Community Garden:
The Mount Eden Community Garden has had a successful summer with vegetables growing to abundance. It has been a warm, wet summer which helped. As we are now into Autumn and have harvested all our crops, tomatoes, zuchinni, basil, beans, lettuce etc. We are now preparing our raised beds for winter with the addition of compost in preparation for the winter planting. We are still looking for like minded gardeners to come and join us. We meet most Sundays between 2 and 4pm. If you are interested we would love to see you. We are tucked away behind the Mt Eden Bowling club via the Poronui St entrance. If you still cannot find us you can contact Michele on her mobile 021 216 1684.

Battery recycling: local recycling stations
We are desperately trying to find a way to continue with this free service. Sony at New Market cannot handle the volume we collect anymore (10-15kg each month) and have asked us to stop using their free drop off. We are hoping that we can get support from council or our local board to find an alternative. Meanwhile we would like to encourage people to continue to collect batteries and drop them off at Sony in Newmarket themselves. We also want to encourage you to make the change to rechargeable batteries if you haven’t already done so.

Hungry bins: taking care of our food waste
A hungry bin was set up at the Mt Eden Village Centre. The centre now offers composting for people that hire the venue and is part of our initiative to work towards zero waste in Mt Eden. The next Hungrybin will be set up at the Community Garden in Poronui St. If you don’t do composting at home and would like a bucket to collect vegetable scraps so you can deliver them to these bins please let us know.

Soft plastic: new recycling station
A big thank you to Les Jones, one of our zero waste group members, for building a frame for our bag to collect soft plastic in our community. Plastic bags and other clean soft plastics  (like gladwrap and soft plastic packaging) can soon be dropped off at one of our local shops. The plastic collected will be recycled in New Zealand and turned into plastic cables.

Coffee grounds:
The coffee grounds from our local cafes are still helping the home gardens of our waste minimisation team. Let us know if you want to join us collecting coffee grounds or in another of these schemes.

This is the best chance we’ve got to stop the government selling our power companies and Air New Zealand.

You can download and print the petition and start collecting signatures now

27 April 2012

Asset sale petition approved

The Clerk of the House has approved the wording for the petition to get a citizens initiated referendum on asset sales.

The agreed wording is – Do you support the Government selling up to 49 per cent of Meridian Energy, Mighty River Power, Genesis Power, Solid Energy and Air New Zealand?

The petition is being promoted by a coalition of community organisations and political parties. Keep Our Assets will be formally launched on the 10 May 2012, in Wellington.

“I am delighted that the Clerk has approved the wording. Now we can get on with the job of collecting signatures. It’s a big job, and there is no time to waste. Everywhere I go New Zealanders tell me they strongly oppose assets sales. This is their chance to have a say,” Grey Power National President and petition promoter, Roy Reid said today.

“The petition to keep Kiwi assets in Kiwi hands will hit the streets tomorrow at a march in downtown Auckland. New Zealanders rallying behind this petition are standing up for a country they own, not a country that can be sold off to the highest bidder.”

“The approval of the petition comes after a week of submissions which reiterated New Zealanders staunch opposition to the Government’s Mixed Ownership Model Bill.  Kiwis know it makes no economic sense to sell our best performing assets. This petition will demonstrate unequivocally that Kiwis are dead against the sell-off.”

“We know from experience that privatisation of electricity companies means higher power bills for ordinary New Zealanders.
“There’s only winners from the sell-off of our assets- are the wealthy foreign buyers and the accountants and consultants clipping the ticket on the sale,” Roy Reid said.

ENDS
Contact: Roy Reid 027 234 4473

The centre has now its own worm farm to reduce waste going to landfill and is part of our initiative of working towards zero waste in our community.

Auckland Theatre Company

Eden Arts

Eden Creative Recycling

Friends of Maungawhau

The Handweavers and Spinners Guild

Mount Eden Community Garden

Mount Eden Maungawhau Village Centre Society Inc.
Contact: E: klaw@ihug.co.nz

Mainstreet Business Association

Mount Eden Village Centre

Where: Upstairs meeting room at the Grey Lynn RSC, Francis Street
Entry by Koha

We are fortunate to have an evening with Nicole Foss as part of her 3 month Australasian tour that ends in Auckland.  Canadian Nicole Foss is an international speaker on current issues in finance, energy, resilience, environment .  She is  co-editor of  www.TheAutomaticEarth.org and an Energy and Industry Consultant and Financial Analyst.

