no dig garden beds

Ok I WAy underestimated how much shredded paper, lawn clippings and compost Id need. I want the beds to be raised so I need way more. Next door neighbours had a phage (no idea how to spell it) full of grass clippings starting to compost ---I just grabbed ANy organic material I could...however Ive barely done ONE garden. Start slow Donna! I took a photo a few days ago- it already looks different with the layers. The garden beds come out further and are more raised now and where the wheelbarrow is- is getting dug so the paths are lower- to add the top soil to the beds- also fence is stained.

Anyway we have in Kiwifruit (male and female-the small cocktail one) and passionfruit along one fence wall, a choko my grandfather gave me, a grapevine for another wall. Close to the brick house we have tamarillos and then small trees around a mandarin, grapefruit, fijoas (x3) a peach, guava and a white currant and a couple of olives. In a few years this is going to be really productive-fruitwise. This season we'll get herbs and a few vegies and soil getting built up. Currently the top soil is really shallow and then clay.

As we put in more mulch, more annuals, herbs, vegetables, more legumes etc can go in. Lupins have sprouted- we'll see how they take- but they can be for chop and drop mulch around autumn and over winter. I also had the idea of getting some of the firewood that got wet and is growing fungus to put that into the mulch- to feed soil micro-organism population.

The plan is a deck or courtyard like outdoor eating area---we are still playing with ideas...perhaps a pond in the lower lying area. Im thinking of getting those big concrete slabs to be a solar mass- and be suitable for a table and chairs to be on. Probably a pergola structure with a grapevine which is deciduous so no leaves to let in winter sun shine.

The side of the house is for a slim line water storage unit - for water from roof and solar panels on the roof as we can afford it and composting operations also around the side. Ive collected pamplets of local ones when I was at the Eco show in Taupo in October-bit by bit

Ive told my son he can get a few chickens WHEN he's ready to understand they are food after they stop producing food and I dont think he's feeling that. I would like some onsite diggy around/ and fertilising creatures. Ive been checking out chicken tractors etc on trademe website but we're not yet ready to bid.

Ive gotta get on with having a good look at National party's ideas about changes to the Resource management act for a class I have to teach this weekend.

I have started to get on with the new front garden...Im going to need way more organic material. Ive done one garden with grape, fijoa, mandarin, guava, white currant trees (saplings) in. The topsoil is pretty shallow then its clay.

Ive layered the garden bed material starting with compost then wet shredded newspaper branches and then rotted lawn clippings from next door. I will continue to keep building this up. Ill put in small plants too like silverbeet and also lupins for nitrogen fixing. Ill just load up the beds. That will go in in the next few days. There is an area around the front front-where no one goes- where I will see if it can cope with corn, the soil may be too clay-ey for now but Ill just keep adding to it. There are 2 slightly sunken areas whihc Im thinking about making into a pond or water garden. Bit by bit. Ill be doing a lot of observation on this area. There are some branches of shrubs and trees here and also from the back which I can chip to add to the gardens.

today I wrote a blurb for the Koanga Institute Seed catalogue thing about the trip to Bonn, Germany to the Planet diversity conference...dunno if Im allowed to "publish" before its actually published but hey...no one reads this...Im just new to it...and its MY intellectual property...furthermore there are probably a few more steps in terms of editing before it gets out. Here it is;

Planet Diversity enticed dynamic speakers in languages of the globe. We connected on the kaupapa of Local, Diverse and GMO-free crops. An array of presentations, workshops and passionate conversation led me to voice, as I summed up at the final plenary session, along with six other women representing their continents; “A monoculture of the mind... has homogenised thought.” It has; humans bought into the mass-marketed colourful-packaging convenience-life. Most of the world is like most of this country; people happy to go along eating supermarket food or take-aways and providing it to their families. The sadness is the direction and the rate of this devolution of humanity. Those or us, who have sat back and visualised the plague of materialism destroying the planet and her children are now seeking soutions to repair the damage. It’s a costly combat, costly in genetic diversity; between the food giants like Monsanto-and us, the gardeners and small farmers to manipulate or to open pollinate. We must count on ourselves and our community, and for inspiration little pockets of like-minded folk internationally, to eat well. This can be sped up if we find the people who will cause the tipping point and take "Local, Diverse, GMO- free crops" from the domain of ex hippies and alternatives into the realm of cool-which of course leads the mainstream. Then our youth from Te Whanau a Apanui hapu and German suburbs and Nigerian villages and well everywhere won’t be lusting after a Big Mac and an iPod when their committed mother provides them with the home truths of home-grown, home-cooked love on a plate. Planet Diversity was like a shot of echinacea.

The main Presentations, their translations and PDFs can be viewed on the Planet Diversity website, Google it for inspiration. The matriarch of the conference, Vandana Shiva thanked us, Koanga Institute (I salute you all) after I delivered a workshop presentation from Kay about dancing the seasonal rhythms of seeds and grafting from aging fruit trees. I ventured to Europe seeking the answers only to realise we've always had our own here. I continue to thank the whanau at Whitianga Marae- Mana Whenua of our gardens, and our tipuna who have fought to retain and protect the integrity of our territory, and Te Runanga o te Whanau who continue this struggle - rere tonu aku mihi nunui ki a koutou.

the other thing I did today was buy a paper shredder, I had been recycling office paper, but Ive decided to feed it to the worm farm and the garden beds as no dig mulch stuff...and have a big spring clean of the office this week.

seed lineage

I sorta thought that all the seedlings I planted around on Monday would be dehydrated but theyve got rain- theyre OK. It really is exciting growing these little seeds, they need such attention in the first few days. Some of the seed I saved myself and I look forward to seeing them again, like old friends who we entertain each season just as our grandparents and those before would have done. Im on a mission to grow as much of our own food as we can- but there will be others who are better at different things and cook differently, and have more space or more time and we'll be able to swap.

Maybe because seed raising is easy for me...I should do more, that can be part of my role for the seeds and for the other relations and friends who want to grow a garden but cant be bothered with the germination. I know tho- thats where the magic is...where all the lines of the seeds lineage, its whakapapa, its family tree are expressed. Some traits are hiding in recessive genes, some are dominant and common. I have to do my best to grow as much as I can to keep the old lines strong- by growing enough for the gene pool. When they grow in a here year after year, rotated around the garden, I select the ones that are best here, thats the strong seed. We have to count on ourselves.

Heres a tray of little baby lettuces...see what I mean> thats a lot of pricking out right there

Seedlings seedlings everywhere

I have too many seed trays full of seedlings to fit in the plastic house- Ill have to give some of them away. Vegetable seedlings, mainly from Koanga collection from the gardens at Whitianga, Te Whanau a Apanui last summer 07/08. I tried my best to save the seed...and this spring when I opened my concertina folder...there were so many little envelopes I had to share. I sorta feel driven to share this passion for self reliance and growing our own food. But its all I can do to keep up with the pricking out and planting out in the last few days. Now that the front yard is fenced and sheltered Ill get on with planting that up too...bit by bit. I went to the Permaculture research institute of Australia and ordered Geoffs new video...about creating a food forest starting off with support species. So gotta make some space in that plastic house- or is it warm enough outside now?? - for lupins this year, and little kowhai shrubs and maybe some ngutu kaka...dotted with off course productive fruit trees which will grow up thru the legumes to function like a forest- Well a little one anyway.