Alan wrote

>: I "used" was deliberate past tense. Mum did us a favour when
>: she visited and pulled out the funny weeds in the garden.
>: She's actually quite a keen gardener - but had never seen
>: oregano before and it had overgrown a bit. Time to buy some
>: more seeds or seedlings:-)

Hi Alan,

LOL well sort of. In reality I'm commiserating with you.

We had some Australian relatives visiting and while I was out they
decided to help me by weeding the garden. Unfortunately they weren't
familiar with NZ ground cover plants. Plants that had taken years to
establish disappeared.

My father in law (English) getting into the spirit of things continued
the tidy up. Any plant he didn't recognise got removed. Clivia $20
to $30 each went. So did winter rose. The only thing left was a sign
that said "Welcome to my garden." All in all at least $200 worth of
garden plants and years of tender loving care had disappeared. A fig
was over pruned and it died. So did some flowering bushes. Pruning
here and in England is different. With fruit trees they prune hard to
get vegetative growth. Here we try to discourage it. We want laterals
for fruiting.

It has taken years to recover the garden and it now looks lovely. The
ground cover plants have never been fully replaced.
The effort is too much. The replacement fig has had a magnificent
Autumn crop even though it is still a relatively small tree. Life
moves on.

The good thing is I know you are a hardy soul who will bounce back
like a weed. <grin>
--
Quentin Grady ^ ^ /
New Zealand, >#,#< [
/ \ /\
"... and the blind dog was leading."

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/quentin