She has been brought to New Zealand for “Resilience by Design” the 11th Australasian Permaculture Convergence, Turangi  from 11 – 15 April (www.apc11.co.nz).

Nicole Foss speaks to the heart of issues that have been key drivers inthe Transition Town Movement, (Grey Lynn 2030, Mt Eden Village People andTransition Pt Chev are all part of this movement). She asks hard questions about our ability to survive current challenges.

Global Finance and Peak Oil - Kim Hill interview with  Nicole Foss on  24 March 2012

Please contact Tilda tcbostwick@gmail.com if you have any queries about the meeting

Square Foot Garden workshop with Waiheke’s Ken Clark
This is a unique chance to learn all you need to know to start and maximise food production in the city from one of New Zealand’s most successful square foot gardeners. Square foot gardening is a perfect solution for city gardens as it produces up to 70% more food than conventional gardens with less work and no weeding.

What to expect:
The workshop imparts practical tips on Square foot gardening technique, seed saving, organic gardening, organic fertiliser and how to maintain healthy soil for healthy plants.
You will get the chance to design your own Square foot garden on a map that will assist you to set up your own SFG at home.
A flyer with gardening and soil information will be handed out.
Learn how to set up your own Square foot garden takes one hour.

Ken has been growing and living off his own plants for the past 60 years. Living on a small plot of land, using natural fertiliser and only rain water, he employs the square foot gardening method to consistently produce an excess of fruit and veges which he shares at the Waiheke market.

To register please send an email to: judith@mountedenvillagepeople.co.nz

Payment is $20.00 on the day.

To register please send an email to:

judith@mountedenvillagepeople.co.nz

A stylish celebration of urban cycling in Auckland.

- Cycle & fashion shows for a variety of ages and styles
- Try out smooth urban bikes & local fashion for yourself
- Join in the group rides and festival atmosphere

Back by popular demand from our 2010 debut.

Program:
Noon – Cycle Style entertainment
12:30 – Fashion show: Dalston
1pm – Velociteers
1:30 – Fashion show: Starfish
2pm – Fashion show: Hannah-Lee Jade
2:30 – Auckland Hard-court Bicycle Polo
3pm – Fashion show: We’Ar It
3:30 – Vintage show: K Rd
4pm – Group ride
4:30 – Finale show

Presented on selected bikes from T-Whites, R&R, Cyco and our boutique suppliers – try it all on-site.

Cycle Style is a free event presented by Frocks on Bikes and Cycle Action Auckland in association with Auckland Transport

The 11th Australasian Permaculture Convergence, running in Turangi from April 11-15th, will see more than 500 people planning, designing and creating a resilient future – through permaculture in practice: urban design, sustainable transport, community economics, seed saving etc.

Keynote speaker and co-founder of Permaculture Bill Mollison will be emphasising the imperative to address the economic dimensions of our global crisis.

“…it’s no good any longer just being an organic gardener or farmer, we have to be effective financial and political units. We have to become bankers just as we have had to become seed savers.”

With peak oil, climate change and an unsustainable monetary system impacting us from all directions, this event comes at a time when we need it most.

In addition to Mr Mollison, a range of expert local international and local speakers will facilitate interactive workshops on transforming natural and human environments into healthy, connected and sustainable landscapes.

Find out more about this event: http://apc11.co.nz/

March: Sunday 25.03.2011

This is a site visit at Gail’s garden where she will tell us what you need to get started, what they should eat and how to raise your chickens from a fertile egg.  You will learn the guidelines of keeping chickens in the city, tips on housing them and other titbits of information.
This workshop covers:
* Benefits of having chickens
* Housing requirements and rules
* Feeding
* Hatching and rearing
* Health and  wellbeing
* All about eggs
* Miscellaneous and troubleshooting
* Benefits of different breeds
* How to adopted a chicken
About Gail Batten:
When Gail came back from a woofing (working on organic farms) holiday a year ago, she was given some fertilised eggs as a farewell present.  Back in Auckland she managed to borrow a hen from a friend of hers to sit on the eggs. A few weeks later she had baby chicks, a chook house and later lots of eggs for breakfast. In December last year she obtained more fertilised eggs and now the chook house is full of life, eggs and entertainment.

Other useful Web sites:
www.mypetchicken.com
www.urbanchickens.org
www.omlet.co.uk – ideas for some funky chicken runs
www.heslipshatcheries.co.nz- South Island hatchery who sells day old chicks and hen houses country wide.
www.rarebreeds.co.nz – great site to find breeders of pure breed chickens