reserve. It's particularly satisfying planting trees that will potentially be there in 2217 or beyond. Thanks in particular to Saran and Ishna for the great photos.

Please remember to both like and share this page. We want as many people involved with our w**ding, planting and other projects around Victory as possible.

So, who's keen to battle w**ds on the railway reserve next?